Thread: New DMX-controlled prop interface

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Originally Posted by Hooked_on_Scares

I took another look at the BoC, and am again impressed with what they've accomplished. From a technical standpoint, it's quite a lot.

Mark,
You mention you like the min/max settings. VSA supports this too, no? Does setting it in the board bring other benefits? I haven't used one of these before. Does the white-balance trim affect the balance across the range of brightness, or just at the brightest?
Hook

Yes, VSA does have min/max settings. In my case, I'm building multiple 3-axis skulls with 2-axis eyes based on Dr Morbius's design. The problem I've run into is when developing new sequences, each skull will have a slighly modified version that is 'tweaked' for each build since there can be variations in the jaw movement range and the 2-axis eyes. So I'll have multiple versions of the same routine for different skuls. If I inadvertanly load the wrong version, I run the chance of over-driving an axis. It's kind of a safety net in that no matter what commands VSA sends to the board, you can't go outside of the BoC set linits.
As far as the LED control, the trim does affect the entire range for each channel, although it depends on how linear the light output is from the LED itself.

Originally Posted by Hooked_on_Scares

I was thinking of the board I'm designing as more of a universal scene controller, than a skull controller. Be able to control some servos and RGB LEDs, but also have outputs left over to control some ambient/special LED lighting and popups, motors, or whatever else you can connect up to with a relay.

For example...
(2) Skulls with 3-axis neck + jaw & RGB eyes
(2) Spotlight LED clusters (one-channel each)
And on the switch outputs (connected to external relays)
- Something scurrying in the leaves (motor or air cylinder)
- Lightning strobe
- Smoke machine trigger
- Coffin lid (air cylinder)
- Convulsion of corpse in coffin (motor or air cylinder)
- Air cannon
- Flame thrower
- BFG10k

..... or, maybe not the last 2. Truth be told, the BoC is darn near perfect for controlling a skull. No point in reinventing the wheel. Is there merit in the switch outputs and additional LEDs?

- Hook

For my application, the BoC is perfect as I determined I wanted DMX control and RGB LED for the eyes. I don't need to control multiple skulls with one controller since each skull has a dedicated board mounted on the servo plate.
But I think you're on the right track as far as your board being a universal prop/lighting controller. I plan on building or purchasing some single-color LED pin lights for highlighting props, and have several ideas for relay and servo actuated projects other than the skulls which I'd like to be under DMX control. I like the idea of having the ablility to control a combination or servos, LED or relays from a single board.
Keep up the good work.

Mark

Hi All,
I just thought I would chime in, as Hook works with me at the Heritage Haunt. I thought it important that everyone understood why he designed and built this board, and hopefully can give some feedback that can help all of us.

I am the “Haunt Master” at Heritage Haunt, located in Santa Clarita, California (Northern Los Angeles, near Magic Mountain). Heritage haunt is located at Heritage Junction with in the William S. Hart Park. Our haunt is completely non-profit, and all money made from the Haunt goes to the Santa Clarita Historical Society and the William S. Hart School District AVID program and some other programs. So, no one is paid, we are all volunteers, including Hook. Heritage haunt is made up of 5 Home Haunts gone wild. All of the haunts from small to Large have combined our efforts and have created a Haunted attraction that has the potential of becoming something very big….we hope. If you are local to us, and want to help out, or bring your haunt there, we are looking for more Haunters. In addition, our haunt is not just a fund raising event; it is also an education project for all of the local kids from the High schools that volunteer at the haunt. They come in and learn how to build stuff from the ground up.

This board was developed by Hook for the Heritage Haunt, to give us more versatility, as currently all of our pneumatic pop ups are run by PLC, and the animatronics are run separately, so he thought this board would give us more of what we need for all sorts of events, it was never intended to just drive a skull, for that I have purchased a few BOC’s. Our hope in bringing this board to all of you is your input to what features are important, not to create a product that competes with the BOC, as there is no reason to re-invent the wheel, especially when the wheel is so well done. We needed something cheap, versatile, reliable, and easy to implement, so the design was made with that in mind. Of course one could build the ultimate board with all the bells and whistles, but that already exists, but it is not cheap (not refering to the BOC), and usually is not easy to implement.

Doing a Haunt like this, is very different from doing your own Home Haunt, the scale of everything changes, the parameters of the haunt changes, as it is more of a “Pro Haunt” than a home haunt, however we do not have a “Pro Haunt “ Budget . Unlike a pro haunt, we develop and create our own animatronics and pneumatic events from scratch, as most home haunters do, where a “Pro haunt will just buy much of what they need, and create only some of their events.

So Hook, recognizing our needs, took the time and spent his own money to develop this board as a controller that is cross compatible and versatile for our events. As the costs of developing several versions of the Board is somewhat cost prohibitive, we hope to get everything we need in this version or the next, and that is why he posted in this forum at my suggestion. To me this is a Win-Win situation, we get expert information and feedback, and you guys get another option for your needs. Hook is not trying to start his own company and make a living off the development of this board, as he has a great job already, but rather just to help out our community event, have some fun in the process, and hopefully offset some of the costs. In my conversation with him recently was that he did not want the development of this board to take over his life, and I can certainly appreciate that. At the end of the day, I am sure we will have a solid functioning control board, and hopefully a bunch happy people building some really cool haunted house events without breaking the bank. I am also guessing that this will not be the last product that Hook develops as there will always be something that needs something different than what you already have.

So please, post away, and give us your idea’s about what you would like to control, as much detail as you might have or know, and if it can be worked in, I am sure Hook will give it a shot, within the limitations of the current scheme.

Thanks everyone for your input and help.

I personally can appreciate the versatility of this board. My haunt changes every year, and I re-purpose and re-configure props with each change. With this boards functionality you could easily control entire scenes from one board, making the entire proposition quite economical. I like it as it is.

Alrighty, I've ordered parts to build out the other PCBs I have on hand. I'm adding a status LED, to tell if the board is a) powered up and b) receiving DMX signal.... and c) another value added status LED feature.

Thanks for everyone's input!

- Hook

Ive PM'd you

just one correction about the three vsa devices that support DMX

1) Velleman...... DON'T touch this with a barge pole, its a piece of junk

2) Enttec Open.... very good but has limitations, excellent for starters, but when you hit problems see below

3) Enttec Pro.... You are getting what you re paying for

I think I mentioned it in a PM, but I think you've got the right idea with that status LED. It's really the first thing you want to be able to check if something's not working right.

What does that part labeled "servo throw" do?

Do you have a name for it yet?

Phoenix, you've got me curious...what's so bad about the Velleman?

Thanks Chicken! It was the first thing I wanted to check (but it wasn't there), when I was trying to troubleshoot wiring over the phone Turned out the DMX data had been hooked up inverted. All good info for a manual!

The 'Servo Throw' switch changes the range of the pulse that goes out to the servos. Nominally, everyone talks about this being a 1-to-2mS pulse, and this corresponds to -45 to +45 degrees of servo movement. However, there are many servos (e.g.: most Hitec that I've seen) which support ~180 degrees movement, if given a shorter (0.6mS) to longer (2.4mS) pulse. This switch lets you pick between the two.

You know... I'm bad with names. Still tryin' to think of something cool. The PCB file is called DMX RSL..... that's not very cool, is it? Then again, if I go *too* cool, then the next board I make will have nowhere to go but down!

So whens soup!I'm hungry for one when there served up.My main requirement is that it's easy to use, cheap,and expandable and able to be used for diffrent types of props.

Originally Posted by Hooked_on_Scares

Thanks Chicken! It was the first thing I wanted to check (but it wasn't there), when I was trying to troubleshoot wiring over the phone Turned out the DMX data had been hooked up inverted. All good info for a manual!

somewhere on this forum I posted a DMX trouble shooting primer and inverted signal devices was one of the trips I mentioned there

everybody's DMX tool kit should include at least a 3 pin inverter and preferably a 5 pin inverter as well, any inverted devices can be fixed by rewiring their sockets, or just by marking the device as inverted and have an inverted section of your DMX circuit

Originally Posted by daddywoofdawg@hotmail.com

So whens soup!I'm hungry for one when there served up.My main requirement is that it's easy to use, cheap,and expandable and able to be used for diffrent types of props.

Because it's late, and I would probably forget to write this down, Hook, I think that adding some application circuit diagrams in the manual to the switch outputs would be a good thing to do, so as users would know how to hook up various types of events that they may already have. There should be some generic stuff most people use.

Also, some how-to's on different lighting effects, i.e. thunder lighting type stuff, RGB LED hook ups, and so on, I could even see sharing some VSA lighting routines with this board, as that would be easy to reproduce from one system to another, vs. servo control routines.

Also, I am working on some variations of integrated control boxes and wiring schemes that might be useful as well.