It requires a circuit with opto-isolators. Not much more complicated.
…for someone like me this looks like rocketscience.
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Well, it seems like a pretty huge step up compared to just buying shields and stack on each other 
My skills aren’t good enough to engineer this myself so I would look for a pre-made tutorial or circuit design that includes isolation 
That said, I have used un-isolated DMX circuits with Arduino. Just wanted to make you aware of this potential safety risk.
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your statement sounded like „just solder this opto isolator at the end of the cable“
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late reply, but since I am working with these fellas now and have quite recently found this thread: Why not program it in Touchdesigner? It’s literally “only” 3 nodes
Hi there! Curious about the general state of DMX fixture controls and “performance”.
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I have a few American DJ RGBA panels, an Enttec Pro 2 interface but Enttec’s EMU seems a little quirky in how scenes are set up and it seems a better way to switch between static setups than “play” faders smoothly.
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What i would like is the ability to use Faderfox encoders and midi cc to map to the LED panel’s dmx channel input values and maybe trigger events based on encoder presses… but what i’m mostly seeing is responsiveness to MIDI notes. The EMU vst plug-in doesn’t display much in the way of useful parameters when in Ableton.
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My collaborator who usually handles these things suggests he’s generally forced to script up interactive elements in Max.
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I don’t mind dropping a hundo or two on software, wouldn’t mind ugly FOSS options so long as either is worth it and doesn’t fart out during a performance. I’ve already had EMU crash on me so I’d like to not fumble to recover my laptop during a dance performance.
Since my specialty isn’t lighting, i’m sure i’m missing something and hopefully “obvious” to those in the know!
@dtr to question 3, is there a good template or Max guide for what im trying to achieve? I don’t mind creating custom configs per fixture but I also want to get proof of concept complete and tested by December so i can develop the actual timeline and get feedback before a scheduled performance
Hmm not sure. I’ve built quite idiosyncratic systems to control very specific setups. Just started from scratch and didn t look for more generic solutions.
I’ve been disconnected from the Max community for a while now. Haven’t done much coding because of health reasons and when I did some it was on totally different projects, C++ for microcontrollers.
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Thanks! My show got pushed back a month or so, I guess more time for idiosyncratic and specific needs
Have you looked into Lightkey? I’ve used it a bit the last few months, designed various light scenes in the WYSIWYG-interface, trigged stuff via MIDI and sent it to the lighting rig through a USB-DMX-interface. Enttec seems to be supported, and it has very good
support for Ableton as well.
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Interesting, I’m mostly PC but i’ve got an older Macbook Air, will try it out! Thank you.
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@Blasteroid It worked perfectly! My Macbook may be beat up with a messed up LCD but I keep it around for all the software unavailable on Windows
External controllers mapped to faders and other scene/patch triggers also makes a lot more sense than whatever EMU’s implementation is (seemingly reliant on MIDI notes.)
Bonus is that I don’t have to drop the $$ on a license since my current use is under the amount of channels that require activation. I love it when software gives you opportunity to set up proof of concepts at small scale and workflows that can be expanded on.
I spend a lot more on technology than I’ll ever make back through gigs, so here’s to one more expense I can put off until I’ve amortized my DMX interface and panels.
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