DMX512 Regenerator question / idea

Projects Networking, Protocols, and Devices
1

Hello, and first off thank you for reading my post. I have an idea for something I'm wondering could be done by an arduino. I have been playing around with an UNO for a bit, and starting to get more into programming, but still consider myself a newbie.

I work in the professional lighting / entertainment business. And am like a few people who don't have much money and buy DMX lighting from China because they are quite a bit cheaper. You got to do what you got to do, you know. I've had great success with a few companies, and have a few great fixtures. The problem is that every once in a while a fixture comes through that's not fully up to the DMX standards and has problems with flickering or flashing. There are a few companies that build DMX slow downers like Doug Fleenor or the DecaBox. This is great, and are great products. Problem is that they are kind of expensive.

I'm wondering about an open source project that would allow people like myself learn the protocol, some electronics, and have fun. It would be a DMX regenerator that would allow the easy manipulation of the DMX timing to correct these issues. Here's a link from the DecaBox that describes a similar problem with a Chaubet fixture. DecaBox – ‘DMX Slowdowner’ – Engineering Solutions Inc

I'd love to get this going, but don't really know where to start. I have used a DMX lib to receive DMX, and pull a relay and light LEDs, but not to output DMX like this.

Any ideas / thought? Anyone want to help me with this?

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I've done some work with this, check out my youtube edwardo388 - YouTube... I'll post some of my code and explanation when I get home.

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That's great. Thank you. Looking forward to it.

4

bump

5

Not much to offer in way of help but it might be worth looking at using a Mega2560 with multi universe DMX software library like this.
It seems to have tweakable settings that may help. Use 2 universes and read desk output into one and output it using the other or maybe you can get away with a single serial port if all the fixtures use simple DMX without any return to the desk.

// DMX-512  (250 kbaud - 512 channels) Standard USITT DMX-512
#define        IBG_512           (10)                      // interbyte gap [us]
#define        DMX_512           ((F_CPU/(250000*8))-1)    // 250 kbaud
#define        BREAK_512         ( F_CPU/(100000*8))       // 90.9 kbaud

I have also attached a schematic for a 2 universe Mega shield that I built for testing DMX splitter boxes.

Mega_DMX_Tester v3.pdf (16.4 KB)

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I always refer to MetHertels library for information, very useful and always worked for me