12 Volt trigger for NAD-D3020 amplifier

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Update 3 January 2021 – mention that I am now using Tasmota firmware.

Update 26 February 2023 – I have followed this up with a PCB version that also includes a button and a 12 Volt input trigger for switching the 12 Volt output trigger.

The NAD D3020 is a hybrid digital audio amplifier with a combination of analog and digital inputs. I have been using it for quite some years now to play the sound of my Samsung smart TV over the living room speakers and for digital radio, iTunes and Spotify from my Mac mini. The Samsung is connected with an optical Toslink cable, the Mac mini is connected with a USB cable.

In the way the D3020 is placed in our media cabinet, its on/off button is not so easy to access. The D3020 remote control is really crappy and I find it anyway annoying to have to use multiple remotes to switch the power of all devices. Also, the status LEDs of the D3020 are dim and got considerably worse over time, especially for the OPT1 and the USB inputs that are for the TV and the Mac mini, and hence on most of the time. I guess that it uses OLEDs, which have degraded over time. Consequently, it happened quite often that we forgot to switch the amplifier off for the night.

However, the D3020 features a 12V trigger input port which allows the amplifier to be switched automatically on/off along with other gear. Of course, neither TV nor the Mac mini has a 12V output port, but both are connected to my home network; hence it is possible to detect over the network whether these are powered on.

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Timing and jitter in DMX512 signals

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My previous post on building an Art-Net to DMX interface using an ESP8266 seems to be getting a lot of attention. However, from the comments it is clear that a lot of people that build it themselves have difficulties to get it to work, or don’t get it to work at all. This post investigates this in more detail.

We have not been using these interfaces in our performances for quite some time, and started wondering whether there is something wrong my firmware. My implementation goes back to April 2017. Over the course of time there have been some updates to my code. Furthermore, the Arduino IDE has been updated, as well as the ESP8266 core for Arduino.

Recently I received all three interfaces back that I had built for my 1+1=3 collaborators and decided to update the firmware and to test them. One of them did not work at all due to a broken connection between the power supply and the Wemos D1 mini; two of them started just fine. After fixing the broken wire and updating the firmware on all three of them; they started up just fine, showing the green light (indicating a connection to the WiFi network) and on the monitor page of the web interface I cold see that Art-Net packets were being received. However, with my DMX controlled light it did not work at all.

Testing and initial diagnosis

Using an Enttec Open DMX interface and the very nice JV Lightning DmxControl software (which supports both Art-Net and the Enttec Open DMX), I set out to debug the issue. Since DMX is all about timing, I connected my DS203 mini oscilloscope to pin 2 and 3 of the DMX connector.

I found detailed schematic information about the timing of the DMX protocol on this page. Searching for oscilloscope images of DMX signals, I also found this page with information.

Comparing the output voltage with the DMX512 schematics, it became clear that something was wrong in the signal. To make it easier to see the full signal on the oscilloscope, I configured only three DMX output channels, all set to zero. The oscilloscope shows 5 similar blocks; changing the value for DMX channel 1, I see that the 3rd block changes – that is apparently the first channel. Prior to that should be a “start code” with value 0, so the last 4 blocks make sense. But the first block is too short; there is also a very short pulse all the way at the start which does not match the specification.

Output voltage with the initial firmware:

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Touch-proof enclosure for OpenBCI

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The OpenBCI Cyton and Ganglion boards are open hardware and maker-friendly biosensing systems. Although there are alternatives, such as Bitalino and OpenEEG and some companies and/or projects are currently working on new hardware (see e.g. EEG.io), the OpenBCI boards are in my opinion at this moment still the best.

The maker-friendlyness of the OpenBCI boards is somehow also a disadvantage: the OpenBCI systems come as bare PCB boards with a Dupont-style header. OpenBCI (the company) focusses on using it in combination with dry electrodes mounted in a 3D printed headset. I personally don’t value dry electrodes that much; I don’t see the problem with a little bit of gel in the participants hair, and I don’t like the pressure needed on dry electrodes to provide a decent signal. Electrodes with gel or Ten20 paste usually provide better and more robust signal quality. However, it depends on the situation: dry (or saline, like the Emotiv Epoc) electrodes are great if you quickly want to swap the EEG system from one participant to the other.

For the 1+1=3 performances using the EEGsynth setup, we not only use EEG recorded from the scalp, but also EMG recorded from muscle and ECG recordings from the heart. The standard in research and clinical applications is to use touch-proof connectors, technically known as DIN 42802 connectors. These are available in many versions, such as cup electrodes for EEG and snap electrodes for EGC and EMG.

The Dupont-style headers are ubiquitous in the Arduino scene, therefore I previously designed an 8-channel head-mounted system based on a sweat band with the amplifier mounted at the back. It is comfortable and works quite well during performances, but it is still a bit fragile, especially when replacing the battery (see below). Furthermore, after prolonged use the gold-plating of the electrodes wears off, and replacing the electrodes is a hassle. The advantage of touch-proof connector is that it is much easier to switch between different types (cup versus stick-on) and to replace worn-out electrodes. I guess this is also one of the motivations for OpenBCI also selling a Touch Proof Electrode Adapter. Connecting the adapter to the correct pins of the 11×2 header is not trivial, and results in a relatively fragile and bulky setup, i.e. not ideal in demonstrations/performances where I want stuff to be robust.

Another issue that I have with the OpenBCI boards is that they use a two-pin JST connector to connect the LiPo battery to the board. These JST connectors are not designed for frequent connect/disconnect cycles. To disconnect the battery for recharging, you have to pull the cable and I have accidentally pulled off the header from the cable more than once…

Based on these experiences I decided to make an enclosure for the OpenBCI boards that is robust in performance/demonstration settings, that uses touch-proof connectors so that it can be used with EEG/EMG/ECG equally well, that is compatible both with the Cyton and Ganglion, and that includes an easy to charge LiPo battery.

The 8-channel Cyton board exposes a lot of the flexibility of the ADS1299 analog frontend like common reference versus bipolar, and normal ground versus active bias, but I typically use it with a common reference and the normal ground. Consequently it needs 10 connectors (8x active, REF, GND). The Ganglion board has 4 channels and can be configured with jumpers for either unipolar and bipolar reference schemes. It hence needs 6 (4x active + common REF + GND) electrode connectors, or 9 (4x active + 4x bipolar REF + GND) electrode connectors. An enclosure design with 10 connectors (4x active, 4x bipolar REF, 1x common REF and 1x GND) therefore supports both reference schemes for the Ganglion.

The external dimensions of the enclosure are 100x100x30 mm. The height is needed for the 10 connectors, but also has the advantage that it should be possible to mount a WiFi shield on top of the board.

The internals of the enclosure are shown here. At the top you see a 850 mAh LiPo battery, connected to a LiPo charger/protector module with micro-USB connector. The on/off switch is this one and the LED is 5 mm diameter. I used a RGB LED, since that was the only that I had available, but I am only using a single color (green) connected through 470 Ohm resistor to the on/off switch. Both the OpenBCI board inside and the lid are secured with 2.5 mm screws. I purchased the touch-proof connectors from Medcat; these are actually the most expensive component of the enclosure.

Here you can see it with the OpenBCI board mounted, but still without the leads between the OpenBCI header and the touch-proof connectors.

The 3D design for the enclosure can be downloaded in STL format or as Fusion 360 project from ThingiVerse.

PCB etching with HCl and H2O2

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As my electronics designs are getting more complex and my patience for soldering air-wires for all connections on a perfboard is decreasing, I started looking into making my own PCBs. Although there are professional PCB fabrication companies that are not very expensive, I am not so confident yet with my Eagle PCB design skills. Hence I decided to start fabricating some simple PCB boards myself to get a better insight in all aspects relevant for PCB boards.

Reading about the different options for etching PCBs, and following a instruction evening organized at the Hackerspace Nijmegen on using a small CNC mill for PCB fabrication, I opted for toner transfer using a laser printer and using HCl and H2O2 as described here.

My first attempt was with 10% HCl from the local hardware store (dat zeg ik, Gamma!) and 3% peroxide from the drugstore. Directly following mixing, etching went OK-ish, but rather slow. It took some 10 minutes for the 1-sided PCB board to be clean. The etchant turned into a nice green color. The second time (a month later) the etchant would not really work any more, and th ePCB only got dark. Rejuvenating the solution with some additional H2O2 as per instruction did not change anything. I guess the concentrations were too low, and after a few hours I abandoned the attempt and took the board out.

For the second attempt I ordered 30% Hcl and 10% peroxide in an online store. Using my old etchant solution, I diluted the H2O2 to approximately 3% and mixed that with the HCl in a 2:1 ratio (adding the acid to the HO2O, to prevent a strong exothermic reaction). I popped in my board (from the previous attempt, which had gotten quite dark). The result was a very nice etching process. The process was clearly visible and there were no bubbles.

You can see that half of the copper of the PCB board has been etched away

The result of the etching is quite nice.

Resulting PCB board. It is about 2×3 cm large and will contain a 6 pin DIP optocoupler with some resistors and a diode to implement a MIDI filter.

I am happy with the result of the etching. The ill-defined traces on the board are due to poor toner transfer; I had to make some corrections with a permanent marker (fine liner) on the board. Measuring the connection between all pads revealed that there was one short-circuit (on the left side of the board). I was able to remove that with an x-acto knife.

The next time I will design the traces in Eagle to be slightly wider and to have more space between them. In the Eagle design rules I used a 6 mil minimum trace width (the default), and a 12 mil clearance. And I have to practice more with the toner transfer… to be continued.

Restoring the AT firmware on the ESP8266

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Most of the time I am using Wemos D1 mini development boards in combination with the Arduino IDE to make my own firmware to run directly on the ESP8266 chip. But I also have some bare ESP-01 and ESP-12 modules lying around, and recently I came up with the plan to use one of them.

The specific project requires very well controlled timing of an ADC, for which I will use a regular ATmega328P-based Arduino board. In this project the ESP8266 will only be used to transmit the data over WiFi. Neither my ESP-01, not my ESP-12 still have the original AT firmware, since I have been experimenting with various other firmwares.

This is where the challenge starts, since my plan required restoring my ESP-12 to the AT firmware and use a library like ESP8266wifi or WiFiEsp. I realize that I have been struggling with different firmwares before, hence this post to give a short review and to keep some notes for my own future reference.

Module form factor

The ESP8266 microchip comes on various development boards that include an USB interface, such as the Wemos D1 Mini and the NodeMCU board, but also as bare modules such as the ESP-01, 02, etc. This page on the ESP8266 wiki has an overview of all modules and this page has comparison of some of the raw modules with some of the development boards.

ESP-01 module:

ESP-12 module:

Flash memory capacity

Besides the number of GPIO pins that is exposed by each of the modules, another important feature is their flash memory capacity. The AI-Thinker website has a module list table that includes this. The ESP-01 module comes with 512kB flash (old modules) or 1MB (now more common). The ESP-12 module comes with 4MB. Note that there are development boards such as the Wemos D1 mini pro that even have more.

Firmware

As the ESP8266 is nowadays fully supported in the Arduino IDE, I prefer to develop my own custom firmware for the ESP8266 using C/C++ and the Arduino IDE and libraries. So the most confusing aspect of the ESP8266 for me is that there are multiple “standard” firmwares available for it, which I often accidentally confuse. These include

  • The AT firmware, comparable to the Hayes command set on old modems.
  • The NodeMCU firmware, which includes a LUA interpreter.
  • The MicroPython firmware, which includes a Python interpreter.
  • The Espruino firmware, which includes a JavaScript interpreter.

For the firmware options that include a Python or a JavaScript interpreter it should be mentioned that there are other versions from other companies/projects.

The NodeMCU project is more centrally managed/organized and includes a website where you can compile customized firmwares with support for specific hardware add-ons.

Restoring the AT firmware

To flash the firmware to an ESP8266, you will need to wire it up and get it in the right boot loader mode. There are many online tutorials for this and I won’t elaborate here. You will also need software to write the new firmware, I am exclusively using esptool.py.

I tried various options to flash my ESP-12 with the original firmware, most of which failed. The challenge is to figure out which firmware is compatible with my specific module, and to which flash memory locations to write the different pieces of the firmware. In the next section I will describe three things that worked, going from the oldest to most recent firmware versions.

Following the instructions here and using a rather obscure version of the firmware contained in a single binary file from here, I had success with:

esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x00000 v0.9.2.2\ AT\ Firmware.bin

Subsequently I was able to connect in a terminal program with 9600 bps and got

[System Ready, Vendor:www.ai-thinker.com]
AT+GMR

0018000902

OK

Using the old AT firmware from Espressif itself with the “Offical ESP8266 AT+ Commands” from their old GitHub repository I was also able to get it to work with:

esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x00000 boot_v1.1.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x01000 newest/user1.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x7C000 esp_init_data_default.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x7E000 blank.bin

Subsequently I was able to connect in a terminal program with 115200 bps and got

ready
AT+GMR

00200.9.4

OK

The Espressif ESP8266 SDK Getting Started Guide contains the most recent information about the layout of the flash memory. Using the 2.2.1 release from the Espressif NONOS_SDK repository and

esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x00000 boot_v1.2.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x01000 at/512+512/user1.1024.new.2.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x7C000 esp_init_data_default_v05.bin
esptool.py --port /dev/tty.usbserial-FTG54BPS --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_mode dio 0x7E000 blank.bin

I also had success and was able to connect in a terminal program with 115200 bps. This resulted in the following response

ready
AT+GMR
AT version:1.6.2.0(Apr 13 2018 11:10:59)
SDK version:2.2.1(6ab97e9)
compile time:Jun 7 2018 19:34:26
Bin version(Wroom 02):1.6.2

I did not have success with the 3.0 release from the Espressif NONOS_SDK repository. That one does not have the “512+512” directory, only the “1024+1024” directory, which I could not get to work on my ESP-12. Suggestions to make this work are welcome.

Motion capture system

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For the EEGsynth project I have developed a full-body 8-channel motion capture system. It is based on the MPU9250 9-DOF inertial motion unit, which contains a three-axis accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer. I have combined this with the Madgwick AHRS algorithm, which takes the raw sensor data and computes the yaw, pitch and roll.

The design is based on one battery operated main unit that is worn for example in a Fanny pack around the waist, and up to 8 sensors that are attached to the arms, legs, etc.

The main unit contains a Wemos D1 mini, which is based on the ESP8266 module. It uses the TCA9548 I2C multiplexer to connect a maximum of 8 MPU9250 sensors.

The data from the IMU sensors is streamed using the Open Sound Control (OSC) format. The sampling rate that can be achieved with one sensor is around 200 Hz, the sampling rate for 8 sensors is around 60 Hz.

For initial configuration of the WiFi network it uses WiFiManager. After connecting to my local WiFi network, it has a web-server through which the configuration can be set, which includes the number of sensors and the destination host and port for the OSC UDP packets.

For the IMUs I am using MPU9250 modules that I purchased on Ebay for about 3 USD each.The MPU9250 units fit very nicely in a Hammond 1551MINI enclosure.

I designed the enclosure for the main unit in Fusion360 and printed it on my Prusa I3 MK3 3-D printer. I made two motion capture systems so far, one with black and one with white PLA filament.

The Arduino sketch and more technical documentation can be found here on GitHub.

First steps with a €20 single-channel EEG system

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My friend Vladimir recently demonstrated a single-channel EEG system that he got at a hackathon in London. When he mentioned that it only costs €20 (or actually 20 GBP to be more precisely) I immediately decided to order one myself. The ICI-BCI system is a low cost open source brain computer interface.

The bag clearly and rightfully indicates that it is a totally experimental system, and that it should be used with caution.

The basic idea of the amplifier is that it takes an 1000 Hz analog audio signal from the computer or mobile phone, which is amplitude modulated by the ExG signal and subsequently fed back as microphone signal. So the system is fully analog and requires the DAC to be done by the audio input of the computer or phone.

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Configuring Multitech MDOT for TTN

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I have a Multitech MDOT-BOX for testing. Configuring it for TTN requires the following connection to a computer, after which AT commands can be used to probe and set parameters. The following resets the MDOT to factory defaults and shows the configuration overview.

AT&F
AT&V

Firmware: 		2.0.0
Library : 		0.0.9-14-g4845711
Device ID:		00:80:00:00:00:00:b3:76
Frequency Band:		FB_868
Public Network:		off
Network Address:	00000000
Network ID:		6c:4e:ef:66:f4:79:86:a6
Network ID Passphrase:	MultiTech
Network Key:		1f.33.a1.70.a5.f1.fd.a0.ab.69.7a.ae.2b.95.91.6b
Network Key Passphrase:	MultiTech
Network Session Key:	00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00
Data Session Key:	00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00.00
Network Join Mode:	OTA
Tx Data Rate:		SF_7
Tx Power:		11
Log Level:		6
Maximum Size:		242
Minimum Size:		11
Maximum Power:		20
Minimum Power:		2
Data:			0

After adding a device to application page on the TTN console with OTA activation, the following identifiers/keys are listed on the TTN console page for the device

Device EUI
Application EUI
App Key
Device Address
Network Session Key
App Session Key

From the Multitech documentation: In OTA mode, the device only needs to be configured with a network name (+NI=1,name) and network passphrase (+NK=1,passphrase). The network session key, data session key, and network address are all automatically configured.

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EEG combined with VR

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We recently had a meeting at the Astron radio telescope for the COGITO project with Daniela de Paulis, Stephen Whitmarsh, Guillaume Dumas and others. One of the goals of that meeting was to try out the combination of the EEG system with the Oculus Rift VR system.

For the COGITO project we are using the GTec Nautilus EEG system. Our specific system comprises of a 32-channel wireless amplifier that mounts on the back of the EEG cap, in combination with EEG caps in three different sizes. The caps have 64 holes at a subset of the  locations of the 5% electrode placement standard. We are not using the “Sahara” dry electrode option, but rather the regular wet electrodes.

We started by removing all electrodes and cups from the cap, to get a clear view on which electrode sites are accessible. The central electrode locations (i.e. the z-line), temporal electrode locations and occipital electrode locations are occluded by the VR head mount. But there are still plenty of electrode locations accessible.

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Art-Net to DMX512 with ESP8266

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Update 3 Sept 2022 – the code has moved to its own esp8266_artnet_dmx512 repository to improve the timing and jitter with I2S (following this comment).

Update 1 August 2019 – added the connectors to the list of components.

Update 4 July 2019 – You may also want to check out this instructable, which describes a more sophisticated ESP8266-based solution.

Update 6 April 2019 – I wrote a follow up post on the timing and jitter in DMX512 signals and fixed a bug in the firmware.

Update 26 May 2017 – added photo’s of second exemplar and screen shots of web interface for OTA.

Professional stage and theatre lighting fixtures are mainly controlled over DMX512. To allow a convenient interface between the EEGsynth and this type of professional lighting systems, I built an Artnet-to-DMX512 converter. It quite closely follows the design of my Artnet-to-Neopixel LED strip module.

Let me first show the finished product. It has a 5 pin XLR connector, a 2.1 mm power connector, and a multi-color status LED:

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