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Old desk to record lighting set up = Strand 200


simondeskuser

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I have use of a Strand Lighting console 200. It is old, but still in use. The present user is retiring and I hope to take over, but want to use it with a DMX512 controller through a desktop app, MagicQ, which Ihave. I have seen it used on another theatre lighting rig, so expect it to work for me. However, there is no flash drive to record the settings and then transfer them to the computer controller. If I have got the wrong end of this problem I would like to know! Preferably I would like to know exactly what flash card I must get as the slot is a little larger than I know from current readers and where I might get one. "Max 32M" is all the information I have, which may be out of date, but the desk may not read something different.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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no need for a flash card as all the settings can be written down analogue style with a pen and paper,even if you did manage to get the correct card its very doubtful they'll be anything useful that chamsys can read without the faf of file conversion,all you really need to know is the patch anyway.
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Simon - please can you give a better idea of what you are trying to do? Alister has it bang on as I read you were planning to use your own Chamsys + dongle probably, whereas read literally it sounds like you want to use the Strand 200 to control Chamsys which I don't think is possible (at least not easily).

 

What does the Strand 200 currently control and how? If just dimmers, are they connected directly using DMX or via a demux (to convert to analogue). Are there any "intelligent" lighting fixtures - LEDs, movers, smoke, haze etc to worry about? If just dimmers, then there is nothing to extract from the existing desk which is worth having unless there is a soft patch, which is probably unlikely. Is this a permanent venue or one which is hired and has to be fitted out from scratch each time? Is it a church hall or a theatre? Is the lighting currently very simple lights up and lights down or something more sophisticated? There is such a wide variation of possibilities that making your parameters clear would mean others could help you more precisely.

 

As a starting point, if I were you I think I would be looking at doing my first show in charge alongside the retiring LD and using the Strand 200 - unless there are production reasons to do otherwise. This is how you can find out what is setup and where and anything special which needs to be done at that particular venue. Once you are confident, then does the Strand 200 do the job it needs to do - yes or no or maybe because it limits what is possible with the rig we have (for example). This is how you can make a qualified judgement about whether or not you need to do something different urgently or over a period of time.

 

As far as Chamsys MagicQ is concerned, you could certainly run a decent show with a PC + the £10 dongle (single universe of DMX) or better. You can even attend the free two day class at Chamsys in Southampton and play with a similar setup to the one you have in mind with James there to guide you. You might want to consider a touch screen and/or a simple Chamsys PC wing to make it easier to use, but you wouldn't have to have these on day one.

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Indeed.

Assuming the 200 is one of the originals, it is just a 12/24 channel simple desk which unless there is a magic way of using its outputs via a DMX merger or some such (and I seriously doubt it would do it) you can't do what you want to I'm afraid.

 

 

 

 

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You want to retire the Strand 200 and replace it with MagicQ and an output dongle of some kind? Or you want to, in some way, combine the 200 and MagicQ in the same system? Your question is not clear in that respect.

 

Regarding memory cards - Strand 200 takes an old-fashioned Compact Flash card, but it's pointless giving any more thought to that. Even if you found one, the only thing you'd be able to transfer the desk data into is another Strand 200 - it's meaningless to any other hardware.

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