RDM development cost

[A.S.A.T]

Hello,


I would like to know whether the development of a DMX/RDM program is free to use and sell. I mean if I made my own RDM program, can I sell it or I have to pay for somebody ? Any document for that ? Any limitation ?



What I found is that I have to ask for my own ID (https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/working_groups/CP/mfctrIDs.php) for free, but what about the rest...


Thank you in advance

[sblair]

Hello, welcome to the RDM forums!

There are no licensing requirements related to the RDM protocol itself (ANSI E1.20). You are free to market and distribute anything you develop as you see fit, no documentation or limitations apply.

While there is no licensing requirements related to RDM itself, it is always possible that individuals or companies may have patented specific implementation embodiments or features that utilize RDM but there is no such thing as any kind of patent pool you have to license such as other technologies (i.e. MPEG) in order to implement and sell products using RDM. I am also not personally aware of any patents that would broadly impact RDM implementation.

A good resource for doing any research on lighting industry patents is: https://www.mikewoodconsulting.com/p...nts_search.php

Hope this helps answer your question.

[A.S.A.T]

Hello Scott,


Thanks a lot for your reply, it is clear and helpful.


Is there any RDM document or ready library (preferable Arduino) that you can share to start with ?


Regards

[sblair]

The RDM standard (ANSI E1.20) as well as all the ESTA standards (including, RDMnet, sACN, E1.37 RDM messages suite) can be freely downloaded here: https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php

There's a number of open source projects out there but I'm not familiar with all of them. The most well known one is https://www.openlighting.org/ and can easily be run on a Raspberry Pi I know.