dmx lightning?

[johnjack]

Hi guys i was just wondering if this forum is the right place to ask noob questions about dmx lights.
I love the effects of lasers but dmx lights have their unique effect i also like.

I actually don't know anything about how dmx lights work. I do know about laser projectors, though still not enough.
So if this is the wrong place, then apologies, what forum will you suggest?

[Pockels]

Hi John and welcome to PL.

Pop a post in here http://www.photonlexicon.com/forums/...her-than-Laser

PL is definitely the place to further your knowledge of all things laser related. There's a wealth of expertise and advise.

[norty303]

What do you want to know?

Try reading here for a bit of background on the DMX512 protocol.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMX512

Essentially, a desk will be able to put out 1 or more DMX 'universes', which consist of 512 channels, each channel with values between 0 and 254.

A lighting fixture will have 1 or more DMX channels to control it.

E.g. a simple RGB LED parcan will have 3 channels for Red, Green and Blue
By adjusting each of the channel values, you create different colours

You 'patch' lights to DMX desks by assigning a starting address (1 to 512) on the fixture.

So in the case of the RGB parcan, give it an address of 1, and DMX channel 1 on the desk will control Red, ch2 = Green, ch3 = Blue.
If you wanted to add another parcan, you could give that a starting address of 4 (ch1-3 are already used by parcan 1 y'see) and it runs ch4=Red, ch5=Green, ch6=Blue
If you don't need individual control of common fixtures you can give them all the same address, and they will all do the same thing (so you could have 12 of the parcans all on address 1). BUT, you can never individually control them like this.

Moving heads and more recently media screens occupy a large number of channels per fixture (some moving heads are over 30 channels, media screens use 3 channels per RGB 'pixel' - a 60x60 RGB pixel screen would use 10800 channels!), so you may only get a few per universe.

Most DMX fixtures will have a unique DMX 'profile' or 'personality' (terminology depending on manufacturer). This is essentially a map that says which function is on which channel, and what values do what.
Download a moving head manual from Robe/Martin/Clay Paky/etc to get a feel for how these are presented.
Most modern desks/software have a fixture library built in, so you just load up the one you need.

So in my first example, you'd set the parcan to address 1 , and load a generic 3 channel RGB fixture at address 1 on the desk.

[johnjack]

Many thanks.
I've read that you can control DMX lights exclusively with software, without a DMX board.

I wasn't very clear on what I wanted to know. Sorry. I'm more interested in what companies I should buy from and which I should keep myself away from. I don't want expensive, powerful and very professional lightning equipment, but I also don't want to buy stuff which will kill themselves in few months. I've only seen products from this company so far: http://www.lanlingtech.com/

[norty303]

Yes, you can control with just software and a USB dongle. Some of the software is even the same as the actual desks (Chamsys MagicQ, Avolites) but they will tie you into their own hardware at some point.
In fact most of the big manufacturers desks these days are just a PC running an OS, with a fader interface, touchscreen and I/O interface all built into a nice box.
If you really want to 'do' lighting, especially with intelligent fixtures then a control system with proper physical controls (faders, buttons, jog wheels, etc) is going to be almost essential, versus using a keyboard/mouse combo.

As for fixtures, it would be wrong to simply say 'buy this brand' because they might make good scans but doggy moving heads, or good LED products and poor discharge fixtures.

Decide what type of fixture you want first, how much budget you have, then ask what is best for you.

Also, fill out your profile so we know where in the world you are, as it can dictate significantly what we can recommend for you.

[White-Light]

I found these tutorials on Youtube helpful:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3jM_rbILhs

That's Part 1, there is a whole series.

I defer any questions back to Norty or Pockels - I'm still learning.