analogue and dmx

[enbee]

I'm currently using a sirius 24. outputs are DMX and 8 pin din.

In the venue I will be in on sunday evening they have a built in rig. I will need to be wiring into the installed dimmers which are 8 pin. I have also managed to shamelessly blag four mac 300's.

 

can I control the macs from my desk?

can I control both the macs and the dimmers from my desk at the same time?

 

any help would be appreciated

[Ike]

How many channels will you be wanting for the dimmers? With three movers they will get eaten up very quickly.

You can use any DMX desk for movers, it just takes a bit of thought when programming and operating.

I think the sirius outputs on the analogs and DMX simultaneously so you can operate both dimmers and movers at the same time however you still only have 24 channels.

[smeggie]

in short, yes.

in long, yes but...

 

you will only ever have 24 channels to play with so you could (if it was a rock show) get away with the macs being paired across the stage with the same DMX addy but with 1/2 the stage reversing pan.

 

how many dimmers do you need to use -you can use the macs in 'brute force' mode with one channel for each feature (pan, tilt, gel, gobo?, fx, dimmer/strobe)

 

then also try to program the whole show ages before.

 

all the best

andrew

[wodp]

I looked at the DMX specs for the mac, shame you can't do it in 5 channel (like budget scanners). Needing 3 channels just to set colour can be a real pain.

 

Dave

[peter]

I looked at the DMX specs for the mac, shame you can't do it in 5 channel (like budget scanners). Needing 3 channels just to set colour can be a real pain.

 

Dave

You could do a careful softpatch onto the Sirrius and work the DMX in a similar way to 5 channel scans:

 

If you split the macs down to their attributes, you could patch all 3 fixed colour wheels (one from each mac) to one fader on the sirrius. You could do the same with each of the CYM mix wheels, the shutter channel (you'll definatly need that, as you have to set it to around 14 to get any light out), dimmer, etc.

 

Using this system instead of 3 Mac 300s taking up 39 DMX channels, you could get away with:

-3 Fixed colour wheels

-3 C

-3 Y

-3 M

-3 Shutters

-3 Dimmers

-Pan Mac1

-Tilt Mac1

-Pan Mac2

-Tilt Mac2

-Pan Mac3

-Tilt Mac3

 

12 Channels, leaving you 12 channels for generics.

 

 

Hope this helps

 

 

Peter

[Stu]

It's certainly easier to use wash movers on a HTP only desk as your less likely to have them wizzing about, but instead, laying down washes onto the stage - hence you probably only need to play around with the colours.

 

I think your potential downfall is the fact a Sirius only has 6 submasters :blink:

 

Good Luck!

Stu

[wodp]

Or if you could borrow it mebbe have a laptop w/ DMX interface handling the mac300s? You could prolly go as far as have some piece of live software handling 3 macs like the kinda thing you could knock up in vb in a couple of hours!

 

Dave

[benweblight]

maplins sell a cheap interface ofr a tower pc, if oyu right software urself

[themadhippy]

I think your potential downfall is the fact a Sirius only has 6 submasters

Ah but with a bit of thought you can get 8,6 subs,a one step chase in the fx bit and another in the memory, and if yer realy keen theres also the A+B faders and tapeing down the flash buttons can get you to 11

[enbee]

cheers for all the help and advice people

 

gig went allright

 

I used my sirius to control the fixed lights and borrowed-without-permission my mates fat frog.

 

unfortunatly I needed 16 channels just for dimmers so I couldn't fit the macs on but thanks for the advice I'm sure it will be useful in the future

[SceneMaster]

maplins sell a cheap interface ofr a tower pc, if oyu right software urself

You will find that this card is pain to program from vb but because of the mscomm but if you know how to do it it would be great to hear form you.