dba7108 Posted October 22, 2017 Share Posted October 22, 2017 Ive purchased 2 chinese style sharpy moving heads for use in the garden for parties. Can anyone recommend the easiest way to control them? PC or hardware based DMX controller? Your expert advice is welcomed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don Allen Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 The easiest way to control them is to hire a lighting operator ! Cheapest way to control them is to to buy a DMX Desk 192 type of controller as it has 16 channels, if that is enough for your fixture, joystick for pan/tilt movement, preset scenes and chases and sound to light for parties. Cheaper if you get a used controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CPlater1 Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 I would recommend the Chamsys MagicDMX dongle for £10 and will likely do all you need. It is time limited to 5 hours though. The full dongle with no time limit is £70 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 By far the easiest method of controlling two lights is to buy the controller, with built in programmes, for the lamps, . The old NJD system of IQ-MX 40/60/80 controllers provided a range of preloaded patterns for their disco scanner (moving mirror) lights. However you will never get this from cheap disco lights because they don't have the same personality even through a single model. For a low tech plug and play, I'd look for an NJD IQ-MX40 (or 60 or 80) and some NJD lanterns like Datamoons and their moving mirror fixtures up to 250w and link them by a DMX lead. This WILL simply plug and play the pre loaded programmes. For a cheap option I'd get a Chamsys paid dongle and spend time pre-programming some looks and scenes for your lights then build these into an evening's show from a laptop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinE Posted October 23, 2017 Share Posted October 23, 2017 If you're computer savvy I'd get a cheap chinese DMX dongle from ebay and then download Freestyler freeware from their website to make a few programs. That way you're not going overboard with expenditure and if you get on with the software you might find it useful for any other lights you might want in the future. Those chinese sharpys can mop-up DMX channels which might make using a cheap scanmaster-style 12-fader controller rather tedious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dba7108 Posted October 23, 2017 Author Share Posted October 23, 2017 One of the heads turned up today - by god its noisy! The vibration off it does not sound/feel right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleah Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 If they are just for house party / disco type use, could you not just let the built-in shows do their thing? (Assuming they have built-in programs) I've found that quite often the built-in shows in disco lights are far better than anything I could program! :** laughs out loud **: Ad-hoc blackouts would be the only difficulty..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Ad-hoc blackouts would be the only difficulty..... Unexpected sharpy beam in the face would also be a problem... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alistermorton Posted October 24, 2017 Share Posted October 24, 2017 Although given lasers in the eye are part and parcel of the disco experience, perhaps that's just to be expected ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaareolai Posted November 5, 2017 Share Posted November 5, 2017 One of the heads turned up today - by god its noisy! The vibration off it does not sound/feel right! I have installed several Sharpy 7R (230W) alike fixtures. On some of them I have soldered in a 5W 45 to 90-ish Ohm resistor in series with one or more of the fans, just to take the full speed pitch noise out of them. Seems like the lower price is based on cheaper fans going constantly at full speed/voltage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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