foot controller for LED lights

I'm not aware of a foot controller that will do everything you want. I hope you get a positive response from someone on this forum.

I'm doing some of what you want with an FCB1010, but I've got the FCB1010 controlling a Elation Magic 260 dmx controller. The Magic 260 will do everything you want to do, but it is not foot contolled. To a degree, it is midi controllable. With the FCB1010 you can trigger a limited number of scenes and shows and the shows can do everything you are trying to do, but not in real time.

I've been involved in serveral threads on using an FCB1010 with the Magic 260. You can do a search on this forum. I summed up all that I learned in the Elation forum here:

http://forums.elationlighting....2530001#184002530001

good luck.

Hobson

Hello Hobson, Ive been reading some of your post's on the Elation forum. So it seems the FCB1010 is more compatable with the Magic 260 then we originally thought, very cool! are you using the FCB1010 now at gigs? if so how is it working for you? your information is much appreciated. thanks, Doug.

Thank you Hobson.

I am using the FCB1010 in gigs. It's role is quite limited. Let me first explain how I'm using it.

I'm the band's keyboardist. I've used the FCB1010 to great advantage to instantly set the song appropriate patches on my two physical keyboards and a rack sound module and my harmonizer. I use seven midi channels in my rig. When we upgraded our light show I thought I’d use it to set the lights for the song as well – using channels 8 – 12. [I could go through and put my other equipment on higher midi channels above 12 – so as to free up all the channels that the Magic 260 uses. But, because of the marginal usefulness of the FCB1010 to me, it’s not worth the trouble.]

As I’ve mentioned in other threads, in a live gig setting, the FCB1010 only operates on one channel. Therefore, when connected to the M260 it can select only 72 Scenes or 24 Shows. I work only with Shows. Therefore, the FCB1010 can only set 24 different light settings. Because of the way I use the M260, it only let’s me pick 20 show. [I’ll explain this below.]

As we play 40 to 50 songs at a gig, the FCB1010 cannot be used to set the lighting Show for every song we play. To make matters worse, in several cases, I use the same combinations of patches – FBC1010 number - on more than one song. [I could set up keyboards to have separate FCB1010 settings for each song, but since we have more than 100 songs in our playbook, and the FCB1010 is limited to 100 songs, it makes no sense for me not to use one FCB1010 setting for multiple songs.] But, in general, just because I use the same patches on multiple songs doesn’t mean that I want the same lighting on every song that uses that combination of patches. So the FBC1010 very limited usefulness. But I still use it in the following useful manner:

I basically have a different light Show for every song we play. The M260 has 24 Shows per page. On every page I used Show 24 to be the “between song light scene.” Show 23 is a blackout. Show 22 is a wild/crazy flashing light frenzy that I hit during massive drums at the end a song. So that we don’t have the same light frenzy for every song with a drum roll at the end, I use Shows 21 to do the same thing as 22, but with different things going on. This leaves me with only 20 Shows per page. So at the end of these songs I hit either 21 or 22 during the roll, 23 after the drum roll, and 24 a few seconds later. I think it makes for a nice effect.

Because of the above, I have to switch between Show pages on the M260 to select the right lights for the next song. This is what I let the FCB1010 do for me on about half the songs. [Since I’m often already on the right page, this helps on a high percentage of the songs.] I’ve set it up so that whenever the next song is selected on the FCB1010, it sends the note which selects Show 24 on the Show page of the midi channel the FCB1010 is set to. I don’t have it actually select the song lighting which is also on that page because I don’t want the light Show to start until the song starts. Consequently, I have to hit the appropriate light Show number on the M260 even after I have the FCB1010 select the page.

In short, the way I use the FCB1010 and the Magic 260, it can’t do that much for my light show.

If you were to use it exclusively to control the M260, you could use your foot to select one of 24 shows. You could even use your foot to do the light show frenzy thing at the end of songs – e.g., in Direct Select Mode you could use 33 for your frenzy, 44 for your black out and 55 for your in between song setting.

Note: Sending notes 0 – 71 from the FCB1010 to the M260 effects no change if the M260 is set in Show mode and sending notes 72 – 95 from the FCB1010 to the M260 effects no change if the M260 is set in Scene mode, i.e., the M260 does not automatically switch between Show and Scene mode just because you send a note in the range for that mode.

Hope this helps.

Hobson

Hello Hobson, Thanks for the reply. This is very useful information!! I think I will purchase a FCB1010 now. I run the lights from the stage and this will help with blackouts and show changes. Thanks again for your information it is much appreciated, Doug.

Doug, Glad to help.
Do you have a controller that accepts midi information?
Hobson

Ah, yes, the killer question.

Hobson is dead on:
You need to have a controller that can accept MIDI input. But, not only that, you need to look at the MIDI attributes to see what the implementation of MIDI really amounts to.

You need a software solution. Look to MyDMX, but you won't have control over fade times. You have to program those.

Short of that, hire a lighting guy to do this for you. Won't be cheaper, that's for sure!

Hey Hobson, Yes I have the ADJ Magic 260 as well. If you remember in previous threads you thought that the FCB1010 would only run three scenes and one show. from what you have just posted here it seems the FCB1010 is alot more compatible with the Magic 260 than orig. thought. (very cool!) I'm looking on ebay right now for a deal on one. Thanks again for your info! Doug