DMX Guru Required

[Jem]

Hi all

I know we have some damn clever people here on PL and that it's a real source of knowledge for all kinds of things .

I'm looking for a DMX Guru who may be able to answer a few questions, which to someone who understands these things may be very simple questions .

I'm thinking of buying two of these KAM Powerbars...

http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-...ng-Package/I33

and one of these DMX controllers...

http://www.gear4music.com/PA-DJ-and-...Controller/BHZ

Firstly, let me say that I generally have a dislike for LED lighting due to the very fast 'on and off' cycle, It's all a bit too 'flashy' or strobe like. What I want to acheive is a soft fade from one colour to another (chase effect), just so it takes the 'flashiness' out of the LED's and make it act more like soft incandescent lighting. Obviously it would be nice if this fade could be made really slow for mood lighting and then ramped up for 'disco' type lighting.

Secondly, I would like the option for the lights to sequence to the beat of the music. I notice that this DMX unit ahs a built in microphone, presumeably for this purpose.

Thirdly, I would like to Master Dim the whole set of lights if they were too bright for a particular venue, but still keep the effects above (only dimmer).

The manual for the DMX 'Transcension Light and Easy Controller' is available on the link above just click 'PDF Download Brochure'.

I'd be most grateful if anyone could take a look for me and let me know whether the controller and lights are capable of doing the things I want to do as listed above.

Many thanks

Jem

[Laserhobbit]

Jem,

I am a little tied up for the next few days. But what I can say is that DMX control allows you to do all the things you are trying to achieve. But without a careful look at the exact products you are asking about, I cannot confirm if this combination will perform this level of DMX control. It's more about the "programability" of the actual controller than the Powerbars, fromm what I can see from a quick 5 minute look. If it can wait until Friday I will be able to give it the attention, it and you deserve. But in theory this is possible with DMX, as long as each fixture can be configured on a different single or range of DMX addressees and the controller can program these steps or scenes. I hope this helps

Kind regards

Steve

[Jem]

Brilliant Steve, thanks. No problem waiting till Friday and I really appreciate you taking the time to have a look at this for me.

Cheers

Jem

[chad]

Accidental double post.

chad

[chad]

I agree with Steve. Dmx is just a protocol that stage lighting uses. It's old and outdated but ubiquitous. The lights will just do what they are told to do from the controller, be it blink or fade.
Most dmx lights have a group of channels, let's make an imaginary rgb led fixture.

Channel, Value, Function
1 -0 - 255 RED 0% 100%
2 -0 - 255 GREEN 0% 100%
3 -0 - 255 BLUE 0% 100%
4 -8 - 255 COLOR MACRO
5 -0 - 15 NOTHING / 16 - 255 STROBING
6 -0 - 31 NOTHING/ DIMMING CONTROL /32 - 63 DIM BRIGHT /64 - 95 BRIGHT DIM /96 - 127 DIM BRIGHT DIM /128 - 159 COLOR MIXING /160 - 191 3 COLOR CHANGE /192 - 223 7 COLOR CHANGE

So by sending different values on on the 6 dmx channels you can make the light do stuff. Good controllers will handle all of the speed color values and effects. cheap controllers are limited in what channels they send out and use more of the built in stuff in the light. so really the question is what can the controller do? And for $99 i am not expecting much.

chad

[Laserhobbit]

Jem,

Just quickly also you mention about the speed of fade for LEDs, most controllers and I assume this one also, allow you to control the fade speed, or the time it takes to go from one DMX level or value to another over time. remember all DMX does is send a number from 0 to 255 to a particular channel or attribute of a fixture. In fact the software based lighting board I use allows you to "draw" a ramp to do this, which can be different for each fixture or DMX channel, designed exactly to achieve this and also to allow control of moving heads. Yes these units do also suffer with exactly the same issues as galvos, just with a lot more momentum But by using this on the intensity channel of a fixed lantern or fixture you can change the way the light personality fades, you can adjust it so it is more like "normal" lamps. But often what you actually do is a 2 stage fade over a short period to mimic this. Most fixtures of this type then have 4 channel allocated, RGB and then a master intensity, so just by setting a colour you can then chase really easily.

I will be more definitive by the weekend, but I hope this helps for now.

Kind regards

Steve

[flecom]

not sure about that controller but some allow you to "crossfade" between steps of a chase, which should give you a gradual fade instead of a sudden change... you could also do this very easily in QS/Beyond with an EnTech

[Jem]

... but I hope this helps for now.

Everything helps at the moment as I know nothing

[norty303]

If you have a spare £10 then buy a Chamsys DMX dongle and download MagicQ. Overkill for 2 led bars but has dedicated handling of rgb leds and will get you 'real desk' functionality for very little instead of ten times the amount for a toy town controller.
Only limit is it needs replugging every 5 hours. If this is unacceptable the unrestricted version is £60.

The beauty of a decent desk is that you don't work with channels apart from when you patch the fixture. After that, if you want to turn up blue you don't look for fader/channel 3, you simply go to colours and turn up blue (or pick the exact shade from a full rgb palette)

[Laserhobbit]

Norty,

This looks really quite cool. I use a much more expensive software based desk and from a brief look this seems to offer much of the same functionality. I will download later this week and give it a try.

Kind regards

Steve