Two desks conundrum

[RedDog]

We have two lighting desks at our little venue, a Zero 88 Alcora Mk2 which controls one set of lights, uplighters at rear of stage which are LedJ 5q5s and overheads in the roof of the building which I belive are incandescant par cans ( I've never been in the roof and the installer has long since vanished ) and a QTX DMX-512 controlling 6 Showtec Compact Par 18 Tri MKIIs

The conundrum is.... the desks work in different ways, the Zero 88 has on colour per channel on all Ledjs, the QTX has selectable fixtures and contols colours according to selection. ( I know you all know this, but I'm kinda just thinking out loud )I much prefer the facilities on the Zero 88, but don't know how to amalgamate the Showtecs onto this desk and maintain individual control over the fixtures. Or is this not possible and I need to use the 6 Showtecs 'as one'.Apologies for not being clear, but this IS rocket science to me.

Thans.

 

 

[Biskit]

We have two lighting desks at our little venue, a Zero 88 Alcora Mk2 which controls one set of lights, uplighters at rear of stage which are LedJ 5q5s and overheads in the roof of the building which I belive are incandescant par cans ( I've never been in the roof and the installer has long since vanished ) and a QTX DMX-512 controlling 6 Showtec Compact Par 18 Tri MKIIs

The conundrum is.... the desks work in different ways, the Zero 88 has on colour per channel on all Ledjs, the QTX has selectable fixtures and contols colours according to selection. ( I know you all know this, but I'm kinda just thinking out loud )I much prefer the facilities on the Zero 88, but don't know how to amalgamate the Showtecs onto this desk and maintain individual control over the fixtures. Or is this not possible and I need to use the 6 Showtecs 'as one'.Apologies for not being clear, but this IS rocket science to me.

Thans.

 

I imagine others will suggest getting a desk which can do everything, or a PC based solution. But to my mind keeping it simple is often the best thing - if you can simply run two separate desks and have the fixtures on separate DMX universes then there's nothing wrong with that if it works for you. If (for some practical reason) they all need to be on a common DMX line, there are DMX combiner/merger units available which would allow the signal from both desks to be combined into a single line, again allowing you to have two separate desks if that works in your situation. One thing you wouldn't have is a single 'master' fader.

[RedDog]

thanks,yes it kind of works as is, the issue is the way the qtx works, no fade between scenes etc, is annoying.. the way the Zero 88 works is ideal.

prt of the problem is me... I haven't quite worked out the best way to utilise limited resources yet. The Showtecs are 3 per side of stage, one pair slightly forward as front lighting.currently as 6 seperate fixtures, which I think is unnecessary, maybe just have all as one fixture then I'll only need 3 channels on the Zero.

Or... a desk that will handle both.

 

[sandall]

Can you not simply change the DMX starting address on the Par 18s to above the highest number you are using on the Alcora or, if this means you run out of faders (I'm assuming this is a 12/24, not a 24/48, in which case you shouldn't), can you combine some of the LedJs and/or Par 18s to reduce the fader count? The Par-cans in the roof must be fed from dimmers somewhere so, depending on the wattage of the dimmers & how they are cabled, it might be possible to pair them up, potentially freeing up more faders. Alternatively you could just run it in Wide mode, which gives you 24 channels. If you don't have a manual for the desk it is on the Zero88 support pages.

[RedDog]

Can you not simply change the DMX starting address on the Par 18s to above the highest number you are using on the Alcora or, if this means you run out of faders (I'm assuming this is a 12/24, not a 24/48, in which case you shouldn't), can you combine some of the LedJs and/or Par 18s to reduce the fader count? The Par-cans in the roof must be fed from dimmers somewhere so, depending on the wattage of the dimmers & how they are cabled, it might be possible to pair them up, potentially freeing up more faders. Alternatively you could just run it in Wide mode, which gives you 24 channels. If you don't have a manual for the desk it is on the Zero88 support pages.

 

thanks, yes that's my thinking now... I'm going to first try all 6 Par18s together, which will require only 3 channels - r,g,b.will set Alcora to wide (yes 12/24) which as 12 channels in use now, means I have 12 to play with (could run par 18s in groups of 2 later) after my test.

This is an inherited system, so not sure of anything that was done before... hence some of my confusion.

 

 

[Edward- Z88]

Zero 88 Alcora MK2 support information here...

http://support.zero88.com/975403161

 

 

Edward

[RedDog]

thanks, I'll need manual to assign faders to lamps.

[Edward- Z88]

thanks, I'll need manual to assign faders to lamps.

 

 

Hi RedDog,

 

Page 36 of the manual goes through DMX patching on the Alcora MK2. You may find this helpful, as it allows you to customise the DMX address each channel fader controls. Each channel fader can also control multiple addresses.

 

If you have any questions let me know.

Edward

[RedDog]

Thanks, much appreciated.

thanks, I'll need manual to assign faders to lamps.

 

 

Hi RedDog,

 

Page 36 of the manual goes through DMX patching on the Alcora MK2. You may find this helpful, as it allows you to customise the DMX address each channel fader controls. Each channel fader can also control multiple addresses.

 

If you have any questions let me know.

Edward

 

So,let's say I put all the par 18s on one address 150, for example and on 3 chnnel setting (rgb) I set fader 13 on the alcora to 150 I then need to set fader 14 to 151 and fader 15 to 152? to get R,G,B?

is my thinking sound?

 

Thanks, much appreciated.

thanks, I'll need manual to assign faders to lamps.

 

 

Hi RedDog,

 

Page 36 of the manual goes through DMX patching on the Alcora MK2. You may find this helpful, as it allows you to customise the DMX address each channel fader controls. Each channel fader can also control multiple addresses.

 

If you have any questions let me know.

Edward

[Edward- Z88]

So, let's say I put all the par 18s on one address 150, for example and on 3 chnnel setting (rgb) I set fader 13 on the alcora to 150 I then need to set fader 14 to 151 and fader 15 to 152? to get R,G,B?

is my thinking sound?

 

 

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

Edward

[RedDog]

Thank you..I'll report back...

So, let's say I put all the par 18s on one address 150, for example and on 3 chnnel setting (rgb) I set fader 13 on the alcora to 150 I then need to set fader 14 to 151 and fader 15 to 152? to get R,G,B?

is my thinking sound?

 

 

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

Edward

[RedDog]

Ok,

In the section DMX Patching for the Alcora it states....

 

The desk has a default 1:1 DMX patch

(desk channel 1 is patched to DMX

channel 1, desk channel 2 patched to

DMX channel 2 etc.).

Each desk channel may be patched to

any number of different DMX channels.

For example, desk channel 1 could be

patched to DMX channels 1, 101, 201.

A desk channel may also be unpatched

such that it is no longer patched to any

DMX channel.

Each DMX channel can only have one

desk channel assigned to it.

 

Am I right in thinking that this means by default desk channel 13 ( in wide mode ) will be patched to DMX channel 13, and that it can only be patched to that or 113 or 213?Or can I unpatch the desk channel fromn channel 13 and set any DMX number I choose?cheers.

 

 

Thank you..I'll report back...

So, let's say I put all the par 18s on one address 150, for example and on 3 chnnel setting (rgb) I set fader 13 on the alcora to 150 I then need to set fader 14 to 151 and fader 15 to 152? to get R,G,B?

is my thinking sound?

 

 

 

Yes, that's correct.

 

Edward

[timsabre]

You can patch each fader to any DMX channel or multiple of channels. The 101, 201 is just an example.

[RedDog]

Thnk, thought so..It's just the examples were so 'sequential' , I wondered for a minute..

 

 

You can patch each fader to any DMX channel or multiple of channels. The 101, 201 is just an example.

[RedDog]

So,Alcora... got into Superuser mode, but when I pressed the D.B.O ( Blackout ) button.. it doesn't light up.The display remains on the software version, which is 1.1.

However, as this didn't work I summised that the channel assignments were probably 1-1 as default, so I set to wide mode and my new pars to 13/14/15.. works!

So all good for now, but would like to be able to sort the non-functioning button.