Tag Archives: DMX

PIC18 four-channel DMX relay controller

Glen Akins has a nice build log on his four channel DMX-controlled relay, that is available on GitHub:  Halloween was right around the corner and I needed a timer with a bunch of relays to trigger some store-bought props and a fog machine periodically. (Mental note: read fog machine specs carefully—not all come with timer remotes.) My […]

DMX lighting sequence player

Paul over at Dorkbotpdx has written an article about his DMX lighting sequence player: Portland CORE effigy at Burning Man will be using DMX controlled lighting this year.  At least that’s the plan, but a low-cost and low-power way to automatically play the lighting sequence (without a PC) is needed.  Here’s a little board I […]

Light sequencing and decoding DMX with Arduino

Akiba of Freaklabs and the Tokyo Hackerspace has written an excellent tutorial on using the Arduino to decode the DMX protocol, a standard protocol for stage lighting displays. It includes a three-part video presentation (Part I, above) and a link to the source code. As Akiba notes, these techniques could be used in developing some […]

Velleman K8062 3rd party firmware upgrade

Velleman K8062 DIY kit is one of the most successful DMX transmitters sold world-wide, but it is also one of the poorest performers. Velleman uses an antiquated slow speed USB protocol on a device that supports Full Speed USB. A community developed firmware upgrade that offers up to 80x times better performance is currently undergoing […]

App note: DMX512 receiver and transmitter on a PIC

DMX512 is a 3 wire interface protocol used in professional lighting. This app note by Microchip explains all the protocol details and how to implement it on any PIC microcontroller with a hardware UART peripheral. Only external part is a RS485 transceiver. DMX512 transmitter sends 512 8bit data packets one after the other to 512 individual […]