[open-lighting] Questions about uDMX and OLA

[machosehead]

I was glad to see that uDMX was added to OLA. I think it is a great do-
it-yourself USB to DMX interface. I was wondering if timing and serial
numbers will be supported as similar to the uDMX Art-Net Windows
software. I have tested this on OS X and it appears to work although I
was hoping to use multiple interfaces. Also, I don't seem to be able
to run MagicQ and have it talk to OLA on the same machine. I have
tried on Linux and OS X. Is there a way to accomplish this? Your work
is much appreciated!

-MH

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[Simon Newton]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 7:18 PM, machosehead <macho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I was glad to see that uDMX was added to OLA. I think it is a great do-
> it-yourself USB to DMX interface. I was wondering if timing and serial
> numbers will be supported as similar to the uDMX Art-Net Windows
> software. I have tested this on OS X and it appears to work although I
> was hoping to use multiple interfaces.

If you can point me to documentation on how to get/set the parameters
& serial I'll add support for it.

> Also, I don't seem to be able
> to run MagicQ and have it talk to OLA on the same machine. I have
> tried on Linux and OS X. Is there a way to accomplish this? Your work
> is much appreciated!

How are you trying to get MagicQ to talk to OLA?

Simon

[machosehead]

Timing is new to uDMX 1.4 and I'm not familiar enough with the inner
workings of the driver to tell how it is done. I'm going by the info
on this site:
http://lutz.in.hagen.de/cms/index.php/en/projects/udmx-mod/udmx-firmware/menu-id-31.html
The serial number is easy to change with the open-source USB driver
that comes with the firmware. You do have to compile and flash.
I was trying to use MagicQ in a manor similar to the method used in
the above site. Set MagicQ to output art-net and OLA to receive art-
net on the same machine.

-MH

On Apr 20, 7:38 pm, Simon Newton <nomi...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Simon Newton]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 8:04 PM, machosehead <macho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Timing is new to uDMX 1.4 and I'm not familiar enough with the inner
> workings of the driver to tell how it is done. I'm going by the info
> on this site:
> http://lutz.in.hagen.de/cms/index.php/en/projects/udmx-mod/udmx-firmware/menu-id-31.html

Hmm, is that an official release or a fork of the original firmware? I
thought https://code.google.com/p/udmx/ was the original.

> The serial number is easy to change with the open-source USB driver
> that comes with the firmware. You do have to compile and flash.

I've submitted a change this morning to pull the serial # from uDMX
devices so multiple devices should work now.

> I was trying to use MagicQ in a manor similar to the method used in
> the above site. Set MagicQ to output art-net and OLA to receive art-
> net on the same machine.

That won't work, the artnet plugin will fail with a 'port already in use' error.


Simon

[machosehead]

Support for serial numbers would be great. Thanks again:)

-MH

On Apr 21, 8:48 am, Simon Newton <nomi...@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Apr 20, 2010 at 8:04 PM, machosehead <machoseh...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Timing is new to uDMX 1.4 and I'm not familiar enough with the inner
> > workings of the driver to tell how it is done. I'm going by the info
> > on this site:

> >http://lutz.in.hagen.de/cms/index.php/en/projects/udmx-mod/udmx-firmw...

>
> Hmm, is that an official release or a fork of the original firmware? I

> thoughthttps://code.google.com/p/udmx/was the original.

[Greenalien]

I thought I'd revive this thread as a more appropriate place to discuss DIY uDMX interfaces, especially given the renewed interest in them for use with the R-Pi.

I currently have 2 links for people who have built their own - http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-mod.html?&L=1 and http://orikson.piranho.de/pa/uDMX/

The former looks to have the more advanced firmware, with the option of adding serial numbers etc. - essential for using more than one per R-Pi.

I would be interested to know if anyone has a source for PCBs for this project, or would possibly be interested in participating in a group buy to get some made - I guess that anyone who is interested would be wanting to build a few of these.

I have just ordered a development kit and programmer for the Atmel microcontroller at the heart of the design, to make it easy for me to play around with the firmware.

[Jannis Achstetter]

Am 31.08.2012 01:23, schrieb Greenalien:
> [...]

> I currently have 2 links for people who have built their own -
> http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-mod.html?&L=1 and
> http://orikson.piranho.de/pa/uDMX/
>
> The former looks to have the more advanced firmware, with the option of
> adding serial numbers etc. - essential for using more than one per R-Pi.

Generally, it doesn't matter which firmware you use, you can have a
serial number on all of them as long as you compile it yourself. The
problem I had is that none of the source-versions compiled with my
toolchain, some slight modifications were needed for all of them. What
I'm currently using is version 1.4 from the original manufacturer
(anyma) and modified it to compile.

> I would be interested to know if anyone has a source for PCBs for this
> project, or would possibly be interested in participating in a group buy
> to get some made - I guess that anyone who is interested would be
> wanting to build a few of these.

I have one and might want one or two more. However if the PCBs aren't
*really* cheap I'll just etch them at home like the first one :)

For the layout I used the one from http://orikson.piranho.de/pa/uDMX/
but modified it to have a programming header. Eagle-files are attached
and can be modified/distributed as you wish :)

Best regards

[Greenalien]

Jannis - thanks for that. What I'm planning on doing is building one uDMX on a breadboard as a basis for testing the design and getting the firmware sorted out - once that's done, probably in 3 - 4 weeks time depending on other projects, I'll then be looking to build a few, so will be investigating PCBs at that stage, and will get some costings from manufacturers - I think it would be worth getting 100 boards made initially, and I may consider offering complete uDMX kits - if you've ever used Mouser, you'll know that their small order delivery charges are very high, so it's usually well worth someone buying in bulk. I'll post any progress on here.
Cheers...John

[Greenalien]

Just been looking at the parts list - is there a cheaper alternative to the SIM1-0505s-DIL8 DC-DC voltage converter - they seem quite expensive...

[Greenalien]

Just answering my own question - yes, the Recom REE-0505S looks to have a similar spec at half the price. Would need PCB changes though...

[Mac Biostar]

I have tested three uDMX  interfaces on the Pi, all hooked to a hub, and they work as expected. The interfaces were not recognized on the Raspbian image, a missing library most likely.

One downside to the uDMX interface is that when using all 512 channels, the refresh rate is about 15Hz. I don't know how this will affect using it for video.

-MH 

[Simon Newton]

On Fri, Aug 31, 2012 at 3:25 PM, Mac Biostar <macho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I have tested three uDMX interfaces on the Pi, all hooked to a hub, and
> they work as expected. The interfaces were not recognized on the Raspbian
> image, a missing library most likely.

Can you check what plugins were loaded? USB DMX should be there unless
I made a mistake.

Simon

[Greenalien]

On Friday, August 31, 2012 11:25:05 PM UTC+1, machosehead wrote:

I have tested three uDMX  interfaces on the Pi, all hooked to a hub, and they work as expected. The interfaces were not recognized on the Raspbian image, a missing library most likely.

One downside to the uDMX interface is that when using all 512 channels, the refresh rate is about 15Hz. I don't know how this will affect using it for video.

-MH

 
 Is that the refresh rate of a single uDMX, connected directly to the Pi without a hub? Also, do you know how the uDMX compares with the King ultraDMX in this regard?

Cheers...John

 

[Mac Biostar]

15Hz is the maximum transmitted refresh rate when sending a full universe:

http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-timing.html?&L=1

I'm sure the Micro has a faster maximum refresh rate.

Are you controlling pixels? There are controllers that will directly drive pixels. This is one that is popular with hobbyists:

http://www.sandevices.com/

Here is another ethernet to DMX interface that is popular with hobbyists and is cheap. It outputs four univereses. He says he's updating it and you would usually have to wait for a group-buy to get one:

http://shop.martinxmas.com/product.php?id_product=48

-MH

[Simon Newton]

On Sat, Sep 1, 2012 at 7:01 PM, Mac Biostar <macho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> 15Hz is the maximum transmitted refresh rate when sending a full universe:
> http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-timing.html?&L=1
> I'm sure the Micro has a faster maximum refresh rate.
>
> Are you controlling pixels? There are controllers that will directly drive
> pixels. This is one that is popular with hobbyists:
> http://www.sandevices.com/
>
> Here is another ethernet to DMX interface that is popular with hobbyists and
> is cheap. It outputs four univereses. He says he's updating it and you would
> usually have to wait for a group-buy to get one:
> http://shop.martinxmas.com/product.php?id_product=48

By the way do some research before buying some of these Christmas
light kits. Often the manufacturers take short cuts which causes them
not to work with standard-confirming E1.31 implementations.

Like RDM there is no organization policing who can claim E1.31
support. Caveat emptor.


Simon

[Mac Biostar]

Of course the only claim I can make is that they are popular with hobbyists. I have tested the Martin interface with MagicQ but not running pixels.

-MH

[Lorenzo Fattori]

there is also someone that uses r-pi directly... but i have to understand how :D

http://thegreatgeekery.blogspot.ca/2012/08/raspberry-pi-and-ws2801.html

[Jannis Achstetter]

Yeah, but that is not used for sending DMX but controlling LEDs directly.

You can use the RPi to send DMX-data directly by attaching an
RS-485-driver-IC to one (or both) of the UARTs but then you have the
same problem as with FTDI-based USB-to-DMX-interfaces: You need to keep
the strict timing.

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[Greenalien]

On Sunday, September 2, 2012 3:01:19 AM UTC+1, machosehead wrote:

15Hz is the maximum transmitted refresh rate when sending a full universe:

http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-timing.html?&L=1

I'm sure the Micro has a faster maximum refresh rate.

 
 Any idea what that might be?

 

Are you controlling pixels? There are controllers that will directly drive pixels. This is one that is popular with hobbyists:

http://www.sandevices.com/

 Looks very interesting, the idea of using E1.31 directly is a very good one. Wouldn't need R-Pi or OLA though!

Here is another ethernet to DMX interface that is popular with hobbyists and is cheap. It outputs four univereses. He says he's updating it and you would usually have to wait for a group-buy to get one:

http://shop.martinxmas.com/product.php?id_product=48

Looks great - but not available, and no recent updates on the linked forum.
 

[Greenalien]

 

Are you controlling pixels? There are controllers that will directly drive pixels. This is one that is popular with hobbyists:

http://www.sandevices.com/

 Looks very interesting, the idea of using E1.31 directly is a very good one. Wouldn't need R-Pi or OLA though!

 This looked too good to ignore, so I've ordered a couple of the basic E680 kits - just PCB, EEPROM and mountings for the Ethernet module. Thanks for the info.

[Greenalien]

I followed through on this, one module now complete, works really well from MagicQ - no dongle needed!
Still playing with the R-Pi and OLA as well!

[Andrew Frazer]

Just be aware that the E68x uses the Wiznet modules, so they are limited in the number of IP sockets they handle.  I think that you can only receive 3 or 5 universes of data plus the web session, because of this.. Also the E6xx doe'snt accept E.131 in unicast,   I also believe that it does not do IGMP  so its got some limitations. 

[Mac Biostar]

I'm glad you're having fun with your pixels. I have been playing around with controlling pixels directly from a modified uDMX interface. Unfortunately, sending data over the SPI interface seems to affect chip timing and I get a random USB error on occasion. I get a message from OLA saying that the send failed and the thread is stopping. The Windows USB driver seems more tolerant of this and it hums along well with the ArtNet app and MagicQ.

-MH

--
 
 

[Peter Stuge]

Greenalien wrote:
> http://www.illutzmination.de/udmx-mod.html?&L=1 and
> http://orikson.piranho.de/pa/uDMX/

Please avoid using V-USB, and if you insist on working with AVR8 then
pick one of the handful different types that comes with actual USB
hardware support.

The bitbanged V-USB will only do low speed, which besides the
electrical non-compliance with the USB standard and inability
to handle communications error limits all communication to control
and interrupt transfers, both of which are no good if you want the
device to present a USB-UART interface. You should go for a vendor
specific device class since that makes host software development the
easiest, but bulk endpoints should really be used to transfer the 512
bytes from the host.

There are NXP ARMs with USB (LPC11U24 e.g.) for a lot less than the
AVR8. They have a bootloader in ROM which allows programming them
over USB, they even have a bit of EEPROM, and they're very
comfortable to develop for. Of course they are SMD. Don't be scared
by that, the TQFP can be soldered with almost any soldering iron.


//Peter

[Andrew Frazer]

>They have a bootloader in ROM which allows programming them
>over USB, they even have a bit of EEPROM, and they're very
>comfortable to develop for. Of course they are SMD. Don't be scared
>by that, the TQFP can be soldered with almost any soldering iron.

How about this one?

[Peter Stuge]

Andrew Frazer wrote:
> >the TQFP can be soldered with almost any soldering iron.
>
> How about this one?

I think it would work. If that was the only thing I had available I
would cut a T out of thin sheet metal (because material and tools
would anyway be nearby, given that iron) and wrap the left/right
wings of the T around the big tip. The makeshift solder tip would
not last for very long, but it would work for soldering one QFP
and some supporting parts.


//Peter

[John Ellerington]

Andrew, quite correct, each E680 module will 'only' handle 4 universes, or 3 plus the web browser for setup, however it should be no problem to use multiple modules - so far, I've only built one, but will be doing a second one soon, and will try this out in due course. Broadcast E1.31 / sACN is fine for me, don't know why I'd want to use unicast. I think the E680 is a very neat design, and very affordable - which is a prime consideration! Although I haven't experimented yet, it looks as though it might even have the option of selecting native DMX output as well as SPI, which would make it an amazing bargain, and even more versatile than I had originally thought. Very comprehensive building and setup instructions, so it only took be a few hours to build.
I'm still intending to keep exploring the combination of OLA and the R-Pi, especially for DMX recording and playback - E1.31 in and out -  but for LED / Pixel control from MagicQ software (no dongles or other Chamsys hardware needed!) the E680 is definitely the best solution I've found so far.

--
 
 

[Andrew Frazer]

there some other devices from J1sys.com ( http://www.j1sys.com/ethcongateway/ ) .. highly recommend Ed, he's a nice guy and the boxes are well priced, ( and finished in cases etc )..

On 8/10/2012, at 10:27 PM, John Ellerington <jo...@greenalien.co.uk> wrote:

> Andrew, quite correct, each E680 module will 'only' handle 4 universes, or 3 plus the web browser for setup, however it should be no problem to use multiple modules - so far, I've only built one, but will be doing a second one soon, and will try this out in due course.

From what i'm told you can stack a few together.

> Broadcast E1.31 / sACN is fine for me, don't know why I'd want to use unicast.

Because the network is simpler to configure, and if you have lots of universes and your switches don't' support IGMP snoopping using unicast is a good way of getting around it..

[Peter Stuge]

John Ellerington wrote:
> I'm still intending to keep exploring the combination of OLA and the R-Pi,
> especially for DMX recording and playback - E1.31 in and out

How long sequences? Either in terms of time, or data points?

> but for LED / Pixel control from MagicQ software (no dongles or
> other Chamsys hardware needed!) the E680 is definitely the best
> solution I've found so far.

If what you need is an ethernet interface I think it actually gets
cheaper to build yourself. The CPU modules I mentioned to Andrew give
you quite the bang for the buck, and making a baseboard is absolutely
doable without trouble for the hobbyist level electronics constructor.


//Peter

[John Ellerington]

How long sequences? Either in terms of time, or data points?

Don't know, haven't tried it yet...

 

If what you need is an ethernet interface I think it actually gets
cheaper to build yourself.

...which is just what I've done. 2 x E680 PCB from Jim,  with pre-programmed EEPROMS and Wiznet connector blocks shipped from the USA for $50; Remaining parts from Mouser for £66 - although I did leave out the expensive Molex connectors in favour of chocblox at a twentieth of the price...not bad for 8 universes of Ethernet to SPI, for LED control, that may also be 8 universes of native DMX...

[Peter Stuge]

John Ellerington wrote:
> > If what you need is an ethernet interface I think it actually gets
> > cheaper to build yourself.
>
> ...which is just what I've done. 2 x E680 PCB from Jim, with
> pre-programmed EEPROMS and Wiznet connector blocks shipped from the USA for
> $50; Remaining parts from Mouser for £66 - although I did leave out the
> expensive Molex connectors in favour of chocblox at a twentieth of the
> price...not bad for 8 universes of Ethernet to SPI, for LED control,
> that may also be 8 universes of native DMX...

I admit I was thinking more along the lines of making a PCB. With
ready-made blocks of course one is more limited to whatever is
available. :\ I'm not very impressed by the wiznet.


//Peter