Support for D-light

rjmcnay said:
What is Ernie's plan?
I already have a d-light board and really like it.
I am thinking about expanding it.
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ErnieHorning
Member

Join Date: May 2007
Location: Apple Valley, MN
Posts: 415
Re: Support for D-light
It shouldn’t be too difficult to put Renard into a PIC18F2420 and plug it in to your D-Light board. Nobody looses, copyrights are still intact and your board then works with Vixen.
 
joneslights said:
ErnieHorning
Member

Join Date: May 2007
Location: Apple Valley, MN
Posts: 415
Re: Support for D-light
It shouldn’t be too difficult to put Renard into a PIC18F2420 and plug it in to your D-Light board. Nobody looses, copyrights are still intact and your board then works with Vixen.
Click to expand...

Ok: I am a newbie at the PIC stuff. How do I put Renard into a PIC18F2420.
This chip (2) I already have on my board. One other posting says that Darryl needs to give the pin outs. So what am I missing.
 
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rjmcnay said:
Ok: I am a nebie at the PIC stuff. How do I put Renard into a PIC18F2420.
This chip (2) I already have on my board. One other posting says that Darryl needs to give the pin outs. So what am I missing.
Click to expand...

You'll need a pick programmer and a copy of the hex file (on the Christmas Wiki) Pickit 2 is the most used programmer. I wouldn't use the chip on the board as, if something goes wrong you'll lose your D-light code.

The pinouts are so a cable can be made to connect vixen to the d-light.

But, LOR and d-light use the same pinouts I believe, so that is on the wiki as well.
 
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joneslights said:
You'll need a pick programmer and a copy of the hex file (on the Christmas Wiki) Pickit 2 is the most used programmer. I wouldn't use the chip on the board as, if something goes wrong you'll lose your D-light code.

The pinouts are so a cable can be made to connect vixen to the d-light.

But, LOR and d-light use the same pinouts I believe, so that is on the wiki as well.
Click to expand...

Another question or two.
Do you have a link or know where all of the above is on Christmas Wiki.
I believe I have the hex code for my PIC's.
Also, can we take this off-line some way.
 
You cannot use the Renard code as-is on the d-light boards. The .asm file will need to be changed to work with the d-light board. This is a task for someone who has good assembly language skills, knows the PIC assembly language, and has sufficient information about the d-light hardware. For such a person (Ernie may have had me in mind) it is not a huge task.
 
P. Short said:
You cannot use the Renard code as-is on the d-light boards. The .asm file will need to be changed to work with the d-light board. This is a task for someone who has good assembly language skills, knows the PIC assembly language, and has sufficient information about the d-light hardware. For such a person (Ernie may have had me in mind) it is not a huge task.
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Well, there's the answer. Thanks! If you ever feel like tackling that (or any one else) let me know. I do not know enough about assembly to try to tackle it.
 
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P. Short said:
... Ernie may have had me in mind...
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I wasn’t pointing directly at you; though you seem to have the best qualifications on this site.

The majority of the code is already available and it should be a small task of modifying some register setups and changing port values. It think the boards are setup similar to that way the we’ve been doing it. I don’t remember how the zero crossing is implemented. I know that LOR uses an op-amp and maybe D-Light does too. The TRIAC circuit, I believe, is the same as ours.
 
This is rjmcnay's son-in-law

I have some assembly experience, thou not for 6 years or so, on MC68HC11's.
So let me see if I have this right, The renard code is a basic DMX compatible firmware for the pic's. But the board it was written for has some differences with the d-light ac-16. So we would need to pin map the board for the sockets and make sure that the correct pin is activated for its intended location? Other than that does the communications need to be changed at all, as far as I thought the usb dongle that d-light sells can output DMX signal with the correct driver.
I am willing to do some scut work on this as I have some free time. Let me know if anyone can think of anything to speed up the process of a DMX d-light!

andy
 
rjmcnay said:
I have some assembly experience, thou not for 6 years or so, on MC68HC11's.
So let me see if I have this right, The renard code is a basic DMX compatible firmware for the pic's. But the board it was written for has some differences with the d-light ac-16. So we would need to pin map the board for the sockets and make sure that the correct pin is activated for its intended location?
andy
Click to expand...

The Renard code is not DMX. The code is pretty much written it just needs to be modified for the pin out of the d-light board. This could be backwards engineered without a ton of work for someone with a board in hand, but it would be easier if we just had the schematic. We could contact Darryl and see if he is willing to let this be. I had broached this years ago, and at the time he didn't seem to care, the kits are parts so reprogramming it wouldn't be a big deal, and in the end it is a sale for him, either way.

The recode wouldn't take much time.

Tony M.
 
For some reason I thought that controller had a boot loader, and the actual dimming code was a separate downloaded image. If I'm not just dreaming, then we may also need information on what the boot loader expects.
 
P. Short said:
For some reason I thought that controller had a boot loader, and the actual dimming code was a separate downloaded image. If I'm not just dreaming, then we may also need information on what the boot loader expects.
Click to expand...

The board has 2 pins labeled bootloader.
I do not know if this will help.
Let me know if we need anything and I will try and see what I can do.
Even contacting Darryl.
 
P. Short said:
For some reason I thought that controller had a boot loader, and the actual dimming code was a separate downloaded image. If I'm not just dreaming, then we may also need information on what the boot loader expects.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the kit version of the boards, and in that case we could just insert a PIC with the code we require. Assuming they are microchip PICs , and I was at one time rather sure of this.

Course if we could just insert code into a bootloader, well all the better.

Tony M.
 
My understanding is that the boot loader is part of the PIC and was meant to upgrade the software in the PIC; LOR does the same thing.

You could probably make a 68HC11 work but you’d have to write all of the code; Renard is assembly and was only written for a PIC. You would also have to create a daughter board sense a 68HC11 isn’t going to be pin compatible with a PIC18F2420. It would be useful to more people if the micro were a PIC, sense more people here have a PIC programmer already.

The Renard code is already written for a PIC16F628 and it should be a fairly simple matter of changing the pin definitions and direction registers.

I’ll look around, I have the pin definitions for the D-light board somewhere; I think it’s on another computer. Like Tony said, I wouldn’t mess with the original D-Light micro, just change it.
 
A Marchini said:
I was thinking the kit version of the boards, and in that case we could just insert a PIC with the code we require. Assuming they are microchip PICs , and I was at one time rather sure of this.

Course if we could just insert code into a bootloader, well all the better.

Tony M.
Click to expand...

Here is what it says in the ACx16 Platinum Edition User Guide on the bootloader.

Bootloader Jumper
The bootloader jumper (JP1) is used to force the controller into “bootloader
mode” in case of a bad firmware load using the Firmware Updater.
To perform an emergency firmware update:
Remove power from the controller
Place a jumper across the pins of JP1
Turn the power on to the controller
Run the Firmware Updater to load the firmware.
Remove power from the controller
Remove the jumper from JP1
Turn the power on to the controller

Do not know it this will help.
 
ErnieHorning said:
My understanding is that the boot loader is part of the PIC and was meant to upgrade the software in the PIC; LOR does the same thing.

You could probably make a 68HC11 work but you’d have to write all of the code; Renard is assembly and was only written for a PIC. You would also have to create a daughter board sense a 68HC11 isn’t going to be pin compatible with a PIC18F2420. It would be useful to more people if the micro were a PIC, sense more people here have a PIC programmer already.

The Renard code is already written for a PIC16F628 and it should be a fairly simple matter of changing the pin definitions and direction registers.

I’ll look around, I have the pin definitions for the D-light board somewhere; I think it’s on another computer. Like Tony said, I wouldn’t mess with the original D-Light micro, just change it.
Click to expand...

Ok, what do I need to do to get new micro's.

I have two 18f2420 chips.
What Software and hardware.
 
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