lightshow

Lights, Camera, Action!

A collection of scripts for controlling DMX lights and DSLR cameras. It's built using Ruby, OLA, and gPhoto2:

• Ruby: http://rubylang.org/
• OLA: https://www.openlighting.org/
• gPhoto2: http://www.gphoto.org/doc/remote/

Setup

You need Ruby v2.0.0 or newer, gPhoto2, and the OLA toolchain:

OSX Homebrew

brew install ruby
brew install ola
brew install gphoto2

Command Line Arguments

Argument	Description	Default Value
--image-dir	The directory to output images to.	'./images/'
--prefix	The filename prefix to use when generating images.	Current UTC timestamp
--extension	The filename extension to use when generating images.	'cr2'
--cam-settings	A JSON object that maps camera settings to use for the acquisition.	See below
--dmx	A JSON object that maps sequence labels to DMX inputs.	See below
--dmx-dev-id	The device ID of your DMX controller. Run ola_dev_info to find your device ID.	10

Default Camera Configs

{
  "iso": 100,
  "aperture": 5.6,
  "imageformat": 40
}

You can get all of the camera settings using gphoto2 --list-config and gphoto2 --get-config FOO. See the gPhoto2 man page for more info.

Default DMX Sequence Configs

{
  "L0": "255,128,255,128,255,128,255,128",
  "L1": "255,128,0,0,0,0,0,0",
  "L2": "0,0,255,128,0,0,0,0",
  "L3": "0,0,0,0,255,128,0,0",
  "L4": "0,0,0,0,0,0,255,128",
  "L5": "255,128,255,128,0,0,0,0",
  "L6": "0,0,255,128,255,128,0,0",
  "L7": "0,0,0,0,255,128,255,128",
  "L8": "255,128,0,0,0,0,255,128",
  "L9": "255,128,0,0,255,128,0,0",
  "L10": "0,0,255,128,0,0,255,128"
}

Examples

Run the script with a custom DMX sequence:

./capture_sequence.rb --dmx "{\"foo\":\"255,255,255,255\"}"

Troubleshooting

Can't Connect to Camera

Try killing PTPCamera.

ps aux | grep PTPCamera
kill FOO

Can't Connect to DMX Controller

Make sure you have the latest RDM drivers.

For EntTec:

1. Install PRO-Manager: http://support.enttec.com/aleph/?main_menu=Products&pn=79003
2. Launch PRO-Manager
3. Select your device from the drop-down list
4. Click the "Update Firmware" button at the bottom and select "RDM"
5. Exit the PRO-Manager when the update is complete
6. Restart your computer

Also, make sure that only one software suite is running at a time, i.e. kill olad before starting PRO-Manager and vice-versa.

ps aux | grep olad
kill FOO

See this doc for more information: https://www.openlighting.org/ola/getting-started/device-specific-configuration/#Sending_DMX