What DMX Controller

[Andyp]

Hi.I have purchased 2 x Giga Bar systems for my band, despite a few technical issues (being delt with in another post) they were great lastnight.The only thing was that they were 'full' on all night, and it would have been nice to have some variety.I also thought it would be nice to have the two 'outside' lights on white and shining at the Lead Vocalist and the remainder 3 lights on each side going through various colours and fades etc... This way the singers face would not be lighting up so green or blue or whatever as we change colours (I guess like a follow spot idea, he plays guitar also so is usually in one spot when singing)1. Can this be done2. Could someone recommend a DMX Controller3. One of the guys in the band has some small LED lights and a laser so I want the desk to be able to take a bit more than just the 2 Giga bars.4. Any recommendations on a Hazer (for small bars/pubs)

TIAAndy

[Andyp]

1437303499[/url]' post='524965']

Hi.I have purchased 2 x Giga Bar systems for my band, despite a few technical issues (being delt with in another post) they were great lastnight.The only thing was that they were 'full' on all night, and it would have been nice to have some variety.I also thought it would be nice to have the two 'outside' lights on white and shining at the Lead Vocalist and the remainder 3 lights on each side going through various colours and fades etc... This way the singers face would not be lighting up so green or blue or whatever as we change colours (I guess like a follow spot idea, he plays guitar also so is usually in one spot when singing)1. Can this be done2. Could someone recommend a DMX Controller3. One of the guys in the band has some small LED lights and a laser so I want the desk to be able to take a bit more than just the 2 Giga bars.4. Any recommendations on a Hazer (for small bars/pubs)

TIAAndy

 

Anyone?

[david.elsbury]

Wow, it's been almost 4 -5 hours. Give people a chance to respond!

[Andyp]

Update.... I have just aquired a Transcension LED Master 64 Controller, but questions above still stands as I don't know what this controller does.

[boatman]

Update.... I have just aquired a Transcension LED Master 64 Controller, but questions above still stands as I don't know what this controller does.

 

Ah, so you've acquired a controller which can control eight fixtures each with up to eight channels, to use with two fixtures which really require 12 channels each. The best compromise would be to set the two Giga Bars to DMX 12 channels but use DMX starting addresses of 1 & 17. That way you'll be able to control the RGB of the first three lanterns on the first bar with the first fixture set on the controller (DMX channels 1 - 8) and the fourth lantern on the first bar with the second fixture set on the controller (DMX channels 9 - 11). Similarly for the second bar use fixture set 3 & 4 (DMX channels 17 - 24 & 25 - 27). That will leave you four fixture sets for your smoke machine etc.

 

Edited to add: Alternatively you could address your additional bits and pieces to the unused DMX channels 12 - 16 and 28 - 32, but that might get a bit tricky.

 

Second edit to add further: Sorry my mistake. Operating the Giga Bar in 12 channel mode, you'll actually be able to control R, G & B on lanterns 1 & 2 but only R & G on lantern three with one fixture set on the LED Master 64. The B channel on the third lantern and R, G & B on lantern 4 will belong to the second fixture set. There is an eight channel mode for the Giga Bar but from the manual it doesn't look as though it can control the individual lanterns.

[Andyp]

1437331197[/url]' post='524976']

1437328233[/url]' post='524974']

Update.... I have just aquired a Transcension LED Master 64 Controller, but questions above still stands as I don't know what this controller does.

 

Ah, so you've acquired a controller which can control eight fixtures each with up to eight channels, to use with two fixtures which really require 12 channels each. The best compromise would be to set the two Giga Bars to DMX 12 channels but use DMX starting addresses of 1 & 17. That way you'll be able to control the RGB of the first three lanterns on the first bar with the first fixture set on the controller (DMX channels 1 - 8) and the fourth lantern on the first bar with the second fixture set on the controller (DMX channels 9 - 11). Similarly for the second bar use fixture set 3 & 4 (DMX channels 17 - 24 & 25 - 27). That will leave you four fixture sets for your smoke machine etc.

 

Edited to add: Alternatively you could address your additional bits and pieces to the unused DMX channels 12 - 16 and 28 - 32, but that might get a bit tricky.

 

Second edit to add further: Sorry my mistake. Operating the Giga Bar in 12 channel mode, you'll actually be able to control R, G & B on lanterns 1 & 2 but only R & G on lantern three with one fixture set on the LED Master 64. The B channel on the third lantern and R, G & B on lantern 4 will belong to the second fixture set. There is an eight channel mode for the Giga Bar but from the manual it doesn't look as though it can control the individual lanterns.

 

Thank you for the detailed reply - though I did not understand any of it ?.I remember when I was buying the 2 x Giga bar systems and talking about DMX controllers the seller said that the LED Master 64 would be really overboard to use with just two Giga bars and far to underused etc. Yet it seems that you think this controller is actually not up to spec to deal with the 2 Giga bar systems? What I would really like to do is have two (outside) lamps on permanently white to shine on the face of the lead vocalist, and the remainder 3 lamps (per-side) fading (or is this called chasing) through various colours, is this possible?

We have a couple of I-lights (with moving heads) I will bring these in at some point, but at the moment it sounds like the LED-64 will not be able to fasilitate these as well.

A.

 

 

[niclights]

It is a very basic controller but should be capable of doing what you want with the Giga Bar. If you expand your rig later then perhaps you can look at other controllers then (the cheapest option at the professional level is something laptop based).

 

 

By just controlling the Giga Bar you can make it a bit easier.

 

The controller is designed to operate 8 separate fixtures which is essentially what you have, albeit packaged as two sets of four. It also expects each of these fixtures to have red, green and blue controls, which you also have.

 

If you set both of your Giga Bars to the 12 channel DMX mode the channels control the following when the start address of the fixture is at 001:

 

1 - Panel 1 Red

2 - Panel 1 Green

3 - Panel 1 Blue

 

4 - Panel 2 Red

5 - Panel 2 Green

6 - Panel 2 Blue

 

7 - Panel 3 Red

8 - Panel 3 Green

9 - Panel 3 Blue

 

10 - Panel 4 Red

11 - Panel 4 Green

12 - Panel 4 Blue

 

By setting the start address of the second Giga Bar to 013 the channels will continue as:

 

13 - Panel 1 Red

14 - Panel 1 Green

15 - Panel 1 Blue

 

and so on until

 

24 - Panel 4 Blue

 

 

To control all the heads individually you just need to tell the controller which channels control red, green and blue for each of the eight fixtures.

 

So for fixture 1

 

Red = 1

Green = 2

Blue = 3

 

through to fixture 8

 

Red = 22

Green = 23

Blue = 24

[Andyp]

Thanks for the info, I really do not understand the DMX thing yet...I have 4 lamps on each bar, yet the colours mentioned are R B G so what do I set the 4th lamp on each bar to?

So the guy who told me that the LED64 would only be of any use to me if I was wanting to control much more than the two sets of Giga bars was wrong then?

So would I be able to have the two outside lights on each system white, and the other three on each system chasing through various patterns etc....Obviously I will not be able to add more lights to my system unless I upgrade the controller.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[niclights]

Each lamp has a red, green and blue control. You use these to make the colour you want. All three together = white (ish).

[MadeNew]

You're in a band? You must know some technician guys that can help you out with this for the cost of a pint or something?

 

I know this may not be the most helpful answer, but what you really need (by the sounds of it) is some basic LED and DMX knowledge/training.

 

Alternatively try searching youtube, but having someone work with your specific kit would be a lot easier, with you physically doing it at the time.

 

 

 

 

The most simplest lesson I can give you on here is as follows, in simple terms...

 

DMX is signal (like a telephone number if you will), to dial this DMX address/number you require a desk or controller, and for each LED/light fixture to be controlled independently you will need to set them up with their own DMX address/number (usually on the back of the light itself). Different lights will take up a different number of addresses depending on what functionality that light offers (ie 3, 4, 8, 12 channel mode).

 

LED lights s typically have at least red green and blue (RGB) LEDS in each light. So each light can mix these LEDs to make multiple colours, they're not limited to one colour.

 

 

 

 

An example with 3 LED lights on 4 channel mode would be as follows.

 

Light 1 (DMX Address 1-4). 1 = Intensity, 2 = Red, 3 = Green, 4 = Blue

 

Light 2 (DMX Address 5-8) 5 = Intensity, 6 = R, 7 = G, 8 = B

 

Light 3 (DMX Address 9-12) 9 = I, 10 = R, 11 = G, 12 = B

 

 

 

 

Hope that maybe helps clarify some of the above posts?

 

 

 

[Andyp]

1437383939[/url]' post='524992']

You're in a band? You must know some technician guys that can help you out with this for the cost of a pint or something?

 

I know this may not be the most helpful answer, but what you really need (by the sounds of it) is some basic LED and DMX knowledge/training.

 

Alternatively try searching youtube, but having someone work with your specific kit would be a lot easier, with you physically doing it at the time.

 

 

 

 

The most simplest lesson I can give you on here is as follows, in simple terms...

 

DMX is signal (like a telephone number if you will), to dial this DMX address/number you require a desk or controller, and for each LED/light fixture to be controlled independently you will need to set them up with their own DMX address/number (usually on the back of the light itself). Different lights will take up a different number of addresses depending on what functionality that light offers (ie 3, 4, 8, 12 channel mode).

 

LED lights s typically have at least red green and blue (RGB) LEDS in each light. So each light can mix these LEDs to make multiple colours, they're not limited to one colour.

 

 

 

 

An example with 3 LED lights on 4 channel mode would be as follows.

 

Light 1 (DMX Address 1-4). 1 = Intensity, 2 = Red, 3 = Green, 4 = Blue

 

Light 2 (DMX Address 5-8) 5 = Intensity, 6 = R, 7 = G, 8 = B

 

Light 3 (DMX Address 9-12) 9 = I, 10 = R, 11 = G, 12 = B

 

 

 

 

Hope that maybe helps clarify some of the above posts?

 

 

 

Thanks for the help, it is starting to become a little clearer, I have found that most documentation that comes with lighting equipment assumes the user knows all about DMX etc.The main thing I want to know (so I'm not wasting time trying to do something that can't be done) is -Can I have one light (outside on each system) on permanently white, while the other three (on each side) chase and fade through colours patterns.

I have the Giga bar systems with a Transcetion master LED 64 controller

 

 

 

[alistermorton]

That bar could do that, but you might struggle with that controller. You'd need to set up a chase that only affects the sections you want to chase, and set the other sections to R+G+B=full to get white(ish).

 

I know, for example, I could do it easily with the desk I have at my disposal (Ion) but I don't know anything about programming the Transcencion unit.

 

I guess you could program it with a chase where each step has the white lamp at full, then the other sections change with each step.

[Andyp]

Ok guys, could you reccomd a DMX controller that will enable me to do the above and also be able to add on a few I-lights and a couple more LEDs Not too expensive though, it is for my band but we will be operating this ourselves as well as playing.

[alistermorton]

As Niclights suggested, you might be better served by using a laptop with some software and a DMX dongle rather than a cheap desk, many of which tend to be a bit limited in what they can do. The thing is that any software you try will have a learning curve - depends how brave you feel about learning to program a lighting desk, and how much you need to spend on the associated hardware to get going. You could get going with MagicQ for as little as a tenner for the time limited dongle, for example, but you'd need to learn how to program it.

[niclights]

A similar option is Avolites TitanOne. I am slightly biased but it's great. No getting away from the fact there will be a learning curve though.

 

Depends if you have a spare laptop and if that's suitable for your use. Otherwise the Transcension controller or similar variants are going to be way cheaper than any of the full console options. It may well do what you want (the chase part specifically). Problem is, like myself, many users here probably don't have much experience of how they work.