Bryson Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 http://www.dmxprojects.com/images/DSCF0004.JPG Is that 3-pin XLR I spy there? You're a bad man. <_< Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boatman Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 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 Hi Tom, I recently had a very similar problem to yours. I was in a venue where there were some PAR cans with installed dimmers high up in a sports hall. The only available connection was the end of a DMX cable. The DMX channels happened to conflict with those in use on the touring kit and so the PAR cans were unusable and the dimmers were unreachable with the particular cherry picker we had access to. This set me to thinking along the same lines as you, so I'm going to build a box with a single DMX input and two outputs. Each output will be separately addressable so that the selected DMX slot will be the first data slot on that output. For example if switch associated with channel 1 is set to 65 then slot 65 from the input stream will appear as slot 1 on that output stream. I haven't thought about which is best, but there are two options for the end of the DMX frame. Once slot 512 is reached on the input data, the output stream can either roll over to slot 1 and continue or just send empty slots. The only disadvantage of this idea is that there will be a whole DMX frame delay between input and output. Does that sound like what you need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben.suffolk Posted September 14, 2007 Share Posted September 14, 2007 Is that 3-pin XLR I spy there? You're a bad man. <_<When I made the post I was thinking, maybe I should comment on the 3 pin XLR before somebody does :P Yes its there, but it was what was requested by the customer B-) Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Robertson Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 DMX Grelco I think this sounds like a great idea.My studio venue has only 72 dimmers and how often do I need 73 or 74? I then start pairing and a couple of these DMX grelcos would just solve a host of problems. It would save me running in Distro to put in a temp rack, when all the power is already there just a way or two of dimming missing.I think this is an excellent idea. Kev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LXbydesign Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 heres a usefull one. maybe it allready excists but its not 'lighting' as such but DMX controlled varispeed house tabs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 No, no, no. For all sorts of reasons, DMX is not suitable as a control means for moving large physical objects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Q Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 How about DMX operated cue lights? You could programme stand bys and goes into a cue on the lx desk.... save the stage manager having to do everything at once during tricky cueing sequences.... (Forgive me if they already exist... I've personally never seen them) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryson Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 But how would the LX operator know when to press Go? From his cue lights? :) "Man, this thing has been on standby for AGES!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Q Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 But how would the LX operator know when to press Go? From his cue lights? :) "Man, this thing has been on standby for AGES!" The stage manager would obviously still call the show... wouldn't want anyone out of a job now, would we? It would just be another cue in the book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iamchristuffin Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 Well, the DSM could have a desk of their own! Just press go instead of lots of standby switches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew C Posted September 15, 2007 Share Posted September 15, 2007 If using ETC (possibly others) a remote "Macro Go" button, set to advance a cue stack or start a sequence of timed changes could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BenHowitt Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 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 :P bloody good idea :** laughs out loud **: atrociously ugly toy for 20p = cast members who couldn't find the light even if god came and spoke to them in the middle of an evangelical service. just my opinion of actors. apologies to any actors Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottmcleod Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 This has already been done. NorthernLighting (???) in the USA has already released a DMX > 8ch Servo Control. You can rig servos to do just about anything, and even a HUGE beefy servo won't cost you more than 40$ The board itself was 50$. You'll need a power source and Y-cable for the servos (20$, at most?) There we go. Anywhere from 100$ (1ch), to 450$ (8ch) of physical control. Do a search online. The device exists. I own one. It's going to be a remote pan/tilt adjust for my projector, as well as the physical shutter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roryfm Posted June 12, 2008 Author Share Posted June 12, 2008 Wow, some serious thread necromancy going on here. This was part of the research (2 years ago) before I started my third year engineering project, not only have I finished it, I've also started and finished my Masters project as well. As I appear not to have concluded things nicely the project morphed into a bizarre forage into wireless networking programmed in assembler (not fun - nor too successful from my point of view), and bore little relation to the initial ideas due to pandering to what my supervisor thought I was doing, as opposed to what I had proposed. The Tx/Rx link did not make it to final testing within the time limit (and due to the Uni only having one 802.11 wireless dev kit making stand alone Tx/Rx rather tricky) but gave me lots to write about. Either way I ended up with a first at Bachelor level, and have now completed my Masters (results in a week's time) Thanks again to all who helped (including those late to the party) feel free to continue listing any ideas for any poor electronics enthusiast with time on their hands (and a desire to make toast from a distance) cheers roryfm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maeterlinck Posted June 12, 2008 Share Posted June 12, 2008 Just never seen a box marketed as something that can do what I said.. I know the main party is a little over now, but having got the reminder email and refreshed my memory I noticed this question. To answer the XTBA Smart Merge sounds like it would solve these problems. Multiple inputs, one output and each input can be given an offset. So In1 could be 0 offset, where as In2 could be 100 so in effect its values were x+100.We've got some in my theatre, all very good solid kit.HTH Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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