DMX Settings - help needed

[DazzyD]

Hi all

I've got two old lights - an ACME MobileSpiral and an ACME MobileDancer. I've just realised that they are dmx-able but I don't have any manuals for them and they use DIP switches rather than the more modern LCD displays.

Does anyone know how to set the DIP switches for DMX operation?

Thanks in advance!

[Excalibur]

Does anyone know how to set the DIP switches for DMX operation?

Thanks in advance!

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand Binary, and those who don't.

The switches have numerical values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 etc etc.

converter here.

[ppentertainments]

And there's 99.9% of us who have tried dmx, failed and gone back to good old sound 2 light.

[Chris1984]

Most people use an app on there phone, even on the pyramid stage you will see the odd lighting guy with a phone working out dip switch settings!

there are plenty available in app store free of charge but in themean time take a look at this

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/chauv...ch-calculator/

its a nice visual dip switch calculator.
Always label the unit with its address once set otherwise it can be difficult to work it out in the dark quickly in the event of needing to re-patch or add etc

[DazzyD]

So are we saying that those DIP switches are entirely for setting DMX addresses? There isn't ones for turning DMX on/off, choosing sound to light, setting in-built programmes? There's a hell of a lot of switches when you consider DMX is only 512 addresses. I was expecting a reply along the lines of "switch one is DMX on or off (1 or 0), switches 2 to 10...". Wait a minute. 512 in binary would be 1000000000! Maybe not too many switches after all! So, I'd simply activate DMX by plugging in the cable then sending the signal?

There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand Binary, and those who don't.

The switches have numerical values of 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 etc etc.

converter here.

I understand binary perfectly! I used to be a computer programmer and I learned "machine code" which was basically setting memory addresses on or off to perform various tasks. This was long before the general human language programming and development platforms in use today. My misunderstanding was how to activate DMX mode in the first place as I've always used these heads via S2L.

As Chris Dye mentioned, S2L is the way forward for most mainly because in-built programmes are far superior these days to what we had ten years ago. The technology has come a long way and will continue to go a lot further. For me, I have a couple of bookings where I really want to utilise DMX as I need to achieve specific colours and routines. Most of the time, I'm mostly S2L or Master/Slave.

[Nakatomi]

I'd advise anybody to read the fine manual for their fixture before changing any dip switch settings.

Some I've seen let you set master/slave mode & others pan/tilt inversion while others let you set DMX addresses in clumps according to how many channels the fixture has.

What they usually mean is the address a fixtures channels start at.

[Platinumeventsolutions]

Off the top of my head I think the dancer came in a set of 4. And is 2 channel dmx one for mirror and one for the lamp.
Best thing to do is set one unt to channel 1 dip switch 1 on rest off and try it with your controller.

[Daryll]

Here we go............

dmx.xls

only up to 256 but you get the idea

[Nakatomi]

Darren, s2l is all well & good if the infernal programs know the difference between slow & fast music. I've seen fixtures step through mad strobe sequences during s lower songs to the point where I've had to physically unplug them to stop them being annoying. I'm looking at acme & adj lights there.

Fine if you have some kind of remote but otherwise DMX is the only way to tame those beasts.

Would it kill fixture makers to try to measure the tempo & adjust themselves accordingly? Apparently in a lot of cases, yes it would.

[ppentertainments]

I just wish lighting came with a simple controller like what you got with njd datamoons. So simple and were all you needed.