Finally, I have found a group for this kind of thing.

darren_clipson · October 24, 2014, 7:12am

Finally, I have found a group for this kind of thing. I really would like to chat to someone about a project I have started , but quickly found out I was a bit out of my depth. I have purchased 10 M of Ws2812b strips, and various other parts including a Chauvet obey 4. my project is to create an LED matrix which can be standalone, create patterns and chases, but have the benefit of being able to use the blackout and strobe functions of the DMX controller. Currently I am looking at the SD card controllers but linking the dmx out put of the Chauvet is prooving to be my stumbling block theoretically. May I add that I have not started the build yet. The parts have started to arrive and Im sure Im going to need a few more select parts before I can begin.

Would anyone like to offer any advice?

Regards

darren_clipson · October 24, 2014, 7:32am

Sorry about the excitable post. I should have said hi first! And I’m not entirely sure fast led library is what I need to be using… Ahh it’s a hard time learning about this sort of thing!

PaulStoffregen · October 24, 2014, 8:50am

You’re probably going to need either OctoWS2811 (I’m the author) or LED Scape. Most other libraries for WS2812 tie up the CPU and prevent interrupts, which you’ll need if serial data (DMX) is arriving at any moment.

For OctoWS2811, here’s an example that plays video from a SD card, without a PC.

github.com

PaulStoffregen/OctoWS2811/blob/master/examples/VideoSDcard/VideoSDcard.ino

/*  OctoWS2811 VideoSDcard.ino - Video on LEDs, played from SD Card
    http://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_OctoWS2811.html
    Copyright (c) 2014 Paul Stoffregen, PJRC.COM, LLC

    Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
    of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
    in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
    to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
    copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
    furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

    The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
    all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

    THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
    IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
    AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
    LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
    OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN

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Here is a source for code that can receive DMX.

http://forum.pjrc.com/threads/19662-Arduinoesque-overriding-of-core-functionality?p=24993&viewfull=1#post24993

Perhaps these 2 could be combined somehow? You’ll still have some work to do, but hopefully these working examples can get you close to a solution.

darren_clipson · October 24, 2014, 9:22am

Thank you for your help Paul. I really am a complete novice when it comes to programming, or even adding code to an existing line. It does intrigue me and I would love to give it a shot. However for this project i was just hoping I could buy a couple of things and string them all together! haha I realise how silly this sounds as I type but there must be a solution out there. The project is basically for behind a Dj booth. Maybe I can buy something simple like this

:http://www.aliexpress.com/item/LT-200-LED-Digital-Controller-SPI-signal-output-1024-pixels-controlled-can-work-with-dmx-console/1142622760.html

or even this :
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/T-1000S-LED-SD-card-pixel-controller-B-type-support-TLS3001-IC-DC5-24V-input-SPI/1792155884.html

but then I am not entirely sure this would do the trick either.

I think my main issue is that if the music gets to a break or a quiet piece, I don’t want the LED panel blazing away still and we do not have a lighting guy at all, I was going to kind of do the job while I was in the booth.

I will look into your suggestions further, but my budget is already stretched!

thanks again