timsabre

I've been working on quite a few amateur theatrical shows this year, due to cost we usually only have one day in the theatre before first show. Capture is an amazing tool for letting you experiment with different lighting designs so you can go into the theatre with a rigging plan fairly confident that the design will work. But... for some reason and I don't know if it's just my screen or something, Source 4 profiles just seem to be mega bright compared to everything else. If I have a simulated 1k CP62 par can next to a simulated 750W source 4 26 degrees, they look the same brightness, whereas in real life the par can is much brighter. 1K fres's like a Selecon Rama look really weedy compared to the s4. I have to keep remembering that the S4's are really not as bright in real life as they appear in Capture - my first design with Capture I didn't put enough FOH lighting in because of this. Anyone else noticed this? Is there a way to adjust or is it something in the fixture definitions?

The diamond 7 has a better zoom range, it goes down to 6 degrees which gives a nice intense finger of light in the air. Rogue is 11 degrees min. Also on the diamond 7 you can control each of the 7 leds individually for pixel patterns, I don't believe that you can do this on the Rogue. Of course none of that may be relevant for your use. I've not had them side by side so not sure how they compare for brightness or movement speed.

But wouldn't you need different front panel hardware for each console type? Familiarity with the knobs and buttons is what makes you quick on a console. Otherwise you could just run the sim software on a touchscreen. Most consoles have a pc version.

Or are you thinking of having physical faders? I made a remote for our xr16 with real faders using an akai midimix going into a vb.net app which then sent osc commands over network to the xr16. With a small change it also controlled an x32. Should be easily doable on a pi in python or something. The osc protocol is well documented. You could also run Mixing Station to give control the more complex stuff.

Sounds like maybe triacs not being driven to on state. You normally measure 240v on an unloaded dimmer whether it's on or off, due to leakage through the snubber.

The 3pin/5pin fixtures are a great idea, as long as you don't try to use them as splitters. A shame some newer fixtures have gone to 5pin only.

Let's not get into using 3/5 pin fixture sockets as splitters. I constantly have to stop people doing that on events.

I presume you mean the outer diameter of the wire is 1mm. Normally if you say "1mm cable" it would refer to the cross sectional area of the copper in the cable. That would be extremely thick for a stepper motor cable. Does the existing cable go directly into the motor? On most barrel type effects it's just the normal motor wires which are nothing special.

That's how rs485 works... Every device is just a "drop" off a single line, there is no "in" and "out". RDM would not work any other way. Even on the units with both 3 pin and 5 pin connectors, they are all just linked together inside.

All DMX fixtures have their in and out terminals wired together, not just cheap ones. That's standard.

If you are talking about those plug in wireless DMX devices, like an extended XLR barrel, they can be transmitter or receiver. If they detect some DMX coming into them, they switch to transmit mode. So your rogue device was probably in stand-alone mode and transmitting an internal light show which was blocking the DMX being sent to the other units.

Would feeding the power in from both ends mitigate this? Might do. It's a problem I've only come across a few times. The other fun problem is if you have tape on a metal structure it's quite easy to get a connection from the tape onto the metalwork, either the 5V or the ground. That can cause some unexpected behaviour. What can be done to protect things? All you can do is break it down into smaller chunks with smaller power supplies. I am always a bit nervous using large power supplies like that as there is the potential to create a lot of heat in a fault situation. E.g. if you get a short near the end of a 5m tape the PSU might keep driving into the tape since the power tracks are relatively thin and there's quite a bit of resistance. The tape will get very hot but the PSU will just keep on going.

The 800khz control signal will travel quite a long way (10s of metres). You should not need to convert it to rs485. You can blow up the data input to the first led on the tape but just cut it off and start with the 2nd one. What can be a problem with long runs of tape is the ground voltage gradually rises up due to volt drop. When you refeed the power this can muck up the logic levels and the 2nd run of tape can be unreliable. Pmiller is right about the fuse, the psu will just go into protect before it blows if you put a dead short on. However you can make lots of smoke and possibly fire if you get a low resistance across the psu.

You will need to feed the power again at the 5m point. On all the tape I've used the colours go funny after 5m due to voltage drop.

Actually it'll still work fine... just with a little added scatter. And not so good on gobos. But for general FOH lighting you will not be able to tell.

No 1/4W will be fine. Hardly any current will be flowing through the resistors so very little power dissipation.

You're going to struggle to get anything decent with that price, that's only £250 each I would recommend you look at Prolights Studiocob, they are 60 degree with optional 30 and 15 degree optics. A PC or Fresnel will go tighter than that though, I would not describe these as suitable for "Long throw" even with the 15deg lens on.Output is as good as CP62 in vivid colours but not as good in white / pastel colours. https://www.ac-et.com/product/prolights-studio-cob-led-par-range/ If you want something which works like a 1K PC or Fresnel you'll need to spend quite a bit more.

Keep up, hsl bought by US company 4wall a few weeks after that post in March.

Local theatre has Altman Spectra Cyc units, I'd never heard of them but they are amazing, give lovely even wash from a few feet away. 8 units cover a 40ft stage. Having spent a lot of time previously trying to get a smooth light with battens I was impressed.

He's already undone the grub screws. It's stuck on the shaft.

Wigwam are not so far away and very experienced in church sound. https://www.sseaudiogroup.com/wigwam/home You don't say what has been done so far but on a 10K job the installation company should be doing plenty of hand-holding to get the system working as desired.

I am not sure if this was intentional yorkshire lingo for an 'uddersfield venue or phone keyboard problems but it made me laugh. Everything in Yorkshire is done on t' cheap.

Sounds like dodgy wiring in the LED fixture is putting a voltage on the DMX line and thence through the USB-DMX into your laptop. The earth connection on the monitor is then completing the circuit. Be careful as you can easily start damaging things (including yourself) with this type of situation. You need to check out that fixture.

I use the simple screen (48 faders) on the MagicQ software, you do need to buy the £10 dongle

I would argue that isn't a job for an expensive tester though, buy one of those behringer test things. I agree that I rarely use a DMX tester on a gig, usually because in the time taken to go get it and set it up, you can swap out or patch round the problem. I have used one on installs a few times.