Excuse my absolute newb understanding of your world.
I am looking to build 8-10 wireless relay switches that could be operated from the control station for a theatre production.
Essentially, there would be 10 small wirelessly powered machines (deep cycle batteries) and we are looking for a way to send the ON signal wirelessly as well to each individual unit. Each one needs to have an independent address and hopefully be able to write some kind of conversion from Qlab midi show control (our cue order system) to a arduino program that would tell when to have each machine be on or off.
Traditionally we probably would have done this with a wireless DMX interface, but each one is 450$ and really do more than what we need, which is just a wireless on/off switch that we can control.
A friend told me that with a Arduino FIO board, an XBee wifi kit and a relay we should be able to put one together for under $60 each.
For those out there unfamiliar with the equipment mentioned, the way modern theater works these days is that during the dress rehearsal, the Lighting Director (LD) calls out color numbers to the console operator who keys it in at the appropriate point in the play where it is stored in the program. The consoles run DMX so they can have very long trunk cable runs with branches running Left and Right from each trunk on the TRUS (the cable suspended metal beam to which all the lights and colored gel. scrollers are mounted. Each device on the bus has an address. (I never learned that part so I don't know the address format or length).
Once the whole show is recorded it can be replayed with a single touch of a button. Ideally,
Traditionally we probably would have done this with a wireless DMX interface, but each one is 450$ and really do more than what we need, which is just a wireless on/off switch that we can control.
I really don't know why it needs to be wireless. If you look at the TRUS , it only takes one DMX Trunk cable running the length of the
trus and small branch cables (called "drops") coming off of it to run all the lights you need for a show.
I am not familiar with DMX protocol but there must be some examples on the web.
raschemmel:
I really don't know why it needs to be wireless. If you look at the TRUS , it only takes one DMX Trunk cable running the length of the
trus and small branch cables (called "drops") coming off of it to run all the lights you need for a show.
I am not familiar with DMX protocol but there must be some examples on the web.
The reason we need to send wireless signal is that the units on stage are on independent carts that must roll around without any cables on stage. It is not for lighting, the wireless dmx unit would have been used just to trigger a switch to turn on and off each machine.
NOTE:
I don't know if there is an issue with crosstalk or interference when using more than one of the 433 Mhz radios. You'll have to research that issue.
One master, many slaves, not a big deal. Master send out address with command, each slave checks to see if address matches it's own and ignore if not. Promini controlling a receiver and a power relay would seem prety straightforward.
What kind of range is needed?
433 MHz might be all that is needed, 2.4GHz could be next step up.
