Ethernet to DMX gateways

[Jonathan Levac]

Hi , 

I want to build an Ethernet to DMX gateways.

Art-Net, Shownet, sACN TO DMX 512

If I want to have 8 universes I raspberry pi will be enough powerful?

How I get my 8 DMX 512 output from the raspberry pi?

And I don't want to have a usb to dmx , I want to switch directly from the brain to dmx512.

Thanks,

Jonathan

[Peter Newman]

I don't know specifics of loading, but the uartdmx plugin allows direct DMX from a Pi, only one universe I believe.

[Simon Newton]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2014 at 10:39 PM, Jonathan Levac
<jonatha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi ,
> I want to build an Ethernet to DMX gateways.
> Art-Net, Shownet, sACN TO DMX 512
>
> If I want to have 8 universes I raspberry pi will be enough powerful?

Probably, you'll need to test though.

> How I get my 8 DMX 512 output from the raspberry pi?

That depends, you can either look at existing hardware, most of which
connects via USB, or build something yourself.

> And I don't want to have a usb to dmx , I want to switch directly from the
> brain to dmx512.

Well you need *a* bus to talk to the dmx device(s). On the Pi your
options are USB, Ethernet, GPIO, i2c, spi . I'll let you figure out
which one is more appropriate to use.

Simon


>
> Thanks,
> Jonathan
>
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[Sean Sill]

SPI is usually a good choice because you can read and write at the same time.

[Richard Ash]

On Thu, 20 Nov 2014 17:07:39 -0800 (PST)
Peter Newman <peterj...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't know specifics of loading, but the uartdmx plugin allows
> direct DMX from a Pi, only one universe I believe.

The Pi only has one UART in the hardware, so only one universe is
possible with this plug-in on this hardware.

The plug-in should work (untested) with multiple serial ports if you
have a Linux-based system which supports multiple, fast, serial ports
(preferably ones with real IRQs).

Richard

[Jonathan Levac]

Ok, 

So I'll have to find another brain for my node more powerful than a pi

Something who have at least 8 UART

After that, I'll need to make my own interface for DMX.

Is it possible to put OLA in an ardruino and simply put my interface dmx on it?

Any pcb example for dmx output?

thanks,

Jonathan

[Simon Newton]

On Mon, Nov 24, 2014 at 1:42 PM, Jonathan Levac
<jonatha...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok,
> So I'll have to find another brain for my node more powerful than a pi
> Something who have at least 8 UART
>
> After that, I'll need to make my own interface for DMX.
>
> Is it possible to put OLA in an ardruino and simply put my interface dmx on
> it?

No, it requires a OS.

Simon

>
> Any pcb example for dmx output?
>
> thanks,
> Jonathan
>

[Hippy]

Take a lookie here....

https://code.google.com/p/hipdmxctl/wiki/hipdmxctl

Uses OLA, but my code is shit and  dangerous (only to multicore/processor devices however) and never made it past review.

Only has 4 universes implemented (not bothered soldering 8, but is capable of 8.

Spenttec datagrate is based on the ts-7800 i believe, but i chose a cheaper model.

Works, but for the effort and expense I figured next time fu*kit I'll do something sensible for a change a buy a dmxking box.

Goodluck,
Cheers,
Hippy

--

[Stefan Krüger]

Hi Johnatan,

you can look at the BeagelBone Black - if you search - i think there was some info about how tu use the RPU for -Hardtiming Pixel- strips - i think it is also possible to use it as DMX generator..
but thats really a big thing to do..
and i think it is one of the nerest ways to get 'dmx out of the brain' - the RPU can access the Memory of the main Processor directly...

as Hippy pointed out - it only makes sens to build something if you just have fun in building it...
otherwise buy a ready made and nicely working thing..

for the Arduino thing:
you can use an arduino as dmx transmitter - and you can use an arduino with ethernetshield as artnet receiver -
you can try to use a arduino mega - that has  4 uarts - so in theory it could work to convert 4 universes -
but i think it is to much for the 16MHz processor....
for the ArtNet part - look at http://www.deskontrol.net/blog/arduino-based-dmx-artnet-node/
i have not tested this library..

sunny greetings
stefan

[Santi]

El lun, 24-11-2014 a las 13:42 -0800, Jonathan Levac escribió:

> Is it possible to put OLA in an ardruino and simply put my interface
> dmx on it?

No, but you can set up a 2 universes ArtNet node with Arduino:

http://www.deskontrol.net/blog/arduino-based-dmx-artnet-node/


Bye.

Santi.

[Stefan Krüger]

i have remembered that there is a second arduino project that deals with ArtNet and sACN:
http://www.claudeheintzdesign.com/lx/lxarduino_sketches.html
i dont tried that but a colleague that pointed me to this and reported that the sACN in combination with an 'ETC Nomad PC Software' works....

sunny greetings
stefan

[Kevin Siwoff]

I've been using an FPGA to translate sACN (E131) from OLA to DMX fixtures.  The hardware comes from the Christmas lighting community: http://ronsholidaylights.com/

So far the FPGA is pretty good (and very fast), and with Ron's quadbuffers and daughter boards you can get a ton of DMX universes at a very low cost.  The BBB is also great, and a little easier to configure than the FPGA if you're used to embedded linux.  

[Jannis Achstetter]

Hi,

Am 24.11.2014 um 22:42 schrieb Jonathan Levac:
> Ok,
> So I'll have to find another brain for my node more powerful than a pi
> Something who have at least 8 UART

Not necessarily. If you don't mind that all DMX universes you send run
clock-synchronous (but with different data) you might want to take a
look at:

http://www.jonshouse.co.uk/rpidmx512.cgi

Best regards,
Jannis

[Peter Newman]

Very nice link Kripton, are you writing the plugin then? Can we expect a PR soon? :)

I believe there are already BBB RPU examples to generate DMX, again someone just needs to plumb them into OLA. e.g.
https://github.com/boxysean/beaglebone-DMX