u/Downtown-Complaint-4

Apologies in advance for the wall of text!

I just finished my first year of college for electrical engineering, and am working on several theatre shows this summer. I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of the things I learned this year into those shows; however, I am quickly finding myself completely lost.

I am trying to make a DMX transmitter and several receivers. The transmitter is pretty simple, as it (should) just be an ESP32 and a Max3485 module to translate the DMX data. However, where I am becoming stuck is on the prop side.

The props I am trying to make are all light-up objects. I am trying to make a staff, a makeup compact, a spellbook, a wand, and a mask (glowing eyes). I am also trying to make controllable fairy lights.

As I have been researching and trying to plan out my circuits, I am getting lost on exactly which parts I need and, in general, how to handle the fact that so many things require at least 5V power and 5V logic.

For the staff, compact, and spell book, my current thought is to use a 9V battery to power an ESP32, which receives data over Wi-Fi from the transmitter and outputs to an RGBW LED array (Adafruit DotStar or similar). However, the LEDs will likely need a power source with more Ah than a typical 9V battery. Additionally, the DotStar (and every comparable array I have found) needs 5V logic, while the ESP32 only runs 3.3V.

The difference for the mask is that I would like to use either individual DotStar pixels or shortcuts of an LED strip. Either presents the same issue: they need 5V logic and longer battery life than a typical 9V battery.

For the fairy lights, I am pretty sure that it is as simple as powering the ESP32 over USB, and connecting it to a relay that controls the fairy lights, which will just be powered from a wall adapter of an appropriate voltage (haven't looked into the specific fairy lights yet, but would just grab an adapter that matches).

If anyone can help point me in the right direction regarding components, I would greatly appreciate it. I thought that I knew what I was doing, but alas, I still have much to learn.

Hi all. I am an amateur lighting designer and a first-year electrical engineering student. I just finished my first 'real' ENG project, and we used an Arduino as the core. I absolutely love the IDE, and I thought it would be fun to try building a wireless DMX transmitter and receiver pair using two Arduinos. While this is probably a massive project for someone as inexperienced as I am, I am trying to make it a summer project because I am really interested in learning more about Arduinos and circuit components, and in finding ways to apply that knowledge to theatrical lighting.

While I have all summer and will definitely do a lot of independent learning, I am really at a loss for the components I will need. Obviously, I will need two Arduinos (I have two Uno R3s, so I will likely just use those). I also know I will need a transmitter and receiver pair, but that is where I start to get a bit lost. For the transmitter and receiver, I know they need a speed of 250 kbaud, as that is the transmission rate of DMX. Otherwise, I am not really sure what I am looking for.

If I could get some help figuring out what parts I need, I would greatly appreciate it. Aside from the transmitter and receiver, I imagine I will also need a DMX decoder and encoder to receive the protocol from the console and output it to the device. If y'all know of anything else that I will need, or can recommend reputable components/sources, I would greatly appreciate it!