Preliminary!

For Brightsign Compact HD410, 810 & 1010

16 Input, 16 Output with RGBW Driver Board

The  RGBW Driver Board Stacks Under this board and can drive four circuits at 12 volts and 15 amps each!

C-16-RBGW (Interface Board) w/RGBW Board

or, C-8-RBGW (Interface Board) w/RGBW Board

Features:

• Footprint (4.8 x 2.8 inches) (the RGBW board is 4.8 x 3.5 inches and stacks under this board)
• RGBW Driver board has four 12 ampere drivers to PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) LED Lights.
• 'Command Selectable' Fade settings for each Color
• Utilizes the 5V TTL Serial Port (.9 meter cable included).
• 16 Output Drivers for Lamps or Relays (.3 ampere each driver)
• Terminal blocks for all I/O connections
• Diagnostic Mode and Options selectable on board
• Requires 12V External Power Supply (use 2.1mm jack or Terminal Block connections), and RGBW requires External 12V Supply
• On board LED's to indicate Roku Power, 5Volts Power and Processor running.
• 5VTTL Serial Setup: 38400 baud, N,8,1
• 3.3 Volts available on 'Input Terminal Strip' for PIR connections.

Note: If you have a C-8-RGBW board then output port2 data (outputs 8-15) and inputs 8-15 are of not utilized.  However, the data byte for output port2 is still required.  No data will be returned to the 5VTTL serial port of the BrightSign.  I.E. the Serial Transmission Protocol does not change with the exception that no data is returned to the BrightSign.

Recommended: Use the RS232-TTL 'Roku Adapter Board' to use your computer to test your strings to the C-16 and C8 boards prior to testing with the BrightSign.  Trial and error using the BrightSign to 'debug' strings will take hours or days troubleshoot.  With the RS232-TTL board it will take minutes to verify your command strings.

Description of Operation:
This board is used to interface to a BrightSign 'Compact'.  The first 8 inputs (inputs 0-7) pass directly to the BrightSign GPIO connections (Btn0-Btn7).  The BrightSign uses the 5V TTL serial port to input 8 bits of data (inputs 8-15) from this board.  The BrightSign controls the 16 Outputs via the 5V TTL Serial Port.  The 8 inputs (inputs 8-15) are transmitted to the Brightsign dependent on option 5.

Serial Transmission 'Break' Protocol:  The BrightSign has to allow 10 milliseconds to elapse between serial data 'bursts' going out.  This 10 millisecond 'rest' time is interpreted by the HMS board as a 'Break' in serial transmission.  This 'Break' condition synchronizes the HMS board to the serial transmissions from the BrightSign.

New Command Selection Protocol:  The first byte received by the HMS board (after 'break condition') sets the receive protocol command.  This new protocol simplifies how many bytes to send from the BrightSign because each color parameter or DMX parameter is selectable! The Strings are enclosed in brackets [ ].  

New Command Selection Protocol:  The first byte received by the HMS board (after 'break condition') sets the receive protocol command.  This new protocol simplifies how many bytes to send from the BrightSign because each color parameter or DMX parameter is selectable! The Strings are enclosed in brackets [ ].  Note: 'Speed' = Rate of Fade.

• Command0:  Send the input Status byte (inputs 8-15 if C-16 board) if polling required option. Note: A zero byte is returned for C-8 boards.
                         [0]    *1  End Command
  
• Command1:  Set Output Ports (Port1 and Port 2 values), (next Command may follow)
                         [1, Port1 Value, Port2 Value]   *1  End Command
  
• Command2:  Set Some or All values of Output Ports, Color Values, DMX Channels.
                         [2, Port1, Port2, 8 Color Bytes, 1 to 200 DMX Bytes], followed by 'Break'
  
  

**********COLOR SPECIFIC COMMANDS 3-9: (Commands 10-15 for future use)  Link to HMS Color Protocol Expanded
                    Note: Color# Bits are: Red=1, Green=2, Blue=4, White=8, these are bits 0,1,2,3 of the 'Color#'): IE: If Color# =5, then this selects 'Red' + 'Blue', turn off Green and White
                    Note: 'Maintain Colors' are: Red=16, Green=32, Blue=64, White=128, these are bits 4,5,6,7 of the 'Color#'.
                    Note: Setting a Color Value (Brightness) to Zero, clears the flashing setting for that color.

• Command3:  Set Colors, Brightness and Speed, if all 8 values are sent, then the next Command can be concatenated to this command.
  9 bytes           [3, Red Value, Red Speed, Green Value, Green Speed,, Blue Value, Blue Speed, White Value, White Speed), follow with a 'Break' if not all 8 values.
  
• Command4:  Set One or Multiple Colors, Brightness and Fade, to the same value.
                        Note: Set the upper bits ('Maintain Color bits') to keep colors on that were already on.
  4 bytes           [4, Color# (1,2,4,8 or combinations of bits + Maintain Bits), Color Value, Color Fade Rate]  *1 End Command
  
• Command5:  Set all 4 Color Fade values to one value (speed of change). Note: This is the 'Flash Rate' for flashing Lights.
  2 bytes           [5, Fade Value]  *1  End Command
  
• Command6:  Set all 4 COLORS  to one value (RED, GREEN, BLUE & WHITE=VALUE):  Most Useful for turning off all colors.
  2 bytes           [6, Color Value]  *1  End Command
  
• Command7:  Set One or Multiple colors to synchronized flashing: Note: Flash Rate is .01 seconds (10 milliseconds) times flash rate.
                        Note: Set upper bits to 'Maintain Colors' or the colors not set to flashing will be turned off.
  4 bytes           [7, Color# Bits, Value, Flash Rate]  *1  End Command
  
• Command8:  Set Two or more Colors to alternate flashing: 'Colors On' will start on, 'Colors Off' will start off, the colors will alternate on/off with the flash rate.
                        Note: Set upper bits to 'Maintain Colors' or the colors not set to flashing will be turned off.
  5 bytes           [8, Color# Bits 'Start On', Color# Bits 'Start Off', Value, Flash Rate]  *1 End Command
  
• Command9:  Set 'Color# bits' flashing off.  Clears the flashing flags.
                        Note: Set upper bits to 'Maintain Colors', otherwise the colors will be turned off instantly (fade value set to zero).
  2 bytes           [9, Color# bits to stop flashing]  *1 End Command
  
  Example: To  keep the white on and enable flashing for Red (Command 7), the bytes are: [7,129, brightness, flashing rate]
  Summary: 129 is bit7+bit0 (128+1).  Bit7 (128) to 'Maintain' Color White, and Bit0 (1) is to turn on Red Flashing).  Green and Blue will be turned off.
  
  Example: Stop flashing and turn on all colors to value=128 (50% Brightness) : [09,15,05,20,06,128]
  Summary:  Cmd9+15 (all 4 colors stop flashing and no colors maintained, colors are turned off and fade set to zero for instant off), Cmd5 (set all fade values to 20),  Cmd6 (set all colors to one value), value=128

Note: DMX Command Strings are ignored

Note: Any 'Command' followed by a 'break condition' terminates the command. So, if zero bytes follow command=1, command 1 will simply be terminated at the break condition.  Any bytes that came in prior to the 'break' will be saved.

To Send Multiple protocols Send 1 protocol, then pause for 10 milliseconds, then send the next protocol and pause and so on except where designated above.
I.E. if selecting command 3 (Set all 4 Colors) and all 8 values are sent then the next command can be part of the string of numbers
I.E.  [3,255,0,255,0,255,0,255,0,new command#','bytes for that command]

PORTs & RGBW  Protocol Bytes:

Command #2, Port1 Value, Port2 Value, Red Value, Red Speed, Green Value, Green Speed, Blue Value, Blue Speed, White Value, White Speed (speed is the fade rate in milliseconds per step value of 1).

The RGBW 'Color Value' determine the brightness of the color, the 'Color Speed' sets the rate of change of the color (fade rate).  The speed (fade rate) is in 1 millisecond increments.  So a speed of 20, means it takes 20 milliseconds for each increment or decrement of the color PWM value.  So if the Color Value was 0, and you want 255 (maximum brightness), it will take 255 times 20 or 5,100 milliseconds to complete the change (5.1 seconds).  Note: Color Value less than 5 not recommended may not provide any brightness because the PWM on time is so short.  Note: All values do not have to be sent to update the buffer in the HMS board.  If the 'Green Value' is received then the Green Value to transmit is placed in the buffer.  So, if the transmission of 'Set Colors Command3' stops with the Green Value,  the remainder of the values/speeds will remain unchanged.

Link: Setting up the Serial Port and Sending Bytes with 'BrightAuthor'.

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Diagnostics:

Option 6 Selects a 'multiple diagnostic' feature.  With Switch 1, slider 6 (SW1-6) on, the board is in a diagnostic mode.  The two 8 bit ports are cycled one bit at a time to on (changes every second).  The 5V TTL driver sends decimal 170 (0xAA) to the BrightSign.  The RGBW board is cycled to 50% on (all channels) then off.   This diagnostic allows for a visual on all output drivers, verified connection and baud settings to the BrightSign 5VTTL serial port.

Options: 

• Option6    Diagnostic (see description above)
• Option5    Polling NOT Required to get the Status of the Inputs.  Any change in inputs is immediately transmitted to the BrightSign (C-16 boards only)
• Option4    N/A
• Option3    N/A
• Option2    N/A
• Option1    N/A

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Here is a table of 'bit' control and the decimal values to control that bit.

• Bit     Binary              Decimal
• 0       00000001b      1d
• 1       00000010b      2d
• 2       00000100b      4d
• 3       00001000b      8d
• 4       00010000b      16d
• 5       00100000b      32d
• 6       01000000b      64d
• 7       10000000b      128d

Just add the decimal numbers together to get the bits set that you want.  Setting all bits on is 255d (decimal).  Setting bits 0 and 7 on is 128+1 or 129 decimal

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Page Updated 02/14/2011