Add Dimmers to DMX Adddress to Run Scans

[catchthebuzz]

Hi All

 

Thanks for your amazing advice from before. I have gone from knowing nothing to knowing a little more than nothing...** laughs out loud **. For me, that's excellent. OK...I finally got my Chauvet DMX55 board that I am trying out to recognize my four Chauvet Intimidator 1 scans. I have been able to create scenes and chases, which is more than I could do before.

 

Here is my problem: I want to add two Chauvet DMX4 dimmer packs to the configuration. I will then plug each of the scans into the dimmer channels or should I leave the scans at their own address and just control the pars from the dimmer packs? The reason I want to incorporate the dimmers is that I still have some standard par cans that I want to use at the same time and I want to be able to control everything from one board. I currently have the four scans running on dipswitches 1...1/5...1/6...1/5/6 and everything is working fine. When I want to set the dimmers, they don't have dip switches. The dimmer packs have an LED setting that goes from A000 to A512, which I assume are the 512 channels of DMX. How would I address the dimmers so that they will control the scans as well or again, should I leave the scanners alone and just run my pars from the dimmers??? Any advice you could give me on configuartion would be appreciated!

 

Here are the details for my controller, dimmers and scans:

 

DMX55 Light Controller

Features

Universal DMX-512 controller

Controls up to 12 intelligent lights of up to 16 channels each

30 banks of 8 scenes, 240 scenes max

192 DMX channels of control

6 sets of chases containing 240 scenes

Reversible sliders

Sequential linking of chases

Assignable joystick

Removable rubber edge guard

Fog & strobe control buttons

Grab any fixture on the fly

Beat activation, tap-sync and auto run

Polarity selector

3-space 19" rack mount or table-top mount

MIDI compatible

Override button

 

Chauvet DMX-4 Dimmer Pack

 

FEATURES

4-channel DMX-512 dimmer / relay pack

2 Edison plugs per channel

Each channel can be set as either dimmer or relay

Each channel can be set to any DMX address

16 user-selectable chase patterns

Variable electronic dimmer (0-100%)

LED display

Adjustable speed control and dimming with or without DMX

SPECIFICATIONS

Output (110V):10A (1,100W) per channel, 15A (1,650W) max

Output (230V): 5A (1,150W) per channel, 15A (3,450W) max

 

Chauvet Intimidator 1.0

 

4-channel DMX-512 scanner

Pan: 180° / tilt: 90°

Variable strobe/shutter

Combined color/gobo wheel:

- 18 colors + white

- 14 gobos + open

- Rainbow color spin effect

[GridGirl]

Whatever you do, DO NOT plug your scans into your dimmer pack. The lamps in them are not designed to be dimmed, so you'll wreck them. The scans are stand-alone units which only need DMX to run. You're right in thinking that the LED display is the DMX address; by the looks of things, you've got your scans addressed to 1, 17, 33 and 49 (if my dipswitch calculations are correct), so you need to address your dimmer packs to something higher than that, and it should all be working! You can run the DMX out of your scans into the dimmer packs, or vice versa, rather than running two DMX lines, but I reiterate, DO NOT plug the scans into the dimmers....

[Ynot]

Whatever you do, DO NOT plug your scans into your dimmer pack.

I'd echo that, VERY strongly!

Also, if the lanterns are only 4 channel DMX, then you may as well change the dips to use more logical addresses - eg 1, 5, 9 and 16.

[johnhuson]

Also, if the lanterns are only 4 channel DMX, then you may as well change the dips to use more logical addresses - eg 1, 5, 9 and 16.

 

Why not 1, 5, 9 and 13?

[thelxbloke]

The problem with these style controllers is that for the fixture buttons to actually work you need to set everything to the right address otherwise you end up all confused ad there is no way (normally) to soft patch those things.

 

HTH

 

Regards

 

Steve

[tokm]

Best bet is to leave the scans at the DMX addresses they are already. To put it simply, if you change the DMX addresses of the scanners, the stuff you have programmed on the desk will not work anymore. (for the more experience here: this's because the desk isn't 100% ML intelligent, its not like other desks where it remembers what you've programmed the fixture to do and you can re patch the fixture and the desk works it all out, it basically just remembers DMX values for each channel on each step of the chase)

 

The reason the O/P has addressed his lights at 1, 17, 33 and 49, is because again, the desk isnt a true ML desk, you cant patch a fixture to start at any DMX channel. It goes up in increments of 16 channels. So when you select fixture 1 on the desk, you control channels 1 to 16, next one 17 to 32.. and so on. If my maths is right, 66 is what the 1st dimmer pack needs to be set to. As thats the next increment after 49. Address the 2nd 4way dimmer you have to 60 (yes I know its not the next increment of +16, but seeing as theirs only 8 channels, all dimming and there's 8 faders, which you use to change DMX values, there's no need to set it as a completely separate fixture, as there's no pairing going on)

 

Hope I've explained it in a way that makes sense. I've kept it all simple for your benefit so you don't get confused. Bits in bold/italics are notes to explain to other members, so we don't get a tirade of comments questioning why I've explained it so simply. All you need to follow is the normal bits of text and it should all work for you. Fixture 5 on the desk will control the 8 dimmer channels you have from those 2x 4way packs and the 8 faders that are in the centre of the controller will control the 8 channels. Use will work exactly the same as when you use the faders to control gobo/colour, when you have one of the other scanner's selected.

 

HTH.

 

Tom

[Ynot]

Also, if the lanterns are only 4 channel DMX, then you may as well change the dips to use more logical addresses - eg 1, 5, 9 and 16.

 

Why not 1, 5, 9 and 13?

Duh..... Cos I had a mental abberation and mis-counted..??? :D

 

The reason the O/P has addressed his lights at 1, 17, 33 and 49, is because again, the desk isnt a true ML desk, you cant patch a fixture to start at any DMX channel. It goes up in increments of 16 channels. So when you select fixture 1 on the desk, you control channels 1 to 16, next one 17 to 32.. and so on. If my maths is right, 66 is what the 1st dimmer pack needs to be set to.

In a weird way this does seem sort of logical...!

Ta for giving some background on this. :)

[johnhuson]

Well explained Tom, makes sense to us all now I hope. One thing I presume you mean set the second dimmer to DMX address 070 not 060 as you suggested?

[tokm]

Well explained Tom, makes sense to us all now I hope. One thing I presume you mean set the second dimmer to DMX address 070 not 060 as you suggested?

Doh. Your correct John. Not sure how I got that wrong :)

 

Glad to help.

 

Just thought I'd keep it simple rather than go all tech speak on the guy.. like what happens so often on here, when someone asks for a simple answer..

 

Lost count how many times I've seen long full on technical answers for questions being posted about something that doesn't require it. IMO, detailed answers for more experienced members to talk about are fine. Just so long as somewhere in the thread there's a straitforward answer that the O/P can understand.

 

Tom

[woody74]

Back to the OP, I don't understand the logic behind wanting to put the scans in the dimmers. I think I am reading him use address and channel interchangeably, and that he's not going to plug them in physically, just numerically, so that the PARs and scans fire off at the same time on the same channel on the desk. Anyone else get this? I think there is a vernacular issue that needs to be clarified in his post.

 

-w

[GridGirl]

Back to the OP, I don't understand the logic behind wanting to put the scans in the dimmers. I think I am reading him use address and channel interchangeably, and that he's not going to plug them in physically, just numerically, so that the PARs and scans fire off at the same time on the same channel on the desk. Anyone else get this? I think there is a vernacular issue that needs to be clarified in his post.

 

-w

 

Good point! You can address the dimmer packs so they have the same DMX address as the scans, but the issue I see with this is that the scans having attributes other than intensity, it could look pretty strange. If you brought the pan channel to 50%, the corresponding parcan will come to 50%, and I think it would look rather odd and not particularly coherent to do this. I've never tried it, and maybe it would look OK, but thinking about it, I suspect it won't give the desired effect.

[catchthebuzz]

Because I am a newbie and have not really run anything DMX before, I just assumed you needed dimmer packs to run all lighting. I did not realize that the lights were standalone. All I have ever done with the dimmers before is plug pars into them.

 

Thanks for realizing that some of us out here aren't doing lighting for a living and therefore do not necessarily understand tech jargon: for me, simple is better. Thanks also for clarifying how the desk works. The controller is a poor person's solution for a small lighting show. It is meant to control 12 intelligent lights and it assumes that all lights have 16 channels of DMX.

 

OK...so please let me paraphrase to see if I understand what you are saying:

 

1. The four scans will run standalone and be daisied together and will run directly drom the board.

2. The two dimmers will be daisied from the scans and each will have its own address giving me eight channels, four channels for each scan.

3. I will plug the pars into the dimmer and be able to control the pars from the eight faders on the board.

 

Last question and then you will have unleashed another amateur into the world of lighting...** laughs out loud **. Luckily, I am only lighting my band, not for hire :)

 

Each fixture has a corresponding button on the controller. Fixture button one = scan one; fixture button two = scan two etc. So does that mean that I assign fixture button five for one dimmer pack and six for the second dimmer pack?

[JMC]

If you assign Pack 1 as 60, and Pack 2 as 64, they will appear as channels 1 thru 8 on fixture button 5.

 

The two dimmers will be daisied from the scans and each will have its own address giving me eight channels, four channels for each scan.

 

Please, remember that the dimmer channels have absolutely nothing to do with the scans in any way, shape or form! They are purely for dimming conventional lamps!

[catchthebuzz]

OK...DMX scans run on their own and dimmer packs are for conventional lighting like standard pars...that is now committed to memory!

 

Thanks everyone for all of your great wisdom. My light show is up and running and with new lighting, my band sounds way better...** laughs out loud **. You guys are great! Thanks for everything!!!

[pete LD]

for your info,

1. The four scans will run standalone and be daisied together and will run directly drom the board.

Just an off topic bit of random info, your use of the term " standalone" is a bit confusing. what you mean is plugged directly in to the mains or given hard power, power thats there for the whole show as opposed to dimmed power that is fully dimmerble and controlled of your desk.

"standalone" in this type of kit means not using a lighting desk and the scan having inbuilt programs!

I hope that makes sense and will help you understand posts!