Semitone Lighting Controllers / News: Recent posts

There is now a world-readable SVN repository that includes the latest sources and hardware designs for the Semitone project.

If you want to contribute, simply ask me for a login account.

For more information, browse to: http://www.engbedded.com/engdr

I'm pleased to announce the availability of Diamond RTOS 2.1.0.
This release comes with:
- DCF77 radio clock receiver support,
- channel re-wiring (for upcoming PCB),
- radio clock reception status and timer indication in standby screen.

Mark

Version 2.1.0 of the Semitone Diamond RTOS will include support for the DCF77 (radio controlled clock) signal. Hardware modules for reception are available for about 10 € and less.
The firmware implementation is almost complete.

As a long-term objective, Bluetooth support will be brought to the Semitone Diamond dimmer. A new dedicated UART communication protocol is being developed at Engbedded. The new protocol will be usable on any kind of serial connection (e.g., Bluetooth (SPP), IrDA (IrCOMM), RS 232, TCP/IP, …), and at the same time be optimized for slow connections with long turnaround times.
The protocol will allow users to control and configure their Diamond dimmers remotely via PDA, smartphone, or PC.
A bluetooth SPP module will be required for connectivity.

Currently, work on official PCB layouts for the Semitone Diamond dimmer is in progress. The controller will be split into main board, power supply, and the various output stages. Each board is not larger than 100x80 mm so that it can be used with the freeware version of CadSoft Eagle.
At a first release, only main board and power supply layouts will be offered. Output stages may follow later.

Hi,

On the 5th anniversary of the Semitone Project I will release version 1.2.0 of the Semitone Diamond RTOS. Many new features have been added, such as fade delay storage in scenes (OS-B only), more directly loadable scenes, triggering standby mode via scene and much more.

Also, the website has moved to my CMS. Check it out.

Mark

Hi,

version 1.1.0 of the Diamond RTOS comes with support for the newer ATmega644 devices which offer resources for many new features.

The ATmega644 can directly replace the ATmega32 without any other changes to your control board.

Have fun!
Mark

Hi,

the new sd0.9.8 in combination with firmware 1.0.1 support zero-cross detection on the primary side of the transformer.

Have fun!
Mark

Hi,

Two years after the first Diamond firmware release (0.2.0) and three years after launching the Semitone project website, the first final stable version has become available today. Please do not expect any major changes, nor great feature enhancements. The 1.0.0 release is really only about emphasising stability.

Have fun!

Mark

Hi,

this will be one of the last pre-1.0 releases. No major changes since 0.8.0, just more stability (no occasional flickering anymore), and some minor usability improvements.

The code is now suited for avr-gcc 4.0 and avr-libc 1.4.

Have fun!
Mark

Hi,

the new Diamond firmware 0.6.0 has just been released. This release focuses on stability rather than new features. The rotary encoder input has been fixed, phase angle control timing interpolation has been introduced, the SPI I/O subsystem has been moved to interrupt context, the remote control input protocol has been extended to RC6, and the DMX online LED now also acts as activity indicator.

So the new firmware has got some nice internal changes and bug fixes, and just few feature enhancements.... read more

Hi,

the 0.5.0 release does not bring any new features in respect to the user interface. But it finally provides official support for FET control (forward and reverse phase angle control, each for active-high and active-low ("inverted") output stages).
A simple schematic for FET control can be found in the Diamond hardware package since release 0.9.6-1.
This release brings many stability and angle range optimisations in the internal phase angle controlling system.... read more

Hi,

the new Diamond firmware 0.4.0 has been released, along with release 0.9.5-2 of the Diamond hardware package.

For a list of new features and bugfixes, check out the ChangeLog.

Have fun!
Mark

Hi,

after having received many requests for the pinout description of the user interface connector of the Semitone Diamond board, I have finally included this into the hardware package (file /docs/connectors).

If you still got questions, you are of course invited to contact me.

Have fun!
Mark

Hi,

the Crystal has got a new mains zero cross detection, which works much better than the simple one in revision 1.0 and before.
A new firmware has been released, which supports this new detection.
If you got problems with your zero cross detection (i.e. your lamp flickers sometimes), you might want to upgrade to the new PCB revision 1.1. In this case you need the new firmware version 0.3.2.
The new firmware has no new features and will NOT run on PCB revision 1.0 and before! Don't update your firmware to 0.3.2 if you want to keep your old PCB design!... read more

Hi,

the 0.3.0 firmware release for the Semitone Diamond dimmer is out! It comes with an extended framebuffer engine which allows more customisable icons.
Also, there's a new screen, which monitors all channels, showing a small slider icon for each channel. Check out the screenshots on the project home page for a preview (icons have slightly changed in the meantime!).

There will be no bugfix for the 0.2.x series, since the fundamental changes in 0.3.x aren't too big. So there's no problem updating to 0.3.x for all of you.... read more

Hi,

the next major release (probably called 0.3.0) of the Semitone Diamond firmware is getting closer. The 0.2.x series will get a last bugfix release and then that's it for 0.2.x.

Also, there are new screenshots of the Diamond LCD at the home page. Have a look.

Mark

Hi,

if you feel able to translate the file strings.h into another language (French, Italian, Spanish, etc. most wanted), please send me contributions.

Thanks very much!

Have fun.
Mark

Salut,

along with the Diamond 0.2.1 firmware update, the schematics have been released. The files contained in the package are in CadSoft Eagle 4.11 (.sch) and Portable Document (.pdf) format.
The schematics mainly correspond with my prototype. Since not all details are tested, it's released under revision number 0.9. If you have comments, please don't hesitate to write me.

Mark

Hi folks,

after months of development I have released the source code of the Semitone Diamond. The schematics will follow soon.

Have fun,
Mark

Hi,

the Semitone Diamond 20 channel dimmer is now officially covered on the project homepage:
http://semitone.sf.net/diamond/

Check out this page for details about the dimmer. Of course, I cannot describe all details of setup menu navigation etc., but I hope to be able to make some pictures as soon as possible, so that you get some idea of how the dimmer works.

Meanwhile, development goes on. The dimmer now supports 50Hz and 60Hz mains frequencies.... read more

Hi,

version 0.1.3 of the Semitone Diamond firmware has just been completed. New features:

Head menu entry to load/store default settings from/to EEPROM (head menu data + timer data).

Runtime language selection. Currently English and German are included. Contributors for other languages, please mail me: <semitone@markh.de>.

For 0.1.4 the RC5 (IR remote) setup needs to be implemented (even the Crystal has one). This will be the first version to be released.... read more

Hi,

the firmware is doing great! After the most important 0.1.0 version, which fixed known issues and introduced scene loading and storing, I have now completed 0.1.1, which has support for timers (along with a new RTC implementation).

Most important (new) features of 0.1.1:

Scenes (currently 10 available) hold brightness values for each channel. Can be loaded with one button press (0..9) or via scenes control screen.... read more

Hi folks,

some more details about the third Semitone model (code name "Diamond"):

The CPU (resp. microcontroller)
Because of the slight difference in the price I decided to develop the firmware for the ATmega32 in favour of the ATmega16. They are pin compatible. So it depends only on the requirements of the final firmware whether you can use the ATmega16 or -32.

The UART protocol
Having enough ROM, RAM and CPU time, I decided to implement a cleartext UART protocol, offering the user the possibility to use any serial communication terminal, or even a simple "echo" call from the commandline, to control the dimmer. This way, the applications can follow a very simple scheme for communication.... read more

Hi folks,

development for the third Semitone model is going on. To ease maintenance of the models, this one will probably replace the Semitone IIX model. Parts of the IIX firmware have been ported and enhanced to work on the new dimmer.
The 3 digit LED display will be replaced by an at least 20x2 characters wide LCD, offering a greatly enhanced user interface.
The used controller is a ATmega16 (easily replaceable by an ATmega32). The dimmer will be able to control 20 channels, using independent fade durations for each channel. Both forward and reverse phase angle control will definitely be implemented on this model.
Also, a new generic UART control protocol will be introduced. An extension for USB (using the FT232BM bridge) is planned.... read more