It would be awesome to integrate the Art-Net protocol for transmitting the DMX512-A lighting control protocol.
Have an app that you can program individual addressable led strips etc. right in Homey, user friendly! Don’t know if it’s even possible. Maybe just a forever longing dream.
Maybe there’s a workaround with other tools such as Arduino or raspberry pi with some nice shield/module and MQTT?
I found a way to control dmx lights with homey, and it works faster and more reliable than zigbee and z-wave. I’m going to write an article about it this week. You will find it in the forum!
As soon as it’s online I will post the link here. A friend and I (Two geeks, both working in entertainment lighting) found two ways to control DMX with Homey. In the video you’ll see that (both ways) work like a charm!!
First of all you need an ARTNET to dmx converter (node). You can also do it with a raspberry and a usb-DMX converter (Enttec open dmx for instance), or buy a node. Manufacturers that build nodes for instance are, Elation, ADJ, Showtec, ELC, Eurolite etc. The prices variate between 80 and 1000+ euro’s. I think you’ll get a good one for home use for 120 euro’s.
Shortly summarized:
Option one is to use a virtual streamdeck or Node RED (on a raspberry or windows/mac machine) that receives HTTP triggers, converts them to ART-NET and sends those signals to QLC+ that run’s on a raspberry. QLC then triggers Light scenes and cuelists and poops out the DMX via the Enttec open usb dongle. But for this option you need two raspberry’s because QLC+ is a full install, so you can’t multitask anymore then. So you need one device to run QLC on and one device to run Node RED or streamdeck software (companion) on to convert HTTP to ARTNET triggers. It’s also possible to let QLC pass through artnet, very cool if you have a party and want to use a big desk to control your lights Imagine, homey controlling your lights, and also have the option to connect a GrandMA, Avolites or HOG to control your home Great is that QLC is fully programmable via networkinterface! So you don’t ever need to connect a screen to the raspberry, when QLC+ is installed right. We use QLC+ because it’s free, it can run on a raspberry and it can receive ARTNET triggers! QLC is not a very professional piece of software, but for home use it delivers great possibilities!
Option two is to create virtual devices with dimmer and Hue/saturation capabilities in homey, connect them to NODE RED (on raspberry or windows), and then let NodeRED convert the HUE/SAT values to RGB signals. Node Red also needs to convert the Percentile values from the virtual devices to bits (0-255) which the dmx protocol uses. When all the conversions in Node Red are set, Node Red can output ARTNET to your DMX node! In our configuration Node RED now directly sends ARTNET to QLC+ in passthrough mode, because we already had the hardware since our first succesfull setup was made with QLC and HTTP triggers (option one). So now we don’t need to buy a dmx node.
Both options require a lot of technical skills, but I think that if you want to control DMX via Homey, you probably have those skills!
This was just a short summarize. I will write a full how to (with video’s and pictures) as soon as I have time left for it. I think it will be next week!
Hi everyone!
I know this is a pretty old topic, but I would like to do further investigation on DMX integration with Homey through Art-Net or maybe sACN.
With the idea in mind to try writing an app for Homey which will be able to control DMX lights via these protocols through LAN, I have started looking into the Homey Apps SDK to understand how apps are made a week ago.
I came to the conclusion that it may be possible using some external npm libraries to communicate with Art-Net or sACN.
I’m used to programming basic javascript apps and understand new logic quite fast.
However, I’m new to developing Homey apps.
Is there still anyone interested in this topic? And maybe in a future collaboration to write this app?
I would dearly control my mancave lights with homey!
a hurdle that might need to be overtaken is the amount of different definitions for fixtures.
I now use “lightrider” (nicolaudi group) from my ipad, where it was already quite a quest to get the definitions of 4 different PAR’s / moving heads.
plus; some of the dynamic you use DMX for (like; sway a moving head 100 degrees and rotate the gobo) may be too much for poor homey to process?
I have a Soundswitch Control One and also a Wolfmix W1 at home which I’d love to be able to control lights with connected to Homey.
I can use my Phillips Hue light using Soundswitch, but the Phillips Hue developer protocol only allows for 25 changes per second, compared to 44 with DMX and it’s a little buggy when strobing.
I have a Chauvet Art-Net node, but don’t really having to buy a Rasberry Pi when I can just use SS with Hue.
I believe the Hue Bridge can handle a frame rate of up to 10 hz. Above this, the Philips Hue bridge may crash or freeze. Should you run everything through the Homey Pro/Hub it is of course different.
You will never get a perfect strobe because every lamp reacts slightly differently, and the lamps are not made and designed for this application “unfortunately”.
Basically, therefore, I would always recommend running a second stand-alone system from where you DMX out and control.