Scripting Engine For Lighting Control?

David_AVD

Grandpa Elf
Community project designer
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Over the past few years, I've had thoughts about a scripting engine that could run in a microcontroller. You could download basic sequences to the board and it would control some local outputs, or perhaps spit out a DMX stream to feed external DMX controllers.

I've heard that one of the LOR boards does something like this. I would imagine that the details of how it's done is not exactly public.

The other way is a DMX recorder / player, but I was thinking that scripting may be better as you could make a simple text file. It would also consume a lot less memory than a DMX stream I'd think.

I think we talked in chat a couple of times about SD cards and stand alone controllers. Anyway, I thought I'd bring the topic up again and see where it leads.
 
David_AVD said:
Over the past few years, I've had thoughts about a scripting engine that could run in a microcontroller. You could download basic sequences to the board and it would control some local outputs, or perhaps spit out a DMX stream to feed external DMX controllers.

I've heard that one of the LOR boards does something like this. I would imagine that the details of how it's done is not exactly public.

The other way is a DMX recorder / player, but I was thinking that scripting may be better as you could make a simple text file. It would also consume a lot less memory than a DMX stream I'd think.

I think we talked in chat a couple of times about SD cards and stand alone controllers. Anyway, I thought I'd bring the topic up again and see where it leads.
What would be the main target for this - standalone displays?
 
Yes, it's for standalone display elements. A trigger input could start / stop the sequence or just be left to run.
 
The reason this popped into my head again is that I'm quoting a commercial job where I'd need to animate a large sign. For that, I think a LOR Mini Director and a few of the LOR DC boards will be the way to go. The costs from LOR are quite reasonable, so I don't think there's any point reinventing that particular wheel.

The client wants the possibility of changing the way the sign sequences in the future. Sending them a new file to load onto the SD card in the sign would be acceptable I'd say.


Now, back to low cost stand alone controllers for Christmas or Halloween. It would still be nice to come up with some simple script language that the DIY technical types can use in their home brew projects.

Ideally it would be simple but expandable, to enable it to fit on the smaller (cheap!) microcontrollers. Maybe just channel on/off with delays and loops would do to start with?

How many channels would be enough? I was thinking 128, as that may make the language easier to develop using the MSB as a command/value indicator.
 
128 would be truck loads to start with. This little idea always comes up for stand alone props and sections of your display that aren't necessarily part of the show but people can interact with them when they walk past, press a button or even put money into a donation slot.
Myself, I like to see it attached to a triggered MP3 board as well for a voice or a little tune when activated.
 
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