DMX lighting control HELP PLEASE!

[DREAMCATCHERproductions]

Hi I am new to the forum,

 

I really need some help on operating my DMX Showtec Showmaster 24 lighting control desk.

The manual that was included was absoluetly useless. I am not too bothered about recording at the

moment, I just want to fade each light in and out, flash lights, and blackouts.

 

Cheers guys

 

Moderation: As your problems are (for this forum) very basic ones, I've moved the thread into The Next Generation forum. I've also tidied up some SPaG errors. We're very happy to help, but we like to keep things in the most appropriate areas.

[RoyJ]

Hi I am new to the forum,

 

I really need some help on operating my DMX showtec showmaster 24 lighting control desk.

the manual that was included was absoluetly uselss. I not to bothered about recording at the

moment, I just want to fade each light in and out, flash lights, and blackouts.

 

Cheers guys

 

Hi, I have a simular desk,and the manual is quite good,if you would like a copy we can get one done.Generally as long as your desk can "see" the DMX addresses of your packs it should work as a dipless crossfade manual desk.What I would suggest is even if the english isnt good read and reread the manual.The desk should look for 001 as its start adress and work it out from there.So next job is to check the addresses follow sequence,try that first and report back,if still no joy I'll photocopy my manual.Regards Roy

[DREAMCATCHERproductions]

thanks. I have managed to get it to operate the lights now, dont have a clue how I done it though. How do you set up the address through the desk?

 

Cheers

[Tomo]

You don't set up a DMX address through the desk, and the desk doesn't 'see' anything. (I'm ignoring RDM, your console doesn't do it)

 

The basic idea in DMX is this:

 

You have 512 'addresses' available.

 

Any DMX device (eg dimmer) can be set to listen to any of those 'addresses'.

 

Some DMX devices listen to several addresses at the same time, such as a 6-channel dimmer that might listen to six addresses, one for each channel.

For these, you (generally) set a 'start address' and it listens to that one and the ones straight after - eg a 6-channel dimmer set to start at 1 would then use 1 - 6.

 

So, to control 24 channels of dimmers, you set your dimmers to listen to addresses 1 - 24.

With 6-channel dimmers, this means setting the first one to start at 1, the second to start at 7, the third at 13 etc

 

Your lighting console must then be told what's out there so it can control it.

- The lighting console just sends levels out 'blindly' - it has no way to know if any devices are listening.

 

Most consoles default to a "1:1 Patch", meaning the channels it has are patched starting at 1.

For example, your 24-channel console is likely to be sending DMX addresses 1,2,3 ... 24, with the rest either 'zero' or not even sent at all.

 

The faders then control the dimmer channels.

 

Your desk appears to be a "two-scene preset" style of console.

The basic idea is that you've got two rows of faders that control the same channels, and a pair of faders that allow you to crossfade between the top bank and the bottom bank.

 

This is a relatively common style of lighting console and you should be able to find lots of info online about that style of lighting control.

[boatman]

This desk is a clone of the Stairville, Botex and GLP Light Operator desks. You can find a manual here.

 

Reading this thread may help you too.