Addressable light dimmer and addressing system

DETAILED DESCRIPTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronically addressable device that can be used with a DMX protocol system and the address of the device can be set remotely using the DMX protocol controller.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for using a DMX protocol controller to remotely set the addresses of any number of connected devices.
Accordingly, the invention has a,,DMX protocol control, or code generating, system having up to 512 control channels with at least one channel connected to an addressable light dimmer or other device to be controlled.
Multiple devices can be controlled by a single DMX protocol controller using the individual channels to send control signals to a specific light dimmer or other device.
Each light dimmer or device being controlled by the DMX protocol controller has an electronic circuit which can interpret DMX control signals.
Each light dimmer has an electronic address which is set and is preferably unique to that device.
The electronic address setting determines which of the 512 channels of control information the dimmer or device will take instructions from, while ignoring instructions on other channels.
Previously, the electronic address of addressable light dimmers and devices has been set using manual DIP switches on an exterior panel.
Thus, once the device is positioned or mounted on a stage set, its address may not be easily changed if access to the device is restricted.
According to the invention, the electronic address for each device can be set electronically using a combination of keypress commands and a control signal from the DMX protocol controller.
The keypress commands, which may be made manually on the device or with a remote control, instruct the device to enter an address set, or programming, mode.
Then, all of the DMX channels except for the channel that will address the device are set to zero level.
That is, to set the address of the device to 30, DMX protocol controller channel 30 is the only channel not set to zero