Music fountain program development

Fountains play an increasingly important role in urban landscape construction, especially musical fountains. In order to achieve the effect of attracting people to stop, there must be exquisite control technology and high reliable working performance. This article examines this issue.

1. Control technology of music fountain

1.1 Definition of musical fountain

The musical fountain is a new fountain art form that is generated by applying modern control technology to artificial fountains and combining fountains and music closely through modern control technology. In this art form, music and fountains cooperate with each other in their own unique forms to express the same artistic connotation. Their relationship should be similar to the relationship between music and dance, music and movies, so there are the following about music fountains definition:

Definition: A fountain that has an intrinsic connection between the action of the fountain and the music played at the same time is a musical fountain.

This definition is generally accepted by people, but the fountains that meet this definition have great differences in effect. The difference lies in the completeness of the function of the musical fountain. The reason for the difference in effect is the difference in basic functions. A good musical fountain should have the following basic functions:

1) The function of music control: the spray height of the fountain is affected by the amplitude of the music.

2) Music-associated function: It can make the water type change of the fountain consistent with the paragraph and rhythm of the music.

3) Time-delay compensation function: the actions of all equipment such as fountains, audio systems, and lights are coordinated, and the problem of fountain actions lagging behind the music is compensated.

4) Post-production function of the program: provide an open operation mechanism for the design, debugging, editing, and broadcasting of the fountain. The production of the program should not be completed by the computer engineer of the project contractor before the fountain project is completed, but after the project is completed , allowing users to complete through professional software tools. These two methods can be called the pre-production of the fountain show and the post-production of the fountain show respectively.

Among these functions, the post-production mechanism is important. It plays a key role in ensuring the quality, practicability and applicability of fountain programs. It is the embodiment of humanistic spirit and a substantial progress in fountain control technology. The result is:

1) The repertoire and number of fountain programs are no longer limited.

2) The production of the fountain program has changed from a closed-door process before the completion of the fountain construction to an on-site design after the completion of the fountain.

3) The initiative in the production of fountain programs has changed from the contractor of the fountain project to the operator of the fountain project.

4) The producer of the fountain program has changed from a computer engineer who may not know much about art to a designer or artist who may not understand computer programming language but knows more about art.

1.2 Fountain control technology

There are two basic control methods for controllable artificial fountains: 1) switch control of the waterway through a solenoid valve, this method can be used to switch between different water types, and can also be used to generate running and jumping effects. 2) The flow rate of the water pump is controlled by the frequency converter. This method can continuously change the water spray height, track the dynamic changes of the music signal, and artificially create various dynamic effects.

There are three basic control techniques:

1) Analog control The typical application of analog control is the sound-controlled fountain: the sound signal is integrated, the integrated result is compared with an appropriate threshold, and the comparison result is used to control the opening and closing of the valve. This is the basic technology of the sound-controlled fountain. If there are multiple thresholds used, and each comparison result opens a different valve, this is an advanced sound-controlled fountain. If the integrated sound signal is used to control the frequency converter to control the water flow, and the integrated sound is also a music signal, this is a "music-controlled fountain". Generally, people think that this is the basic mode of the musical fountain.

2) Level control The typical application of program control technology is naturally program-controlled fountains. Almost all of these fountains use industrial PLC (program controller) as controllers. Under the action of the control program, a fountain will have a variety of basic water types, and they will appear in sequence according to the timing cycle. Fountain effects that are popular with users such as moving, jumping, continuing, and alternating are the first to be applied in program-controlled fountains. Program-controlled fountains have a wide range of users. If when designing a program-controlled fountain, the various changing processes of the fountain are associated with the start and stop, paragraph, and rhythm of a piece of music, a "music-related fountain" will appear. Not easy.

3) Computer control The most advanced fountain control method is of course computer control. Computers can easily complete all the functions realized by analog control and program control, and can also realize many functions that are difficult and impossible for them to realize. Computer control is the development direction of fountain control technology. For example, the following technical problems encountered in musical fountains are difficult to solve without relying on computers:

When the amplitude of the music signal controls the height of the water spray, the action of the fountain will lag behind the music signal by 0-2 seconds. The effect of gravity acceleration causes the lag to be a quadratic function of the height of the water spray, which is a random variable. Realizing the synchronization of sound and water has become a lot of music. The core technology of the fountain system.

Due to the limitation of the ladder diagram language of PLC, programming of some complex program-controlled fountains is beyond what one would like, and the musical fountain, which is much more complicated than the program-controlled fountain, is even more powerless.

High-standard music fountain program design requires music and dance professionals to do it, and users who pursue change hope to make fountain programs themselves. To do this, special editing light software tools must be developed.

1.3 Control Technology of Music Fountain

Depending on the technology used, musical fountains can be divided into various categories:

1) The music-activated fountain installs the audio equipment and the program-controlled fountain on the same site, and the fountain is automatically turned on every time a piece of music is played, and the fountain is turned off when the song ends. According to the definition, this kind of fountain with only external start-stop connection and no internal connection is not a musical fountain.

2) Music-controlled fountain This fountain usually uses analog technology to process the music signal, and uses a frequency converter as the executive component. The control circuit of this fountain is simple, and the control effect is obvious. Common problems are low dynamic range, sometimes the spray height is too small, and sometimes the spray height is locked at the maximum value. At the same time, it is also a common problem that the water spray action lags behind the sound.

3) Music-related fountains are music-controlled fountains developed from program-controlled fountains, which usually use PLC or computers. In theory, under the PLC control mode, music and fountains can have a good correlation, but the program production process is very difficult, so only a few fountain programs can be provided to users, and the relationship between water patterns and music is often not very good. The computer control method can be regarded as an improved version of the PLC method, which improves the development environment of the system developer, but from the user's point of view, because there is no suitable program production tool, there is no substantial improvement. C way is similar. The above are some of the more common typical musical fountains with incomplete functions. As users mature, musical fountains with incomplete functions are being eliminated by the market.

4) A complete music fountain must have the following four mechanisms at the same time: the mechanism of music controlling the fountain. Mechanisms associated with music and fountains. Delay compensation mechanism between devices with different response speeds. Post-production mechanics for the Fountain show.

2.The application of fieldbus technology

Fieldbus is one of the hot spots in the development of modern control technology, and it is the crystallization of the development of electronics, instrumentation, computer technology and network technology. Fieldbus is a fully decentralized, fully digital, intelligent, two-way, multi-variable, multi-point, and multi-station communication system used between field devices, instruments, control systems and control rooms. It provides a network according to the ISO OSI standard. Service, high reliability, good stability, strong anti-interference ability, fast communication speed, low cost and low maintenance cost.

2.1 Features of Fieldbus

(1) One-to-N structure: The field bus is a pair of transmission lines, which can be connected to N devices and instruments, and transmit multiple digital signals bidirectionally, as shown in Figure 1. It is simpler than analog equipment, instrument one-to-one wiring, one-way transmission of a signal structure, low installation cost, and convenient maintenance.

(2) High reliability: The functional blocks of the control unit are distributed to field devices and instruments, and the field devices and instruments constitute a control loop, which disperses risks and improves system reliability. Fieldbus is a digital signal transmission with strong anti-interference and high precision.

(3) Interchangeability: Field equipment and instruments from different manufacturers can be interchanged with similar equipment and instruments with the same function, and equipment and instruments of different brands can be interconnected on a network.

(4) Interoperability: Although the manufacturers and brands of field devices and instruments connected to the field bus are different, all manufacturers use the same function blocks due to the introduction of function blocks into field bus devices and instruments. Therefore, the configuration method is uniform and interoperable.

(5) Open Internet: The field bus is an open Internet, which can be interconnected with the same layer network, different layer networks, and different manufacturers' networks. Database sharing on the network. Networks and instruments from different manufacturers can form an open fieldbus control system.

2.2 Application of Fieldbus in Fountain Control System

For the field of fountain control, the biggest advantage of using fieldbus is that it can greatly save connection wires, maintenance and installation costs. At the same time, the fieldbus is capable of communicating multiple process variables. Traditional 4mA-20mA control loops generally only carry one signal, usually the process variable. After using the field bus, while transmitting the variable process, the identifiers of equipment and instruments and simple diagnostic information can also be transmitted together. The accuracy of the digital signal is another advantage of the field bus. The resolution of the digital signal is higher than that of the 4mA-20mA analog signal. Therefore, the error generated in the analog/digital conversion in the past can be eliminated. Remote maintenance will also become possible after adopting digital communication and on-site intelligent equipment and instruments. Since the field bus is bidirectional, it is possible to calibrate, adjust, and diagnose field smart instruments from the central control room, and even predict failures before they occur. A more important aspect is that the compatibility of instruments can greatly benefit users. .

Due to the above-mentioned advantages, the author adopts the field bus technology in the fountain control system developed. The control of spotlights and water spray valves adopts the scheme shown in Figure 2, that is, the PC controls the PLC through 232/485-485/232, and then the PLC controls the lights and valves through solid relays.

The control of the frequency converter of the water pump adopts the scheme shown in Figure 3, that is, the PC controls the frequency converter through 232/485-485, and then the frequency converter controls the water pump.

Judging from the actual effect of the control system, the system is simple in construction, high in reliability and maintainability, and is well received by users.

3. Future prospects of fountain control technology

In terms of function: there will be some high-end fountains that have all the characteristics of a complete musical fountain, and at the same time have other outstanding features. For example, fine spectrum analysis of music signals is required; some interactive functions are required, and the scale of the project is required to be huge, etc. At the low end there will be some small and cheap home musical fountains. In terms of control method: the system relying on PC in the high-end system will continue to develop, and the system without PC in the low-end system will be invented, so that the musical fountain can enter the home as soon as possible, and the closed-loop control system in large-scale systems will be widely used.

The above are the details of the musical fountain solution introduced by Shenzhen Zuchuang Microelectronics Co., Ltd. for you. If you have the development and design needs of the musical fountain controller, you can rest assured to entrust it to us. We have rich experience in custom development of electronic products, and can evaluate the development cycle and IC price as soon as possible, and can also calculate the PCBA quotation. We are a number of chip agents at home and abroad: Songhan, Yingguang, Jieli, Ankai, Quanzhi, realtek, with MCU, voice IC, Bluetooth IC and module, wifi module. Our development capabilities cover PCB design, single-chip microcomputer development, Bluetooth technology development, software customization development, APP customization development, WeChat official account development and other hardware and software design. It can also undertake the research and development of smart electronic products, the design of household appliances, the development of beauty equipment, the development of Internet of Things applications, the design of smart home solutions, the development of TWS earphones, the development of Bluetooth earphone speakers, the development of children's toys, and the development of electronic education products.