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The Colorstrips are well-known for not handling high-speed DMX signals, which causes them to flicker periodically. Without knowing the DMX rate the Elation controller sends, you may or may not have this problem as it occurs with just a small number of consoles. Just something to be aware of, in case you get them up and running, and find a flickering problem.

thanks a million for the advice, i will stick to the 8051 since i am a bit firmiliar  with the code( C assembler, C compiler and Turbo C) but i think TurboC will be better since i can change it to HEX file and upload to the 8051

i just need 3 channels so i think the 8051 is best for the job

once again thanks a lot

It is easily possible to do PWM on a PIC chip, and many PICs have support for two channels of PWM in hardware, which makes PWM generation particularly simple; just stuff a few registers and off it goes.

However. most lighting implementations want more than two channels and/or want a lower cost device, so PWM is done in software.

PICs can be programmed using free assembler language tools for Microchip themselves, and a google search will turn up plenty of code to receive DMX512 and do PWM in assembler.  There are C compilers available, probably the best known being the CCS C compiler, but it is not free.

You can use an 8051 or derivitive to do the job, or a Cypress PSoC, or a Parallex propellor (probably an excellent choice for this application as it can do many PWM channels - up to 32 I think - and the dev tools are free) or indeed pretty much any processor as even the most humble processor available this centrury has enough grunt to do what is a fairly simple computational job.

I am trying to design a simple LED light which can be controlled by dmx512 signal to give out different colors. i have the MAX485 chip for the input to my project( university final year project) and now i am not sure if i can use the 8051 to do the job, that is, to be able to use dip-switches for address setting and be able to get 3 pulse width modulations frm the 8051 to my LED cicuit. i have heard of PIC microntrollers but am not sure which one is best. are these PIC microcontrollers programmable with simple C compilers or they are self programmable? Please help.

My guess is its just the lasers drifting, and thus no amount of terminating, unterminating, or changing controllers is likely to make any difference.

Another thing to add, if you unplug the power on the individual laser it will reset itself but in no time unalign itself again. Also if anyones wondering, I am using a terminator so its not a data problem.

Not sure about your first problem however you should get a terminator- you can buy them (I got mine on eBay) or alternatively you can do the soldering yourself. Getting this will stop any data error and it only costs a couple of quid so in the long run its definitely worth it. 

ok... I have wired up 2 double lasers and 2 scanners to my dmx pad. Now the problem is, after a while of programming, running scenes or whatever, both lasers unaline themselves. For example one of the lasers on one of the double lasers may go slightly to the left or whatever. This happens on both lasers but not the scanners. How odd.... Anyway this problem has occurred before with a different controll pad although it was the same make and model although I bought them both new. Can anyone please help as it is doing my head in! 
Cheers. 

Hey all, I'm new to the Forum. I have purchased a DMX512 interface from Velleman
but do not quite understand how it works? Had intended to use it with a RGB
laser with 10 channels and with the supplied software DMX-Lightplay. have done
as it says in the manual for the laser, "If you turn 10 to OFF the device is in
DMX mode. Set the DMX address and connect the device to a controller". I have
set 10 to off and 1 to on is this right?? or should I leave all dip-switch at
off.

And do I need a DMX terminator? I use none now.

LED fixtures (or movers) should never be plugged into a standard dimmer outlet, but pluged directly into "proper" power, often called "hard" power.  Even at full output a dimmer channel is still chopping the waveform slightly, and if you accidently dim to the power to the fixture then bad things can happen to the fixture.

LED fixtures take a hard power feed, and a DMX512 feed, and you control the fixture using DMX512 control directly.  There are no dimmers involved, which saves your dimmers for fixtures that are supposed to be dimmed.