I would like to control the I2C and SPI LED products supplied by Bliptronics by DMX.
I know there is a good arduino library for DMX and also some code for controlling the bliptronics products to make them run chases and patterns, but I can't find anything on how to talk to the led's individually so I have no idea how to 'bolt' the two codes together.
I wondered if anyone has done this or can point me in a direction to be able to make this work.
I am surprised that no one has done this as a project yet. You can probably tell I am a beginner, I am ashamed to have to ask, but I am just not sure where to start.
Obviously if I do manage to make this work I will post up any working code.
I have already seen the link you posted for the DMX receiver. Yes I have used the sample code from the Bliptronics site to make the led's run a programmed pattern.
What I would like to do is 'bolt' the two together, thus having control over each led via DMX. This allows you to control each led as part of a light show alongside other lighting products from the same controller.
So the Arduino would receive DMX in from an existing controller and then control the bliptronics led's via SPI or 2 Wire output.
The link you posted looks very good for recieving the dmx, and obviously the bliptronics site shows how to control the led's to make patterns. What I need some guidance in is how to put the two together.
You already can run the LEDs.
Questions:
Does your code run in the loop or is it running via a timer (i.e. as a background task)
Do you have the LEDs doing the stuff you want to do?
Can you control the LEDs via serial commands or a button? If not, you may want to work on that as well. The DMX receiving mechanism is just another way to tell your arduino to do something with some details. Making sure you can receive details and make the LEDs do the patterns / colors you want is key. Once you have that working, making the same stuff happen via a command from a DMX controller is just a matter of receiving a command from another input and taking the same action.
Next you need to use the code to make sure you can use your arduino to receive the DMX (assuming you have a controller). Do you have code working for this step from the demo using your equipment?
Once you have the above two parts of the code working, putting them together should be fairly simple (famous last words).
Getting over the hump of receiving a command and breaking the current pattern and having it run your new pattern will be the most challenging part of the task. Once you can do that via serial or even simple buttons then your well on your way. Trying to work out DMX and all this at the same time may make it harder to isolate issues, etc.
I would ask that you ..
Make a program that performs a few lighting patterns you want to run.
Make another program that reads the DMX command and turns on a simple LED or does a serial output.
Once you have those two working, provide the code and someone can help you understand how to make them work together. Just a general question makes it hard to answer, specially for those with no DMX equipment.