Express ETC/Led Par Cans

[kurzweil_dude]

Hey. Trying to do something new to me and just need some advice/tips please....

At my theatre we have an Express ETC 24/48 board, outputs to 4 dimmers via DMX and then onto a Chroma Q unit to 4 scroller units.

Currently the boards configured so that channels 1-24 are luminare channels, and then channels 25, 26, 27, 28 are dimmer channels for the scollers, controlling scroll amount. [DMX addresses on the scrollers are set to 25, 26, 27 28]. Outputs from the 1st DMX port.

This is what Ive been used to, but I did not set it up like this. The previous Technical manager did and Ive just kinda fallen into the role after he abruptly left and didnt teach me much. Ive taught myself most of the board, but have got to a point where im getting a bit stuck without having someone to tell me what to do.

 

Ive got 2 stairville LED par cans that I want to add to the set up. One option would have been to daisy chain the led cans from the scrollers, but they are 4 pin and the DMX on the led cans are 3 pin - I cant find a cheap adapter. I read somewhere on here that the stairville led cans cant go upto DMX 512. So I think im going to need to connect the led cans to the first DMX 1- 512 output, and then the dimmers + scrollers to the 2nd DMX 513 + output, I think.

What do I need to do to configure this in the board setup? Or is there a better way to do it? like setting the 2nd ports start address to something like 30+?

Any help please would be great. Im fairly new to DMX so am a bit weary of delving in and experimenting, at the fear of deleting the current configuration and not being able to get it back again.

 

Thanks for any help u can provide, MC

[zonino]

The way I set scrollers up is to be channel + 100, e.g. scroller for channel 1 is channel 101 etc.

 

You won't find an adaptor between 4 pin and DMX, because they aren't compatible! There should be a DMX-out connector on the scroller control box.

 

Re: the LED's, I imagine they can be addressed high enough to put everything onto one DMX line, however if you want to keep them seperate each DMX line carries 1-512, the ETC desks show this as 513+ for the second line, however some desks show this as A001-A512, B001-B512 etc.

[Wol]

Click the "patch" button, and make sure that channel 1 does link to dimmer 1, and so forth. Can easily get confused between channel numbers, and dimmer numbers if you're new to the DMX concept.

 

There should be a 5 pin, or 3 pin XLR connector out of the scroller box, which you should be able to connect the LED cans into. The 4 pin scroller cable is for a completely different protocol, so a 3 to 4 pin adapter won't help!

 

If you set the address for the LED cans to be something like DMX address 30, and 35, and daisy chain those to the output of the scroller controller, you should have control over them on channels 30, 31, 32, 35, 36, and 37 on the desk (assuming they're a generic RGB patch)

 

Offsetting the DMX output on the desk would be an iffy road to start going down. As far as I can remember seeing on the express, you can determine which range of channels goes out on each port, but this isn't where you want to be going!

 

Hope that helps a bit.

 

Im fairly new to DMX so am a bit weary of delving in and experimenting, at the fear of deleting the current configuration and not being able to get it back again.

 

Go and buy a floppy disk and save the current configuration to disk! If you screw up, you can reload it from that.

[tom_the_LD]

Go and buy a floppy disk and save the current configuration to disk! If you screw up, you can reload it from that.

 

Make sure you buy several and back up to several disks - I have had issues with loosing data from the Express consoles before due to not reading from disk properly.

[Tomo]

Make sure you buy several and back up to several disks - I have had issues with loosing data from the Express consoles before due to not reading from disk properly.

Indeed - do buy several floppies, and save the current show onto at least two of them.

 

Modern floppy disks are quite poor quality, don't last long and are getting very difficult to find.

 

Also, when programming it's a good idea to save often (say every 20-30 minutes) and to 'cycle' your disks:

- Have 3 disks, and first save to Disk 1, then Disk 2, then Disk 3, then Disk 1 and repeat.

This means that in the event of disk failure (or operator mistake), you can always go back one version instead of losing all your work.

 

With regards to your LED cans, I'd suggest putting them on the second output, for two reasons:

1) This way you can address them starting at DMX 1 (most LED cans have DIP switches), and then patch them on the desk by using Address 513 and upwards.

2) It prevents a failure in your existing DMX chain taking out the LED cans.

 

I wouldn't bother changing the second port's start address - this route can lead to confusion!

 

One other thing - you seem to be saying that your scrollers don't loop back to the scroller power supply/control box?

 

It is generally best practice to loop the last scroller back into the scroller power supply/control box, as this reduces voltage drop along the line and should make your 'last' scroller run at the same speed as the 'first'.

 

The scroller psu/control box will have a DMX-in, DMX-out and several pairs of 4-pin male and female connectors.

General practice is to take DMX into the psu, and then 4-pin out of one of the pairs, through the scrollers and back into it's partner.

[kurzweil_dude]

Hello all... many thanks for your fast replies.

I feel very stupid for not even looking on the Chroma Q controller for a DMX out. All is good. Im converted ** laughs out loud **. I was a bit worried about the output form the 1k scrollers overpowering the led par cans, but the stage is just the right size and the both blend nicely. They're on loan from a mate (for free) at the moment, but am feeling he need to purchase a good few now.

If I had more than 4, what would be the best way to channel them all? would submasters be the right was to go about it?

As for the Scroller chain, unfortunately we dont have any spare controller cables long enough, but will go towards the top of the "to buy list".