splitting dmx addresses

[adam5365]

A location I am working on and off at have just installed 14 led parcans and wish to install 22 more at a later date taking the total to 36, they wish them all to be controlled individually.

the cans want 6 DMX channels each = 216 DMX channels total required.

the parcans have 7 addressing dipswitches giving a top address of 128.

Is there a unit available that will send two lines of 0to128 DMX channels out from 256 channels in.

EG

 

input channels 0to128 output on line 1

 

 

input channels 129to256 output as 0 to 128 on line 2

 

 

obviously if the split was 0to512 in with two 0 to256 out this would help us out

 

scuse me if the numbers are a bit out, its lateish after an early morning :D

 

hope I have explained what I mean well enough

[eamon]

Hi Adam

 

I found some of the info a bit confusing but I think what you are needing is control desk capable of outputting at least 2 universes of DMX.

 

Some desks allow you to run the "same" numbers down another DMX line to allow you seperate control of same numbered devices.

I.e On port 1 & port 2 you can utlise the same numbers without interfering with each other. Needless to say each desk has their own quirks.

In this case if you ran the existing pars on Port 1 and added the new pars onto Port 2. They would use the same numbers but with a smart softpatch you could arrange seperate control over them.

This is what I mean by a universe of DMX. A parallel universe as such.

 

Any and all desks running DMX should be able to access dimmers up to 512 regardless of channel software limitations

 

You never did say what you are using to control the pars. Is it an installation set up?

 

Am I right?

 

 

Edit for clarity and because I have never used the function!!

[Jivemaster]

If I read you right you need two universes chans 1 - 128 out of a single universe. I have seen merge with offset units, but for offset up, do they do offset down? http://www.xtba.co.uk may have a unit to help

[paulears]

do you already have the desk, and this only has one universe? If you're buying a control too, then most multiple DMX output desks will do what you want. If you are stuck with an exisiting control, then as has been said it is a bit more tricky. Also - does the desk have proper groups/palletes? without them, the maths makes your head spin!

[adam5365]

Thanks guys

The control is via a laptop running smithz abuelites with an enttec open usb dongle.

The cans are permanently installed above the cloth roof lining of the venue to provide a colour wash and maybe some chases and other effects depending on how adventurous the clients are.

Abulites was chosen as we find the faders which will group channels,once programmed well, can be used by almost anyone to busk within a colour scheme.

Yes the maths can be a pain, but before we started the install an excel spreadsheet was created with the channels grouped by function this helps with pre event programming though some colour match tweaks are needed which is relatively easy using the data in the spreadsheet.

 

A thought has just come to me I wonder if abuelites will run two dongles or if there is simalar software that will?

[Ekij]

Do you need to individually address all 36 LED Cans?

If you could set pairs of LED Cans to the same DMX address this would solve your problem for little effort and no money.

[adam5365]

its me again

 

because we split the main room up into smaller sub rooms needing either no light or different colours and need to closely match colours, and also set up chases to run around the ceiling of each sub room, pairing up would reduce the usefullness for us

the avitar (if it shows, is part of the venue before we installed the par cans )

[David A]

can you reassign the existing fixtures at 220 + to free up the lower channels for your LEDs?

[MarkPAman]

can you reassign the existing fixtures at 220 + to free up the lower channels for your LEDs?

As I read it all the fixtures are the same.

[Neil Frazer]

There are a number of different ways to do this.

 

The easiest being get a desk with 2 separate DMX outputs.

 

Another option would be to look at a unit that is capable of soft patching inputs to multiple outputs such as...

 

Artistic licence cue patch

 

or

Pathport

Ive used this and it is simple to setup. Input node, Output node, Network cable between and a PC to do the soft patch.

 

or any number of Art-net or similar DMX to Ethernet products that allow you to do a soft patch. The problem with these is that they are not exactly cheap items.

 

 

The 3rd and personally my favourite option is to phone to manufacturers and ask them what the hell they were thinking

when the produced a DMX fixture that won't address past 128! The Fools!

 

 

(Well I was going to write something inspiring and ground breaking for my 100th post but I guess this will have to do...)

[Ben Langfeld]

The 3rd and personally my favourite option is to phone to manufacturers and ask them what the hell they were thinking

when the produced a DMX fixture that won't address past 128! The Fools!

 

They were obviously thinking they don't want to sell anyone more than 21 units.

[Ekij]

The 3rd and personally my favourite option is to phone to manufacturers and ask them what the hell they were thinking

when the produced a DMX fixture that won't address past 128! The Fools!

They were being cheep. They used all the I/O on the 20 pin chip they are using and didn't have any more for the next address bit (from the dip switches).

Upgrading to a chip with more I/O would have pushed up the cost by possibly 1GBP!

 

It would be relatively easy (for someone with the source code) to do a firmware patch (to half the units) to make the units assume the 128 bit was always true so that the units could select from 129 to 256.

 

My personal preference (for a quick fix that the manufacturer could do, that doesn't add any more cost to the unit) would be to dump the LSB (so your start address is always even) and use the same number of dip switches to select from DXM address 2 to 256.

 

Edit: In this colour

[Jivemaster]

Ask XTBA and Artistic Licence whether they have a unit to downshift chans 129 to 256 from your controller's universe to be 1 to 128 on a separate universe then one programme® does the whole job

[Narf]

I’ve just read this really quickly, but from what I think I understood was that

 

You have 14 led par cans each using 6 channels

And your going to add another 22 to make 36

 

Which would mean you need 216 channels?

 

Well on one universe of DMX you can have 512 channels, so you only need one universe to run all of these cans on individually,

 

You just need to set the dip switches to the correct addresses,

 

I’m also guessing from you description that you have old fashioned dip switches which have the no’s

 

1 2 4 8 16 32 64 128

 

So if you add the switches together you can make any number upto 512,

 

Hope that’s some help

 

Sorry if I’ve miss understood what’s been said,

 

Fran

[paulears]

the snag is, with only 7, not 8 possibilities, he can't use the 128 one, hence the problem