Lightning

DMX framework

In the future I plan on making a kind of unified DMX interface driver framework, so that any kind of output devices (parallel, serial, MIDI, DMX, Ethernet) can be treated the same way by applications. The driver framework will handle all interface specific stuff.

Currently, every lighting application implements its own hardware communication routines for all interfaces: DMXControl, Freestyler DMX, DCWin, DiscoLitez, Lightning and others. Therefore, these lighting applications contain a lot of redundant programming. It is also hard to add support for new interfaces to all of these applications.

So far I made an inventory of existing DMX interfaces. This list could be useful for people considering building or buying a DMX interface. Many DMX interfaces can be built very cheaply if having access to programmer hardware for Microchip PIC or Atmel AVR processors.

Current inventory of interfaces (Microsoft Excel file)