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The Porch / Re: What are you going instead of working on sequencing ?
« on: August 13, 2015, 06:16:54 pm »
Playin' trains.
\dmc
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: DMX equipment question
« on: August 02, 2015, 05:56:26 pm »I believe that RJ is using standard wiring for DMX on JR45 connectors.
Slightly OT: Yesterday when I was looking for something else, Mr. Google presented a series of messages from 2007 over on DIYC in which RJ and DynamoBen had a discussion about what the "standard" should be ... originally, RJ picked Pins 2 and 3 (same as the XLR-5 version) but Ben suggested that the signal should be on a twisted pair, and they made it Pins 1 and 2.
That's how the "standard" was made.
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: Wonky wiki ...
« on: July 28, 2015, 07:16:52 pm »
RJ posted in another thread yesterday evening that he was working on this. Checking just now, it seems A-OK.
Thanks.
\dmc
Thanks.
\dmc
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The Porch / Wonky wiki ... FIXED
« on: July 25, 2015, 04:59:00 pm »
Just went to the wiki and find numerous warnings about "MagicWord" and no functionality ...
\dmc
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: DMX equipment question
« on: July 13, 2015, 05:28:52 pm »
Three days with no answer ... I'll take a flyer ...
The DMX that comes out of the Smart Hub should be up to spec, or it wouldn't run Lynx equipment. So third-party equipment run through a hub should be fine (with the cable conversion you know you'll need).
At this juncture in the hobby, the last thing you'd want to do is to buy an Enttec Pro.
HTH.
\dmc
The DMX that comes out of the Smart Hub should be up to spec, or it wouldn't run Lynx equipment. So third-party equipment run through a hub should be fine (with the cable conversion you know you'll need).
At this juncture in the hobby, the last thing you'd want to do is to buy an Enttec Pro.
HTH.
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: Needed a little bit of fun at work
« on: July 13, 2015, 05:25:09 pm »
Hard to tell, but that looks pretty big ... 1:48 scale? 1:32? 1:29?
\dmc
\dmc
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Lynx Splitter / Re: DMX Splitter Output Problem
« on: March 29, 2015, 04:34:31 pm »
This is clearly the v1 of the DMX Splitter, as the v2/v3 have only three outputs.
And the reason that v1 was abandoned was because of frequent problems with Output 4 operating.
The blue transformers had limited output current and it turned out that they would not drive all four of the spec'd RS485 chips.
If you don't have ambient-air temperature issues, you might try using either this RS485 chip ...
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(Or this one if you're in Minnesota or similar: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login)
The illustrations are of SMD chips, but the metadata says they're through-hole.
It also says they only draw 500 microamps, which even times four shouldn't strain the blue transformer.
I make no guarantees.
\dmc
And the reason that v1 was abandoned was because of frequent problems with Output 4 operating.
The blue transformers had limited output current and it turned out that they would not drive all four of the spec'd RS485 chips.
If you don't have ambient-air temperature issues, you might try using either this RS485 chip ...
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
(Or this one if you're in Minnesota or similar: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login)
The illustrations are of SMD chips, but the metadata says they're through-hole.
It also says they only draw 500 microamps, which even times four shouldn't strain the blue transformer.
I make no guarantees.
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: FM Transmitter Kits or PCBs
« on: February 23, 2015, 08:21:07 pm »The link above is not working, but it does take one to the Radiant Holidays website, where a quick search turns up the V-FMT212R FM transmitter for $100. Is that the unit referenced above? Does anyone know if will work readily with Falcon Pi Player running on a Raspberry Pi B+?
The link above was to a Vastelec FM02; Vastelec decided at the end of 2014 to no longer manufacture that transmitter.
The replacement Vastelec is promoting is the V-FMT212R. A number of FPP users had the FMT212R running for their 2014 shows but they found a small problem, which was rectified with a kludge in the FPP software.
The FPP developers say they will have full FMT212R capability available in the June/July release of FPP, which will be called 2.0.
HTH.
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: E-Mail Notifications
« on: February 02, 2015, 05:31:49 pm »Actually, it's any 7 bit ASCII character and while it may not be explicitly excluded, it is still a special character in many cases such as HTML and the Unix and Linux command line and is not one of the best characters for use in an email address especially when there are so many others that you can without possible conflict. This site gives a pretty good list of yes, no and maybe characters to be used in an email address.
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As does Wikipedia, which may be more thoroughly vetted ...
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\dmc
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The Porch / Re: E-Mail Notifications
« on: February 01, 2015, 07:27:28 pm »The & is a special character and is not normally used in an email address which is giving you the error here.
While the ampersand (&) is a special character in HTML, RFC5321 indicates that any ASCII character can be used in the "local part" of an email address (that to the left of the @ sign) and an ampersand is certainly an ASCII character.
Now the input validation routine on this bulletin board software might not allow the ampersand, but that doesn't make it a "special" character as far as the email system is concerned.
\dmc
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The Porch / Re: Snowfall Tubes
« on: January 23, 2015, 07:31:07 pm »
While I'm not trying to belittle designs from good DIYers, I had a lot of problems with, um, SLOW snowfall tubes.
Not only did I have water incursion, I was never able to get them to fire correctly during the show. I had them up for the 2011 and 2013 seasons (I skipped the 2012 show) and I attempted to drive them in a variety of ways, including heavy wire from the driving controller (R48lsd) at 5v and then reworking them with a small PS in each one and driving them with 12v.
Last fall there was talk about a cheap snowfall light available through Ray's store; I did some looking around and found these:
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And these:
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(They are the same product.)
I bought one 50cm (19-3/8") string and one 30cm (11-7/8") string from the eBay guy and one 50cm from Amazon.
I didn't like the spacing and wanted some 30s mixed in with the 50s. So I cut apart three strings and put them back together the way I wanted.
I plugged them into a spare MR16 (here's the Lynx connection!) 12v channel and then put a little 5v linear PS (I built mine but you can find them on eBay for $2-$3) right before the first tube.
They worked great; they do have the problem that they all start at the same time, but quickly go out of synchronicity. The key to these is that there is a big hole for each LED in the PCB ... after the LED is soldered to the board, it's bent to fit into the hole, so you can see the light from almost any angle.
These are not as bright as a SLOW tube, but considering these worked and the SLOW didn't ...
YMMV.
\dmc
Not only did I have water incursion, I was never able to get them to fire correctly during the show. I had them up for the 2011 and 2013 seasons (I skipped the 2012 show) and I attempted to drive them in a variety of ways, including heavy wire from the driving controller (R48lsd) at 5v and then reworking them with a small PS in each one and driving them with 12v.
Last fall there was talk about a cheap snowfall light available through Ray's store; I did some looking around and found these:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
And these:
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
(They are the same product.)
I bought one 50cm (19-3/8") string and one 30cm (11-7/8") string from the eBay guy and one 50cm from Amazon.
I didn't like the spacing and wanted some 30s mixed in with the 50s. So I cut apart three strings and put them back together the way I wanted.
I plugged them into a spare MR16 (here's the Lynx connection!) 12v channel and then put a little 5v linear PS (I built mine but you can find them on eBay for $2-$3) right before the first tube.
They worked great; they do have the problem that they all start at the same time, but quickly go out of synchronicity. The key to these is that there is a big hole for each LED in the PCB ... after the LED is soldered to the board, it's bent to fit into the hole, so you can see the light from almost any angle.
These are not as bright as a SLOW tube, but considering these worked and the SLOW didn't ...
YMMV.
\dmc