New Member - New to lighting - New scanners - Help needed.

[cho_drummer]

Hi,

I've just been given 5 scanners for work. They're all 575 watt and apparently very bright. I plugged one in before, it seems to be working, but there was no light coming from it. I'm assuming there's usually a stand alone mode, but there may not be in these lights, they're apparently pretty old new stock.

 

They're called Spektronic Max 2 Scanners. (the '2' is written 'ii' if that makes any difference). I've had a big search online, I can't seem to get much if any info on the company, never mind the fact that I can't get any info on the specific lights and I can't get a manual anywhere?!!

 

I need to know a couple of things, if I plug them into my desk (fat frog) I assume they won't just work, I'll need a profile.

So how do I figure out what the profile is? How do I check for sure that they're working?

any and all help is VERY much appriciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[Brian]

...I'll need a profile.

So how do I figure out what the profile is? How do I check for sure that they're working?

Plug them up, set the base address of the fixture to 1 and just play around with the faders on the main part of the desk until something happens. Write down what happened and repeat.

[Kevne]

When you plug the light in. Can you see the lamp glowing within the chassis? If so, it may be that the lamp is on but the dimmer shutters are closed in which case you will need to give it external control via a desk. There is no need to write a profile at this stage in the game as you are just trying to test the units. Address the scanner to 1. Assuming that your desk is patched 1-1, channel one should control one of the attributes of the light, usually intensity. Then channel 2,3,4,5 etc will control other attributes (pan, tilt, colour etc). Once you know how many channels the light has, then you can write a profile for it.

 

As you say, most small movers have a stand alone mode, but without the manual, it is difficult to work out the DIP configuration to access that mode.

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

spektronic were distributed by Prolight

www.prolight.co.uk

 

give them a call or email to see if they have any manuals

[cho_drummer]

I got them from prolight. They're really old stock, so they couldn't source the manual, Andrew said he'd have a look in the archive room but no promises, plus I'd rather see if I can get them working.

 

I can see the lamp glowing in the chassis. And by the looks of it, the shutter is on, I just couldn't figure how open it up without a desk, maybe it's not possible.

 

I'd been thinking all night and my thought was to just plug them into the DMX in the desk and move the faders. I'm glad you guys confirmed that it should work!

 

Thanks for the quick responce everyone!!

 

I'll let you know how this one pans out!

 

I frequent this forum, it's great!! solved a lot of problems for me and given me a lot of tips!!

 

Thanks guys,

 

Chris.

[cho_drummer]

Okay,

I've plugged one into a Desk.

Channel 1 : Pan

Channel 2 : Tilt

Channel 3 : Colour

Channel 4 : Gobo.

 

Now, that's all well and good. But I was playing with the dip switches and realised, that the light takes up 8 channels of DMX. When I moved the faders on channels 5-8 nothing happened. Is this common or is there a reason nothing happened on that particualr desk? (its only a generics desk).

When I plug the lights into my fat frog, can I get the lights to move on their own during a chase for example, or would it have to be manual?

My iMoves for example, have patterns built into them, but when a chase is programmed, they do not react to each step of the chase, they simply follow the pattern set for them.

Is that an issue with the Fat Frog or the iMoves (iMove 5s/5w). The reason I ask is that, if I programmed a chase, would it be likely that the scanners would move to where I want them for each step of the chase? or would they ignore this information and stay in the first position?

 

Also, the dip switch configuration on the scanners is a little odd. switches 1-2 are for pan/tilt inversion 3-7 are for DMX, 8 says 'controller' 9 is something else (can't remember) and 10 is something else entirely. It seems that when 3 is in the on position, the starting fader is 9, if 4 is on and 3,5,6 and 7 are off, the starting position is 17, etc.

 

Can anyone fathom what I'm trying to talk about/ask and help me out?!

 

Cheers,

 

Chris.

[musht]

Just a guess do they have an 8/16 bit mode for pan tilt?

Missing diimer/shutter channel as well unless its part of gobo wheel.

[paulears]

The attribute data says 4 - what makes you think it has 8? 4 is pretty common for simple movers. The numbers don't quite makes sense. when you got the results for 1,2,3 & 4 what dip switch setting was that on? because that's your base address. So if raising fader 1 actually does something on DMX channel 1 - and 2,3 & 4 follow suit, then I;d have though just adding '4' to whatever was set to '1' would give 5, if you see what I mean. I think we need a bit more info on what happens at various settings. I presume (not knowing the things) that there are no further features like shutters and extra gobo wheels, that kind of thing.

 

These style of fixtures are a bit of a pain really because they don't have a dimmer channel - they use a blanked off gob for blackout. This usually means that blackouts and fades don't work, and if you've got them on, and a cue needs them to go out, then you have to program in a blackout via the gobo function which looks horrible as it cycles through all gobos to get to off. I usually leave a fader or bump button programme to send a gobo 0 labelled as a panic blackout!

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

when you played with channels 5-8, did you move them up and leave them? Sometimes cheap effects can take a few seconds before reacting to Programs

[cho_drummer]

The attribute data says 4 - what makes you think it has 8? 4 is pretty common for simple movers. The numbers don't quite makes sense. when you got the results for 1,2,3 & 4 what dip switch setting was that on? because that's your base address. So if raising fader 1 actually does something on DMX channel 1 - and 2,3 & 4 follow suit, then I;d have though just adding '4' to whatever was set to '1' would give 5, if you see what I mean. I think we need a bit more info on what happens at various settings. I presume (not knowing the things) that there are no further features like shutters and extra gobo wheels, that kind of thing.

 

These style of fixtures are a bit of a pain really because they don't have a dimmer channel - they use a blanked off gob for blackout. This usually means that blackouts and fades don't work, and if you've got them on, and a cue needs them to go out, then you have to program in a blackout via the gobo function which looks horrible as it cycles through all gobos to get to off. I usually leave a fader or bump button programme to send a gobo 0 labelled as a panic blackout!

 

If you're refering to the attribute data I put on my post...that's the 4 channels I found out. I've got a 'parts' box, which is basically a broken one for spares and repairs. In that, there is one gobo wheel, with a blanked out space for the blackout/shutter. There is one colour wheel. Then the head which obviously pans and tilts.

 

I don't know how to do a fader or bump button programme to send a gobo 0 labelled as a panic blackout :** laughs out loud **: I can't understand how that would stop the gobo wheel cycling through the colours to turn off??

 

What I'm really worried about is if I can set them to make patterns etc. or will that have to be done manually. I did wonder if there were DMX channels relating to this, hence the 4 blank channels before the next bank of 4 became active through the dip switches.

 

The DMX dip switch system on these is not binary, it starts from switch 3 and finishes at switch 7!

 

any ideas?? anyone got a contact with the company?? do they still exist?!!

 

Chris

[tom_the_LD]

If using them with the fat frog, your best bet would probably be to get (or make) fixture profiles for them now you know what the channel numbers are. After this I would then suggest manually creating your chases with however many steps you want in each chase and then transferring this chase to a submaster, so when the sub is raised the chase plays back.

[paulears]

Sorry - I confused you. Most moving light controllers map the attribute channel for the dimming shutter to the same type of channel as an ordinary dimmer. So if, say, the shutter for a mover is on attribute 6, then when you pull the grand master down, or simply set a load of channels to fade out, all the lights dim out together - even though one fixture might have attribute 6 changing to do it while another had attribute 10 doing the same thing. The snag with disco style movers is that they don't have dimming shutters, they use a blank gobo position to do the 'off'. So the lighting control has to use the gobo wheel for two things, gobo selection and blackout. So if you've set a cone gobo in the usual way for that control, and you want the fixtures to snap off, you send a GOBO command, not a blackout command. Most desks can't cope with two functions on the same attribute - so if you have a scene/cue that looks nice, and at the end all the lights have to go out, then its all dimmer channels to 0 and gobo to zero, programming wise - which works fine. The snag comes when you stick a look on a fader - imagine maybe all the fixtures on the drum kit in yellow with a spotty gobo. You're working live, busking - how do you make them go off? You've got to find an instantly accessible method to change the gobos to first position. So you record a gobo 0 cue into either fader, a bump button or any other way your control has to make something happen simply. It's not generally possible to have a fader control that works both ways - easy to shove a fader that works the gobo attribute directly, but that's not a great way of working.

 

Having a cue available that instantly zaps the gobo wheel is just the way I work when I need to shut this kind of mover off on cue, instantly.