“I have an church installation where the project electrician supplied and installed a Lutron Grafik Eye QS series dimming system for the architectural lighting. I have a stage lighting system that runs over DMX, and the client wishes to control the architectural (the Lutron system) lighting from the stage lighting console. Problem is that this particular Lutron system won’t accept DMX as a control input. It will, however, accept RS-232 control via Lutron’s QSE-CI-NWK-E interface.”

Fortunately, this is no problem at all for the DecaBox.  Each Lutron interface above can drive six different lighting zones, so we built a custom firmware personality which accepts six sequential DMX channels (the first, of course, is user-selectable).

These channels are monitored, and when the incoming DMX data changes, the appropriate serial strings, in Lutron-specific syntax, are generated.  Here’s a screen shot showing how the intensity of Zone #4 is being varied.

Serial Capture - DMX to Lutron Interface

Need something similar for your own installation?  Just let us know.

Today the Bargain Bucket (yellow square, top right corner of this page) has a Flapper Mini, a pair of Flapper MKIIs and a DecaBox protocol converter.  Since we always try to rotate our rental stock, it’s your chance to pick up some equipment at discounted prices.  Everything carries the usual one-year warranty, but there may be some scuffing or cosmetic damage to chassis pieces.

This refurb gear never lasts long, so if you’re interested, let us know!

Strand Console - Stock Photo

In early December, we were contacted by a company which specialized in automation & systems integration.  One of their clients had a large museum / interactive type exhibit based on some older AMX / Crestron technology.  These guys were tasked with modernizing the entire system, adding more sophisticated and flexible lighting, and changing the way the audience interacted with different elements of the display.

Their requirements looked something like this:

• We have a DMX console which needs to drive ~ 150 channels of moving light and LED fixtures at the beginning of the show.
• Also, there are existing (and installed) relay cards which must still be driven at the same time, but these cards only accept input from the AMX system.
• The current AMX system is handling the touchscreens, video playback, audio and more.  So it definitely stays as part of the new installation.
• Finally, at the end of the show, the system must switch from ‘canned’ to interactive operation.  Input from a large touchscreen needs to direct the moving lights, the LED fixtures and all the low-voltage relays such that many different scenes can be displayed, but in a random order.

With some careful planning, we developed a version of super-turbo bidirectional DMX / RS232 bridging firmware for the DecaBox which exactly matched the needs of the project.  It included the following features:

Switchable External / Internal DMX Output The DecaBox contains ports for DMX receive, passthrough and transmit.  Receive and passthrough, of course, are connected in parallel with each other and with an input on our internal processor.  Transmit is connected to an output on our internal processor. By means of a simple RS232 command, the AMX brain could direct the DecaBox to either (a) retransmit incoming DMX from the upstreaming lighting console or (b) generate DMX scenes internally, ignoring upstream data.

DMX to RS-232 Parsing. This of course is how we were able to use the DMX lighting console to drive the AMX-only relay cards.  Since we didn’t know a priori how many DMX channels were required, a simple text file stored on the DecaBox’s internal SD memory card allowed for field programming:

baud 19200 ; can be changed to any standard baud rate

; beginning DMX channel to be monitored

start 100

; last channel to be monitored

end 242

As DMX data was received, the channel range called out in this text file was monitored carefully.  Each time  a DMX channel in this range changed its value, a short serial string was transmitted the AMX system:

100 @ 004

100 @ 005

100 @ 008

100 @ 010

etc

In this way, the AMX brain could keep an eye on the incoming serial data.  When the proper DMX channels reached appropriate levels (usually FF, but anything is possible), the AMX system set the relay cards to the proper state.  With this firmware addition, the DMX console could drive the legacy relay cards properly.

RS232 Triggered Scene Recall Finally, for the interactive section of the show, the designers wanted a series of different lighting looks, based on which section of the touchscreen was triggered.  Though the DecaBox has an internal DMX Scene Engine, the AMX programmers didn’t want to build lighting scenes channel by channel.  It was much easier to use the external console, with it’s intelligent-light-specific programming tools, to design the required looks.

So, we added a ‘snapshot’ ability to our firmware.  With valid DMX connected to the DecaBox’s input and the downstream moving lights and LEDs connected to the output, the users could use the three front panel pushbuttons and LCD to capture static DMX scenes.  These scenes were stored safely on the memory card, and can be recalled using a very simple RS232 syntax, complete with crossfade times.

Thus, the show could start under control of the large DMX console, with the DecaBox providing RS232 translation of the required channels for relays and low voltage equipment.  Then, the AMX system could toggle between live and captured DMX data during the interactive portion of the show.  The pre-built DMX scenes could be generated and faded between as randomly required, based on touchscreen input.

All in all, this was a fun project to work on.    At last check, the equipment was all running well.  We’re thrilled that the DecaBox offers such a flexible and powerful platform.

If you need something similar (or even something wildly different), please let us know.

Here’s something fun!  The DecaBox can store and replay IR commands.  Perfect for turning off that video projector that’s mounted way, way up there in the grid.  Click here and Learn How to Trigger IR Gear From a DMX Console.

We’re thrilled to announce a new firmware option for the DecaBox Protocol Converter.  It allows DMX to RS232 conversion (very useful for triggering projector shutters, video switchgear, AMX / Crestron systems, etc) and the generated RS232 strings can be edited in the field using a very simple interface.

Check out this page for more details.

If you’re an owner of ‘static’ DMX to RS232 firmware and would like to upgrade to field-programmable options, contact us to discuss your options.

The DecaBox Universal Protocol Bridge - Click to Enlarge

This new firmware revision is an extension of the custom work we did for controlling Jands lighting consoles.  That firmware receives MIDI Show Control messages, then repackages them as RS232 serial strings, which Jands hardware can use for cue triggering.

But now, it’s even more flexible.

Some of our customers were using QLab as a show control platform.  However, they needed to control some RS232 equipment, which QLab doesn’t support.  Since the DecaBox contains an internal SD memory card socket, it made sense to design firmware which could read a simple text file called ‘patch.txt’ from the memory card. This file allows arbitrary serial strings (up to 40 characters in length, each) to be assigned to any MIDI note on, note off or program change message.

System baud rate can be globally set to any standard speed.

Et voilà!  Any serial device can be triggered by MIDI messages.

Here’s how the patch file looks:

; Since this is a command to be parsed, there is no semicolon at the
; beginning of the line.
;
; Define the MIDI address that the notes will
; be sent from.  MIDI notes received on other channels will be ignored
; Valid range here is [1 16].
;
; Here's we've set the MIDI channel to 2
;
A=2
;
; Next, define a baud rate.  No commas needed: 9600 19200 38400 etc
B=19200
;
; Note On messages start with N.  Note Off messages start with F.  Program
; change messages start with P.  Hex characters (anything non-printing)
; can be inserted using the $ sign, then a two-digit hex value
; IE carriage return is $0D.  If a $ needs to be generated
; as part of an actual transmitted string, encode it simply as hex $23.
;
; Google 'ASCII Table' for several handy charts
;
; Example cue for note 0 [MIDI notes range from 0 to 127] ON
; It's Hello World followed by a carriage return
;
; N0 Hello World$13
;
; Note Off Example
;
; F10 Go Pyro Finale!
;
; Program Change
;
; P3 Go Cue 12.34.56$13
;
; And here's our actual live cue list:
N0 Go Cue 1$13
N1 Go Cue 2$13
N2 Go Cue 3$13
F0 Stop Cue 1$13
F2 Go Cue 123.45.66.777$13
P8 Someone Hit Program Change #8!!$13

If you need this or similar functionality as part of your system, just let us know.

This firmware revision was commissioned by a Crestron systems integrator in Canada.  He needed to generate simultaneously generate DMX scenes and MIDI note commands from his Crestron controller, which only had an RS-232 output port.

Consequently, we designed a personality which combines features of the RS-232 to DMX Converter and the RS-232 to MIDI firmwares.  DMX commands are generated based on this human-readable ASCII syntax:

FAAA@BBB:CCC[cr]

• Commands start with a capital ‘F’ character
• AAA is a three digit DMX channel, range is 000-512. As only channels 1-512 exist in a typical DMX universe, channel 000 is used to select all channels.
• @ is the ASCII ‘at’ character, hex 0×40
• BBB is a three digit intensity value, range is 000-255
• (:) is the ASCII colon character, hex 0x3A
• CCC is a three digit value, range is 000-999, describing fade time in tenths of a second. One second is 010, twelve seconds is 120, etc.
• [cr] is the carriage return character, decimal 13 or hex 0x0D.

EXAMPLE COMMANDS

Set channel 5 to 240 on a 2.5 second fade:

F005@240:025[cr]

Setting the channel to zero sets all 512 DMX channels to the specified value and fade time:

F000@255:010[cr] <—- Set entire to full, 1 second fade

F000@000:000[cr] <—- All channels to zero, instantly

Multiple channels may be set to higher or lower levels in the same command, allowing for simultaneous crossfades.  Channel:Value sets are separated by the comma (,) character.

Set channel 10 to full, channels 11-13 to 10, channel 8 to 50%, on a 2 second fade:

F010@255,011@010,012@010,013@010,008@128:020[cr]

MIDI Note messages (Note on and note off are three-byte sequences each, see here for details) are built using a simple five-byte syntax:

M 0xAA 0xBB 0xCC [CR]

• M is the ASCII ‘M’ character
• 0xAA is a single byte, relates to note type and MIDI channel
• 0xBB is a single byte, relates to MIDI note number
• 0xCC is a single byte, relates to MIDI note velocity
• [cr] is the carriage return character, decimal 13 or hex 0x0D.

In Crestron control syntax, a single hex character can be sent by using the escape sequence /x.  Thus, the actual command looks like this

M/xAA/xBB/xCC/x0D

Other control systems will of course use different string structures, but the gist is the same.

When the dust settles, a single Crestron (or Extron, or AMX) system can generate crossfading DMX scenes as well as MIDI note information.

A few weeks after we delivered this system, we wrote to see how everything was working.  Quoth the client,

Actually the Decabox worked so well I entirely forgot about it! Basically there were four product reps on the floor, each had an IPAD. They could bring a client to any screen and punch up a video using the IPAD and walk the client through their pitch. Additionally every 10 minutes a master video would roll that spanned across all four screens for a 360 degree projection system.

The Decabox triggered each video through a Dataton Watchout system using MIDI and then triggered preset lighting for each video via DMX. I only needed to make a few minor adjustments in Crestron (MIDI pulse length).

Overall it worked brilliantly and was easily worth the cost. I will be recommending it whenever I can.

Bob, www.rlds.ca

 

Need something similar?  Let us know.  Always happy to help.

The DecaBox Universal Protocol Bridge - Click to Enlarge

Technicians at a theme park were building an interactive exhibit.  The display would include a variety of MIDI trigger pads, which of course output standard MIDI Note messages.

The goal of this project was to let the trigger pads drive larger and more complex lighting cues from the venue’s lighting console.  The console had a MIDI input jack, but the console’s firmware would only accept MIDI Show Control messages.

“Would it be possible,” they asked, “to develop software for the DecaBox which could translate between the two languages?”

Further, they wanted the system to be dynamically configurable.  The MIDI notes to be processed, and the corresponding lighting console cues triggered, might change from show to show.

So, we developed a firmware personality for the DecaBox which utilizes a simple text file stored on the system’s internal SD memory card.  Here’s what the text file looks like.

Clearly, any MIDI note can be mapped to any numerical lighting cue.  In this case, the firmware only responds to ‘Note On’ messages, but other variations are certainly possible.

One DecaBox with this firmware was used by Arc3design as part of a performance by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

A standard MIDI keyboard generated note messages, which passed through the DecaBox and were converted to MIDI Show Control ‘go’ messages.  An ETC console received these messages and triggered various cue stacks as appropriate.

The evening was reviewed by the New York Times here.  (Note that if NYT asks for a password, just delete everything to the right of the ‘?’ character in the link.  Here, in plaintext, is the link:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/music/new-jersey-symphony-orchestra-in-newark-review.html

Thanks for the chance to help make this production a success!

This firmware is available now in our online store.  Or, contact us if you need something a little different.  We’re always happy to help.

We were excited to learn that a recently-purchased DecaBox MIDI to DMX converter was used as part of Gregory Holm’s Fire House Detroit Project.

One of their technicians phoned for advice a few days ago, and the conversation went something like this:

“We’re planning to use your box in a pyrophone.”

“A what?”

“You know, we’re driving a whole bunch of propane flame effects from a MIDI sequencer, and your box is the interface. It’s like a xylophone, but with fire.”

Here’s a ‘backstage’ picture taken from inside the firehouse, which shows the DecaBox, some MIDI equipment and the various gas manifolds and valves used:

What a neat project! Here are a couple articles published by the local news.  I’ve not seen any video clips yet, but hopefully something will appear over the next few weeks.

Kind words from Ron the technician:

I was involved in a project called Firehouse Detroit as a MIDI tech. My task was to set up a basic midi keyboard to control The Incredible Pyrophone, which is essentially a propane torch-powered pipe organ. We used the Decabox to convert MIDI information into DMX signals, which were used to open valves and fire the Pyrophone. The user interface on the decabox could not be simpler, I was able to integrate the box into the setup without referencing the user manual once.

When I encountered a problem and had to call the manufacturer for help, they were very helpful and offered several ideas. The problem was solved and John from Response-Box called the following morning to check up – a rare thing these days. I will definitely be working with Response-Box again and will be keeping an eye on their product development.

-Ron Zakrin
Artist, Composer, and Pyrophonist!

If you’ve done something cool with your DecaBox, we’d love to hear about it.  Use the ‘contact’ link at the top of this page for telephone and email information.  And be sure to join our mailing list (top right corner, no spam!) to hear about new firmware personalities and product development.

Thanks!

John

We’ve just released Rev1 of a new firmware personality for the DecaBox.  It allows MIDI notes to trigger entire DMX scenes.  Take a look here for more detail.