In-Development Elite DMX Light and Effects Control

Toumal · Nov 2, 2016

Thanks for the kind words!

I'd be really curious to see other people's setups in action. Do make some videos if you can please!

Urgentemente · Dec 1, 2016

Wow, great work!
I only just found this thread and looks great.
I've got a couple of DMX fixtures just from a year or 3 ago when I was between jobs as I fancied playing with/learning DMX but didn't get much further than basic control via one of the many stage/show based freebies.
I was looking to see if anyone had got AMBX lights working with 64bit ED when I found this thread , so very happy! (now if I could convert my 3 sets of AMBX lights , 2 fans and rumble wrist rest to talk DMX , that would be awesome!).

I've only got one DMX wall washer at the moment, but will defintely give this a try in the next few weeks once I sort out some room around the computer.
Great job !

Madcowz · Dec 1, 2016

This sounds pretty cool and kudos for not only taking the time to produce this but also sort out others issues with their setup.

Can you advise/suggest a cheap as possible DMX setup that could get people going? I'm thinking an LED strip light along the back of my desk to light up the wall in whatever shade matches my current situation. It would probably be always brown as I'm usually in the s**t.

Asp Explorer · Dec 1, 2016

Urgentemente said:
I was looking to see if anyone had got AMBX lights working with 64bit ED when I found this thread , so very happy! (now if I could convert my 3 sets of AMBX lights , 2 fans and rumble wrist rest to talk DMX , that would be awesome!).

Not to derail Toumal's thread - but yeah - I got the gaming light things to work in 64 bit - was a real pain in the Asp though.

Now if only I could find the thread lol - here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/91225-Gaming-Lights

Exigeous · Jan 5, 2017

Very cool thing you've put together here, mainly replying so I'll be subscribed. I've pretty much only played Elite in VR and things like this are just about the only downside to using VR (well save for the gen 1 VR issues). I decided to do something similar but far more simple, I have several sets of the Philips HUE LED lights that are controllable and can be set to any color. When I say certain VoiceAttack commands, such as "full power to shields" or "deploy hardpoints" the lights in my gaming room go red. This is mainly just to be silly and show off for friends a bit as I can't see them when in VR. I also have a simple "computer lights" (ala Star Trek) so that if I'm streaming I can turn on the room lights (white) so there's better light for my camera.

Curious if anyone has used a smoke machine with this yet - when your ship goes above 100 and things start to smoke having that real effect in room would be pretty damn sweet. While none of this is as immersive as VR it certainly has some benefits as the cool/bling factor is rather high.

Toumal · Jan 5, 2017

I didn't add HUE support because it's so cumbersome and slow to work with.

Exigeous said:
Curious if anyone has used a smoke machine with this yet - when your ship goes above 100 and things start to smoke having that real effect in room would be pretty damn sweet. While none of this is as immersive as VR it certainly has some benefits as the cool/bling factor is rather high.

Yeah I did that. I have to play at night though because people might call the fire brigade. Also turns out the smoke isn't too good for delicate electronics...

Straha Yeagar · Jan 5, 2017

Toumal said:
I didn't add HUE support because it's so cumbersome and slow to work with.

Yeah I did that. I have to play at night though because people might call the fire brigade. Also turns out the smoke isn't too good for delicate electronics...

All the more reason to avoid smoky situations

Exigeous · Jan 5, 2017

Toumal said:
I didn't add HUE support because it's so cumbersome and slow to work with.
Yeah I did that. I have to play at night though because people might call the fire brigade. Also turns out the smoke isn't too good for delicate electronics...

I hadn't thought about what the neighbors might think! I was a music major in college and as such I've played in a number of bands in my life, mostly jazz but I did play with a funk/rock group for a few years. At about half our shows we'd have a smoke machine and I always hated it, I don't smoke and while the machine doesn't produce smoke like say cigarettes it was horrible for me as I'm a saxophone player. It would dry me out horribly and give me awful cotton mouth. I'd down about a pitcher of water every 30 minutes or so.

As for the HUEs while I like the ones I have (as they were free after all) I'd have to agree about them being cumbersome. I did work out a rather simple command line way to control them so I just created some simple batch files and use VoiceAttack to execute those scripts. About 15 years back I had virtually every light/switch in my house replaced with X10 swtiches/plugs. Between the lights, garage door, fireplace and attic fan it was about 30 devices, all controlled by a Windows XP (I think) machine. The software was awful and as such I spent *many* hours getting everything customized the way I wanted. I had a few small/cheap laptops around the house to use a voice activation mics so in the kitchen I could say "computer, lights off, bedroom mode" and the kitchen lights would start to fade 10 seconds later over about 5 seconds to zero, the stairway light would fade up over about 3 seconds and the bedroom would do the same about 5 seconds later. Then 20 seconds after that the stairs would fade back down and the bedroom would fade down to 75%. For 2005 it was rather geeky cool and even then fairly cheap, the X10 switches were less than $10 each. Sorta sad that they basically died out as they worked pretty damn well, were easy to install and pretty cost effective, especially compared to things today.

Sorry, geekiness rant over....

B0xCutter · Jan 6, 2017

I just wanna say Thank you @ Toumal for bringing us such a unique feature! I only just found out about this.

I have two computers side by side, ready for multicrew and these kinds of effects would add a little bit of fun ambience. I was wondering if you could tell me if these two items would work okay? USB-DMX controller http://www.ebay.com/itm/281730984904 and DMX RGB LED light http://www.ebay.com/itm/351569661999 and is there anything else required? From what I can tell, the USB DMX controller can plug directly into the light, and the light just needs to be plugged into a wall outlet for power?

Toumal · Jan 8, 2017

The light is fine. Not sure about the usb cable but it *should* be ok.
You may need a dmx terminator if you do long chains, but if you just have 2 or 3 lights you are fine without one.

Madcowz · Jan 9, 2017

Toumal said:
The light is fine. Not sure about the usb cable but it *should* be ok.
You may need a dmx terminator if you do long chains, but if you just have 2 or 3 lights you are fine without one.

Can you advise what the difference between these two are in terms of quality and features/functions.

http://screencast.com/t/vNYZCgV9m

Do we need to go with an Ent tec interface or will any one work (As far as you know?)

Thanks. Really keen to try this out but don't want to buy cheap and buy twice.

Toumal · Jan 9, 2017

The cheap cable has some rather sobering reviews on ebay. Doesn't seem to be using OpenDMX standard drivers, so it might not work, but I can't tell for sure sadly.
The Enttec device will most definitely work. It's a bit pricier, but I think you'll be much happier. I'd go for the Enttec.

Madcowz · Jan 9, 2017

Toumal said:
The cheap cable has some rather sobering reviews on ebay. Doesn't seem to be using OpenDMX standard drivers, so it might not work, but I can't tell for sure sadly.
The Enttec device will most definitely work. It's a bit pricier, but I think you'll be much happier. I'd go for the Enttec.

Thanks.

I'm going to buy one of these: https://www.enttec.com/?main_menu=Products&pn=70303

Might as well buy once and all that. looking forward to having a play with this.

Madcowz · Jan 9, 2017

Next question.

I take it I need a 5 pin to 3 pin cable to go from the controller to the first light and then if I added additional lights to the chain it would be 3 pin - 3 pin?

Madcowz · Jan 13, 2017

That's me all set up and testing just now.

There's a couple of things that don't seem right with the effects.lua but I will look into this and test and report back. Had a bit of a head scratch setting the light channel to 11 but a quick refresh into binary soon got me up and running.

Toumal · Jan 13, 2017

Oops sorry for not replying earlier!

Let me know if you have any questions about the script file.

Madcowz · Jan 16, 2017

Hi,

I've only got 1 light (http://amzn.eu/iYVxYuH) set to channel 11 and want to confirm a few things with you in your effects.lua file as I'm a simple bear and a bit confuzzled.

Am I right in thinking that this is sending on channel 12 only (light1_g) and nothing on channel 11?

Code:

	if (json.event == "DockingGranted") then
		-- light1 blinking green
		for i=0,16000,160 do
			Animation.StartAnimation(effect_sequence_docking, light1_g, animation_type_fixedvalue, 255, 0, 0, 1, i)
			Animation.StartAnimation(effect_sequence_docking, light1_g, animation_type_fixedvalue, 0, 0, 0, 1, i+80)
		end
	end

And it is sending:

effectsequence: effect_sequence_docking
animationDmxChannel: light1_g (12)
animationType: animation_type_fixedvalue
startValue: 255
endValue: 0
stepValue: 0
repeatCount: 1
delay:i

How would I send say a green light to channel 11?

Thanks.

Toumal · Jan 18, 2017

You have to understand that each light channel (R, G, B) of a single light uses one DMX channel. So your one light uses three channels, and the channel you set on the light is the first (red) channel. So if you set it to 11, then red is 11, green is 12, blue is 13.

And yes this part of the code only sets a single channel of a single light, i.e. one color. Note the time offset (i+80) in the second StartAnimation call to turn the light off again.

If you want the color green, just send stuff to channel 12.

Max Torps · Feb 4, 2017

Toumal. You are a legend. I can't wait to give this a try in a couple of months! Thank you.

Toumal · Feb 4, 2017

Thanks! Hopefully we'll have individual shield impact events from Frontier by then!
*hint hint*