Discolitez Deluxe-32 Support??

[cmiaji]

For quite some time now, I've had a Discolitez Deluxe-32 rig that I built according to this http://www.discolitez.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Hardware.Deluxe32. I've become interested in creating lighting displays for Christmas, but the Discolitez program does not offer the ability to creat sequences to music like Vixen does. From what I can tell, the rig is just a parallel multiplex much like the Olsen 595, however when I try to use the Deluxe-32 rig with Vixen, I am unable to get hardware output. From trying different combinations the best result I could reach was 8 channels with the 8-line 595 plugin and one channel on each data channel.

Aside from building an entire new rig, is there a plugin for Vixen that would be able to control the Deluxe-32 rig? Perhaps someone could direct me to resources to creat my own plugin?

Any help would be great!

[DynamoBen]

Stop by the Vixen Plugins forum, the folks over there might be able to hook you up.

[Ronp]

Just for kicks did you try the hill 320 plugin?
the 320 runs with the 74LS374 but also uses 138s
worth the shot

[cmiaji]

Yeah, I did give the Hill 320 a shot. Again, I was only able to light 8 channels.

[P. Short]

The design of that Discolitz controller is sufficiently different from everything else so far that it will need a new vixen plugin.

--

Phil

[cmiaji]

P. Short, I appreciate the info. Now I can stop trying to work like Dr. Frankenstein with all the settings and work on finding a way to get a plugin. What resources would I need to start such an endeavor?

[teberle]

If you are familiar with coding you can use the programmers guide and write your own, or you can stop by the plugin forum and let us take a look at it for you. You will need to provide the documentation for the protocol and any API information.

[cmiaji]

I had a look at the programmers guide. It's been so long since I've touched any code and even when it was fresh in my mind I can't say I was any good at it. I've got a particular DLL that is used to control the Deluxe 32 in DiscoLitez, but it is not compatable with the Vixen software. I'm hoping it would just have to be tweaked to call the correct lines in Vixen. Thanks for the info, teberle!

[cmiaji]

Here's the current DLL file that works under the DiscoLitez application. Would that be of any help?

[kiwidad]

Hi all...
I've been lurking for a while now, but this thread promted me to join in...
I was running the Deluxe32 circuit last year, and am currently trying to use a similar method to pulse the inputs of a PLC that I was lucky enough to acquire.

The Deluxe32 is a simple version of the Hill320, it uses the 8 data bits for the patterns, and the 4 control bits to latch the data onto the corresponding flipflop.

The sequence is like this...
1. Set data for first 8 channels on pins 2-9 of the parallel port.
2. Pulse pin 1 to latch the data to chip 1
3. Set data for next 8 channels on pins 2-9.
4. Pulse pin 14 to latch data to chip 2.
5. Set data for next 8 channels on pins 2-9.
6. Pulse pin 16 to latch data to chip 3.
7. Set data for last 8 channels on pins 2-9.
8. Pulse pin 17 to latch data to chip 4.
9. Return to step 1.

Laying out the logic is easy...but my programming skills are far too outdated to tackle writing a plugin for this.
I hope this helps...

Al

[cmiaji]

Thanks for the rundown, Al. I've been working on the project, but I'm still unsuccessful. Now that the Christmas season is over, hopefully I'll be able it get som help. Thanks agan everyone for your input!

[cmiaji]

Hello again. I was wondering if anyone had given this a look in a while. I've been busy with other projects, but it's that time of year again. I'm really thankful for all the posts regarding my issue. Thanks!

[BuzzKill]

I pinged the folks over at Discolitez a while back and talked with them about using the 595 with Discolitez. I asked about a driver for the 595. They seemed to think the 595 was not fast enough to keep up with the Discolitez data stream. (I don't remember the particulars but I seem to recall somthing about Discolitez being a streaming thing, sort of like dmx) But I wonder if that is still the case now with Renard?

[cmiaji]

Giving this another shot. See if I can get any takers for some help getting a driver created for the DiscoLitez Deluxe32 rig. After reading these forums, I can see I wasted way too much time on that rig. Ha! I know better now. I'd still like to see if I could get it up and running while I work on a real rig that is supported. If I only knew then what I know now! Ha! Thanks again for all your help!

[BuzzKill]

If you read the threads around here, you will probably see a trend towards the fact that most development for parallel port solutions is dead. It is getting harder to find a computer that even has a parallel port. And USB to Parallel port adapters, by and large, do not work. Most work is either serial, since USB to serial adapters are readily available, and cheap. Or DMX, again, since USB to DMX is getting cheaper and we are getting better at working with the protocol.

I certainly don't want to tell you to not do it. I'm just saying that it would be a nice one-off project for you to learn how to write a dll.

I still think discolitez rocks. It is a lot of fun to play with. Talk about un-realized potential... That program really could have been something great.

[LabRat]

A quick read through this thread, and it seems to me that this plugin should be almost trivial to create. Heck there's already an open source example plugin that accesses the parallel port. (I think it's a "trigger plugin", but it should provide the "how to talk to the HW" steps).

[LabRat]

Hmm.. are you expecting Dimming? Or simple on/off ??

Just realized that if you want Dimming we would have to run some type of PWM server in the output plugin, that is capable of providing some level of dimming control. Not sure on this, as the ZC stuff on the Disolitez looked a bit odd. It wasn't clear to me who/what was reading the ZC results and applying them.

[BuzzKill]

It would actually be pretty damn cool to evolutionize the existing VU plugin into what discolitez can do with the interface for picking your frequency ranges to respond to for different channels.

The object based channel mapping interface is pretty cool too.

[cmiaji]

Wow. You guys are over my head with some of that stuff. I was just looking for some more for just on/off. I dont know if the discolitez rig supports dimming or not. I know I tried the basic controller, but that only got 8 of the channels to work. Which I thought was odd. I tried changing the settings around, but 8 was the best I could do.

[cmiaji]

What works best to program your own plugins? I'm up for anything at this point. :)

[Shades]

Discolitez is two chips shy of a hill 320/32 just add a one 374(or 574(better)) and a 138. and you wont need a new driver. Plus you can and Much more on.