Getting the first version going

Finally the Phoenix Contact cases arrived. As they have different sized openings on the top and on the bottom side, they are not off the shelf parts and needed 6 weeks to get here.

We also finished the first software version which will have no webinterface, sadly. But for the start it's UDP protocoll is completely compatible to our DMX bridge, with an addition for a high resolution command to dim the whole 12bit. Also dimcurves are implemented, so that you can decide how your input is layed out to the brightness of each channel.

Valid inputs are 0-100%, 0-255 (8bit) and of course 0-4095 (12bit).

For future software releases there will be an webinterface and mqtt support.

What else do we need?

Discussions

Emanuele Tessore wrote 08/19/2019 at 10:25

What about compatibility with ESPHome (https://esphome.io/components/output/pca9685.html) even this is a more DIY approach.
Or at least with Home Assistant APIs (without adding MQTT as "middleware")?

Also, do you have an idea of the price of the unit?

Thank you and have a nice day!

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Patrik Mayer wrote 08/19/2019 at 10:49

Hey Emanuele,

nice, did not knew that esphome supports the PCA9685 directly. Point is, that the LAN interface is - afaik - not supported by esphome. Or is it?

Of course you could simply flash esphome to the esp32, as the programming headers are accessible, and use wi-fi instead.

I hope that we could be somewhere around 160-170€ for the complete dimmer. Currently evaluating the CE conformity which sadly takes time and thus cost.

Cheers,
Patrik

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Emanuele Tessore wrote 08/19/2019 at 12:56

Hey Patrik,

here's the ethernet support from ESPHome: https://esphome.io/components/ethernet.html

According to the schematics (https://github.com/OLIMEX/ESP32-POE/raw/master/HARDWARE/ESP32-PoE-hardware-revision-C/ESP32-PoE_Rev_C_Color.pdf), the Olimex board uses a 8710A which, afaik, should be the same ethernet chip of your 10 ch dimmer.

I know for sure that it works on the Olimex POE and the WESP (I own both) (https://github.com/esphome/esphome-docs/commit/e7fb99063f35c05276460603a6aab7d1573569b9#diff-70b3e6ec69187e4a6cb29431b0fb3c88)

Cheers,
Emanuele

Are you sure? yes | no

Patrik Mayer wrote 08/20/2019 at 08:48

Wow, I did not know that esphome support ethernet out of the box. And yes, we used the Olimex for reference while building the dimmer - so it should work.

We should give it a try then. As esphome is liensed under MIT we also could ship it directly with it. Of course I have to dig deeper into this - no hands on with esphome, yet.

Thank you!

Cheers,

Patrik

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Emanuele Tessore wrote 08/21/2019 at 09:08

This is awesome! Can't wait :)

Cheers!

Are you sure? yes | no

Real-World Tests and fixed i2c communication

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