nhatrang / dmx2knx Goto Github PK

This is a gateway between DMX and KNX to allow control of KNX lighting systems using DMX light controllers.

KNX (also called EIB) is a building control bus system commonly used in large buildings. It might be used to control lights, blinds or heating systems.

DMX is used to control stage lighting and special effects, and is the industry standard worldwide for this purpose.

In a theater or other concert venue, it's very useful to be able to control the house lights from the same light board as your stage lights. If you're planning the electrical installation in a new building, you could just buy dimmers for the house lights which can be controlled via both KNX and DMX (for example, by using dimmers that are addressed in an analog fashion with 0-10 volt and using 0-10 volt demuxers for both protocols).

If you're retrofitting DMX control into a KNX building, things get a bit more difficult: KNX is rather narrowband (9600 bits per second) and thus cannot dim as smoothly as DMX (which sends all its 512 channels 40 times per second). So any conversion between DMX and KNX needs to make sure that not more than ~50 messages are sent to the KNX bus.

• USB to DMX interface with DMX input. We are using the Digital Enlightenment/FX5 interface.
• USB to KNX interface. We are using the Busware TUL
• Raspberry Pi with SD card

• Hook up the interfaces to your DMX and KNX wiring and connect them to the Raspberry Pi.
• Put ArchlinuxARM for the Raspberry Pi on an SD card and power up the Pi.
• Edit the pairs.conf (DMX to KNX channel assignments) to match your needs.
• Connect to the Raspberry Pi using SSH / UART or just hook it up to screen and keyboard.
• You may want to customize the install.sh script, in case you want to choose a different hostname.
• Copy over this repo folder to your Raspberry Pi (for instance using scp).
• Execute the install.sh script on your Pi. Enter the passwort to be set for the root account.
• Now wait ~40 minutes for the Pi to download and install all software dependencies. The script will also make the SD card readonly.
• Reboot the Pi with everything wired up and try it out.