what are the types of DMX lights?

[zorn]

i honestly cant find a standard category for these lights, is there any? ('strobes', 'moving head', etc)

and any chinese companies you could suggest me for home and maybe small club use?

lasers are still my favorite but would be cool to have other lights playing with them.

[Datsurb]

No standard lights, as DMX is a way of controlling e.g lights.
Search ebay for DMX and Lights and you will find way more than you ask for.

[Galvonaut]

As Datsurb says, DMX is a control method. I don't know a great deal as just started looking into it more but as I understand it, a simple light might use just one DMX channel, however a complex moving head with lots of movements, moving lenses and filters may use multiple channels.

Loads of things can be controlled with DMX. Professional smoke machines can often be controlled by DMX which is handy as you can programme a puff (or room full) of smoke at a specific time in your shows.

You can also modify non DMX electronics with the addition of a DMX card.

[Galvonaut]

Personally I would avoid using DMX for lasers. When using DMX it only triggers preloaded ILD cues, either from an on-board show card or an SD card. This is pretty limiting.

You can get RTI Pikos on ebay but they can cost £20,000. It's up to you to do the research as to whether the product is any good. The vast majority of lasers and lighting on ebay is terrible quality, so I would do my research first, then search ebay for specific lasers etc. and wait for the right thing to turn up.

[Stuka]

No, he was just offering some advice from someone who has been around a while.

Plenty of nice gear can be found on ebay -
you just need to know what you're looking at, and stick with name brands.

If you want to get familiar with some of the "affordable" DMX lighting, check out the web sites for companies like Chauvet Lighting, American DJ, and Elation.
They all post videos of their gear on their web sites.

All these companies offer a range of DMX lighting that might be affordable for home / small event use.

Also, if you're in the US (hint - update your location in your profile!!), you can go in just about any Guitar Center and see some pretty good examples of mostly-affordable DMX lighting in action.

Keep in mind that once you add DMX lighting, you will need either a stand-alone DMX controller, or a DMX USB interface and the appropriate software. If you already have - or are thinking about getting - a laser control system, you'll probably want to add a DMX interface that is compatible with your laser control software.

With careful planning and some creative imagination, some fairly inexpensive DMX lighting can be added to some small-scale laser shows and really help enhance your show considerably!!

[dkumpula]

The reason i wanted to know if there are any good chinese brands rather than us or european was again my experience with lasers. chinese lasers can cost multiple times cheaper and the quality is not all that bad for my use.
Is it different case for dmx lights?

Hi Zorn,

I think with very few exceptions, most people would argue that you get what you pay for. In my experience, Chinese DMX devices are generally inferior in quality as compared to American or European companies (although those may be manufactured in China as well, but with better quality control). Chinese moving heads and other DMX devices may contain design flaws. I have seen some really odd "thought" go into such designs like moving heads that can't change color once a gobo is selected or really poor "auto mode" programming. Receiving defective devices from China is also a pain and shipping returns eat in to those "savings" quickly.

I am not saying you shouldn't purchase such devices from Chinese vendors, just that your expectations should be set appropriately.

Happy shopping!

-David

[Stiffler]

Where are you located?

[White-Light]

Generally with laser Zorn you get what you pay for. Many ebay units either don't make their stated powers or don't last very long if they do as build quality is often poor.

There are some decent Chinese laser manufacturers eg Goldenstar are decent at the budget end and Eightonlight produce some very high quality projectors. However, there's also a lot of cr*p out there!

So far as I'm aware, DMX lights work with any DMX controller, as DMX is just a universal communication protocol. You may however find that some control software only works with certain DMX interfaces (just as laser DAC's do).