Grum Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Hi Peeps, Does anyone know of a single universe stand alone soft pach device? When my venue was installed instead of wiring things properly they solved any problems with the soft patch on the desk. That's not a problem until you want to use a different desk, running through our desk works fine until you try to use moving lights because our old ETC impression just can't process the incomming DMX fast enough. I know there are ways round this but a lot of visiting LD's can't understand why when they plug something into circuit 103 they don't just have to patch DMX no 103 I've tried giving them a copy of the soft patch but it doesn't really help. Please can someone help???? Thanks in advance, Grum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 What dimmers are you using? It may be possible to do the softpatch at the dimmer end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Brian was working on a device that may be suitable last year - maybe you should PM him and find out what state the project is in, as he may well have a saleable version by now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glyn Edwards Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Artistic Licence produce a "Cue-Patch" unit that solves many of these problems. It combines a small DMX splitter with a full soft patch and one or two other useful bits and pieces. It's available in both single and double universe versions and wasn't horrendously expensive when we brought ours about two and a half years ago (to solve a very similar issue). PM me for more details. Glyn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 Peter: The dimmers are Zero 88 LTC's and don't have a soft patch Tomo: Brian who? Glyn: Artistic licence now only sell the two universe version which lists at £1895 which is a little too much (great product but a bit too much) Thanks for the suggestions guys keep 'em comming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Re-label the sockets? ;) Re-wire the demux outputs to the correct channels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 Tomo: Brian who?Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 howabout using DMX over eathernet , eg http://www.pathwayconnect.com/ these units come out at aprox £375 list each, so if you get one dubble in and a dubble out you get 2 universes for £750 you could allways get a 3rd and leave your house desk connected all the time and a spare dubble for any visiting desks henny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted February 5, 2006 Author Share Posted February 5, 2006 I'd never use ethernet. I've installed several ethernet systems and (in my experience) they're nothing but trouble. Besides from the looks of it those products wouldn't do what I need. All I need is to soft pacth ONE DMX universe i.e. re configure the DMX so that the desk channels and circuits are 1 to 1 and take the soft patch out of the desk. The last thing I want to do is convert my DMX to ethernet so that I can re-convert it back to DMX in 20 metres. Too many boxes playing with the signal, your signal chain's only as good as its weakest link and the fewer links there are the less chance there is of one of them failing in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted February 5, 2006 Share Posted February 5, 2006 thoes boxes can patch any channel on any universe to any other on a per channel or block basis , and with only 1 universe you would only need 1 box one with an in and a out , once setup , static ip ect all it would need is power it wouldent atchulley need a network conection. also you would be futureproofing your system ready for ACN any way a box that willl do what you want http://www.enttec.com/datagate.php ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben.suffolk Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 I suspect I could write some new firmware for my USBDMX interface to do the job. The only snag I see with it in its current form is :- 1. You would need to configure it via a computer as it has no UI built in. 2. You would need to add some power as its bus powered from the USB. (simple enough) Ben [Edited to fix link] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Coker Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 I may have missed something here, but relabelling the dimmer sockets would seem by no means a daft suggestion.I assume the issue is that there is a "house" soft patch - that is, the Number 1 LX bar has dimmers 1, 2, 17,93, ect, and has been softpatched to be Control 1- 12 consecutively, for example. Is not the answer just to "park" the house patch when a show comes in, so the LD can enter the new patch, and reload it again after the show has gone? Newbury CX use to have a house patch that was always a drag and I adopted the above when I toured there.Apologies if I've missed the point, let me know what the solution is. Cheers Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 Apologies if I've missed the point, let me know what the solution is. As I read it, your solution is fine for the house desk, the problem really gets interesting when someone tours in with a different one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted February 6, 2006 Share Posted February 6, 2006 thoes boxes can patch any channel on any universe to any other on a per channel or block basis , and with only 1 universe you would only need 1 box one with an in and a out , once setup , static ip ect all it would need is power it wouldent atchulley need a network conection. also you would be futureproofing your system ready for ACN any way a box that willl do what you want http://www.enttec.com/datagate.php ian I did not think the Enttec DataGate did softpatching.... I know it does mergers etc, but AFAIK there is no way to softpatch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grum Posted February 6, 2006 Author Share Posted February 6, 2006 Ken: You've got that right but re-numbering the sockets is going to be a real pain in the back-side (I like plugging a spider into dimmers 71-76 I don't want to have to remember six random dimmer numbers) Andrew: Got it in one mate, the problem is only when we have a show that is using our dimmers with their desk. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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