RENESP Renard ESP8266 WiFi Adapter Group Buy for PCB and BOM

Update:

Yesterday I shipped most of the packages and today I finished shipping the rest with 1 exception.

The exception is EMKLLK has a bad zip code according to paypal and I can't generate a label. I've sent an email with no response yet.

So.... all in all good news. I'll be posting soon as to how many extras I have and the process to order those.

As I noted before, there are extras of some items. Again, be careful with the parts for the ribbon cable, if you damage them, I probably can't help you. Other parts I may be able to help if needed.

For those of you that ordered the FTDI programmer, you will find the programmer and some bonus parts to help you along your journey. :)
 
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This is the final update:
This thread should now be considered closed.
If you have questions about this technology, post in the development thread, not here in the group buy thread. (see post #1 for that link)

All packages have now been shipped.
I will post in a new thread details about the availability of the extra items available.
That most likely won't be for 2/3 days.
 
This is a note for those of you that bought an FTDI programmer.

This is something that happened with the GECE group buy... I don't know if this is true for the boards that were sent with the RENESP group buy.
But.. be aware this could happen and that there is a work around.

Shanicus (Shane) has informed me that the FTDI chip is one of the newer ripoff clones on the board.
The most recent version of FTDI drivers will not work with this chip as has been reported in other forum posts.

Shane was successful in downgrading the driver for the FTDI and was able to use it to upload the ESPixel sketch to the board.
He's using FTDI driver version 2.10.0.0 dated 27/01/2014.
 
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Yes.
Everything is documented on GitHub.
If you go to Bills blog about this item, (post #1), you will find the links you need.
If you have a specific question about a part, PM me.
sparky588 said:
Is there a BOM with the part numbers?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
 
I'm finally getting around to building these and I noticed on the boards the silkscreen part numbers for the voltage regulator and the electrolytic cap are incorrect. I didn't purchase the BOM during the group buy.
This error threw me for a loop.
Just thought others would like to know this.

off topic....
Now that I sourced the correct parts and correctly built them, I get a "page not found" after uploading Bill's firmware.

Any idea what would cause this?
I am able to load version 1.3 of Shelbys code on his ESPixelSticks so I know my arduino is setup correctly.
 
I am just building mine and i noticed that you provided what i believe is 10 Ohm resistors? Not 1K Ohm. I put my own 1Ks and it seems to be working. Not a big deal.
 
Wow.
I don't know how that would happen unless a vendor mixed some in.
My apologies.
Rob2791 said:
I am just building mine and i noticed that you provided what i believe is 10 Ohm resistors? Not 1K Ohm. I put my own 1Ks and it seems to be working. Not a big deal.
Click to expand...
 
I have a RENESP question and I'm not sure what the right place to ask is. Here is what I have. I have a RENESP connected to a REN4FLOOD. The REN4FLOOD is set to Universe 1 Channels 13-16. The RENESP is using the DMX mode with Universe 1 and Channel 1. When I tried to set it to channel 13 it offset the lights to channel 26. So, My first flood is working. To get this to work, I removed the 485 chip and replaced it with the ribbon cable to the RENESP.

Here's my question, is there anything I need to do to get the OUTPUT 485 to transmit the signal through the output RJ45. Does removing the first 485 eliminate the ability to strip the channels and pass the remaining signal downstream to other Lights?
 
I don't see why that shouldn't work. The replacing of the RS495 chip is just the electricial mechanism that sends the signals. Now, I don't know for sure about the REN4FLOOD, but I think the signals once they hit the board are the same as any other Renard and should be sent out by the microcontroller as usual.
michaelc said:
I have a RENESP question and I'm not sure what the right place to ask is. Here is what I have. I have a RENESP connected to a REN4FLOOD. The REN4FLOOD is set to Universe 1 Channels 13-16. The RENESP is using the DMX mode with Universe 1 and Channel 1. When I tried to set it to channel 13 it offset the lights to channel 26. So, My first flood is working. To get this to work, I removed the 485 chip and replaced it with the ribbon cable to the RENESP.

Here's my question, is there anything I need to do to get the OUTPUT 485 to transmit the signal through the output RJ45. Does removing the first 485 eliminate the ability to strip the channels and pass the remaining signal downstream to other Lights?
Click to expand...
 
I can see why it would NOT work in THRU mode. Once you set it to THRU mode, there is no path from the input RS485 header to the Output RJ45 connector. In standard jumper REN mode, it SHOULD work but I'm not getting signal on the 2nd controller. What pins does the RENESP actually send data to on the 485 header?
 
I'd send this question to the REN4FLOOD creator. that might get you an answer.
michaelc said:
I can see why it would NOT work in THRU mode. Once you set it to THRU mode, there is no path from the input RS485 header to the Output RJ45 connector. In standard jumper REN mode, it SHOULD work but I'm not getting signal on the 2nd controller. What pins does the RENESP actually send data to on the 485 header?
Click to expand...
 
It all depends on the hardware design. The Renard devices use simplex communications, the device only receives data. The device output is not a response but a continuation of the received data down the chain of Renard devices.

Most RS-485 interface chips are designed for full duplex operation. This means they have one circuit for RS485-to-TTL conversion and another section for TTL-to-RS485 conversion. Many Renard designs use the second half of the RS485 chip to forward the data stream to the next renard device in the chain. When you removed the RS-485 interface chip so that you could inject the TTL signals from the ESP to the Renard device, you also removed the circuit that forwards the data stream to the next Renard device in the chain.
 
MartinMueller2003 said:
It all depends on the hardware design. The Renard devices use simplex communications, the device only receives data. The device output is not a response but a continuation of the received data down the chain of Renard devices.

Most RS-485 interface chips are designed for full duplex operation. This means they have one circuit for RS485-to-TTL conversion and another section for TTL-to-RS485 conversion. Many Renard designs use the second half of the RS485 chip to forward the data stream to the next renard device in the chain. When you removed the RS-485 interface chip so that you could inject the TTL signals from the ESP to the Renard device, you also removed the circuit that forwards the data stream to the next Renard device in the chain.
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THANK YOU. That makes sense. So the RENESP can only control 1 controller without some 'creative' solutioning. I'm surprised this hasn't come up before. Is everyone just using these for single controllers. I was trying to reduce my OTA wireless noise by maximizing controllers per RENESP. I guess I just need to get more RENESP boards.
 
Not ALL Renards are designed this way. Some have independent interface chips. You need to find out how your device was designed to verify my previous statement. Also, I use a RenEsp to drive a Ren64C. At that density I do not need to daisy chain and if I needed another Ren location I would just set up another ESP to drive it. Using multicast would allow me to do this without increasing the number of packets on the network. A single packet can hold all of the data for a universe (512) which is a lot of Renard channels. You can have many ESPs receiving that packet with no increase in network traffic.
 
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