bruce Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 There have been lots of threads about simple desks for controlling a bunch of LED pars recently. Sorry for starting another, but this particular question isn't easily added to the existing threads. And reading manuals without having the product handy just makes my head hurt.... I'm looking for a budget (e.g. stairville DMXmaster, or the similarly-priced products from showtec, elation, botex etc) controller to control a selection of LED pars. Nothing fancy, just a few faders and preset buttons. Yes, I know most of these products will do this admirably... However, some of the pars I want to use don't have a 3-channel mode. For example, it needs to be able to control things like http://www.proaudiocentre.com/docs/LEDJ30-um0.pdf which is 4 channel, the 4th being a control channel that effectively needs to be "locked" at 255 for channels 1,2,3 to act as normal RGB. When channel 4 is set to somewhere between 0 and 189, it acts as an overall dimmer. But from 190-250 it controls strobe. So I really want to "lock" it to maximum. Can the budget controllers handle this? Is the patching sophisticated enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Is there a particular reason that you don't want to use a simple desk and use 'Fader 4' to control overall intensity? Why is this a problem? If it really has to remain at 100% all the time, push it to the top and put some tape below the fader... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newburytech Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 What is your budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Can the budget controllers handle this? Is the patching sophisticated enough? All the budget controllers you list are very similar and have no patching. They all just have a fixed set of faders/DMX output channels (8 or 16) per fixture. So as topcat says you would need to push fader 4 up to 100%. You'd need to go to a personality-based controller to get away from this and I do not know of any budget controllers which do that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 I found ( and can find again given time) a great little DMX box (untested) that you programme with 9 "scenes" one on each button, these can also be chases if required, for simple architectural control it seemed pretty good, how often are you going to need many colours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newburytech Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 The box that the kid is talking about is, I think, this.... http://www.lite-switch.co.uk/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 nope .. but its like that give me a bit im still trying to find the email e2a http://www.greenwichinst.com/products/GWDMX apparently sold via http://batmink.co.uk/ but cant find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simontaylor Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 http://www.greenwich.../products/GWDMX Agh, beat me to it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruce Posted December 17, 2013 Author Share Posted December 17, 2013 Is there a particular reason that you don't want to use a simple desk and use 'Fader 4' to control overall intensity? Why is this a problem? Because as I said in the original post, channel 4 is not a simple intensity channel. It's intensity up to 189, then it controls strobe frequency. And if it's set between 250 and 255, it means that channels 1,2,3 behave as a sane person would expect. So if you accidentally nudge that fader down a bit, it doesn't dim, it strobes. No, I don't know what sort of drugs the designers were taking when they came up with this scheme..... (if anyone's ever using any of these sort of units with a Behringer LC2412, there's a useful trick - use the "special1" or "special2" buttons, which are effectively DMX channels that can only have 2 values - off and full- so latch them on and softpatch to the 4th DMX channel...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newburytech Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 So what is your budget? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
top-cat Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Is there a particular reason that you don't want to use a simple desk and use 'Fader 4' to control overall intensity? Why is this a problem? Because as I said in the original post, channel 4 is not a simple intensity channel. It's intensity up to 189, then it controls strobe frequency. And if it's set between 250 and 255, it means that channels 1,2,3 behave as a sane person would expect. So if you accidentally nudge that fader down a bit, it doesn't dim, it strobes. Surely you read the second half of my post? The bit about taping under the fader so you can't 'accidentally nudge that fader'. It works for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timsabre Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Surely you read the second half of my post? The bit about taping under the fader so you can't 'accidentally nudge that fader'. It works for me. I can't see how that would work on those simple controllers because you have to move the fader to "engage" it when you select a new fixture to control. They don't automatically take the level the fader is standing at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmxlights Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Is there a particular reason that you don't want to use a simple desk and use 'Fader 4' to control overall intensity? Why is this a problem? Because as I said in the original post, channel 4 is not a simple intensity channel. It's intensity up to 189, then it controls strobe frequency. And if it's set between 250 and 255, it means that channels 1,2,3 behave as a sane person would expect. So if you accidentally nudge that fader down a bit, it doesn't dim, it strobes. No, I don't know what sort of drugs the designers were taking when they came up with this scheme..... (if anyone's ever using any of these sort of units with a Behringer LC2412, there's a useful trick - use the "special1" or "special2" buttons, which are effectively DMX channels that can only have 2 values - off and full- so latch them on and softpatch to the 4th DMX channel...) I have done that with thomann led cans that I have well 12 of them and that sorted them out for a party that I lend them out to and Behringer LC2412 desk that go with them. I also set some of the memory faders to chases as well. I have these in pairs. I know some people nearly pass out when you say that you use a Behringer LC2412 at the same time there is a lot in it for the money. I have used mine for a play that I was not going light for and made very good use of the patching in this desk. I had 24 dimmer channels paired up using up 12 faders and also 16 led zooms for colour and they were in 2 groups of 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkPAman Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 (if anyone's ever using any of these sort of units with a Behringer LC2412, there's a useful trick - use the "special1" or "special2" buttons, which are effectively DMX channels that can only have 2 values - off and full- so latch them on and softpatch to the 4th DMX channel...) That's interesting, and may be just what I'm after. So I could have 6 (is it 3 per special?) DMX channels at full, but still have 24 controllable channels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newburytech Posted December 17, 2013 Share Posted December 17, 2013 Not necessarily the right solution here, but the Jands Stage CL is worth a look for anyone using mainly LED Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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