DMX DMX Hardware Thread

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With DMX, there are some things that everyone can use. I use the scene buttons on my Obey 40 to set all lights to one of 8 colors .. all at once. That has a nice effect when they're all in sync. I have 2 of the Sushi DMX dongles (same as ADJ DMX buddy) .. I'd like to find a nice easy app that would let me make some more 1 touch operations .. like all sound active .. or all slow fade to off .. etc.

I think I have the programming part down .. just have little experience with the software apps.
 
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What I've found is that there is a certain level of lighting use that makes a difference. For small to medium weddings not many of my clients care to have scanners or moving heads. I program what I'm using but with the small lighting setup I have, no one really knows or sees the difference.

Halogen fixtures couldn't just be turned on and off without getting burnt out bulbs. The fans in the fixtures are there to cool off bulbs after dimming them to prevent premature bulb burnout. What I'm getting at is DMX is more important with halogen fixtures. 10+ years ago, DJs using sound active with moving heads (that couldn't be turned off or dimmed) had the problem of their lights strobing or doing way too much at the wrong time. That still happens with LED fixtures in sound active, but they can be turned on and off without worrying about bulbs going bad.

It's still nice to have control of lighting even when using four fixtures IMO. If I want a scene of dim blue it's at my fingertips. Same goes with any scene or chase I have programmed myself (fades, blinking etc.) Programming takes time and clients don't seem to know the difference, but it's still worth the time to me. If my guests see another DJ the next week using sound active mode - that's when they'll see the difference.

I agree with some of this. Even if I use only 2, people seem to love the moving heads. They watch them 'dance' with each other. Scanners, don't really seem to have an impact unless you have a large amount.
 
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HERE'S HOW I'D LIKE YOU TO THINK ABOUT DMX 512

So, while thinking of 512 wires (actually only 3... the software converts all of the packets into a binary signal that gets sorted out in the fixture), think of that one slider having 255 possible positions along that slider. So, as you move the slider into any one of the 255 positions, you are changing something within that particular channel on that fixture. When they build fixtures, they pre-set "parameters" within each fixture, to respond to the input signal from the controller.

Let's say, you have a 4 channel scanner. Channel one may be "pan". That is the mirror moving back and forth. Channel two may be "tilt", with the mirror moving up and down. Channel three may be shutter and lamp. and channel four may be color and gobo.

So, if you have the fixture set to the correct "address", you will be able to turn the mirror in any position you want with channels one and two, and turn on the lamp to your desired color with channels three and four. Keep in mind that every fixture has different parameters for each channel and function, so, every fixture responds differently depending on which slider you are moving. The important thing to remember is that each channel parameter changes only that design function in 255 different possibilities.

Here's what I mean by that: lets say that you want to move the mirror to the center of the dance floor. So, you'll have to move the first slider to correspond to the horizontal position, and the second slider to a vertical position. As you move slider one, you will notice the mirror moving back and forth. Lets say that the center of this dance floor requires position 172 to line up with the center of the floor, but you may notice that the light isn't on, and you have no idea where the light will shine out in the room. So, turn on the lamp slider.

I like to find the lamp channel slider first, so I can visually see what the light display is doing. As you move slider three, you are changing something on the lamp channel. Depending on that particular fixture, you might have lamp intensity, or strobe (for example). Now that the lamp is on, and you have moved channel one to position 172 along the slide path, you can then bring slider two to a position that brings the light from the wall, down onto the dance floor... lets say position 88 on channel two. Now you want to change it from a white light to a red light. Moving channel four will change the colors. On your instruction sheet, you will notice the "parameters" of each channel listed something like this: CH. 4 - 0-50 white; 51-86 red; 87-125 blue; 126-198 green; 199-255 multicolor mode. If you desire a red light in the middle of the dance floor, you'll have to set channel four at 51-86 along the path of that channel slider. You'll notice that the moment you hit position 51 the white light changes to red, and stays red until you hit position 87. When I'm programming a show, I like to go "mid-way" between ( pick "70"), so that a slight bump of the slider won't change the color.

Next lesson will explain setting addresses...
 
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Slight correction ... 256 positions .. 0-255.
 
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So, while thinking of 512 wires (actually only 3... the software converts all of the packets into a binary signal that gets sorted out in the fixture), think of that one slider having 255 possible positions along that slider. So, as you move the slider into any one of the 255 positions, you are changing something within that particular channel on that fixture. When they build fixtures, they pre-set "parameters" within each fixture, to respond to the input signal from the controller.

Let's say, you have a 4 channel scanner. Channel one may be "pan". That is the mirror moving back and forth. Channel two may be "tilt", with the mirror moving up and down. Channel three may be shutter and lamp. and channel four may be color and gobo.

So, if you have the fixture set to the correct "address", you will be able to turn the mirror in any position you want with channels one and two, and turn on the lamp to your desired color with channels three and four. Keep in mind that every fixture has different parameters for each channel and function, so, every fixture responds differently depending on which slider you are moving. The important thing to remember is that each channel parameter changes only that design function in 255 different possibilities.

Here's what I mean by that: lets say that you want to move the mirror to the center of the dance floor. So, you'll have to move the first slider to correspond to the horizontal position, and the second slider to a vertical position. As you move slider one, you will notice the mirror moving back and forth. Lets say that the center of this dance floor requires position 172 to line up with the center of the floor, but you may notice that the light isn't on, and you have no idea where the light will shine out in the room. So, turn on the lamp slider.

I like to find the lamp channel slider first, so I can visually see what the light display is doing. As you move slider three, you are changing something on the lamp channel. Depending on that particular fixture, you might have lamp intensity, or strobe (for example). Now that the lamp is on, and you have moved channel one to position 172 along the slide path, you can then bring slider two to a position that brings the light from the wall, down onto the dance floor... lets say position 88 on channel two. Now you want to change it from a white light to a red light. Moving channel four will change the colors. On your instruction sheet, you will notice the "parameters" of each channel listed something like this: CH. 4 - 0-50 white; 51-86 red; 87-125 blue; 126-198 green; 199-255 multicolor mode. If you desire a red light in the middle of the dance floor, you'll have to set channel four at 51-86 along the path of that channel slider. You'll notice that the moment you hit position 51 the white light changes to red, and stays red until you hit position 87. When I'm programming a show, I like to go "mid-way" between ( pick "70"), so that a slight bump of the slider won't change the color.

Next lesson will explain setting addresses...

I get this.
 
@Tyrone Blue I owned dmxbook.com for 9 years. We were going to do a joint project of some sort before things got fubared. I just let the domain expire in January. It's in the redemption period I can snatch it back if you want to put up a site to sell your book. Your a fountain of knowledge on DMX and appreciate you sharing it with our members.

Sounds like there's enough interest for a stand alone DMX forum. I throw one up. If in 6 months - a year it's tumbleweeds I'll fold it into the lighting forum.

Edit:

Here's the new DMX forum ----> DMX Lighting and Controllers
 
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ADDRESSING FIXTURES

On your normal 12 fixture controller... you are allowed to have 192 channel sliders. I'll get to how they do that later, but you have to have each slider represent one address. Just like you letter carrier knows which mailbox to put your letters into... your controller needs to do the same thing.
Older fixtures used "dip switches" that were turned on or off. Doing so, created a "binary address" with zeros and ones to obtain the fixture address. Newer fixtures are going to digital addressing. It's a lot easier to get you your desired address with the digital displays. I will also explain dip switch addressing later too.

On your typical 12 fixture controller there are 12 buttons over on the left of the face. They used to be labeled "Scanner Buttons" but sometimes are now labeled "Fixture Buttons". Since this controller has 12 buttons and allows 192 channels, that works out to each scanner button controlling 16 channels.

Scanner button #1 controls DMX channel 1 through 16. Nothing you can do will change that. When you are controlling, using button #1, this is the default values that can't be changed. Then, fixture button #2 controls DMX channels 17 through 32. And... button #3 controls DMX channels 33 through 48... and so on to button #12 controlling DMX channels 177 through 192. I label my hardware controllers with a piece of tape so I remember the channel parameters (image below).

So, if you are going to use a 4 channel fixture as in our above scanner example, you'll need to address your scanner at address "ONE", and you'll be controlling it with "Scanner Button" #1. Now, you could control this scanner with any of the buttons... but you'd have to set the address of your scanner (fixture) to correspond to that button. If you wanted to control your scanner with button #2, you'd have to set your address in the scanner at DMX address 17. Look at the below picture, and you'll know what address to set into each scanner (fixture) to know which button will control that fixture.

This is basically how you run a DMX show. I will now go back to the beginning of my book, and post pages in the order that I wrote them, with pictures to explain what I'm doing. I'll post one page each time I visit the forum, and wait for any questions. HERE WE GO...
 

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DO NOT use XLR cable

when running a DMX system. In some cases, it will work, but the shielding and resistance is different. I once use 20 cables in a set up and it took me hours to figure out there was one XLR cable in the run, that destroyed the signal path. In fact, I got rid of all my XLRs and only use DMX cable... even with my sound system. I might get yelled at by a sound guy for doing that, but it works, and I never worry about my cables now. You can also purchase "DMX compatible" cables that are used in both cases. There are retailers that will make them for you and guarantee them for life.

If you require XLR cables... then, mark them with tape so you don't mix them up. I also use colored tape to show me the length of my cables... blue tape for 15 footers, red tape for 30 footers... etc.
 

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While "terminators" are not required,

you'll discover that a terminator will fix a lot of transmission and interference issues. They cost about 5 bucks and should be installed on the last fixture in you chain of fixtures. They also help prevent "bounce back" of signals. This is the end of my first lesson...
 

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Correct me if I'm wrong, because you're using this controller and it's restrained to 16 channels per fixture, you could only control 12 fixtures because you would run out of addresses to control anything else.
 
Good question... you can use as many fixtures as you want that totals up to 192 channels. I will get into that in length in the DMX forum as I get further into my book... but... there are 16 channels available on each of the 12 buttons. If you are using 4 channel fixtures, for example, you can use four of these fixtures on one button... which totals 16. I call that process "cheating" and explain it in more detail later.

So, you could actually control 48 fixtures if they were four channel fixtures... or 192 one channel fixtures. While this controller claims to be a 12 fixture controller, you can actually get a lot more fixtures working independently if you arrange your channels and buttons correctly. Make sense? There are lots of tricks I'll teach you!
 
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My issue with DMX is the lack of consistency of channel assignment per fixture. Probably not as much of an issue with drag-n-drop software DMX, but on my Obey 40, I'd like the most often used features on the 1st 8 faders .. and relatively similar. It's a pain in the rump to re-map physical sliders for each fixture just so I can get fader 1 to be a mode control, fader 2 for dimming, etc. (or similar).
 
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The beauty of using SOFTWARE, is that you can control your fixtures without going back and forth and back and forth and back and forth with your buttons and sliders on the hardware controller. If you all want, I'll do a software forum after I finish this one. DON'T jump ahead...
 
Welcome to the new DMX forum I moved the current thread here and left it stickied

Thanks @Big Dan
 
Steve... if I understand your comment, you state that each manufacturer assigns different channels for different functions. Wouldn't it be nice if every different fixture had pan and tilt on channels one and two, and color on 3 and lamp on four and focus on 5. Yeah... that's an issue when you have 6 or 8 fixtures, and each of them are all different... I hate that.

And, you call them "faders"... I call them "sliders" one is potato and one is patattoo... still works.