# strand and arduino.



## Madhair (Oct 25, 2012)

post no2 here so apologies if its in the wrong place 

im building a project for my final year tech module. between the jigs and the reels im looking at building an usb to dmx adapter. i want midi signals (coming from pd) to control the strand offline editor which will control the dimmer rack through the arduino card. what i want to know is how does the offline editor output? will the arduino be capable of excepting the output and controlling the dimmers? 

the basic idea is there will be 2 cues controlling approx 15 lamps and 4 movers simultaenously. i want to use the strand as im most used to it or is there an easier alternative? itll be all operated on a mac too. usually when using the strand offline editor i have it running on the mac via parrallels. 

thanks in advance guys


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## cpf (Oct 25, 2012)

A USB to DMX... to MIDI adapter? What exactly are you trying to build here?


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## Madhair (Oct 25, 2012)

It's a self running performance where the performer is being tracked by wii remotes. This is being converted to midi info in pd. I want pd controlling mainstage(which isn't a problem) and the strand oe. I haven't gotten this running yet as my laptop charger died  but I do know it's possible. The next step is dmx


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## cpf (Oct 25, 2012)

Assuming pd is Pure Data, why not skip the hardware layer entirely and have a piece of software taking the tracking output and pushing it to a commercial DMX/USB adapter?


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## Madhair (Oct 25, 2012)

Well you see it's part of a project and the arduinos are available to us for free. Plus I want to see if I can do it. If not I'll get the pure data to push midi to the oe which I'll connect to the desk and do it that way. That's my back up plan anyway but I'd just like to know if it's possible to get signal from the oe through an arduino to the dimmer. 


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## derekleffew (Oct 25, 2012)

Perhaps something from one of the companies listed at DIY DMX: Demux, Protocol Converters, etc. - ControlBooth . I suspect the biggest sticking point will be to get the Strand OLE software to output DMX512.
.


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## zmb (Oct 25, 2012)

derekleffew said:


> I suspect the biggest sticking point will be to get the Strand OLE software to output DMX512.
> .



It will, but it puts out random data every once and a while to discourage it being used outside providing data to a visualizer. It's called 'Demo Mode' under the File menu.


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## ruinexplorer (Oct 25, 2012)

OK, so I must be behind the times. When I first was programming the Strand 500 series consoles, the OLE was DOS based only (as were the consoles). We freaked out at upgrading to Windows XP because that OS only provided a virtual DOS. Obviously it was an easy work around by just creating a boot disk to go into DOS, but we would have to reboot whenever we wanted to work on the OLE. I didn't realize that they had changed to a Windows based version. 

Just a curiosity, are you limited to Strand?


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## Madhair (Oct 26, 2012)

I'm limited to a strand desk. However I'm now considering looking at other ole if it'll work with the arduino. From talking to my buddies we seem to agree the best way around it is to have the ole be controlled by midi and link it to the desk. I remember a warning that comes up every time the ole is launched saying it shouldn't be used to control dimmers or something to that effect. Don't really fancy blowing the b'jaysis outta me dimmers 


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## n1ist (Oct 26, 2012)

What will be the connection to the arduino? If serial, you will probably want to use a mega since it has more than one UART (or a Leonardo since it has a separate real USB port). The DMX side is easy; you will need to add a 75176 or MAX485 RS485 converter or DMX shield.
/mike


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## cpf (Oct 26, 2012)

Why are you trying to involve an OLE at all in this project? As the person above this pointed out, an arduino capable of generating DMX all by itself, and if all of your lighting data is being generated live by PD...


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## Madhair (Oct 26, 2012)

I'm hoping to use the ole because itll make the programming side of things much easier. Rather than trying to figure out each signal that has to be sent to each mover for lamp on pan tilt etc. if I have it all preprogrammed on the ole in 2 cues and midi hitting go and back it'll make life much easier I would think


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