Lighting DMX control issues !

[yourdj]

Hi went to NADJ thing today and saw two pilot 150's being perfectly controlled to the note on the stand next to the second room doorway (opposite ultimax):

http://www.alrica.pt/loja/images/%5CPEARL_RIVER%5CPILOT_150.JPG

I am trying to control my moving heads (same model) with a trancention controller:

http://www.theelectronicsshop.co.uk/Art%20Work/prolight%20dmxmas.jpg

But they go all around the place when trying to set scenes and are not fine tunable at all! I think this is the contoller?

Also i had a load of scenes banked and at my gig last night and when set to "music" they did nothing until i tapped the unit in succession, which means that they are picking up a beat (the sound system was quite loud)! I plugged a phono cable in from my mixer output and still nothing!

The lights are not designed to be stand alone so i need a controller and iwould prefer not to have to buy a new one.

I would also like the ability to control a load of led par cans as well as several DMX lights.

What can i do?

[Sam]

Sounds like your DMX addressing might not be correct.....

How much experience do you have with DMXing etc?
What addresses have you set the two units on to?

As for fine tuning... technically it can.. as it has high resolution pan / tilt on that model.

You basically need to get the dmx address correct then select say "scanner 1" (or whatever your controller goes by) and then move the faders.. so looks like it might be faders 5 & 6 with these units) and that will change their pan tilt position.

To make a show look good it requires good programing etc and really a bit of thinking ahead as to what you want the unit to do... and how you want it to get to he next scene (e.g pan from left to right or right to left to get into position)

As for LED pars.. easy.. you buy them.. address them.. plug them in... then select the "scanner" umber that they should be under.. and hey presto.. you slide the faders and they will do their thing.

Hope this helps.

[yourdj]

Thanks Sam i knew i could rely on you!

Not alot of expirience with DMXing. I bought the unit a few months agobut been too busy to sort it out!

The addresses are set at 001 each and run from scanner one button. the gobo is no1, colour no 2 and i think the movement is about 5 and six but it is so random i cant seem to move it without it spinning dramatically to another location and strobing madly!

i have many hours it to this so i have tried hard.

I would love them to calmy and slowly move around and change colour.

Also i might be dumb but i cant get the joystick thing to work.

I have followed the (4-10 spelling mistakes on each page) book to the word.

This device is mass produced for many companies so i think Sam is right it is most probably me?

[Sam]

Yeh I use the controller (lookalike) and pilot 250s.. and I don't have trouble..
The only thing that i guess you may be experiencing is moving the slider too much.. Small moves do the trick - otherwise you will just shoot from max to min pan / tilt very quickly.

Also with regards to the joystick.. don't use it.. it is shockingly bad!I never use mine.

2 points: it is probs worth having them running on two seperate "scanner" buttons. You can make them do different things etc then. For example my pilots are addressed 001 and 017 and then they run of scanenr button 1 and scanner button 2.

When you, say, move the pan fader only.. is that when it strobes madly? That is not right - it should not be mixing channels which again makes me think about the addressing or infact the controller - or you might be doing something wrong in the way that you are moving the wrong fader or you might be on the wrong level of faders?? (where you rpess a button and it goes from 1 - 8 fader to 9 - 15)

The only other thing I can think of is also because they will be panning at full spped as it seems you can't adjust pan / tilt speeD? On the 250s you can which is helpful for slow moves... BUT it shouldn't matter too much as you just adust the speed / fade time and it changes scenes slower..

it is hard to solve the problem via elsewhere without having the unit to play with myself 2bh.. otherwise it would probs be fairly simple to see what was going wrong.

If you have msn.. it might be worth chatting on there for ease.

[yourdj]

Do you have all the settings on the unit to yes as mine are set to no?

Any slight movement on the unit sends it all over the place!

Also, how do you make the music option work? It only works when i tap the table or the unit. I had problems at the weekend as i have banked loads of stuff and it was not picking up the music. when i tapped the unit it worked?

The speaker were pretty loud.

I plugged a phono from the mixer so direct audio input and still nothing?

I ended unplugging everything and setting all the options on the lights to yes and letting it run through its pre programmed stuff, which is not ideal as the reason i bought them is to have personal DMX light shows.

If i wanted a stand alone show i would have bought imoves.

Thanks very much

[Sam]

Hmm.
I will have a further think about it tomorrow when i'm not so tired.

But one big note.. the sound -> scene stuff on these sorts of controllers are really and I mean REALLY bad. I never use mine as it just looks awful.
That shouldn't be a problem. You just need to go on the AUTO setting and either change the times using the two dedictaed faders OR you can put the BPM in via the special button.. which you tap to eveyr beat (I actually do it to every other or fourth beat).

The thing you need to remember is that the music beat is often way to fast. Therefore the movers do not have tim to respond before it is being told to go onto the next scene. So it just looks awful.

Anyway I will have a ponder about the oevrall issue tomorrow.

One thing though.... what do you mean by setting everything to YES / NO ? And on which "unit" the light or the controller?

_- EDIT TO ADD:
The only other thing that might be a poss. is a software error on the heads? They mgiht think that they should go from 0 - 360 degrees or whatever when the channel value gos from 0 - 10 - - -instead of 0-256.
So basically it would only need a small movement... if that makes sense? But that is only a guess.

Are these units still guaranteed?

I will get goodold DMXWill on the case too. See if there is something I am missing.

[yourdj]

Hmm.

_- EDIT TO ADD:
The only other thing that might be a poss. is a software error on the heads? They mgiht think that they should go from 0 - 360 degrees or whatever when the channel value gos from 0 - 10 - - -instead of 0-256.
So basically it would only need a small movement... if that makes sense? But that is only a guess.

Are these units still guaranteed?

I will get goodold DMXWill on the case too. See if there is something I am missing.

I got them cheap at the time from a bloke in a shop ((not to trust and not clued up on any equipment) - he also bought a dozen in the same order for discount) at 0% finance for 2 years so did not argue. I will take them to the shop i bought the controller from and try everything. The bloke is really helpful (blue arrrun)

If there is a problem i will take them back too the light shop

As with the yes/no thing. When you turn the unit on you can go through a variety of options and select numbers 1-6 which performs different operations.

Your help is very much appreciated ;) Thanks

All i want to do is have a fully automated show :rolleyes:

[Sam]

Good plan to test it.

What exactly are these YES / NO options?
Have not seen those before on startup buit normally just when you want to access it on the inbuilt menu on the unit. (althoiugh I guess that is what you meant).

They key might be in how you are setting these.

[yourdj]

Hi sorted them out and they looked great last night! what a brilliant piece of kit. I recon four small led MH are in order next?

I programmed one and ran them both off the same address. One thing though it did stick several times through the night and i had to turn the controller on and off again. I was running it on auto and using the tap function as you suggested to run through the chases?

Thanks for your help.

[Sam]

Sounds like it was your addressing that wasn't correct then.

And yes.. that controller will do that - the joys of budget gear :)

[Shaun]

I will get goodold DMXWill on the case too. See if there is something I am missing.

Speaking of Will. Has anyone seen or heard from him recently?. Haven't seen him on the forum in a while.

[djsteve10]

Speaking of Will. Has anyone seen or heard from him recently?. Haven't seen him on the forum in a while.

I speak to Will quite abit on msn as we both own the radio station but i think he has just been busy with work and of course its been warm lately so everyone is out in the gardens chilling out.

[Tom]

Well apart from us lot that is. :lol:

[Shaun]

Thanks Steve. :approve:

[Sam]

Yup,
He is still alive and well (on msn lol)