DMX System Assistance

[DJ Pop Rocket]

Hello Everyone,
Im in the process of updating alot of my disco equipment and one of the things I wish to update is my lighting. At the moment my lighting system is ok but I want to to modernise my equipment and I like the look of DMX Lighting. It seems like a great replacement for my current lighting system.

The problem is I dont understand very well how it all works, all I know is that the lights connect to a controller and they all link together. I do not really know much about the controller and other general things. Some general questions include:

Can DMX Lighting run for long periods of time or does it have to be turned off after being on for a certain amount of time to cool off ?

Does DMX lighting attach to a standard stand which uses a nut and bolt holding ?

How does the controller work, how do you programme effects and scenes into it and how do the lights get programmed to work in sequence.

If someone could give me a bit of information on how to operate and set up DMX lighting it would be greatly appreciated as I dont want to spend so much money and find out I cannot figure out how to operate it. :p

Also I know quite a few people on these forums have DMX set ups and I was wondering if any of them know any good set ups? Such as lights that go together and a good controller. I dont patcularly want to spend more than £500 on DMX lighting at first, I may add to it in the future but at the moment I dont really want to spend more than that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Sorry if there are already topics similar to this....

[Paul James Promotions]

I'll leave this one for Will... :)

[Shaun]

Me too :)

[Jiggles]

"WILL" he shrieks "COME AND HELP" :teeth:

[DMX Will]

Hi George,

Thanks for posting :) £500 is an awesome budget to start with, especially if you've already got some non-dmx lights.

DMX is a control protocol (built up from the old AMX) used in theatres and other venues where lighting control is essential, as you may have noticed, its widely spread these days into mobile discos and even controlling standard lights in bigger function rooms and venues. The way DMX work is as follows....

You have a controller (or lighting desk) that can control up to 512 channels (hence the long name DMX 512). This controller is then connected to your lights (or "fixtures" as they are more wildely refered to) in a daisy chain-like way.

You have two types of light:
- Generic Lanterns
These are bog-standard normal lights that are dimmable (standard theatrical lanterns) which also include Par Cans and pin spots you sometimes see on roadshows. To be controlled via DMX these lanterns must be plugged into either a DMX dimmer, or switchpack.
- Fixtures
These are the DMX lights (or dimmers/switchpacks - basically anything that reacts to a dmx signal) that react in accordance to the DMX level the channels they are selected to "listen to". Many fixtures have more than one channel. If you take for example a moving head it may have 5 channels:

- Pan (Ch1)
- Tilt (Ch2)
- Colour (Ch3)
- Gobo (Ch4)
- Dimmer (Ch5)

So a different channel on your desk controls each of those parameters. (examples in brackets above). In order to get the lights to do what you want, you first of all have to address them, which involves "setting their addresses", you do this by setting the first channel number on each fixture (done by the means of dipswitches or a screen).

Once you have set the first channel number on the fixture the channels the fixture then reacts to would be as follows

(if you set the first channel to be 17)

- Pan (Ch17)
- Tilt (Ch18)
- Colour (Ch19)
- Gobo (Ch20)
- Dimmer (Ch21)

You are then able to control each function through the fader on the desk.

I'm afraid the above probably doesn't make much sense, please question me in a reply if anything isnt clear. But I'll carry on....

Connecting up your gear.... DMX is connected using both 3 pin and 5 pin XLRs, fixtures use 3 pin, and so will the desk you choose, so the cables are nice and cheap (www.cpc.co.uk). You run from the DMX out socket on your desk to your first fixture (in socket) then from the "out" socket on the same fixture you run the next cable to the next fixture's "in" socket, and so on and so forth until you get to the last fixture (which unless you are using a terminator, shouldn't have anything plugged into it's "out" socket).

You can address two or more fixtures to the same channels, however they will both do the same thing (providing they are an identical fixture) which can sometimes be helpful.

You then need to programme your lighting desk/controller so the lights keep doing stuff, i recommend you setup 6 chases like this:

3x Fast chases for high BPM songs/sessions
1x Intro/Chilling/Quiet no dancing (very slow moving beams etc)
1x Slow dance chase (slow moving, pinks, blues etc)
and
1x very fast, for dance tracks etc.

Most desks allow you to swap between chases very easily and quickly providing your programme well, if you need help on that side let me know when you come to using a controller.

As for the lights

As always i recommend:

- Acme Winners
- Acme Rovers

I would buy:

2x Acme Rovers (for £130/ea) - http://www.discostudio.co.uk/item.php?upn=4139&affid=froogle

2x Acme Pumas (for £195/pair) - http://www.bluearan.co.uk/menu/index.php?id=ACMPUMA02&browsemode=category

Your then left to choose a controller.... (bit tight for £35!!)

I highly recommend the DMX-50 by Chauvet, as it has everything your going to need, and I swear by it for the smaller discos we do :) - http://www.chauvetlighting.com/system/fixtures/dmx50.html

Hope this helps :)

[DMX Will]

LOL, all those replies didn't exsist when I started typing...

[Shaun]

Will to the rescue.

Good informative and helpful post young man :)

[Paul James Promotions]

Excellent...

[DMX Will]

Excellent...

Does it make sense then jamie?

[ian8limelight]

Thanks Will, definately filled in some of my knowledge gaps.

[Paul James Promotions]

Does it make sense then jamie?

Spot on :thumbs_up

[DJ Pop Rocket]

Thanks alot Will for the information. It helped me out alot. :)

[DMX Will]

Thanks alot Will for the information. It helped me out alot. :)

I'm glad, hope all is clear :)

Thank you for you post, due to my response, it seems there will be a article posted on DMX lighting on the site, aswell as a few people expressing intrest in a mini-website for how DMX works.

So thank you! I've had my bit of fame tonight because of it! - lol :teeth:

[djbigdevs]

Thanks for that Will - very useful!!

You mention the Chauvet DMX 50 controller.
I have the cheap n cheerful Acme Dynamo scanner package with the CA-8. Would the DMX50 be suitable for using with the dynamos?

Also when you create a 'show', is it saved onto the controller or do you have to programme it in for every gig?

Also I see that some lights have 2 channels, some 4 etc. Can you combine lights that have different amount of channels? Does that make sense?? :embarasse

[DJ Pop Rocket]

Just another quick question, do you need a fog/smoke/haze machine to be able to see the beams of light in the air given out from DMX lights ? If yes then I will also need to invest in a haze machine then.

Cheers.... :)

Edit: Also can DMX lights stay on for long periods of time or do they need to be turned off to cool down after so many hours/minutes?

[alexperrins]

It certainly helps, but you don't specifically need one. Personally, I think it should be the last item you should get. Better to have high quality lights with no fog than rubbish lights and lots of fog. Especially with the whole smoke alarm argument where you might not be able to use it anyway! :)

[spin mobile disco]

A fog/smoke or haze machine will make them more visable in the air, ie shafts of light from effect. But they still look ok without. You may find a lot of venues dont allow the use of fog smoke machines and similar. Worth finding out if your usual venues allow it before investing. But most DMXX stuff looks fine without smoke. Smioke just makes it from good to awsome.

[DMX Will]

Thanks for that Will - very useful!!

You mention the Chauvet DMX 50 controller.
I have the cheap n cheerful Acme Dynamo scanner package with the CA-8. Would the DMX50 be suitable for using with the dynamos?

Also when you create a 'show', is it saved onto the controller or do you have to programme it in for every gig?

Also I see that some lights have 2 channels, some 4 etc. Can you combine lights that have different amount of channels? Does that make sense?? :embarasse


The DMX-50 will stay programmed...well forever! Until you change the programming that is. It has about a 6 page manual, with larger writing. It's that simple to use!

The controller is suitable for all the types of lights you mention. It will control any fixture or dimmer that is based around the DMX protocol. Yes you can combine as many different lights with as many different channels as this desk will allow (which is 192 channels i believe!)

Will.

[DMX Will]

Edit: Also can DMX lights stay on for long periods of time or do they need to be turned off to cool down after so many hours/minutes?

Depends on the fixture. DMX lights can stay on just as long as non-DMX lights. We use all of our lights all of the time (well mostly anyway). Just because they're getting hot....doesn't mean you need to give them a break. It's almost better to leave them running than have the lamps switching on/off every 1/2 hour :)

[DMX Will]

But most DMXX stuff looks fine without smoke. Smioke just makes it from good to awsome.

I don't think thats a very true statement. Remember that a DMX is only the protocol that controls the light....not the type of light it is. So to say a DMX light doesn't need smoke to look good, when a non-DMX one does, is a false statement.

[djbigdevs]

The DMX-50 will stay programmed...well forever! Until you change the programming that is. It has about a 6 page manual, with larger writing. It's that simple to use!

The controller is suitable for all the types of lights you mention. It will control any fixture or dimmer that is based around the DMX protocol. Yes you can combine as many different lights with as many different channels as this desk will allow (which is 192 channels i believe!)

Will.

Thanks Will.

Think that will be next on my list of buys, after........cd/mixer case, mixer!

[DJ Pop Rocket]

Ok if you look in this (http://www.mediazero.de/SCX500%20Set.jpg) picture you can see a martin scanner set. Now how exactly does that lot set up.

Do the Scanners use 1 of those cables each to connect to the controller or do 3 cables get used to link the scanners together and the last wire gets used to connect to the controller from one of the scanners ? Then do you just plug in all the scanners to a power unit and plug in the controller and say switch it to go to music or whatever its called and they should all go to the music beat in sync ?

[Denty]

this is fortuatous - i have a question i was going to post on this, regarding terminators. One guy I was speaking to said you should always use one if you have more than 1 dimmer pack. I run 3 dimmer packs without one and so far have had no problems. Would appreciate your thoughts on this - and also what a terminator is..................
Thks

[A1DL]

this is fortuatous - i have a question i was going to post on this, regarding terminators. One guy I was speaking to said you should always use one if you have more than 1 dimmer pack. I run 3 dimmer packs without one and so far have had no problems. Would appreciate your thoughts on this - and also what a terminator is..................
Thks

A terminator is an 110 Ohm resistor soldered across pins 2 & 3 of an XLR plug, plugged into the DMX output of the last head in the DMX chain