uDMX - tiny bus powered USB-DMX interface

Probably the smallest USB-DMX Interface in the world….

News

udmx external for Apple Silicon (M1)
udmx external for MacOS Catalina
LXConsole support for uDMX
LXNet2USBDMX support for uDMX
64bit external for Max7 - version 2015-11-09
udmx works with Logelloop
Control the uDMX from within Ableton Live
uDMX on Github
How to update the udmx Firmware
Latest uDMX source code is on Google Code
Control the uDMX from MIDI
uDMX 1.2 released !!
Buy a fully assembled uDMX
Stay informed: Subscribe to the uDMX mailing list
Article: Control uDMX from a web browser

Features

fits in your pocket
bus powered - no need for a wall-wart
can send DMX packets of arbitrary size from 1 to 512 channels. Only got 12 dimmers ? Don’t waste time sending 500 additional zeros 200 times a second…
command line tool
dedicated external for Max/MSP and PureData (8 bit resolution)
USB-MIDI device - send DMX from any MIDI application without any driver needed (7 bit resolution)
open source

Downloads

udmx external for MacOS Catalina. Version 20201111, compiled for macOS Catalina. Needs latest Max8 in order to remove quarantine restrictions, afterwards it also works in Max7. Needs libusb for macOS Catalina. Install libusb via homebrew:
If you haven’t, get homebrew from: https://brew.sh, then in a terminal, type:
```
brew install libusb-compat
```
That’s it.
64bit external for Max7
(attention: channel addressing changed to DMX convention: first channel is now number 1 not 0 as in older versions of the external)
Attention:the udmx needs libusb 0.1 in order to function (libusb 1.0 will not work).
Best is to install libusb-compat via homebrew. See here:

http://www.anyma.ch/libusb-compat/

For older systems, you can find installer packages here:
- 10.4
- 10.5
- 10.6
- 10.7
- 10.8
- 10.9
- 10.10
- 10.11
udmx external for Max/MSP (macintosh) version 2010-06-07. Can talk to multiple devices by binding to a specific serial number.
udmx external for Max/MSP (macintosh) version 2009-08-17. Includes outlets for connection status and messages. For Max 4.6 and Max5
udmx external for Puredata (macintosh) 32bit version.
udmx external for Puredata (macintosh) 64bit version.
udmx_1_2.tar.gz (315kB) - the official release. Includes the original Eagle-Light files for schematics and board layout, the firmware and bootloader, and a handy external for MAX/MSP (Mac only, see below for Windows software…)
uDMX_1.2_UB.zip (6kB) - universal binary version of the Max/MSP external object for both PowerPC and Intel Macs.
udmx_pd20090630.zip (5kB) - external object for PureData.
uDMX.pd_darwin.zip (4kB) - PureData external compiled for MacOSX (Intel only)
uDMX.pd_darwin.zip (4kB) - PureData external compiled for MacOSX (PPC only)
uDMX-MAXMSP-win.zip (38kB) - Windows version of the external object for Max/MSP. Includes Christian Raschkos windows driver (see below)

Contributions

Below are contributions by some uDMX makers/users. We couldn’t test everything - your feedback is welcome.

LXNet2USBDMX by Claude Heintz Design is a small utility that allows you to connect one universe of Art-Net or sACN (e1.31) with an uDMX or OpenDMX USB interface.
Open Lighting Architecture (OLA) supports the uDMX
DMaX – Lighting Control Using Max4Live supports the uDMX
LightRegie supports the uDMX
uDMX_raschko_01.zip (38kB) by Christian Raschko. Alternate design and windows driver: “Our design runs at 5V because we think that two Z-diodes are enough to stabilize D+ and D- to 3.3V and we can save the space of the voltage regulator. Also we connected the RXD line and the direction line of the RS-485 driver to the microcontroller for future extensions.”
uDMX_cli_win.zip (38kB) by Lutz H. Command line utility for windows.
uDMX_dmxcontrol.zip (172kB) by Lutz H. Plugin for DMXControl.
See http://www.illutzminator.de/ for a modified version of the uDMX that is a lot easier to build (no SMD parts…)
wtf2osc is a small OSC -> uDMX gateway, that can be used with Pd, Max, vvvv, supercollider, etc.

uDMX in action

We initially developed the udmx for hauert & reichmuth’s interactive installation TRiCKSTR.

What are you using your udmx for? Send us a link and we’ll make a gallery of udmx projects.

Software

There are three pieces of software:

the uDMX firmware - running on the ATMega8
a simple command line utility to set dimmer levels
an external object for MAX/MSP that communicates directly with the uDMX interface

The command line utility is tested under MacOS X 10.4 and Linux, it should compile under Windows as well
Max/MSP binaries are MacOS X only
See the downloadable archive for the commented source code and binaries

To compile the firmware you’ll need avr-libc (see here how to do this on a macintosh)
To compile the Max external you’ll need the MAX/MSP Software Development Kit
and both the Max external and the commandline tool depend on libusb - open source usb library. For MacOS X, the guys over at www.ellert.se have made handy installer packages for libusb, browse their downloads for the most recent package: http://www.ellert.se/PKGS/

uDMX comes with a handy external object for Max/MSP to control dimmers or other DMX equipment directly from Max/MSP:
Max MSP Help file

Hardware

uDMX is built around a ATMEL ATMega8 microcontroller, very few external parts are used, thanks to Objective Developments firmware only usb driver.
We went for the surface mounted version to keep it as small as possible. It’s a bit a pain to solder by hand, but feasible with lots of patience and not too many drinks the night before.

Very few pins are needed, but unfortunately smaller AVRs don’t have enough SRAM (we need 512 bytes already to buffer the DMX channels) so we have to use at least a Mega8…
The Mega8 is overclocked at 12Mhz, as needed by the usb driver. We power the RS485 transciever directly from the usb bus - it might be a better idea to put in a dc/dc converter and there should be some overvoltage protection.
Ben Suffolk shows how it could be done with his bus powered USB-DMX Interface

There is a 5pin XLR connector for the DMX and the cable of a dead mouse wired directly to the board for USB. D+ is connected to INT0 and is used by the usb-driver, D- on INT1 permits to check regularly if the usb bus is still alive, put the processor into powersave mode when its not, and wake it up again on any bus activity.

Version History

uDMX 1.4 | 2010-02-09
available from the SVN repository
uDMX 1.2 | 2007-01-07
includes bootloader for easy future firmware upgrades. You can build one from scratch, or order a fully assembled unit online.
uDMX 1.0 | 2006-06-10
probably the smallest USB-DMX Interface in the world. Pretty tough to build…
0.9.1 beta | 2006-02-16
is our first release. It is a lot easier to build but has some shortcomings…

Warning

Building and using uDMX is AT YOUR OWN RISK.
uDMX draws all its power from the host computer’s USB bus and the DMX and USB lines aren’t galvanically isolated. It may destroy your computer, or worse…
Use at your own risk or don’t use it at all!
And read the license…

License

Schematics and software are licensed under GNU GPL 2.0;
you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

uDMX is released in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this document; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
http://www.gnu.org

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