Arduino DMX libraries now also available on Github

 

In the last weeks I got some very valuable feedback and some corrections for the DMXSerial2 library for Arduino from Felicitus and he asked me to put the sources into the GitHub repository.

I am used to work with Subversion and never worked with Git before but everything runs perfectly. I love the way how someone can add merge requests to an existing repository without the need to manage users and roles.

So you can find the library now on:
https://github.com/mathertel/DmxSerial2.

You can download the complete library including the samples by using the “Download ZIP” button on the right-hand side or by using the link
https://github.com/mathertel/DmxSerial2/archive/master.zip

I plan to also leave a copy of the other Arduino libraries there.

Update for DMXSerial2 the DMX RDM library for Arduino

IT’s some months ago since I released the first version of DMXSerial2. Now there is an update with some fixes and some more complete functionality.

First of all thanks to Simon Newton who shared the link to a copy of the RDM standard E1.20. A download is available at http://tsp.plasa.org/freestandards. “Now there are no more excuses for not complying with the standard” – he writes and I will try to do so.

In the update you can the following additions:

• The serial port definitions now also support Arduino MEGA 2560 (port 0 and 1) and Arduino Leonardo (port 1) boards.
• I registered my own manufacurer id, now #0987 for mathertel.de.
• There is a functionality that creates random device ids in the code. If a board once has started to work the device id will be stored into the eeprom and will remain there even when new software is uploaded.
• I added the required RDM parameters SOFTWARE_VERSION_LABEL and SUPPORTED_PARAMETERS to comply with the standard.
• Finally I removed some DMX-only specific code and did some simplifications and memory optimizations.
• The initialization data for the library is now combined into a new structure.

It was an easy job to register a manufacturer id to myself as explained on http://tsp.plasa.org/tsp/working_groups/CP/mfctrIDs.php. Feel free to use my manufacturer id yourself if you promise only to use it for experiments and never to put a real device that leaves your hands.
If you plan for more please request your own manufacturer id and adjust the _devID definition to use it.

You can find the new version of the library now on http://www.mathertel.de/Arduino/DMXSerial2.aspx.

I will update the text of this site in the next days.

DMX RDM library DMXSerial2 Version 1.0 released

I just published the version 1.0 of the DMX RDM library as an Arduino library with sample code.

Download the file from http://www.mathertel.de/Arduino/DMXSerial.aspx, unzip the file to your Sketches\libraries and try the example in libraries\DMXSerial2\examples\RDMSerialRecv.

The hardware requirements for that sample is a DMX line attached to the serial port, the data direction switch at pin 2 and some led to the ports 5, 6 and 9.

The schema of the DMX shield documented in http://www.mathertel.de/Arduino/DMXShield.aspx can be used as well.

Any feedback is welcome.

DMXSerial2 Update

The first versions (up to version from 22.01.2013) of DMXSerial2 was not stable during several tests I did and often a response package did not reach the controller as expected.

After some testing with inserted delayMicroseconds() functions and time probes in several places I found that the implementation with the Arduino processor and the DMX Shield was sometimes too fast for the used controllers and the DMX line.

In several publications for example in http://www.soundlight.de/techtips/dmx512/dmx_rdm.htm you can find the timing requirements defined by the RDM standard and it seems that it is very important to follow them strictly.

The one timing condition that is indeed implemented by the RDM client is the time between the end of a RDM command that is sent by the controller and the start of the RDM response that is sent by the client.

Because the answer to a command is created asynchronously in the tick() function this time was varying and was often shorter than the expected minimal 176 µsec .

The version from 01.03.2013 and later now saves the time when the last byte of a command was sent into a global variable and delays the start of the answer when appropriate. After implementing this delay mechanism the RDM communication was much more stable then before.

And there is the RDM-BREAK that is longer than the DMX-BREAK: min. 176 µsec instead of 88 µsec.

I published the updated Arduino project today. It’s still work in progress and a library format will be available soon.

See http://www.mathertel.de/Arduino/DMXSerial2.aspx

New DMX RDM Library for Arduino available

I just published an new Arduino project on my web site that implements an DMX RDM Device using the DMXShield.

From the beginning the DMXSerial library was designed to send and receive DMX data packets. Now it is extended to support RDM packets as well. I had to overcome several pitfalls and stumbling blocks while extending the DMXSerial implementation and I will keep the current version because it needs only a very small amount of program data. The RDM extended version will be DMXSerial2.

What you can find in the attached zip file right now is an ARDUINO project including all the files you need to compile. Because it is still in WIP (work in progress) I did not extract the DMXSerial2 files into a library format yet.

see: RDM Library for Arduino (DMXSerial2)

DMX Shield for Arduino is also working with RDM

The last weeks I spent some time in extending the DMXSerial library for Arduino to support the DMX - RDM protocol by using the DMX Shield for Arduino.

A prototype version (proof of concept state) is already working. So now I know that the layout of the shield is RDM compatible.

But there is still some work to do for the library. I’ll try to publish a new version of the DMX library in some weeks.

If you are interested in co-working please let me know.