DMX Control for Robot Animatronics?

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I'm building some robust robot torsos that I can use as a basis for lots of RU-vid performances and events. The robots will be reliable, agile, robust, and transportable. I plan to make puppeteering rigs, and software/interfaces which I can plug other projects into - like vision recognition and machine learning.
This time I'm sorting out an interface to DMX so I can use off the shelf software for controlling the robots. Any future controllers I build will all be DMX capable so I can record and playback motions, or interface to other things such as vision recognition etc.
I'm using an off the shelf DMX Arduino shield and the DMXsimple & TeensyDMX libraries to read and write DMX values. I'm using Freestyler for now which is free DMX software so control the robot.
Next time I'll be building puppeteering rigs which will be DMX controllers.
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18 авг 2019

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Комментарии : 191

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

Since making this video (and the next one, and the next one), I've discovered www.qlcplus.org/ - free fully featured DMX software. I'll probably eventually be using that in the future.

@sbfarmer8 5 лет назад

seek the wisdom of blue man group how to be a rockstar (here on yt) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-KEMztro_cHQ.html or similar.

@TheFloppyDiskNinja 4 года назад

Hey I think I might be how you found it 😄. Inbox me if you want help

@tobyclayton661 4 года назад

i literally just published a comment saying to use it before reading this one

@stageboys9139 4 года назад

James Bruton Hello can you make a video that te robots have a display with the DMX Channel that you can change the DMX Channel of the robots And can you make a mode on the arduino like Channel 1 is x and 2 is y for Every movement but that Channel 15 have divrent value like 0/10 is arms up and 11/20 is left arm up You can use 1 Channel 0 to 255 and can create 255 movement in 1 Channel

@capnredable 4 года назад

Look into OSC (open sound control) The creator of the protocol has stated he regrets not naming it 'open system control' because it gets written off as only a music protocol. It was however developed with robotics control in mind from the outset. It's low latency, time stamped, 32bit bi-directional etc. etc. etc.. OSC is or can be implemented in a large number of control software. Including most digital audio workstation software (I use REAPER or Pro Tools) it also works with Unity so you can build 3d models of your robot and use the animation and reverse kinematics (also Blender but I haven't tried that one yet.) It can also control DMX in the short term so you don't have to redo your hardware. I'm currently using it on my Teensy 3.6 to control step and direction controlled servo motors.

@HugoPeeters 5 лет назад

Can't wait to see a professional lighting guy react and use these for a performance. Great idea to use DMX!

@maxhouseman3129 4 года назад

100 fixtures and two robots. Would be nice to use it for a big techno stage 💪

@KireTheCat 4 года назад

hi there! theater lighting tech here! while DMX is a good use for something like this, the problem is that most lighting desk fixture builders aren't designed for something like this. they don't even have an x or a y channel control. it could be done by having a separate fixture for each limb, but that makes it even more complicated

@maxhouseman3129 4 года назад

@@KireTheCat But for example you can create in a MALighting console your own fixture without channel limitation. Because a moving head has also a lot of channels. So you could use some extra universe for this and it is also possible to raw control the channels even with x and y control.

@KireTheCat 4 года назад

@@maxhouseman3129 i see your point, but im saying that, the consoles dont have "pan 1" "pan 2" "pan 3", which would make programming something like this in MA a lot easier. you would have a lot of raw DMX codes and a lot of raw sliders to control

@Mateo906 4 года назад

Im allready planning on build something like this my own^^ but with some adressable LEDs and LED spots build in. Maybe in some years ill get it working ;)

@SgtBurned 5 лет назад

Great turn around and prototype speed! Great work as always and solid robots 👌

@jayzo 4 года назад

James must be ignoring e-mails from Boston Dynamics considering how quickly he can bring about a project.

@Martin-4D 5 лет назад

Just keeps getting more epic. Cant wait to see the result.

@Gotenham 4 года назад

Bro, you go above and beyond with this channel, great watching all this content mate

@PhG1961 4 года назад

Excellent video and great ingenuity ! Clever thinking about the DMX solution !

@richardboyce4921 5 лет назад

Great work and solid robots. Well done.

@CDRaff 5 лет назад

Thank you so much for doing this. I am currently in the design phase of an animatronic project and was just starting to do research on control software. Now you did all the heavy lifting.

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

Take a look at QLC+

@CDRaff 4 года назад

@@jamesbruton Awesome. Thanks again!

@davidalbertopozaaguilar4698 5 лет назад

Excelente combinación de tecnologías. Estoy imposiblemente impresionado. ¡Felicidades James!

@ImperialLightandMagic 4 года назад

Fabulous, I'm looking at doing similar with servos, so this concept may just be perfect. Thanks for constantly innovating.

@qua1121 8 месяцев назад

I really really needed this instruction video. Thanks!

@SkynetT800 4 года назад

Incredible work! You're more dangerous then many muscular well trained super soldiers!👍

@arayarock1 4 года назад

I love it!!!!! Saved on favorites!!!

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

Thanks, looks out for more in my channel soon

@johanness6545 4 года назад

I'd also recommend an active DMX interface since it takes away all calculating from the cpu and puts it to the interface. This makes everything much smoother and less choppy

@cashel1111 5 лет назад

you are making your stuff look so damn professional! i cant wait to see the different skin options you end up making, and i hope you release the files you make, i would love to print out a cool looking robot head

@StevenIngram 4 года назад

It's interesting how much quieter your bots have gotten through time. LOL I remember when they used to whirr and whistle, but now I can barely hear them. I think the real difference came when you switched over to the brushless motors you use now and the odroid controllers.

@Skyentific 4 года назад

Great video! Thank you. This would be useful for my robot arm.

@dynorat12 4 года назад

looking great

@avejst 5 лет назад

Great work 👍 Thanks for sharing 👍😀

@AKRASNOVV 4 года назад

Sir, using DMX for that is genious! Keep it up

@wpirkl 4 года назад

Really great video great idea to use DMX!

@yosuhara 4 года назад

this man's vision knows no bounds

@MrDexter9i3 5 лет назад

Woooow, this is nice smooth and fast... Great job

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

Thanks, it's only half speed!

@kentvandervelden 4 года назад

Wow, that's pretty fantastic!

@caleblisu 4 года назад

Great video

@Benyosefov 5 лет назад

Mixing my to favorites dj lights and robots yesssss please make more videos like this!!!!

@OldCurmudgeon3DP 4 года назад

Your doppelganger was peaking over the backdrop canvas.

@MisterBukkit 4 года назад

You may also have a look at DMX Control, which is also a free software which should work with any interface. It is easy to use and lightshows/robotshows are easier to set up than in everything else on the market (Except MA Lightings Dot 2 Software, which has 512 CH for free but its very complex).

@computerjantje 4 года назад

very nice

@unionse7en 4 года назад

Very cool, I find that the quickest way to program complicated, but non precise moves is the combination of back-driveable joints with encoder feedback...so that the arm can be moved manually (as in physically moving it with ones hand) and having the control-ware record the combination of joint moves..probably as many incremental position combinations . Can do a combination of "hand teaching" with software teaching to combine precision with speed of programming.

@johanness6545 4 года назад

You could also use the open source software DMXControl for using it. I recommend it since I'm a lightning professionell

@PKMartin 4 года назад

The whole video I was going "OK this is cool, software to animate the robots for performance and stuff" and then you said "maybe we could use them for telepresence"... *shiver* in my humble opinion that is a 100x cooler concept than dancing robots. If you could find a way to use VR style motion controllers, inverse kinematics to the arms and FPV cameras to goggles on the operator...

@frankleeroy6591 4 года назад

At the beginning of this video I just felt these Portal™ vibes ^^

@tobyclayton661 4 года назад

the pan tilt light is actually called a moving head fixture

@EngineeringVignettes 4 года назад

This is ripe for a BigClive collab... Good stuff. Cheers,

@rendermandan2820 4 года назад

Hi James, could figure out a way to pose it the way you want for each step, and then record the values of your pots, then use those values to record the dmx track and playback.

@garagemonkeysan 5 лет назад

Wow. Where do you find the time? Thx for introducing DMX. Interesting. Cheers! : )

@shipmaster_caine 4 года назад

Brilliant video and its good to see someone with knowledge about the DMX protocol and how it operates, I would recommend having the robots operating on seperate universes, which is where they just get data from a different cable, if they being used in a installation where there is lights and such to be synced up, because higher end boards in different installations usually have a board that supports multiple universes, its best to do that because it helps steer clear of separate lights overlaping the robots DMX and it helps with installing and then reinstalling the robots if your moving about the place. Anyways keep up the good work and I hooe you do more with DMX and lights also the lights with the pan and tilt heads are called moving heads or moving fixtures.

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

Thanks, I'm planning four universes so each robot + lighting has it's own cable

@shipmaster_caine 4 года назад

@@jamesbruton Very nice but as a word of warning some places while have advanced lasers where its it can be a multitude of lasers in one unit with pan and tilt, rgb or rgbwauv and some other options and these could range from maybe 5 or 6 to 32 or more dependant on the unit, and they may also have a pixel mapping stage where those could take up an entire universe and same can go for adv lasers. It all depends on where you go but it could end up screwing with somethings but I'm sure you'll have something to get around it!

@BlogVomMax 4 года назад

3:30 made me listen to freestyler by bomfunk mc again

@rubikthegeek2138 5 лет назад

These are one lightning strike away from an indie game.

@GWAIHIRKV 5 лет назад

Interesting 👍

@northcoastaudiovisualncavc9706 3 года назад

Nice.. you could make a whole sound, light and robot dance routine all syncronised and choreographed.. I seen some other comments about lighting consoles and limitations using them.. I've made fixture library's for generic lights so it wouldent be hard at all, just goto think outside of the box a little. Would be a fun project to work on 😎

@benricok 4 года назад

I would recommend grandma2 on pc for any dmx application. Thats what I use to do lighting at events. It has a 3d visualiser called ma 3D on pc. You could make custom light fixtures in ma 3d to build the robot in 3D. Also check out the artnet protocol, it is a way to send dmx over a network. You could then create a wifi hotspot for the robots to connect to and send the dmx though that.

@harrylengbloodworth5512 3 года назад

Only problem with MA2 is it's cost. You have to buy some form of desk or node to gain use of peramiters. I prefer Dot2 as it outputs one universe for free and has a similar key layout and feature set.

@muskku 3 года назад

thanks for this video!! im looking for a way to control nema 17 or similars step motors with DMX. Looking for the drive..u know how i can do it?

@swaterman08 4 года назад

Wonder if you can make it wireless pretty easy too.

@GeraldSnyman 2 года назад

Thanks for the info, BUT what is the Freestyler control settings to communicate with the Arduino? I do have DMXSerial and TeensyDMX installed. I just don't get communication between Freestyler and Arduino Uno.

@bobcoombes 5 лет назад

How cool is this?

@leoncontorno6763 4 года назад

Nice work.if you had back up and opposing motors at every point,it may be smoother.

@Innomen 4 года назад

Ready for those darpa bucks James? Because the "offer" is coming :)

@davidz2016 5 лет назад

They really look like terminators . Very cool . Dude you better not prove Elon Musk right . KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK SIR . Thank you for the videos.

@wombleofwimbledon5442 4 года назад

Saturn 3!

@AJB2K3 5 лет назад

Groovy baby

@reggiep75 4 года назад

It would be nice to see some breakdance moves like the wave with one robot transferring the wave to the other robot and back.

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

That could be done

@conelatilot 5 лет назад

nice

@Alientraveler003 4 года назад

Make the other two so thay can carry you around like a king .

@bas9682 4 года назад

Im bizzy with making an animatronic head. Anyone tips?

@gennadyplyushchev1465 4 года назад

Really love you work! I cannot find the main Teensy code for DMX control in your github page. Can you please help me?

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

Yes it's all here: github.com/XRobots/PerformanceRobots/tree/master/PRobot03 - clone the repository and then open PRobot03.ino which is the main project for the robot

@gennadyplyushchev1465 4 года назад

James Bruton thank you a lot. I found it. I will try to use it for my project. Hope to do the project with you one day!

@hyhmollmnhnsujnwk9516 4 года назад

Sir what motors you use

@BenRyherd 4 года назад

If you're running DMX, you may want to make sure you have some adapters handy as there is 3 pin DMX (Using XLR Cables) but there are also 5 pin DMX cables. If I remember correctly the housing is the same, but it has 5 pins instead of 3.

@_aerith_ 4 года назад

Niiicceeeeeee

@nameaboveallnames1267 4 года назад

James try Brookshire software it will do all of that.I use if for my 12 axis robot it's great it can control steppers,rc servos relays and more and it easy to use youtube burtonrobotics

@leebuilds 5 лет назад

Check out OSC ... Can be used as a dmx/midi replacement and runs over udp/ip and Ethernet. Very powerful for people trying to do this type of work.

@World_Theory 4 года назад

I wonder if you could use animation rigging in Blender, to control your robot… The nature of 3D animation would seem to be well suited to animating a robot, and you could even see what would effectively be a preview, in the program. I just don't know if anyone has done it before, and made their tools available to others.

@vmiguel1988 4 года назад

I would like to see a human to machine interface to copy your body movements

@adamaglionby7438 4 года назад

Visual Show Automation from Brookshire Software might be worth a look, handles DMX and servo control on a time line base aimed at show control, on a budget :-)

@MakenModify 5 лет назад

Hey great video. Did you test the software "xLights"? It's mainly aimed at choreographing xmas-lights but also supports DMX, is open source and seams to have everything you need (incl sequencer) :D

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

I'm looking at QLC+ at the moment

@MakenModify 4 года назад

@@jamesbruton ah ok also look promising, really looking forward to the next parts :D

@ChrisEllerby 4 года назад

Not sure if you found VSA (Visual Show Automation) but it is used a lot by haunted attractions as well, and lets you sync movement, audio, etc. Just google Brookshire Software - Visual Show Automation (VSA) and check RU-vid. It's not fancy or modern, but it's widely used for controlling animatronics.

@TheOfficialParados Год назад

What does James say at 5:36? 250 kiloboard (??) serial. Thanks a lot!

@ericchan5379 5 месяцев назад

Hi, I got a pjoject need to use DMX to control the Roboteq HDC2460. It only accept RS232 or RS485. Do you have any idear can use DMX convert to RS232 or 485? I am not a programming guy. Really can't find and soluction. Thank you.

@MrTatouz 4 года назад

Great work ! But why you didn't use ROS for controling your robot ?

@lightlysaltedcircuits9350 4 года назад

"When all you have is hammer, everything looks like a nail."

@Laffs00 5 лет назад

Love your videos James. You have one of the few channels I take the time to watch. I admit i have a few question about openDog (Sorry, I know it's not this video's topic) 1) Might you down the line give it vision with machine learning towards facial recognition, ie have it recognize you and perhaps follow you around? 2) Are those "feet" on the bot the final version? I admit I rather like the ball ended ones on SpotMini, and your earlier feet iterations for openDog. The newer ones I imagine are for sensors, but they look.... generous for the size of the bot's legs. -FFFTech

@Scott_C 5 лет назад

Patreon subscriber here... Yes and probably. Stay tuned. 😁

@bruceneely4859 5 лет назад

looking good, there has to be a way to record DMX, I've seen to many shows that are to complex for a DJ to be running them live all the time, rather then running a pre-recorded sequence

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

I think we'll have trigger buttons that trigger 'chases' of motions, so you could 'DJ' the robots live.

@robo1540 4 года назад

Add one of those lights as a head

@Rulerofwax24 4 года назад

I think DMX was a great choice for this. I'm still unsure about the interpolation, and how the DMX interpolation interacts with the on-robot filtering/interpolation. It seems like it would be difficult to get a bezier curve on the motion when the arduino doesn't know what the end-point/time will be based on an intermediary DMX value. Though, I didn't notice any issues with that from the video here and I'm sure you've been thinking about those potential problems too.

@billyjukes832 3 года назад

Try lightjams, has some good generators and IO for generating organic movements. Can even track you using a wii remote and Kinetc

@loucosporroboticaanimatron9193 5 лет назад

incrível 👍

@36namenlose 4 года назад

You should have a look at "QLC+". It's a great DMX control software with a lot of features.

@36namenlose 4 года назад

Oh I missed the fact, that you found it already. Sorry.

@CerebralDad 4 года назад

Great work James. Can you send DMX as you receive it (2 way communication for feedback loops), or does it have to take turns?

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

I believe it's half duplex, although you can daisy chain devices ion one direction with no issues because it's just multi-drop in the same cable.

@CerebralDad 4 года назад

James Bruton that’s promising. Congratulations- it’s coming together well. Cheers!

@DansKoiPond 4 года назад

Ok so throwing down the gauntlet. Would be really cool to link the to the internet and have 2 remote people playing table tennis.

@mike_x48954 5 лет назад

Another free software is XLights. its used for addressable pixel strings over e1.31/sACN or ARTnET DMX protocol. It also supports USB DMX devices.

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

I'm looking at QLC+ at the moment

@MrDexter9i3 5 лет назад

So now when you play the music, it does...the robot? Badum tss

@justanirishtayto5755 5 лет назад

I’m so glad The Hacksmith brought me to your amazing channel

@TacoMaster3211 4 года назад

Hey James, have you thought about trying to make a motion capture set up to record poses and movements for the robot? That would be a really cool project as well.

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

yes, next time kind of

@neodaz42 4 года назад

You could do with a motion capture suit then you could do puppeteering in real time or for recording sequences (maybe even dance moves!)

@CelluloidRacer2 4 года назад

10:33 forehead scared me for a second lol

@andrewwhitnell9013 Год назад

I would very much like to discuss a very small project with you. Is this possible and how can I do this whilst maintaining privacy etc, please?

@tobyclayton661 4 года назад

try (QLC+) it is a very good peace of software that is free and can do all the things you need and works with the dmx usb interface you bought

@tempname8263 4 года назад

You should have used HSV on those knobs. It would be **rad** to see LEDs go through the entire rainbow (plus purple) with a twist of a single knob.

@philsergent1913 4 года назад

How much have you invested in what you've shown us?

@jeffreyberces8005 6 месяцев назад

how dmx communicate to motor? Of course need a motor driver right?

@jamesbruton 6 месяцев назад

Yes

@JoseAlcerreca 5 лет назад

You need a motion capture suit!

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

I build something similar next time!

@dekutree64 4 года назад

Very clever! I'd never even heard of DMX before. Instead of puppeteering rigs, you could also control them by motion capture. I'm working on a modular wireless system where each sensor node is a self-contained device with an Arduino Pro Mini, MPU9250 IMU, and NRF24 transceiver hot glued to a 3D printed thing, which also has a compartment for a lipo cell. Here's one for use on arms: imgur.com/dgGzNtg The Pro Mini runs RTIMULib2 to get the absolute orientation of the IMU relative to the earth. The master (a Teensy LC in my case) polls each sensor node for its orientation, and then transforms each node's quaternion by the inverse of its parent's, to get the relative orientations. Then those can then be turned into euler angles to control each joint axis motor. For your robots in their current form, you'd need one node on your belt, one on your chest, and two on each arm. That way the chest node can be measured relative to the belt to control the torso bending motions, upper arms can be measured relative to the chest to control shoulder motions (including upper arm twist), and forearm measured relative to upper arm to control elbow bend. It's not actually working just yet, but I have previously made a wired glove using BNO055 absolute orientation sensors on the forearm/hand and controlled servos with it, so this is just an extension of that. I'm debating whether to redesign the node structure to better protect the electronics. The current design leaves the them vulnerable to impacts when swinging your arms around. But if I turn it "inside out", then they'll be exposed to sweat from skin. So I think I'll have to make them fully enclosed, although it will be a bit more bulky.

@DavidSanchez-vx4bv 4 года назад

Hi James, How about this project using your robots: you wear a jacket with sensors and communicating via Bluetooth or Wifi transmit your movements and the robots mimics you. In that sense, these robots could be extremely useful in risk task for example.. and so...

@viggovanhoutte4939 5 лет назад

Use the turning light like a head.

@myk3l9675 4 года назад

How crazy and creepy would it be to have one of these things riding open dog when it can walk!

@rashaan64 5 лет назад

What up squad

@ZombieB 5 лет назад

Wow that's amazing! Are you going to build their legs? I do like those bots. Their gonna be like chappie

@jamesbruton 5 лет назад

I'd like to give them mobile bases

@ZombieB 5 лет назад

@@jamesbruton great i can't wait to see them

@ImDamian09 4 года назад

Wooow when your done, make them a five nights at freddy's hull or costume or something would really like it

@Keksstar 4 года назад

I would add ArtNet or sACN. So it runs DMX over network... :-)

@ralfherting1254 4 года назад

Hallo James, Hast du dich von meinen Blumen Inspirieren lassen ? Mit DMX hast eine Macht am Start. Für die Robotik sicher eine Bereicherung ! Gruß Ralf (Der mit den Tanzenden Blumen)

@rexgordon8661 4 года назад

James did you use the 300mm length ball screws? SFU1605

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

250mm

@rexgordon8661 4 года назад

@@jamesbruton Thanks!

@rexgordon8661 4 года назад

I found out the Gimson motors are out of stock till further notice and I did not see the 5055-280KV motor listed on the ODRIVE site. They did have 5065- 270KV listed. I live in the US. Don't know yet if it will be a problem ordering from the UK. I discovered that HobbyKing.com has motors that are equivalent in specs to the ODRIVE motors (Turnigy Aerodrive SK3-6374-149KV & Turnigy Aerodrive SK3-5055-280KV ) but, they do not have dual shaft unfortunately.

@jamesbruton 4 года назад

@@rexgordon8661 The 280Kv motors are from Hobbyking

@rexgordon8661 4 года назад

@@jamesbruton Yeah...click on the "Read more" under my post. I looked on HobbyKing site but it was not dual shaft. Seems that the one I see in your video has dual shaft. Maybe there is a way to specify dual shaft.