DC-16 to control LED's for Candle Flicker

[hauserj]

Just received a DC-16.  My intended use is for on/off control (foggers, 120v lights, solenoids, relays, etc).

I had a thought - Was wondering if the serial communications (at 2400B for the prop-1) and processing of the serout commands is fast enough to control LED flickering for candle simulation.
Not sure if I have time to give this a try before the Holiday.

Anyone tried this?
Has this been posted before?
Thoughts as to feasibility?
Any existing code for candle flicker through dc-16 (I use the existing candle flicker routines for prop-1 downloaded from this site)

thanks
Jim

[JonnyMac]

It's really tough at 2400 baud.  Consider this transmission:

  SEROUT Sio, OT2400, ("!DC16", %00, "H", rndBits)

There are eight bytes transmitted, and at 2400 baud each byte takes 4.17 ms, so the entire packet takes 33 milliseconds -- this is a little long and, more importantly, would require the Prop-1 to be in a very tight loop that is constantly resending a random value.  Next season we'll have "smart" wicks that don't required anything but an "on" signal and that will make these kinds of situations simpler.

[hauserj]

Thanks John,


I'll try this when I get some time after the season. 
I actually put a delay in the original posted flicker routine because i like the look of a slower flicker.
Perhaps the 33 millisecond delay wont be so bad.
I'll let you know how it looks.

jumblo 

[JonnyMac]

Then just generate a random number and blast it out.  We do suggest running RANDOM three times before sending to parallel outputs -- it just looks better; like this:

Update_Candles:
  FOR idx = 1 TO 3
    RANDOM wicks
  NEXT
  SEROUT Sio, Baud, ("!DC16", %00, "L", wicks)
  GOTO Update_Candles