LC2412 DMX addresses

[Gerry]

Hi

Just bought and started to use a LC2412.

I have slider 10 assigned to DMX address 10 controlling dimmer 10.

Last night dimmer 10 started to give a very good impression of a flickering fire light B-)

Slider 11 assigned to DMX 11 and dimmer 11 is currently not used.

I can replug the lantern into dimmer 11.

Is there any easy way of assigning slider 10 to DMX address 11 controlling dimmer 11?

Saves me having to go through each memory that used slider 10 and change it to slider 11.

As I see it, and I hope I`m wrong, is that since DMX address 11 is assigned to slider 11 then I can`t assign it to slider 10.

Cheers

Gerry

[Chris Beesley]

The flickering effect you are seeing is due to the budget Analogue to Digital converters used inside the desk ... most of the LC2412 desks show this (including the one I use)

 

chris

(non-CPC post)

[Gerry]

The flickering effect you are seeing is due to the budget Analogue to Digital converters used inside the desk ... most of the LC2412 desks show this (including the one I use)

 

chris

(non-CPC post)

Ouch :)

Wish I knew this before I bought it.

A lot of flickering lasst night at the dress rehersal, first night tonight.

Looks as if a LC2412 is totally unusable for theatre applications, OK for flashing disco lights.

Cheers

Gerry

[Neil Hampson]

For all of it's faults, I have not yet come across this problem (yet). As far as I remember you can re-patch any of the channels to any DMX the restriction being that there can only be 3 DMX addresses to a channel:

Press the 'Utility 2', select 'DMXPATCH' by pressing 'Softkey A' to assign DMX 11 to Fader 10 press the flashkey for fader 10, then press 'Softkey B' to release the DMX10, then scroll the wheel to DMX 11 and press the 'Softkey A' to assign the fader to the DMX . I can't remember whether or not you need to release DMX11 from fader 11 first (as you obviously can't control one address from two faders.) Press 'Quit to exit the editor

[bruce]

Funny you should mention this - I was using a LC2412 last night, driving a couple of alphapaks and a couple of soundlab budget dimmers. All was fine until I broke the DMX chain in the middle and inserted an extra soundlab dimmer and 2x 20m DMX extensions. Then I got very similar results - one of the channels on an Alphapack flashed randomly, and things at the end of the DMX chain didn't work at all.

 

It looked very like a cabling fault, as bypassing the extra cabling removed the problem, and sure enough it turned out that the "home made" DMX extensions that I had borrowed had been wired wrongly, with the twisted +/- pairs connected to pins 1/2, and ground on 3. So it seemed Ok when tested with multimeter, but was no use for data transfer.

[mac.calder]

One thing to watch out for is that some desks - when recording scenes actually snapshot the DMX output instead of fader levels, so changing the soft-patch will not solve your problem.

 

And you are correct in your assumptions. 99.9% of desks (I would say 100% except there is probably a manufacturer out there which does allow it) will not assign the same DMX channel to multiple faders (after all, that is pointless), however you can assign multiple DMX addresses to the same fader. Desks usually default to a 1:1 patch - so when you want to softpatch, you normally have to clear the patch then assign each fader (1=1,2=2,10=11 etc)

[Headlong]

... will not assign the same DMX channel to multiple faders (after all, that is pointless)

Not as pointless as you may think. We have a roadie that operates our LC2412 but he is not, by any means, a lampy. I programme up the scenes for him and he recalls the patches. We have replaced our par cans with LED fixtures and I wanted to have control over the RBG channels of the fixtures for progamming purposes, plus also put a combined R+G+B signal onto a single fader so that he can bring up certain individual fixtures as spotlights for solos etc. I know he can do this by bringing up RG&B for a fixture, but I bet it goes horribly wrong! With a single fader he can't forget a channel!

 

However, the LC2412 simply doesn't allow this option, or at least I can't make it happen so far!

 

BTW, does the LC2412 snapshot the DMX outputs when recording scenes? (I suspect not as it does have an analogue output too) If so, I can set my scenes then scrub the DMX-fader assignments and then re-assign them and perhaps get around it that way?

[mac.calder]

<SNIP>

However, the LC2412 simply doesn't allow this option, or at least I can't make it happen so far!

 

It is a rather simple thing to do - you record a scene with all three channels at 100%, assign that scene to a fader. It does exactly the same thing except it does not involve wasting channels (And let's face it, lack of channels is usually the major issue with smaller desks).

[Headlong]

I know I could do that, but surely to add this assignment into a scene our roadie would have to turn off insert and bring the assigned fader up. If so would he then be unable to recall other scenes during this time until the insert function was turned back on, at which point it would recall the last scene recalled (a single spotlight) before the insert was pressed? I suspect he'd also forget to restore the insert function and would simply contine to add scenes together!

[mac.calder]

I don't know the desk - but that is how I often build scenes on other desks - that said, personally I doubt someone would get too confused when told they have to push up three faders for the RGB lights...

[Gerry]

The flickering effect you are seeing is due to the budget Analogue to Digital converters used inside the desk ... most of the LC2412 desks show this (including the one I use)

 

chris

(non-CPC post)

Ouch ;)

Wish I knew this before I bought it.

A lot of flickering lasst night at the dress rehersal, first night tonight.

Looks as if a LC2412 is totally unusable for theatre applications, OK for flashing disco lights.

Cheers

Gerry

The desk, and dimmers, worked pefectly on show nights :-)

No sign of any flickers.

I now live in Spain, When I had the "flickers" a small band was performing in the bar area. I now wonder whether or not they were causing interference in some way?

Cheers

Gerry