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DMX gadgets - what would you want them to do?


roryfm

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Some sort of DMX 're-transmitter'..

 

For example: In house LX rig of movers/dimmers is a pain to re address, but the show I'm bringing in has everything pre set to DMX addresses, so I can't just re address my gear & for some reason I've not been able to bring my pearl with its many universes that I could just patch the fixtures on whatever addresses they were set to..

 

So, what'd be great is I could plug them into a DMX splitter of sorts that allows me to offset the address by 100 or 400, etc or whatever I like on the desk, so the desk spits out DMX info at that starting address, then re-jigs the data so it comes out at whatever the right address. Obviously have more than one output or a through, so I could just put this between the output of the desk and the DMX line going to the 'touring dimmers/MLs'.

 

So 4 in house scans. unit 1 - DMX address 1, unit 2 - DMX address 5, and so on. I plug the DMX line that goes to them into this 'magic box' and it gets the data from the desk where ive patched the units at 101 & 105 and so on. The box then gets that DMX data all being 100 or whatever I made it, off of the addresses set on the units and then sends it to the units at the right address's.

 

IMO that'd be a great tool. Would find it very useful. If there's something on the market like that already, would very much appreciate it if someone could point it out to me. If there isn't.. well.. I'd be happy to be given some info on who to approach.

 

Hopefully people can understand what I'm trying to get at. Admittedly it is late so I could be typing rubbish!

 

Tom

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Some sort of DMX 're-transmitter'....

 

IMO that'd be a great tool. Would find it very useful. If there's something on the market like that already, would very much appreciate it if someone could point it out to me. If there isn't.. well.. I'd be happy to be given some info on who to approach.

Nothing here that would do it? It doesn't sound too hard.
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Sounds like what you really need is RDM (which is starting to be rolled out with new fixtures now).

 

With RDM (At least my understanding of it), you can poll each universe, and every fixture sends a response back, you can then do things like change the fixtures address, view lamp hour information etc.

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Problem RDM's not a solution to the problems with existing fixtures...

 

The controllable DMX merge idea has potential to be an answer. Just never seen a box marketed as something that can do what I said..

 

Thanks.

 

Tom

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The controllable DMX merge idea has potential to be an answer. Just never seen a box marketed as something that can do what I said..
Indeed - ETCNet 2 Nodes and Gateways were never marketed as "DMX merge" boxes - but they do it.

Advanced Input Patch allows you to do all kinds of extremely clever things

It's based on 32,766 contiguous channels - there are no 'universes' as such, you just pick where your block of up to 512 channels should start.

 

(You could have one port output 1 to 512, another 2 to 513, another 3 to 50. would be very confusing, but it works)

 

As to the OP:

Maybe you can add sACN netowrk support!

ETC have published free code to handle sACN which you can take and improve upon.

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one thing I'd find useful, would be a DMX servo controller.

I expect they already exist, so possibly something that can output a few other electrical signals. A tone generator might come in handy, as would a one channel demux.

I expect a lot could be done using a picaxe micro controller, I don't know about interpreting the DMX, but it can output almost anything (and has a nice feature for servo control).

 

Matt

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  • 4 months later...

thats a great idea vincent!!

 

the best use for DMX we had once was actually programming a Q into the lighting desk to fire up a non-dim circuit with turned on a coffee maker - already prepared and ready to go!!! , so right at the end of the show - fresh coffee for all to enjoy!!!

 

I did a show once where DMX- controlled window blinds would of been very useful. 5 channels maybe ? -( up, down, open, close, speed) <_<

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The one thing I have always dreamed of is a DMX grelco. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes you just want one half of the grelco to be lit and sometimes both sides now if that was contolable from the desk then imagine the possibilities. I know I am very sad

 

Baz <_<

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My dream would be to have a DMX controllable 'grabber' over the stage. Like the ones you see in fairgrounds and at the seaside where you can win an atrociously ugly toy for 20p a time? Only bigger, and mainly used either to move furniture which has been placed a full 3 feet from it's marks by inept crew, or directly moving cast members who couldn't find the light even if god came and spoke to them in the middle of an evangelical service. Of course it would only be used in extreme circumstances, I'm sure it wouldn't be a case of a queue of technicians all clutching their twenty-pence pieces in their hot little hands. I just hope we could work it out so that the cast member doesn't slip out of the grabber when you've nearly got him where you want him, or the head comes off or anything else that the fairground ones are particularly prone to. Just an idea <_<
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The one thing I have always dreamed of is a DMX grelco. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes you just want one half of the grelco to be lit and sometimes both sides now if that was contolable from the desk then imagine the possibilities. I know I am very sad

 

Baz <_<

 

Well actually....

 

Many years ago a company called LXdesigns developed a few versions of these.

As I recall there was a 2 way version which plugged into a dimmer and changeover of outlet was via DMX. This allowed exactly what you say, either of the sockets "on" or both together.

 

They also produced a four and eight way version which would plug into a circuit on a dimmer rack and you could select, via DMX which output would become live - either a, b, c, d. This would only use one channel of dimming. Excellent for when you're short of dimming and require lots of specials!

 

Give them call although they don't list it on their site they might still be able to manufacture them?

 

EDIT: www.lxdesigns.co.uk

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The one thing I have always dreamed of is a DMX grelco. I know it sounds crazy but sometimes you just want one half of the grelco to be lit and sometimes both sides now if that was contolable from the desk then imagine the possibilities. I know I am very sad

 

I can't see this being all that difficult. Start with my DMX Relay circuit and just add a more powerful relay.

 

I built one with a couple of DIN rail mounted mains relays a few weeks back for somebody as it happens :-

 

http://www.dmxprojects.com/images/DSCF0004.JPG

 

Regards

 

Ben

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