First look: DMX512 LED strip controller 

Great little control box. (I miss discos)

The 245 is probably a level shifter maybe just for the pixel out, but could also be used for the MOSFETs for the PWM out. After all, the 245 is octal. You need 3.3v for the controller yet 5v for the pixels/245 so there should be another power output somewhere on the board

Excellent unit for stage production. PileOfLeds! Nice one. 👍😀

The stout looks superb.

Love it. Very inspiring video. Already have another browser tab open at eBay ;)

That is very cool. Imagine the x-mas lighting setups you could do!

Definitely one of the better internal layouts and clean assembled unit. I may need to justify having one. Along with the FET current rating, I'd check the width of any current carrying traces and plug it into a trace width calculator to double check how much current each channel can deliver (assuming the screw terminals are easily a bunch of amps capable too). Looks like a lot of ground/thermal vias near each FET so it seems designed to perform well.

That box seems simpler than one of the arduino or raspberry pie stuff I have seen. I still don't have a use for it but you never know where life will take you next.

Man I wish I had access to this stuff when I did more stage work. I can't imagine. So cool to know it exists. I really think the best use would be rgb strips where all the lights are the same color. It would be a nice way to make some really cool effects.

That definately looks fun 🙂

So. From watching you play around, it seems we now have jellybean DMX LED controllers that are more or less plug and play (for those familiar with the programming protocols). If you had the budget and inclination you could build a great big “video screen” with one box controlling each row and synchronized individual DMX sources controlling the columns, sort of.

amazing !

Cool Video. I use a D1 mini ESP32 and i flash a free program on to it called WLED. Has a lot of lighting effects and i mostly use it with WS2812's.

19:25 onwards... For those PWM Output channels... if the Mosfets are rated 20A each, then you MUST derate because you never will pull anywhere near 20A from each Mos. I'd say absolute max 5A per Mosfet so they won't explode or burn up due to heat.

"Maximum sillyness". Now that's a way of life

it got really complicated! I don't know how you keep up with the wiring, then the differing powers, then all channels, then the individual chips, then the individual colours and then .. still think of a way to make them not only combine together, but have a decent "show" at the end of it all, not forgetting your Colour Blindness.... Professionals will have further steps like positioning and cooling and ARRRGGHHHH .. i have twisted my own melon 🥴💥🍉 Happy Halloween 2024. I'll probably be recovered by then

to add to a new feature for xmas, the eiffel tower

Definitely useful nowI see it working. As I said before, I am a FOH guy, but this makes wanna play with light. Ssst... do'n't tell anyone ;) P.S. Must be the faders ... lol

very cool vid ,.//.,

i dont know what to say, but here is a comment anyways. have a nice day 😊

Very C😎😎L. I know what you're doing this December 🎄. Whats the heat sink like in the magic box ?

How are you connecting the DMX to the computer

Additional Info to what the video showed... it should be noted that DMX is 512 channels per "UNIVERSE". Each Universe needs a separate DMX cable back to the control desk. . Each channel controls one aspect of a lighting installation. If you want to control white spotlights, you need one channel per light. If you want to control individual colours in RGB spotlights, then you need to allocate 3 channels PER spotlight. . If you want to control RGB LED Strips with DMX you soon run out of channels. If you want to control (say) 10 meters of RGB Strip at 64 pixels per meter, you need a total of 10 x 64 x 3 = 1,920 x DMX channels. 😮 . First you first need to consider power. At 20mA per colour per chip, my 10m example needs a total of 10m x 64 x 3 col x 0.020 = 38.4 Amps. You need to inject that at multiple points along the run. I'd break it into max 5A groups, each fed from both ends. Hence, 8 x power groups each with a 5A PSU feeding 80 chips from both ends. ... That has nothing to do with the control line(s). . Regarding DMX for that 10m RGB strip, you need 10m x 64 x 3 = 1920 channels. So you would need 4 x DMX Universes with each controlling average of 320 Channels. . Hence you need to break the Strips control line into 4 sections (convenient since there are 8 power groups), each allocated with 480 channels. Then you bring each WSxxxx control group back to a separate DMX > WSxxxx Controller (like the device in video) that is "named" as a separate Universe. Then each Universe is wired back on a separate DMX cable to the desk. . This can become unwieldy, due to how you must allocate each desk control channel to a particular channel in each universe. To vary the red on pixel one of the section of strip controlled by Universe #1 is pretty easy. But when you are varying the green on the physical pixel #1,230 in Universe 3 it easily gets confusing. . That's the price you need to pay to individually address closely spaced multi-colour LEDs 😂

What kind of electric screwdriver were you using

Warning: Never use these kind of non-isolated DMX512 devices with a cheap DMX USB with your computer - it can kill your computer..