DMX - Beginners How-to

whee would u like me to start? how dmx works? how to use it how to program? how to address fixtures? dip switch settings and what they are for?? u ell me and i can help! however i do have a few postings about dmx in another forum i will find those and put links up. here let me know if this helps. diff forum post

Thanks for the reply. I guess I described my situation worse than it actually is. But since this is my first venture into DMX, I thought I'd cover the bases.

I've got the principle on addressing the individual lights, based on how many channels they have (light 1 w/4ch is ch1-4 w/start address of 1, light 2 w/4ch is ch5-8 w/start address of 5, etc.). Perhaps you could give me some pointers on setting up a basic plan. Like I mentioned, I have 8-10 DJ Scan's (more on the way) and 2 Pentabeam Lasers. These are my only DMX-type lights so far. I'd like to get a general 'sound-activated' program(s) for use when I'm just playing general music for the audience. And when needed, be able to manually (and quickly) control these devices. My wife owns a bridal shop and naturally, I need to control my lights when needed on the runway for the models.

Unfortunately for me, I've always learned best by taking things apart, rather than learning how to assemble them. So getting direction in setting up what I have currently, will help me in 'tweaking' it, as well as adding and growing. Reverse engineering at its best.

I managed to hook up 2 lights to my LC2412 controller in my living room and have them both do the same thing based on moving the sliders. But each light took up 4 sliders. I'd like to add multiple lights to one group of sliders. And since my trees would be placed on each side of the booth, the actions would have to be mirrored relating to left and right sides. Also, I'd like to use the DJ Scans as follow spots that would be fixed on one spot on the floor, and all move together while staying together. In otherwords, visually 1 spotlight moving where desired. I'm thinking that there might be a way of lining up the beams onto a fixed mark on the floor, and maybe 'locking' them in so they travel together. 2 sliders could move all the lights through the X/Y axis while still staying focused together, all while still taking into account that 4 may be mounted to my right, and 4 mounted to my left. But perhaps that may be beyond the capabilites of what little I have. I dunno...

Thanks again for whatever help you can offer.

well i do not know ur controller so i don't know how to tell u if u can reverse he pan and tilt channels on ur controller cause the dj scans to my knowledge don' have it avail as a function within the unit itself. but it can be achieved through the dmx controller. if u could send a link to the manual for ur controller i may be able to help u out. cause the 4 on each side thing would require one side to be norm. pan/tilt and the other would be reversed pan/tilt. as far as using a group of faders u can select each fixture button u want to control (i think, not sure cause i don't know ur controller) and al those fixtures given they are all the same type of unit will move in synch to ur faders.
now on ur set up: what dos ur rig look like? what trussing do u have? answer that and i can help some more. peace! jingles!!

Right now I have 2 of those all-in-one 10' truss systems, and I might pick up a 3rd. They're about the same price as 2 stands, so I have the truss part to use later if I decide. But I'm mainly just using the stands with the t-bars on top as it'll usually be me, myself, an I setting all this up. Using just the stands gives me different placement and expansion options. I plan on putting the 2 Scans on the inner-most part of the t-bars (because of weight concerns), with maybe some lighter pin spots on the ends. Ultimately, 3 of these truss systems will give me 6 stands (3 per side) with 2 scans on each (12 total). The Pentabeam lasers will go on a single light-duty stand (probably placed behind me). This way I can cut the whole system down to 2, 4, or 6 stands depending on the room size. Or eliminate the lasers altogether if the room has low ceilings. The trussing would be used for additional specialty lighting (vertigos, moonflowers, etc.) where possible.

The controller is a Behringer LC2412 (http://www.behringer.com/LC2412/index.cfm?lang=ENG). I'm still trying to decipher the manual (not too user friendly).

Thanks again for the assistance.

well i can tell u right now that you won't be able to assign reverse pan/tilt with that controller. it is basicaly a 24 ch. dmx dimmer board. and u don't have any assignable fixture buttons. so personally i would sell that and get something like the dmx operator. the controller u have now is mainly used for pars and other various effcts not dmx scanners. you only have 24 channels which i think won't be enough for all 8 of ur scanners unless u run them all at the same starting address. time to upgrade! my two watts on it. let me know if u need anything else. or if i skipped something. p.s. if u have 8 or 10 dj scans you will be using 32 to 40 dmx channels. you could get away with puting them all at the starting address of one but why limit your self to having them all do the same stuff?? in my honest opinion the cooles things are to have more control over all the lights individualy and create mulitple looks with diferent lights. you know? jingles!

quote:

Originally posted by jingles:
whee would u like me to start? how dmx works? how to use it how to program? how to address fixtures? dip switch settings and what they are for?? u ell me and i can help! however i do have a few postings about dmx in another forum i will find those and put links up. here let me know if this helps. diff forum post

Hey Jingles i was wondering if you could tell me how to do this, I am new to DMX so forgive me I have 2 pocket scan and one xp3 and a ADJ operater most the time i just want the lights running on sound mode but from time to time i will need to take controll of spotlights, color & gobos ect... individually or all three at once i have everything mounted i just need to know, what and how to set the digital or led display addresses to ?? these lights don't have dip switches except the xp3 has 2 to invert pan /tilt Thanks for your help regnilliD

well are you gona have ur lights runin on s.a? or the board? also im not too sure but i think if you run ur lights in s.a. mode via dip switch settings you will not be able to take over the dmx output. meaning if u have ur lights adressed to run in sound active mode you will not have control over them on your operator. so how will u be running these?? ok ur addresses will need to be a001 for pocet scan 1 and then a008 for p.s. 2 and then xp3 will start on 015. ok? i checked out the xp3 and it has a digital readout for addresses. let me know if u ned anything else. peace! jingles!