Project Description

The project is a console for theater lighting control. It interfaces with a personal computer (PC) using the Universal Serial Bus (USB) giving a friendly graphical user interface for lighting control. The console, based upon the Motorola 68376 microcontroller, controls lighting instruments through the use of the industry standard DMX512 lighting control protocol. Up to 16 sets of 8 external faders and momentary push buttons can be added for real time lighting control on the console. The input blocks use the queued serial peripheral interface (QSPI) and are designed to be modular so the system can be configured with different amounts and types of user inputs. The prototype system consists of two blocks of 8 faders and 8 buttons each as well as a third block containing three master fader controls. The system outputs the dimmer control data in DMX512 format using the serial communication interface (SCI) and an RS-485 transmitter.