Lighting board with DIN output

[scottcampbell]

The dimmers that my school uses have DIN inputs but the Strand LX lighting board is broken. Are there any cost effective lighting boards that are readily available to buy with DIN outputs?

[DeepSpacePenguin]

Budget? Size? Applications? Memories?

 

Please be more specific.

 

 

Oh and welcome to the Blue Room.

[pritch]

Depends what you're after, really.

 

What are the dimmers? How many channels do you need to control?

 

Do you need to have memories on the desk, or are your requirements just simply to have someone shove a fader up and leave it there?

 

Are you adverse to buying second hand (in which case, may I humbly suggest another LX?), or would you prefer new? What's the budget?

[timsabre]

Don't worry too much about the DINs, they just carry a control voltage for each dimmer channel. You can easily convert other connectors to DIN, or use a lighting desk which outputs DMX and at the dimmers have a box called a Demux which converts the DMX back to the control voltage.

[ninjadingle]

Strand LX on ebay

[pritch]

Strand LX on ebay

 

Danger, Will Robinson!

 

The LX came in + and -10v variants; get the wrong one, and it's not going to do anything useful. If the OP can tell us what their dimmers are, that might help the selection. That said, the seller of that LX doesn't seem to say which variant the desk is either.

[scottcampbell]

Hi everyone, thanks for all the replies!

 

Sorry for the lack of information in the first post - I'll check what the dimmers are tomorrow morning. I believe there should be 24 channels. Budget is really as little as possible. I know that's not very specific but I'm just looking for a few options to pitch at the moment.

[ninjadingle]

From the LX manual - European versions are -10v (din plugs) US versions are +10v (Min-D), so safe to assume as OP is asking for DIN that it's the -10v version?

 

EDIT - Linky to LX Manual

[rossmck]

Yep, the DIN (and Bleecon on older strand kit) was almost all -10v as far as I know, Only the Mini-D connections were +10v

 

I would suggest that perhaps it may be worth considering buying a DMX board and a Demux to convert to -10v - there's plenty of life in the old dimmers yet I'm sure, but they'll need replaced at some point in the future and replacing the desk now with a DMX capable one would spread this capital cost rather than having to purchase a new desk whenever the dimmers are replaced.

 

I always like to future proof where necessary.

[ninjadingle]

Or perhaps something like a Zero88 Lightmaster XLS? Analogue and DMX outputs...

 

To OP - does your venue have FOH DIN connections permanently installed or do you have to run out the cables every time? If the latter a Demux unit with a DMX desk would be a good solution, if the former I'd suggest sticking with analogue for now.

[ianknight]

Or perhaps something like a Zero88 Lightmaster XLS? Analogue and DMX outputs...

 

To OP - does your venue have FOH DIN connections permanently installed or do you have to run out the cables every time? If the latter a Demux unit with a DMX desk would be a good solution, if the former I'd suggest sticking with analogue for now.

 

I understand where you're coming from - but not sound advice really. The OP's racks are more than likely Analogue negative control (as other posters pointed out) but the Lightmaster never had negative analogue outputs unless someone got creative with a Neg Output kit. Plus, the Lightmaster is probably as old as as the LX it's replacing, whilst folk can still repair them for small faults - what happens if the fault that develops after a couple of months means the desk is BER?

 

The best advice really is to begin to move over to DMX, using whichever favour of desk/control the budget will stretch to and use that in conjunction with a demux unit that has negative outputs. We have about 6 customers a year who try to be economical and re-use old kit from eBay but it rarely ends well and happily.

[Kazeja]

"the Strand LX lighting board is broken"

 

What are the symptoms? In what way is it broken?

 

If it's just a fader, you can pick them up cheap(ish). A lot cheaper than a new/replacement desk.

 

K

[J Pearce]

Schools have an annoying habit of declaring things broken and binning them when they only need a £10 part and a fairly simple open up and swap job that the caretakers or science techs would be happy to do.

 

If your desk IS beyond economic repair or the school see this as a cue to upgrade then I'd advise getting a basic DMX board and a demux. Having DMX capability will make future upgrades easier and will allow you to hire in extra kit for bigger shows without much fuss as it will all be compatible.

[Duncarnold]

I am in the exact same position. At the last school nativity someone spilt water into the LX board, and it went from being a bit unreliable to knackered. Although, as suggested, it may be cheaply fixed (an option I am exploring) it would also be good to try and move the school forward and go digital.

 

Dimmers are 2x Strand ACT6+ (12 channels in total)

Our current board is a 2 preset 12 channel Strand. All we really need is lights up and down. Needs to be very user friendly and not 'look' too complicated, most of the staff are afraid of any form of technology! Also, it really isn't used very often, a few times a year at most.

 

Budget is "unknown", the head has said she doesn't want bottom of the range piece of rubbish, but doesn't want to spend thousands. I'm guessing a few hundred...

 

Also, the dimmers are on the opposite side of a wall to the desk so we have DIN connector panels in the wall. Will this afect the placement of the DMUX?

 

With that in mind, could somebody please recommend some models of boards and DMUX units?

Cheers.

Duncan

[timtheenchanteruk]

Schools have an annoying habit of declaring things broken and binning them when they only need a £10 part and a fairly simple open up and swap job that the caretakers or science techs would be happy to do.

 

please don't assume that this is something that techs/caretakes are allowed to do, as much as it sound stupid, I once did a similar "favour" for another department, and got dragged over the coals for it, something along the lines of, "we pay for you out of our budget" type thing. so if they say no, it could be for very good reason.

 

Second hand for a school is frequently a no-no too, for whatever reasons, usually best known the the schools "elf and stacey" officer.

 

Ad also go for a DMX option, IIRC the Zero88 demux24 has the -10V option on there. zero88 kit seems to be used in plenty of schools, I know our fatfrog had plent of use and abuse, and only needed a new fader and wheel (somone stood on it, dont ask) in 5 years of me being there, the desk had been there a few years prior to that too.