DMX Controller help....please!

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Hi all,

A while back I purchased a pair of ADJ X Move LED moving heads. I haven't used them that much to be fair but when I do I generally place them where I want them, link them master & slave and invert one of them. That's fine BUT I want to be able to control them too.

They are the only lights I want to have control over (apart from the fixtures I use for uplighting and stage lighting) as the ones that are fixed on my Ultimax overhead are all connected to an 8-way lighting box and set sound to light.

Yesterday I thought I would experiment a little. I have a 6 Channel Transcension DMX Controller that I use mainly for stage lighting. I thought I would connect the X Moves to it to see if it would do anything but it didn't.
I then got my Acme Dynamos out (first time in years) and connected all 4 of them up to the controller and it did a few things so that was a start and gave me a few ideas (set to white circles and placed correctly they could be an addition to stage lighting).

Now, I have NO idea about DMXing really so if I sound stupid you'll understand why.
I obviously need another DMX Controller but where do I start? I want a very cheap one but don't know what I need, how many channels etc etc....It would only be for the X Moves.

Lastly, I have a CA-8 controller that came with the Dynamos when I got them. Would this work with anything or is it just the dedicated controller for the Dynamos.

Apologies for the questions...I guess it's easy really but it's one of those things that I have never really got in to and never really bothered about that much.

Cheers

[yourdj]

Will be interested in this as i have 6 coming from China as we speak.

It would be nice to have a unit that can have preset buttons (like the GWDMX) and also easy manual control.
Such as when you want to light the cake, just selecting one unit and moving using a joystick etc.

[BeerFunk]

I'm no DMX maestro either, but the important thing to me is the ability to run sound to light and 'interrupt' with some pre-programmed shows or live manual control. I don't see a product or controller which offers a solution.

[Shaun]

I'm no DMX maestro either, but the important thing to me is the ability to run sound to light and 'interrupt' with some pre-programmed shows or live manual control. I don't see a product or controller which offers a solution.

There's an easy workaround: Small DMX cable from controller placed within easy reach for you, then another dmx cable plugged into that cable going down to your light. Whenver you want to go from pre-programmed/manual into sound to light mode....just disconnect the dmx cables. To go back to DMX, just re-attach the cable. Works a treat for me.

[BeerFunk]

There's an easy workaround: Small DMX cable from controller placed within easy reach for you, then another dmx cable plugged into that cable going down to your light. Whenver you want to go from pre-programmed/manual into sound to light mode....just disconnect the dmx cables. To go back to DMX, just re-attach the cable. Works a treat for me.Thanks Shaun, I did think about that, but wasn't sure if it would work or not. Obviously it does!

But let's say I've got a few par cans and a couple of moonflowers, and want the par cans to run sound to light (but in sync with each other). The moonflowers would be connected master/slave, running sound to light.

And let's say I wanted to override all of them to create a slower show, perhaps just one colour, for a first dance. All of the units would need to be in a chain to achieve DMX control, but that chain would stop them running sound to light as the moonflowers would be expecting a DMX signal from the par cans (or vice versa, depending upon how they're connected).

Sorry to hijack this thread, although at the same time I think it's relevant :)

[Shaun]

And let's say I wanted to override all of them to create a slower show, perhaps just one colour, for a first dance. All of the units would need to be in a chain to achieve DMX control, but that chain would stop them running sound to light as the moonflowers would be expecting a DMX signal from the par cans (or vice versa, depending upon how they're connected).


In normal circumstances I only use a couple of moving heads connected to my DMX controller, so I've no additional lights in the chain to confuse matters.

If you wanted to offer some separatation, you could always add a dmx splitter cable to the chain up near the controller. That way you have both the moonflowers and par cans running independantly on their own cables from the splitter. So you could have a par of them running sound 2 light if you wish whilst having DMX control over the others, and vice versa. I'd imagine that would work (in theory).

[DJ Jules]

If you wanted to offer some separation, you could always add a dmx splitter cable to the chain up near the controller. That way you have both the moonflowers and par cans running independently on their own cables from the splitter. So you could have a pair of them running sound 2 light if you wish whilst having DMX control over the others, and vice versa. I'd imagine that would work (in theory).

It'd just about work as long as the the DMX chains aren't too long (as that splitter doesn't amplify, separate or terminate the signals so you'll introduce a load of noise on the DMX chain by adding it). You'll also run the risk of fixtures on one chain trying to play master to fixtures on the other if you're adding and removing the DMX master signal. If you pay a little more for a splitter (~£30) then you won't have these issues. The other thing to be aware of is that you're relying on the fixtures having the intelligence built in to revert to Sound to Light if they don't detect a DMX signal. Most modern fixtures do this, but some (like cheaper pars - for example the QTX/AVSL ones I have) will just sit with an Err status if the DMX signal is removed or degraded instead of dropping back to S2L. Some also take a little bit of time to fail over to Sound to Light (my Cougars take ~10 seconds to decide they don't have a DMX signal and fail over to Sound to Light).

There's another option here. Some fixtures have the ability to run sound to light if they're instructed by DMX over a control channel (ADJ Jellydomes, Chauvet Vue III and quite a few of the moving heads I've seen to date). Meaning that you don't have to disconnect them from the chain, you can just press a button to send a pre-set load of DMX commands and they'll flip to sound to light mode. The down side of this approach is that while they'll run Sound to Light, they won't run Master/Slave, so the Pars wouldn't run in sync. Going through the manuals for all your fixtures should tell you what they're all capable of.

Really the only solution is full DMX control (e.g. getting a controller that can give you your static scenes and run sound to light chases), but I appreciate that this is a big investment in time and money (especially with programming chases for moving heads!)

Julian

[mattydj50]

I have a pair of ADJ X-Move LED 25R moving heads and I control these (connected master and slave in mirror image format) using the CA-8 controller.

Basically, I set them to a slow pass for background or first dance amd you can select the gobo and/or colour you want to go with these,

Once it all kicks off, I change the setting to basically auto/sound to light and leave the things to do their own thing. I mean, nobody cares really do they.

There are instructions for the settings in the manual (which, unfortunately, I don't have to hand with me at this particular moment in time).

[Shakermaker Promotions]

Thanks Matty.
I have just tried them with the CA-8 and had exactly the same results which is cool. I may take them along to the next wedding I do. The only things I don't have for them are the hanging brackets so I either use them on top of the JBL's which are floor standing speakers or on the floor when I am on a stage.
Thanks again.