Re: [LCtalk] Is this a viable set up

[Carl Byrne]

> Okay. How does 2 weeks continuous tun sound in terms of maintenance/need 
> for repair? Does repair mean replacing an actual relay box?

I don't know how the relay box is designed. If a relay were to fail, it may 
need to be unsoldered, and replaced. However, running for two weeks it seems 
hard to imagine a relay failure. I was thinking this display would be in 
place for some number of years.


> > Have you worked out the electronic interface between the DMX signal and 
> > the variable speed pump? That should be interesting..
>
> ?????????
>
> The interface? I just plug  the pump into the dimmer box! I used the sound 
> envelope data (smoothed and scaled) of live audio signals from my sniffer 
> to control the height of the water ....
> There's a link to my first pump control demo as a mpeg 4 movie here: 
> http://ajsteggell.wordpress.com/2007/12/25/emf-prototype-movie/
>
> (othewrwise on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DTjvC5rtBioE )
>
> I did a similar thing to control a large propellor in my previous project. 
> However, as it is not confirmed as to which pumps will be used to generate 
> the desired water height - there is still the question of whether

I am surprised that a dimmer pack would work with a motor. I think you got 
lucky. Typically a motor (otherwise referred to as an inductive load) will 
toast a dimmer if it is not designed to handle an inductive load. Most 
dimmers are designed to handle resistive loads (lamps.)

> 1. the pumps will need a control signal and a separate electricity supply - 
> or
> 2. the dmx dimmer pack will do both jobs.
>
> If 1. then I think I will need yet another dmx relay box instead of a 
> dimmer pack???
>
> (Phew)
>
> a
>
> (PS. what I'm also exploring now is other approaches to utilizing the audio 
> signal - such as spectral analysis, peak and trend monitoring, and anything 
> I can think of)

The tricky part with this approach is converting the output from these 
devices into a DMX or UDP signal.

Carl