Hello,
As the subject indicates I am trying to create a wireless artnet node to control DMX capable lights.
I decided to use the ESP32 LoRa Gateway in hopes that I could eventually use the LoRa capabilities to receive ArtNet data.
I tried the ESP32 plus DMX Shield and can’t get a proper signal, it is just causing random flashing on each colour channel.
I was wondering if anyone with more knowledge on this topic could give me some advice on getting this combination working.
Hi ConnorN,
I am not very familiar with ArtNet but I am not sure if using LoRa to receive ArtNet data is going to work very well. You will probably have quite a bit of latency for data from ArtNet that will cause a low framerate on your output. That may be the cause of the issue here since your DMX input will have a significant delay and may be causing issues with the LEDs working properly. Can you please elaborate a bit on how you are sending/receiving DMX input or output to control the LEDs connected to your DMX Shield?
Another possible issue is your connections between the ESP32 LoRa Gateway and the DMX Shield. The ESP32 Plus DMX Shield is designed with a Feather footprint to work with the [SparkFun Thing Plus and other boards that share that footprint. The [ESP32 LoRa Gateway uses a different footprint, so the issue may be that you are connecting the wrong pins if you are just plugging the LoRa Gateway directly to the headers on the DMX Shield. The [Hardware Overview section of the Hookup Guide will outline the specific pins for connecting the data lines for your output.](SparkFun ESP32 DMX to LED Shield - SparkFun Learn)](SparkFun LoRa Gateway - 1-Channel (ESP32) - WRL-15006 - SparkFun Electronics)](https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14689)
Hey Mark,
Thanks for the response, I haven’t considered the latency issues with LoRa, i’ll have to have a closer look into it.
For the moment I would really like to just get like to get the LoRa Gateway to send a proper DMX Signal. As you mentioned the pins on the DMX Shield and the LoRa Gateway don’t match. I reference the schematics of the; DMX Shield, LoRa Gateway and the Thing Plus. As far as I can tell the only pins required to control the DMX on the DMX Shield are the RX, TX and EN pins and the 3.3v and ground on the Thing Plus. these match up to the RX (16) TX(17) and IO21. To match them up to the LoRa gateway the TX and RX pins are easy, the IO pin 21 on the LoRa Gateway is used as the SDA pin. Would it be possible to use another pin?
If you are only transmitting DMX, you should be able to just let the enable pin float (and also not bother with RX). You will need to connect both 5V and 3.3V as they are both needed (the 5V generates VCC-ISO, which powers the DMX side)
/mike