When I was in grad school, I was challenged by my technical theater professor to create a device to demonstrate DMX. What we devised was a transmitter receiver pair with 4 controls and 4 dimmers and the pair was linked by a three-wire cable. The transmitter had a fixed clock that could run at reasonable fast, 3kHz, and a variable clock that could be adjusted down to 0.5 hZ. By switching back and forth, you could toggle between “real-time” updates and a slow pace that can be used to see each bit on the wire. We then built a lecture around how the data was digitized, serialized, de-serialized, and converted back to analog to control the dimmers.
Sadly, that professor passed away in 2021. In honor of that professor, myself and co-presenter showcased a new version of the device for USITT 2024 in Seattle.
The device and software are open source and available on GitHub: https://github.com/SparkyBobo/dmxdemonstrator
Frank, you are missed. Love you.
Leave a Reply