LED pixel mapping over Art-Net or sACN, for free

An LED strip or matrix on an Art-Net or sACN controller shows whatever part of the picture you lay it on: the kick of a drum loop, the edge of a projection-mapped wall, a spectrum of the music. Phosphor does this from the same window that plays the clips.

1. The hardware

An Art-Net or sACN pixel controller (Advatek, ENTTEC, Falcon, a WLED board, a Raspberry Pi running a pixel server) on the same network as the Mac, with the strips wired to it and its universes set. Phosphor talks to it over the network; no DMX interface on the Mac is needed.

2. Place the fixtures on the picture

In the LED / DMX panel add a fixture: a strip (so many pixels along a line you drag over the picture) or a matrix (rows × columns in a rectangle). Each pixel samples the picture under it on the GPU every frame. Set the pixel order (RGB, GRB, RGBW…), the start universe and channel; Phosphor fills universes in order and shows what the controller should expect.

3. Send it

Pick Art-Net or sACN and the controller's address (or broadcast), choose a frame rate (lights rarely need more than 30 or 40 fps), and turn the output on. The panel shows the universes going out. Nothing is sent while the output is off, and the sampling pass only runs while fixtures exist.

4. Make the picture for the lights

Anything on the canvas feeds the lights: clips, the Spectrum Bars and Waveform generators following the music, a solid colour layer with React on it, a gradient sweep on the beat. With AUTO tempo follow and Auto show the lights run themselves. The projector outputs and the LEDs see the same picture, so a mapped wall and the strip along its edge stay in step.

5. Save the venue

Venue presets store outputs, surfaces and fixtures for a room, so a return visit is one click.

Questions

More: projection mapping step by step · installations that run themselves · coming from MadMapper