Hi!  Happy Monday.

We’ll start with the pictures, then follow with a few words of explanation.  Click any photo to enlarge.

The top right photo shows a prototype T3 DMX Node Bridge.  All connectors are waterproof, circular and polarized.  The internal circuit board and wiring is encased in waterproof resin, making the entire assembly very rugged.  There are four connections for node output, one connection for power input, and a pair of parallel connectors for DMX in & through.

The production chassis is actually similar to the photo shown in the top left corner.  The two flanged mounting ears allow for easy installation.  The production chassis will also be clearly labeled, either with a silkscreened legend or with a reverse-printed lexan overlay.

Chassis size is about 4″ square.

A T3 controller is designed to drive up to 4 strings of 42 nodes.  This neatly consumes (up to) an entire DMX universe and a 10A, 5V switching power supply.

The T3 includes an internal effects engine.  It’s been designed to be very flexible and powerful. Operating modes (which can easily be changed using a simple PC utility program) include…

• Full discrete control of 168 nodes (4 strings of 42).  Requires 510 DMX channels.
• Discrete control of 42 nodes on string #1.  Data is copied to the remaining three strings, if installed.  Requires 126 DMX channels.
• Discrete control of the first 7 nodes on string #1.  Data is copied in groups of 7 to the remainder of the string, then to strings #2, #3 and #4 if installed. Requires 21 DMX channels.
• ‘Test Mode,’ which sweeps through each color and each node in quick succession.
• ‘Standalone Mode,’ which displays a preset effect (or, alternately, smoothly alternates between pre-chosen effects) at power up.  No incoming DMX data is required.

The effects engine requires between 4 and 7 DMX channels.  Using these channels, various effect types, speeds and color palettes may be chosen.  The engine affords a great deal of flexibility and creativity in display design, without requiring hundreds or thousands of DMX control.  Video clips of the engine in action will be posted soon.

Release date for the T3 controllers and the node strings is planned for May 15, 2010.  Stay tuned!

- JEC & mrpackethead

(Oh… If you haven’t already, enter your name and email address on the top right corner of this page.  You’ll get automatic updates when new items are posted…)

This clip comes from New Zealand, courtesty mrpackethead & co.

It’s 40 of the RGB Tubes, driven by DMX and some pixel-mapping software they ginned up.

More details, plus information about the release of the strings & controllers, is coming very soon.  Thanks, everyone, for your patience through this R&D phase.  We’re confident that you’ll be thrilled with the result.

It took a couple days to organize his kit (dayjob!), but here’s his string of the new 2010 RGB nodes flashing merrily away.

His toolchain is Madrix (running in a virtual Windows machine on a Mac, natch) –> Enttec USB Pro –> DMX / Pixel Bridge I designed –> 50 Nodes.

Video courtesy an EOS 7D SLR.

Yesterday I received my sample string from mrpackethead in New Zealand.  The factory made us two test strings of 50 nodes each. Hooray for DHL and 2 day (!) around-the-world service.  Hooray also for Chinese New Year being over.  It seems like most of the country is shut down for 2 weeks in February.

Spent a few hours figuring out the protocol (this new 8 bit controller speaks a somewhat different language than last year’s 5-bit system).  Once I could drive the nodes discretely and successfully, I wrote some quick microcontroller code for a DMX bridge.

Here they are, lounging happily in a bowl of tap water.  All we need is a fish.

Onward!

As always, if you’d like to receive automatic updates when content is added to this site, just enter your name and email address in the top right corner of this page.

Factory snapshot showing black cable, circular connectors

Completely Waterproof Design

It’s been a couple weeks since we’ve posted anything new.  We’ve been hard at work with the factory making changes to the node design.  Here are some highlights:

8 Bit Control is now standard, as opposed to last year’s 5-bit resolution.  Though 5 bits gives 32 x 32 x 32 = 32,768 possible color combinations, 8 bit control provides about 16 million possible hues and even smoother fading.

Black Cable replaces the original red, green, white and blue standard.  This cable was chosen to be UV Resistant, and is being tested through extended exposure to a 1 KW UV source.

Waterproof circular connectors are used to connect strings end-to-end.  These connectors are tough.  We love ‘em.  You will too.

Completely watertight. A batch of nodes has just successfully completed a 10-day submersion test at the factory.  Naturally, we’ll repeat this test ourselves, but we’re optimistic that the elements will be no match for this new design.

The Controllers are taking shape nicely as well.  We’ll add more detail here shortly, but can say that there’s a version which will accept regular DMX-512 and a version which (with the addition of an external bridge controller) receives Art-Net data.

We’ve designed the system to be modular and easily scalable; it should handle installations sizes between 1 node and tens of thousands of nodes with ease.

Finally, there’s a decent chance that I (JEC) will be selling all or part of my 2009 system at the end of February.  I’ve got ~ 1000 pixels, power supplies, cables and DMX / Art-Net interfaces.  Price hasn’t been determined yet, but will likely fall in the $1800-$2400 range.  Though I’d prefer to sell the entire rig at once, all offers will be considered.  If you’re interested, email me – john AT response-box.com.

One Last Thing… if you’ve arrived here through a search engine or other web link, you should know that we send out email updates each time new content is added to this site.  If you’d like your own copy, just enter your name and email address in the top right corner of this page.