DMX Grinch

[RJ]

Is anyone interested in a dmx version of the grinch?

I have just tested my conversion to dmx on my Grinch since my other stuff is DMX I decieded why have multiple cables from the computer and be limited (if so) by distance on the grich so I used basicly the same firmware from my Lynx as a test on the grinch board and it works great. It could even be built as a plug in adapter like the ren-c. This means I can be full DMX this year with the exception of the Ledtriks.

[pete]

come on man, you have plenty of time to get your ledtrik dmx :)

[RJ]

Right!

I think I would have a little bit of an issue with update rate on serial with the current LedTriks. But LedTriks II ???? the board does the work so why not.
Thats it thats the ticket! All DMX but next Christmas!

[RJ]

I should also say Grinch, 595 they are the same so it would work on both.

[briant]

So this would be a plug in which would take 32 Grinch channels and turn them into a DMX stream?

[grages]

RJ,

I don't think I understand what benefits DMX would provide. Can you enlighten us?

Shawn

[RJ]

Briant:

No it would allow you to run you Grinch/595 from a DMX stream so you would get away from using a par port. This would let you run it up to 1200 ft from the computer and to use the usb port. you would have the full 64 ch and it would work normal and even work with your current seqences you just put the DMX plugin in vixen on the seqence and assign the channels to it instead of the 595 plugin. you need a little $50 dmx dongal that connects to your usb and you will be able to use it to controll 512 channels from now on. I am looking at a more expensive ($140) controller to let me go from 50ms to 25ms events on 512 ch. (check out the DMX section on this site to catch up on whats going on with DMX)

Grages:

It would give the you greater distance from the computer, It allows you to use your usb port not you par port. (frees it for a ledtriks?) Its runs at 250K so you can run 512 channels and still have lower event timings in you seqences and in my case allows me to run one cable from the computer to my whole light show as my dimmers are also dmx. Another big advantage that has moved me this way is that it is the standard that all lighting professionals use so all the other lighting show equipment will work on our systems then. Even the other pro christmas light controller companys are getting asked about it lately. So to make the DIY'ers more professional its seems we should use the industry standards. If we beat the commercial light controllers in doing it than who's ahead of who in technology? Thats why I built a DMX dimmer, and went the way I did in it controlling the lights. To have something better that the commercial companys offer (like we have vixen and its better)

[grages]

So we could run 8 grinch boards daisy chained together?

DMX Dongle-> New hardware -> Grinch 1....Grinch 8

or

DMX Dongle-> New style Grinch 1....Grinch 8

Just trying to understand what we are talking about. The Ren-C for the Grinch and 595 had me confused for a while.

Shawn

[RJ]

Hope this helps explain it.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6052269

[grages]

Hope this helps explain it.

http://www.putfile.com/pic.php?img=6052269

Yes, thats what i was trying to describe. Thanks RJ

Shawn

[RJ]

Since there was no interest I just created mine on an radio shack strip board. If there had been I was going to order some pcb of it.

[RJ]

Ended up having to have some pcb's made for the Robo Light Controller and needed 2 but had to order 5 min so I made it do both that and the dmx converter. heres a vid of it with in 595 it will run two grinches. It provides power and converters it to dmx.
http://media.putfile.com/grinchconvert

[stempile]

Will your DMX to Grinch support dimming the grinch?

ms

[RJ]

Sorry,

I just stumbled across your post. somehow missed it when you posted it.

No the dmx convertor is not for dimming it is strickly a power supply and convertor to power it from 120/240 volts and control it using DMX. I wanted to use 2 grinches in my show but do it all using dmx.

[stephenwolf]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I am interested in controlling the grinch via dmx, for sure
I don't know if anything has become of this topic since I am new here, has anyone done this yet? or did it just get dropped from lack of interest?
If I did use a dmx-grinch converter would I still be able to use the Ren-c to dim?

[Josh]

just an idea

would it be possible to incorprate the ren-c or similair into the dmx converter, since if your running dmx, why not have dimming also.

[RJ]

I Built it so I could run my two grinches off of DMX but never went any farther do to lack of interest in DMX at the time. I am sure phil would be able to build a dmx ren-c as he spoke about it once to me. but at this time I have no plans to do anything along these lines. I told some people if they could get enough orders together to order 5 pcbs or more I would order the board I designed for them. But it does not dim anything it just converts a grinch to DMX. I just have so many projects I need to work on for next year I can't take anymore on.

[blickensderfer]

Hello,
I'm new to all the extra options that are available besides DMX. I've been reading the forums and learning a lot. I would be interested in a Grinch DMX converter. My current setup is 16 DMX channels.

Thanks,
Dan

[wbuehler]

I would also like a converter. I am new to this and the ability to run off of USB would be a plus for me.

Please let me know if we can get one of these PCB's

Thanks

Bill

[RJ]

Thats 2 people if you can get at least three more boards lined up I will make it happen. They will power two grinches as with out the leds they are energy efficent. but I would only use one 595 per convertor do to the draw of the leds. It has nothing to do with DMX they will stream 128 channels of DMX it has to do with the current the power supply provides. You plug the converter into power and it then converts the dmx to grinch but also powers the grinches.

[wbuehler]

Depending on the cost of the boards I would be willing to buy 4 PCB's to get one of these to assemble

Thanks

Bill

[blickensderfer]

Today, I just purchased 10 Grinch boards from John and I bought my components from Mouser. That will make me 640 channels taking 2 DMX universes along with my current 16 channel DMX setup. Giving me lots of options to play with.

Dan

[RJ]

Looks like I should get the pcb order ready and go do a coop on the board. Watch for the coop in the coop forum
RJ

[wbuehler]

Awesome

Thanks

Bill

[stephenwolf]

sweet, i am in! dmx all the way :-)

[petefats]

I spent some time reading through the DMX wire protocol tonight, and just wanted to reassure myself of a few things.

this board basically uses 1 'starting address' and then uses one of the 512 dmx channels for each of the grinch's 64 channels?

if i use two grinches (grinchi? grunk?) on one of these, do I use two start addresses with 64 channels each, or do I just end up using 128 dmx channels under a single start?

[wbuehler]

I going to take a stab at this. I am no expert so I could be wrong about this. From what I have read on the Wiki it appears to me that DMX will support up to 512 channels across 32 devices per run.

So the way I figure it is that the Grich DMX converter gets programmed with a starting address of lets say 300 since the Grinch can support 64 channels you would set Vixen to use channels 300 to 364. The converter itself acts as one of these 32 devices that you can have on this run.

So on this run we can still attach 31 devices and use up to another 448 channels.

Others would know better than me but this is my stab at it.

Bill

[RJ]

I going to take a stab at this. I am no expert so I could be wrong about this. From what I have read on the Wiki it appears to me that DMX will support up to 512 channels across 32 devices per run.

So the way I figure it is that the Grich DMX converter gets programmed with a starting address of lets say 300 since the Grinch can support 64 channels you would set Vixen to use channels 300 to 364. The converter itself acts as one of these 32 devices that you can have on this run.

So on this run we can still attach 31 devices and use up to another 448 channels.

Others would know better than me but this is my stab at it.

Bill

You are dead on bill. It gets one start address and then the first grinches channel one is that address to start + 64. If you add another grinch it gets start + 65 to start + 128. hope that make since. The Dmx converter is just one DMX device so it uses only one of the 32 devices allowed on the DMX chain.
So you could run four DMX converters and 8 grinches on one DMX dongle for ... you guessed it a full 512 channel DMX universe.

[wbuehler]

Cool

I got it right :D

Bill

[petefats]

thanks! that's exactly what i wanted to know.