The idea for the project started nearly two years ago, while I was researching the purchase of a new lighting board for a small theatre where I was working at the time. While our old board was nearly twenty years old, and desperately in need of a replacement, the costs of purchasing any new equipment from Strand, or other brand name providers, end
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ed up being so prohibitively high that we were forced to abandon the idea of new equipment entirely. Around this time I began looking into computer-based lighting consoles, which a few DIY-ers had pieced together, and posted some limited information on the internet. See this product from ENTTEC. There are several more systems, too, all essentially based on a serial interface to the computer, in which signal-level data from either the parallel port, serial port, or USB is converted into RS-485-signal-level data by a chip, and sent down the line to the dimmer. Essentially the computer broadcasts a DMX signal, which then gets a slight voltage boost, and sent down to the dimmer. I set out, around that time, to build my own system based on the DMX Dongle schematics. I quickly realized a major flaw with all of these systems. The DMX specification requires the light data to be continuously refreshed to the dimmers, at about 44Hz. This means that a full 512 channel packet it sent from the computer to the dimmer 44 times per second. A gap in this stream longer than half a second could cause a flicker of the lights, which is not an option when running lighting for any type of performance. However, most of these systems were using the computer to broadcast the DMX packet, meaning that if, for whatever reason, the computer should freeze up for even half a second, the flow of transmission would be interrupted. For this reason, I decided...
This project fits more for custom made battery casing that can have more space to hide things inside. This switch with few alterations can be used for any other project as well but is designed based on e-bike needs! This project use a clever functionality of....
The circuit described here uses ultrasonic oscillations and operates based on the propagation velocity of these oscillations in the air. Thus, we can easily determine the distance of two points if the time within which the wave travels this distance is....
Sometimes the precious metals are hidden too deep and are not detected except with complicated devices. In many cases, however, small pieces of precious metal buried near the surface can be detected by relatively simple means. Everyone is very attractive to....
Many times for various reasons we forget or can not water the plants that we have in our homes. And many humidity sensors units just notify us with a beeping sound or with a flashing light, that the pot needs watering. But what if we are away from home? This....
The principle behind a metal detector is really very simple. Proof of this is the circuit that follows, in which it proves that the construction of a metal detector can be done in the minute, with few components that we find very easily everywhere. With the....
The sub-harmonic bass generator is a sound producing unit for guitars. The sound it produces looks very much like that of the bass guitar. The octave generator is sometimes quite unusual since it does not produce any of the usual ways of coloring the sound,....
In the past the sounding (sea bottom measurement) was done with the "bullet", that is, with a heavy lead object that the seamen plucked into the sea hung from a calibrated rope. As soon as the "bullet" reached the bottom, the depth appeared directly from the....
This Amplifier was designed to have the following specifications: Distortion less than 0.1% at full power of 100W even at 20KHz. Power has to be attributed to an extended bandwidth. The output transistors must be protected against short circuits. The power....
A series of LEDs serve to alert the gardener when plants need water. Using two conventional digital integrated LEDs and a series of LEDs, we make a very useful device for gardening. The device detects the amount of water in the pot and alerts the grower.....
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