This project came along when I got a not-super-new fog machine with just a wired remote with momentary switch. It was bugging to always be next to the remote to press it for some seconds to keep a steady-slight fog during an event. With lights controlled by DMX, the idea came to build a new remote which can connect to DMX to control to fog machine in a PWM like manner (with two DMX channels indicating frequency and duty cycle).
On top of that a manual timer mode was added in situations where no DMX is available.
The case should be similar to the original remote with its two status LEDs and a momentary push button which I wanted to keep for pure manual operation.
- Display to show the current mode (DMX or manual) and a countdown to the next action
- DMX mode with two channels (cycle length in seconds and duty cycle in percent)
- Configurable and EEPROM persisted DMX channel
- Manual mode with both parameters set manually
- Auto turn-off when DMX signal is lost
- Parasite power supply trough fog machines current to drive the LEDs which was more than enough
- Arduino Nano (china clone)
- RS485 to TTL converter
- DC-DC buck converter with LM2596S to step down from fog machine voltage of 12V to Arduino Nano 5V
- 4-digit 7-segment display with TM1637 driver
- some simple 6x6 tactile buttons
3D models in sTL format included in the resources directory.
How the thing looked like before it come into the box
- RS485 converter on the left, DMX socket not connected
- Remote control on the top
- Arduino Nano in the middle
- buck converter on the bottom
- Transistor on the right to trigger the fog machine (just shorts the 12v supply to the high impedance trigger input of the machine)
After everything was nested into the box
- nickgammon/SendOnlySoftwareSerial for debugging cause DMXSerial uses the hardware serial of the Arduino Nano
- mathertel/DMXSerial to receive DMX from a RS485 to TTL converter
- smougenot/TM1637 as display driver