HI Team! I am VERY new to Arduino so this will probably be boring for most of you.
What I want to build is a simple controller to control a DMX fixture using a switch and buttons...
For example:
When Switch 1 is turned on - DMX Channel 1 is fired at 128 (50%) and stays on until switched off.
When Button 1 is pressed - DMX Channel 2 is fired at 255 and stays on until button is let go.
I have had a play with copying Youtube videos and looking through libraries etc. My problem is that most of these are too advanced for what I want to do but I cant seem to "dumb" them down. For example most will show you how to use serial port to send to the shield.
Playful Tech touches on what i want to do in the first minute of this video:
But does not go into depth on the hardware side and jumps to serial control.
Thanks team! Again i am just starting so please go easy on me ... or if you have some advice where i can go and learn more Id love the advice!
DMX is a serial connection.
You will need some kind of shield or adapter to convert the Arduino 5V to a RS485 signal.
If that is shown in a tutorial - use it.
I designed and built the electronics for a friend on the Project Norman. This considered of an 8 by 4 grid of giant 16 segment LEDs controlled by DMX light modules.
It could show text and graphics and even a very crude picture of the crowed looking at it. It was meant to be very retro. The crowed could log into a URL and ask it questions or make requests. like "lets dance" and music would play and the displays would flash in time to the music.
I used this sort of LED driver:-
Some of the longer segments had two of these modules in them to illuminate then evenly. So segments like this had two of these modules in them but set to the same DMX address. So as not to use unnecessary addresses in the DMX "universe".
This was the arrangement of the LEDs in one display. Module numbering front.pdf (19.1 KB)
It was further complicated by the fact that it had to be waterproof for outdoor use, and it has to be easy to assemble / dissemble on site because it was too big and heavy to transport in any other affordable way.
