its still some WIP, but its going to be cool when done.
you can read my design statement in the youtube details.
Here is the details on how I am doing this.
I created this as I felt it would look interesting. I had this song stuck in my head for a bit. I then Designed it.
I plan on uploading designs to different songs as time permits. on my youtube channel.
Anyways Please Enjoy
I made a business card for the group I run.
What do you get, when you have Network PDU’s, DMX controlled lights, OSC Audio controlled mixers, Led signs and a serial controlled HDMI switcher?
A complex machine.
Using the Linux controlled systems, that I have previously made for my PBX control and Twitch Streamer ex-roommate. I can control the Network PDUs via the TCL/TK Expect scripting language. Send scripted commands to the telnet server on Light Factory (DMX control system),
Also,I have written scripts to Mute and un-mute the X-AIR 16 mixers, that control my desk audio and Theatre sound system.
With that, what do you do when your room mate moves out, leaving behind a custom lighting infrastructure for streaming?
Re-purpose it. Also add a projector to the mix. Then make a venue for my meetup friends.
With some re-configuring of lighting positions. I now have a wall wash, that looks pretty.
With that I can send my DMX console to change the lights and reposition the RCL’s to other points of the room.
With that, done, I created scripts that can be called from a secure web interface.
I login to my web server that is public facing on my phone. I click a link to start up the system. That server will ssh over my WAN, to trigger everything on the network in my Austin apartment.
The flow of the process is this. on clicking on the Theatre-GO Link
The flow of the off process is mostly the same.
Side bar. The led sign.
My guests that come to my Meetups, can connect to the wifi. I am using a PFsense captive portal, to secure my fire walled off stub “simple” network. upon login they are redirected to the Anime LED sign control system. The goal of this sign is to let them spam memes and silliness during the show.
Okay Back to the Processes. How do you control the HDMI switcher?
I am clicking a link that calls a shell script to spam the serial link. To tell it what input to select. or to turn on or off the output.
The next phase of this system is to make a better audio remote control system. Currently I have to use the X-air remote control apps, to adjust auto levels, and EQ. I would like to be able to control it from the same web ui. I will be replacing the LED sign with a one that can control each pixel. So my friends can draw on it.
How do you control the lights?
Using the same Web UI, it ssh’s to a local machine in Austin, to send the Light factory server, commands to switch looks.
Currently I have presets for Show, House lights. Panic, and “off”.
the show look is dim look with most lights off.
the House light look, use some color wash lights and dim-able LED lights to illuminate the room .
The Panic look turns on all my DMX controlled lights to a “white” color and at full.
Soon, I will be writing up the “theatre” automation.
the goals of this project is to do the following.
1. Change lights
2. control the projector
3. Control Audio and Video sources.
4. Control a LED sign
Some of the work has all ready been done. (The DMX control of lights and audio mixer)
The projector control, is going to be a tad bit harder. I need to capture the IR codes for the power. and push it to a Audrino or PIC.
more to come ….
Here is some drawings I have been working on. I find that I like water color brushes. I think I am going to start posting more art stuff. That I have done or am working on.
So how do you tie the following together? turning on non-dim set lights. Sending power to DMX controlled lights that can go in to “disco mode”. Controlling a few cues on a light console. Then Of Course….. make it easy for anyone to start and stop the system?
The answer is Automation.
This Blog Post will be touching on how I solved this problem off a “simple on/off switch” for this complex system.
Part One: What was the scope of this sub-project?
This system Must, make it where the end user can Start Up and Shutdown(safe) the lighting system. this control system shall be accessible from any network. To allow any device to start or safe it via a Website.
The website Must be secured. The only options shall, use two links. “OFF and ON”.
Part Two: Old Implementation
Back when I started work on this to be controlled by my PBX, with the 6602 extension. The end user would call the 6602 extension and press a option. then the following would happen. (when turning it on)
The main issue I had with this setup, I could not dynamically control the system. Also you had to be on my PBX, or white listed to be redirected when you dial in to my home phone line.
Part Three: Current Implementation
With those known limitations, I decided to do something about it Implement the scope of work in Part on
Webserver to Austin VMs.
I have a hub and spoke VPN infrastructure all ready in place. Lets look at the Hub.
This Pfsense vm links using OpenVPN to a few sites. but most importantly it links to my apartment.
With that link I can remotely call commands over SSH to turn on and off the system, from the web server. then It is just a matter of calling a shell command to kick off a Shell script on the Austin utility VM.
$output = shell_exec("/usr/bin/ssh www-server@aus-netbox PROD-GO");<br>echo $output;<br>
Above is the PHP code for turning on the system. the off code is 99% the same. Its secured with a username and password. Looking at the aus-netbox host, the system is running a bunch of different Expect scripts.
Let us look at the integration via expect and and LightFactory
First we say log all output to the shell
the “set timeout 20” is Very Important. as it helps keep the telnet session from hanging. all it means is this, “If I don’t get input from the I//O stream bail out”
spawn says what we are running and redirecting I/O from.
Then its expect “foo” and send “bar”. its pretty simple
To touch on the Light Factory commands. sc31 is a shortcut macro (I created) to release all channels. and cue line calls the cue from the cue list serah #8888 .
Then it exits. Now Serah can then control the system via the LightFactory Myinterface app. As long as she is on the right WiFi Network.
Shutdown is similar to what was explained.
Hi, I have been working on a setup for my Friend/roommate streamer. Serah
This post is going to touch base on automation, and ease of control using COTS and some scripting. The goal of this project was to make it where she could click one thing and start the lighting look. Adjust it while it is live. Then turn it off, via another click.
The system uses DMX control. Switched outlets (via a few network PDUs).
The lighting console software is LightFactory. It sending sACN to Open Lighting Architecture running on a Linux VM. which then sends it to Art-Net, to output two worlds of DMX. This setup allows me to control the system with out the console if need be, Via OLA.
Scripting. I am using Expect to control the PDUs to turn on and off the outlets for different lights. Also I am using it, to send the commands to the lighting console over telnet. I use bash to script turning on and off everything.
I am using a protected web page to allow her to click a “on” or “off” link. that calls via a system exec in php to run the bash script. I do not need to reinvent the scripts when I can just call it.
When the show is running. it can be controlled by Lightfactoy’s mobile interface control.
I created a simple setup for it via the mobile interface builder. seen below.
With that, She is able to control some of the attributes of the show.
going to be streaming soldering work, tonight at 11pm CT.
Goal is to prep all the connectors. on the mixer switch project.