HC-8+ As a 40-output Controller

[JonnyMac]

One of the fun aspects of my job is working with the amazing artists at Alliance Studio. They work in the movie and television industry, and also do quite a lot of work for gaming companies like Blizzard and Riot.

On a current project they need nearly 40 outputs that can be smoothly animated as if it was a 40-output controller. The solution is to link five HC-8+ controllers together and treat them as a single device.

Here's the control board before getting wired to the display. The power supply is beefy: 12V at 25A -- probably more than we need, but it's better to have it and not need it than the other way (that supply comes from www.superbrightleds.com).



As you can see, the controllers are linked using the RS-485 interface on the top of the board. For simplicity, the master controller (lower right in image) is a DMX master and the others are DMX slaves. I've attached both sets of code for your use, and will post pictures of the completed display when I'm allowed to do so.

[JonnyMac]

For those of you who are new to EFX-TEK, here are images of some of the projects that we've helped Alliance Studio with. Most use the HC-8+; there's a Prop-2 and AP-16+ in one; the very first used a Prop-SX (which was replaced by the HC-8+).

Note: I'm linking to images around the 'net (not always on our site), so I can't control size.


Kerrigan (StarCraft):



Jim Raynor (StartCraft II) -- with Steve Wang, co-owner of Alliance:



FireFall



No electronics in these costumes, but I did help Alliance with the wiring and lighting.
Typhon: Lee Reerham
Mourningstar: Crystal Graziano



Tyrael (Diablo 3):



Trydamere (League of Legends):



Ryze  (League of Legends):
-- very challenging for the "spell globe"; uses an HC-8+ and WS2801 LEDs (from Minion's Web)



Katarina (League of Legends):
-- lighting in the base only
-- I wasn't looking one day and was nearly run through by one of her swords (yes, it left a mark)



Ziggs (League of Legends):



Annie & Tibbers (League of Legends) -- with yours truly:
-- Tibbers started as 4000 pounds of WED clay!



Grommash Hellscream (World of Warcraft) -- with Steve Wang:


Here's a shot of the team that built it; as you can see, it takes a lot of talented people to build one of these things.
-- Yes, Alliance is a pet-friendly shop; there are always one or more dogs, and sometimes a rabbit when I visit



Tracer (Overwatch)



At the moment Steve and his team is working on another display for Riot Games (League of Legends) -- as soon as I can post pictures of the final display, I will.