MagicQ and Thomann LED cans

[c.cam108]

Yet another question about MagicQ PC. Everyone must be getting their £10 dongles!

 

I've got it running on my laptop just to do some basic stuff with 4 Stairville LED cans for the carol service tonight. I'm using my new dongle as there aren't enough channels on the MX24 - as much as I like its effects I am using some generics as well.

 

Got it all set up and patched last night and used the FX engine to do some nice eye candy sequences.

 

however, I cannot get the intensity to work properly. For example, if I type "1>4@#" it brings them all up to full white, as expected, but typing "1>4@10" still brings them up full, rather than 10% (or 10/255 - I can't remember).

 

The DMX addresses used by the fixture are:

1 Mode

2 R

3 G

4 B

4 Speed

 

Can anyone help?

 

Thanks

 

Colin C

[tom_the_LD]

If I remember correctly, in order to get the intensities working properly you need to patch a virtual dimmer. However I can't remember how to do this off the top of my head!

 

Essentially, this reduces the overall intensity of the light.

 

It should be in the manual somewhere.

 

Hopefully that's of some (little) use!

 

 

Cheers,

 

 

Tom

[themadhippy]

you need to set up a virtual dimmer for each can ,patch the same number of dimmers as you have cans on an address your not using( I use a separate DMX universe)and change the dimmer head number to the same as the cans.

[tom_the_LD]

Although, looking at it, when patching a virtual dimmer that doesn't seem to change the RGB values as such. So does that still then actually make the can "do something" if you type "1>4@10" as looking at my screen whilst it adjusts the intensity (or virtual dimmer as it is) it doesn't actually give the RGB any value?

[paulears]

I just treat them as 3 dimmers, ignoring the first and last channel althogether - so the bar runs 80,81,82,85,86,87,90,91,92 etc Mainly because the cans are from two separate Thomann batches and the DMX interpretation is slightly different. Doing it this way works better for me.

[Mr Steve]

I agree with paulears - I set mine as 3 dimmers and ignore the control and speed channels. Works fine, and you can make any of the effects on the control channel with a chase/FX generator.

[smalljoshua]

Whereas, I patch them with the proper personalities and then use the virtual dimmers which has always worked for me perfectly.

 

It really is up to you. Both ways work, as you have seen, but it depends on how you want to do it.

 

Josh

[paulears]

and as I said Josh, that's fine until one goes wrong and Uncle Thomann sends you a brand new one that is NOT a swap. Having a row with just one using a different method of operation just doesn't work for me, so hence why I gave up doing t that way and simply went R,G & B - then, as Mr Steve said, you use the desk to do the effects, ignoring anything built into the fixture.

[smalljoshua]

I suppose it's just a matter of opinion, in that situation, I'd just create a personality for that head and swap it in the patch. I also use the desk to do all the effects, I just don't like having control channels that I'm not able to control (even if they are unused for the entire show)

 

Josh

[paulears]

Josh - sure, you can create a new personality - but the DMX implementation is different, so what happens is that you bash up the group, press the button and all bar your new one are identical, but the things controlled by the in-built effects just don't match. I've tried in twice, and it's just the same as trying to use a pair of slightly different moving lights - tiny differences make quite obvious differences. It makes no difference if you are just using the RGB components, but any of the other in-built effects go horribly out of sync.

[Darkness]

I've tried in twice, and it's just the same as trying to use a pair of slightly different moving lights - tiny differences make quite obvious differences. It makes no difference if you are just using the RGB components, but any of the other in-built effects go horribly out of sync.

 

I was trying to use the strobe function on 2 Mac 300s using a fat frog. It was the first time I had tried anything like it, I could not get them to strobe in time with each other, in the end I just settled for having one strobbing and the other off.