DMX Output

DMX output

As of version 0.9.2 WLED supports DMX output via MAX485. This is great for controlling DMX LED PAR lamps with WLED patterns.

features and limitations

• up to 15 DMX channels per fixture
• channels can be set to dimmer (brightness), red, green, blue, white, 0, 255
• supports channel spacing between fixtures
• outputs a DMX channel map
• one universe (512 channels)
• type of fixture

software setup

For the DMX feature to work, you'll need to compile WLED from source. It's not a big deal, you can do it! Here is the Quick Start guide. There you'll find the section "i want to modify WLED".

1. make sure, you can compile the latest version of WLED without any issues. Then continue.

2. Once that works, in wled00/wled.h you need to change the line //#define WLED_ENABLE_DMX to #define WLED_ENABLE_DMX Yes, you just remove the //, which enables the line and therefore DMX support.

3. change either the DMX output pin (sendPin in src/dependencies/ESPDMX.cpp) or the LED output pin (LEDPIN in NpbWrapper.h) to something other than 2. If both are set to the same setting, you might experience slight flickering on your DMX output.

4. Once you successfully uploaded the sketch to your board, you'll find a new entry "DMX Output" in your settings menu.

5. Grab the manual for your lamp and maybe some snacks, look up the dmx channels and set everything up accordingly.

hardware setup

The DMX output uses a MAX485 transceiver connected to the TX-pin of the ESP8266.

I am currently working on an open source PCB design to go along with this feature.

Until then, i can recommend this tutorial by Robert Oostenveld. Only the hardware side, of course.

If you need to use another pin for output than the TX-pin, you'll need to change this in the ESP-Dmx library itself. This setting is located in ESP-Dmx/src/ESPDMX.cpp on line 29.

questions

If you have further questions about this feature, you can reach me via github (@jwingefeld), ICQ (30914656) or via WLED Discord (JvPeek).