DMX servo & LED controller

With this circuit up to 4 rc-servos can be controlled independently via DMX. The resolution is 8bit.
Furthermore a 4ch LED dimmer with integrated strobe function is implemented.

The signal wires of the servos should be directly connected to the Transceiver's output. The servos must be powered by an extra +5V power supply because of their high current consumption.

DMX-Transceiver (Rev. 3.01)

With this modul DMX data can be received or transmitted.

Because of the complete usage of the RS485 converter, a bidirectional transfer of data is possible (i.e: RDM as described in ANSI E1.20). Till now this feature is only supported by a few expensive devices.

Though the circuit is only made of an AVR and few other parts I recommend a diy etched board.

parts

As you can see, the schematic is quite simple: The heart of the controller is the firmware of the mcu (IC1). The start address is set with SW1. The LEDs indicate the status of the controller. The parts around IC3 are responsable for an exact Vcc of 5.0Vdc. IC2 is the RS485-Transceiver. It allows our controller to communicate via DMX512 with other equipment.

For a dimmer- or switchpack you have to connect the pins of "output" with the "-"pins of the dimmer-/switchmodules because a mcu can drive bigger loads as a current sink. The "+"inputs of all modules must be connected to vcc.

The "spare" port is used for additional pins or to jumper different modes.

AC1&2 have to be connected with a power supply of 9-12V ac or dc. 3-5W should be sufficient.

The following schematic shows you how to connect the transceiver with the DMX bus:

this is the layout:

The board is 48 * 76 mm^2. The resolution of the picture above is 300dpi.

placement:

On the resources site you can find a manual for programming AVRs. The 8MHz crystal has to be selected as clock source by changing the fuse bits.

channel map to control 4 rc-servos

channel map for moving lights devices

servo calibration

Officially a servo should be controlled with a PWM signal of 50Hz and a duty cycle of 1..2ms, where 1.5ms defines the mid position. In fact the most companies have modified the duty cycle to allow larger angles. You can choose one of the common dialects for your servos by jumpering the SPARE port:

0 = not jumpered
1 = jumpered

Additionally the angle of the first servo (Tilt) can be reduced by jumpering Spare3 (PD6). This makes sense in most scanner setups...

If you want to define independent angles for each servo (or if your rc servos don't belong to the table above), you can create an EEPROM file with the PC tool in the firmware archive. Then this file must be flashed together with the firmware. To use these custom angles, Spare1,2 have to be jumpered. 

Debugging

A change of relevant channels is indicated by a flashing green LED. The red one repeats error codes until the bug is fixed:

Pattern		Error	Solution
	flashing	There is no signal connected to the transceiver.	Connect the transceiver to the DMX bus.
	double flashing	The signal is not accepted as DMX. The transceiver cannot receive all required channels.	Swap D+ and D- at the DMX connector. Transmit more channels or choose a lower start address.