RenTester - any interest?

C

ctmal

Supporting Member
Here's a little demo of a Renard Tester that I've been playing with for awhile. It basic use is to test controllers each year without having to set up a computer but I also used it to troubleshoot 3 different issues last season.

The board is working now but if there is interest in it I'll have to make a couple of changes to make it easier to mount. I'm more than willing to do it if there's any interest out there but if not I'll just leave everything as is(it works great for my needs).

So, let me know.

Thanks,
Chris

 
Chris,

Thats a pretty neat gadget. I would be interested. Any idea what one would cost. Great Job with it!
 
Ballpark it should come in under $30 for the board + parts(from Mouser) including the enclosure.
 
Very nice. Would it be easy to configure it for 150 channels (or more) for testing the PX1, and maybe making it RGB pixel aware? I'm working in a fancier tester with a 122x32 graphics display for testing the PX1, as well as programming the EEPROM parameters and (with some changes to the PX1 firmware) reading those parameters, as well as implementing a few chase/test patterns. But your approach seems to be a lot simpler and easier to work with.
 
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P. Short said:
Very nice. Would it be easy to configure it for 150 channels (or more) for testing the PX1, and maybe making it RGB pixel aware? I'm working in a fancier tester with a 122x64 graphics display for testing the PX1, as well as programming the EEPROM parameters and (with some changes to the PX1 firmware) reading those parameters, as well as implementing a few chase/test patterns. But your approach seems to be a lot simpler and easier to work with.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what the upper limit on channels would be but it is configurable. Basically in the firmware you can tell it how many pics you want to send to(ie. for a Ren16 you'd send to 3 pics, 2 for the Ren and 1 for the RenTester). It is also configurable as to whether to send at 100ms or 50ms.

It is all based on your Renard firmware but I used a pic16f1825 and used the extra timer for sending the data.
 
I would take 1. Could output LEDs be added as well? That way you'd know what channel was supposed to be on.
 
Reminds me of something I made last year, but with a mix-match of features. I like it! I couldn't believe there hasn't been more interest in projects like this. Even my project last year didn't really gain much traction, but a lot of that had to do with my presentation. I simply posted technical junk instead of a video. I used the thing extensively during setup. One of the big use-cases wasn't even "I built a new controller, let's test it"... it was actually used (in manual mode) to turn on individual channels, and all channels, when I was doing setup. Every year we've moved controllers and display elements around and I don't trust last year's measurements so when I am setting up power distribution, I use this to easily turn things on when in the yard when controllers and SSRs are plugged into kill-a-watts to ensure I have things loaded properly.

Here's my tester with a screen and real-time configuration: http://christmasonquiethills.com/other-projects/hephaestus/

IMG_0086e.jpg


I really like the ability to test things quickly/easily like this, and obviously you do too! Great work.

Things yours has that mine doesn't:
* Status LEDs
* Input to read the signal back in (awesome!)
* Clean mounting
* Cheaper price point
* Fun video explaining the device
* 9V output via the extra cat5 wires (cool!)

Things my tester has that yours doesn't:
* Control any number of channels
* Buttons/Screen
* Configuration on the fly of the following:
** Baud Rate
** Protocol (DMX/Renard)
** Test Pattern type (chase with speed, tail length, etc.; manual, you choose the channel)
** Min/Max intensities
** read/save settings to eeprom

Feel free to look at my code and use anything you see!
 
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