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Cinetix USB DMX Generator Box
The USB / DMX512 Generator was developed as as a low cost and compact equipment to integrate lighting technology into multimedia projects, hardware based media controllers or even industrial controls with a USB host feature.
In contrast to proprietary control equipment the USB / DMX512 Generator can be operated with any kind of software which is capable to transmit and receive via a serial COM port.
New from December 2011: Alternatively to its DMX transmission mode the USB / DMX512 Generator can be switched to DMX receive mode. A variety of techniques is available for evaluation of an external DMX signal.
Primarily all commands are sent and all feedback is received in ASCII text format. As an alternative to ASCII syntax, the most essential features of the Generator can be operated with a compact binary data format, which provides a higher throughput and easier handling together with some kind of control application.
New from December 2011: for all essential functions a MIDI compatible set of commands is provided. Together with some additional software, the USB / DMX512 Generator now works together with MIDI typical software like MIDI sequencers.
By means of a driver (FTDI chip) a virtual serial port for the USB bus is generated on the PC. During driver installation a free serial port is assigned to the USB / DMX512 Generator. Optionally any port number can be selected. No configuration of the baud rate is necessary. Independent of the baud setting of the application software the USB / DMX512 Generator communicates via USB with the maximum transfer speed provided by the application software und the USB bus.
This way the DMX512 lighting bus is easily integrated into applications, which support serial ports together with a scripting language. Office applications can be used too, when appropriate DLL libraries are added. In a most simple case - especially to set up or debug computer controlled lighting installations - manual interactive operation is possible with a simple terminal program.