my DMX and Wireless

Welcome! and of course it does. you simply go out from your dongle to the dmx in on the wireless. just like u would on a console. sincerely,

Thanks for the quick reply, Jim!

I'm thinking of using 2 or 3 par led 64s on each side of a balcony. I just got one of the 64s to play with- quick question: can I run them in master/slave mode (without dmx control) to synch the lighting effects on each side? I'll eventually put everything under dmx control, but it'd be good to have a good effect for this weekend's gigs. (And I didn't see anything about this in the user instructions.)

Thanks again,

Jeff

of course you can run them in master/slave mode. but it will just be color scrolls on auto at a speed in which u set them all night. sincerely,

Thanks James!

So I'm guessing that by simply using a couple of xlr's to connect the three par 64 led's that it'll work.

i have the one test par can on auto mode now (dipswitchs 9 and 10 on, per the instructions) and i like the effect. in multiples of three on both sides of the balcony... i think that's a good start...

oh yeah, by daisy chaining the units does it also daisy chain the power, and obviate the need to run power extension cords to each unit?

thanks yet again!

You can use regular microphone XLR cables, but honestly, use DMX-rated cables, it's the proper impedence. I'm not trying to sell cables, it's just my experience.

Daisy chaining: You can daisy chain your control signal only. Power must be aquired via the AC cord on the fixture.

Power is power. Data is data. They don't travel down the same wire.

Hope that clears things up. Bring extension cords. You're gonna need them.

Thanks for the clarification (and for the tip), Chris!

By the way, do you have a particular post on this board that references what you use and how you've set it up? I definitely want to learn from others' experiences!

I agree with your line of thought. Life is too short, you don't have time to make all these mistakes on your own.

As far as any post that describes what I do or have done, I did recently post one. But if you have any questions, go ahead and ask. Nothing I'm doing is "proprietary" except within the specifics of my environment. Everything is pretty much by the book. I'm migrating off using XLR cable and just made myself 300-feet of Accucable for DMX(200 foot run, 3 25-foot runs, and 6 3-foot runs). I'll be making more cabling in the future. As time goes on, my lighting will become more complicated whether I like it or not. Being a sound guy and a data guy, it's all just signal flow to me. So, I already have the skill set to deal with it.

Also my set-up changes a lot, and recently changed a TON based on new gear I have. I've replaced 32 Par38's with 8 64B PAR LED's.

In my experience, DMX is just one more thing to deal with. Now I'm also learning more about RF to deal with frequency management because I use 7 channels of wireless and am adding in 4 channels of wireless in-ear monitoring. Wireless is due to client demand.

Wireless DMX? Not ready for that yet. Since my core is wired, running one more cable isn't any big deal. A 200-foot 56-pair whip, a cat5 for video, a Cat5 for my Avioms and a 200-foot DMX cable, heck, big deal. Wireless is done for the convenience of my clients who prefer and demand it. Since I mainly do concerts and bands(I'm NOT a DJ), the rest is wired, so dealing with 40+ channels of inbound audio isn't a big deal.

Wireless DMX probably won't enter my picture. Since I have my 200-foot DMX cable on a reel, it's not that big of a deal to get it deployed and cleaned up.

By the way, is this the Jingles who has the youtube lighting videos up? If so, that's great work, man- and I definitely want to pick your brain for lighting ideas.

And thanks Chris for your enthusiasm and for sharing your experiences!

Can't wait to get some gear, control it, and play!

ya thats me. jingles8302 is my channel. and also CompuLiveTech is my channel aswell.

Very cool. That seals the deal - I'm definitely getting the my dmx product, unless you guys have one that's better.

The initial installation will be: 6 par64 leds for mood/uplighting both sides of a balcony, 4 par 36 leds for similarly lighting the entrance area, a revo iii to provide some coverage for the high ceiling (old renovated church, capacity 450, very high ceilings, some stage lighting already- old school pars and scanners), a couple of dvd projectors off the balcony (eye candy on both sides of the stage, where we have live bands), and some dynamic lighting (wash's, spot's).

once i've got my dmx installed (w. wireless), i imagine it'll be easy to get the pars under control, and that there'll be a bit of work to get the dynamic lights to play right. i also imagine i'll need to get more gear to do dynamic lighting right.

it's a ballroom style partner dance, so fog and hard beams to the dance floor are out- any pointers, product tips, design points you'd like to offer to a newbie, jingles?

thank you so much, in advance!

Those videos were done with Compu live NOT my dmx. just so you know. my dmx is different than compu live.

cool - which is better for a newbie (like me) with modest aspirations?

Hmmmn, just was at the local retailer and grabbed a couple of additional par64 leds. grabbed a 6ft dmx data cable and tried to get the master/slave thing going there and we couldn't. we looked online at the manual, which didn't seem to help. is there are particular dipswitch setting that the two par64s have to be on to do the auto color scroll thing in synch? thanks,

Using Master/slave mode must be done via DIP switches. Set 1(and only 1) to master, the rest to slave mode while OFF. Connnect DMX cables between the units, but DO NOT connect to DMX controller or anything else with live DMX on it and you should be fine.

Hey Chris, Thanks for the tip, but unless the guy from the large local retailer and I are missing something you can't do master/slave with the Par 64 led's. Maybe you can with the pro model, but I'm guessing (based on the recent experience and reading up- pro has some sort of "led synch" capability, that's not advertised with the regular version of the product) that you can't do it with the regular 64 led's. Which is a bummer because I wanted to run the configuration, as outlined in the third comment on this thread, at tomorrow night's party.... bummer. I guess I'll return the reg 64 led's and get the pros....arrrggghhh....

I thought u had the pro's. But smost people never specify.

Just to re-cap:

Setting a fixture into "audio response" mode throws that light into it's own unique audio response mode. If you have 10 lights on the same DMX channels(all lined up the same), and you go into audio response mode, they are all going to to their OWN audio response, which may or may not be synchronized. If it is syncronized, consider yourself lucky, because it's not intentional.

Going Master/Slave mode, the slaves follow the master, so they SHOULD sync. However in this mode, DMX functionality is disabled.

To gain sync AND control, one must program scenes using a DMX controller, be it hardware or software.

Going back to the third comment in the thread:
You didn't see it in the instructions, which, therefore one SHOULD assume that "the functionality that lacks documentation in the manual is therefore lacking from the fixture, which is why it was not put int the manual as it is not the policy of describing functions in the manual that do not exist in the fixture".

My suggestions are based on how far the sales person os going to go. There are so many lights and so many makers, it is impossible to memorize what can do what. I bet Jingles is not even trying to do that either. That's what downloading the manuals are for and referring to them frequenty is for.

1: If the light is on display, then there should be a manual in hopefully a handy location. If not, see if he can download one from the internet in case he can't answer the question.

2: If not, open a box and check the manual.

I went with 8 64B LED Pro's, and I like them. I really wanted the following features: RGB color mixing and DIMMING, which it supports. I also get strobe functionality, which is going to save me money until I get an actual strobe fixture.

I don't run my shows in hands-off mode, I require as much control as I can humanly get. Where I give up control is where and how it is acceptable: Dancing lights. I have 8 fixtures taht do their own sound activated movememnt, and that's fine because that's their purpose. I want to spread random light around the stage in logical groupings(say, the Electra, Reflex II, Rover and BarrelFlex all throwing random bits all over in a group, then the Double Twist and Trilogy doing the same thing, then the Mystic and then the Vertigo).

While I can certainly see and understand why you want to do what you want to do, the issue really is that you either didn't fully research your fixtures before buying and/or didn't communicate to the sales person what you needed before purchase. Then again, maybe what also happened is you got something that works, and then "gee, I want to do this, I want to do that", which is good too.

My suggestiong goes as follows but AS applies:
If you can, buy the feature rich models whenever possible. You can always NOT use something. This is better than buying something that won't do what you need. I try to avoid the scenarios where I "need it but don't have it". I usually prefer the "I have it buy don't need it" situations.

Slow down your puchases for a tiny bit. Read up, post, ask LOTS of questions, and then go shopping!

I don't rent my stuff, but if you're near me, I may make an exception for you. I got those 8 64B LED's! I am going to use them on Tuesday just to show them off. Heck, I'm gonna use my monster audio console too just to get it out and in use again. All this for karaoke. Gotta get whatever marketting I can out of this freebie event.

Hey, I tried to download the my dmx software to play with it this morning and for some reason I couldn't either unzip or place the files in a program folder. I've been using windows for years, but this is probably more of a vista issue than a dmx software issue. Anyways, has anyone else had the same experience, and if so, how did you fix it? Thanks,

are you using 32 or 64 bit vista? Also once you unzip the files or even open up the zipped file yu should be able to run the installer from the zipped file. Sincerely,

thanks, it was a winzip issue that's now resolved... so i've got my dmx up and will play with it tomorrow. quick question: if i don't want to lug a laptop to gigs, and have fairly simple aspirations to begin with (mostly par cans for mood/uplighting in the main room, balcony and entrance areas) then will my dmx work in conjunction with 'dmx partner' (and wireless rx and tx) so i just bring that little thing to gigs. simplicity and an elegant solution would be great, as a starting point. thanks again for everything,

For my dmx to work it needs a PC. there is no standalone feature on this unit. how would you control it? There are no buttons. i dont think you can hook it up to the partner also. cause like i said it need a PC. you maybe able to drop your programs from my dmx into the partner however but that is a whole nother hassle im not trying to figure out right now! lol sincerely,

i hear ya, man. i was thinking it's be cool to create the program on the pc, and yeah, just drop to the partner thing and take that to a gig.

is there a place on this forum that covers the dmx partner product?

not too sure. i kinda doubt it. but you can get a dvd from us. mail me ur info.

My words in my own house are falling on deaf words, but at least people here can read and take advantage of what I have to offer.

Sorry, having a bad day.

Anyhow, these are my thoughts. Now, hardware solutions tend to be rock solid because they don't have to deal with the issues that having an attached PC might bring to the table. Good or bad, it depends on the perspective. When it runs, it runs great. When it crashes, it's ugly city man, and you're in the butt-crack of Ugly-Town when that happens.

I think the Chauvet product offers(MyDMX equivalent) storage of shows in the unit, but man, I wouldn't trust that unit as far as I could throw it. This is due to my past interactions with Chauvet, so I'm somewhat biased against them.

Lugging a laptop to a gig should just be part of your load. Do it. Trust me, if things take a dump, you've got a means of control. Well, depends on the dump. Might want to have a controller surface with some back-up programs stored in it. That's what I plan to do. Actually, mine is the reverse.

I intend to use my DMX Operator as my main thing for a while. Just as I learn MyDMX better. The DMX Operator won't dump on me and I'll just use a basic 8-color lighting scheme with no moving head stuff going on. Then, when I transition to MyDMX, I'll still have my DMX Operator handy. Should the computer solution dump, I have hardware back-up. Besides, the rack that the DMX Operator is will be with me at FOH anyways, so it's not like I'm packing anything extra. I carry a laptop to all shows now anyways, so again, nothing extra.

Being a beginner as you are, it's nice to plan ahead and put the cart ahead of the horse. You might want to work your want into where you want to be so you can learn from it. I just see "too much, too soon" and a disaster looming.

I'm not a big trusting person when it comes to wireless and protocols that don't use error correction. At least with 802.11a/b/g/n, there is the TCP packetting that handles error correction and retransmissions. Since you're also dealing with a fixed location, wireless just doens't make much sense. To me, more hassle than it's worth. I know it seems like "well, no wires means less hassle", and true enough, but really, if nothing's moving, why bother with wireless? I'm for reliability. Of course, I do concerts, so I have to be prepared for disaster because the show can't stop because something is pooping out on me.

I'd rather run the cable and do things that way. That's just me. There are great wireless DMX solutiosn, but I just don't see the purpose. Again, since I have to run cable anyways, what difference is another cable laid next to a larger cable? 2 Cat5's, a 56-pair whip and a DMX cable. BFD. It's on a reel, wind it up and go at the end of the night and I'm outta there.(well, that and loading 2.5 tons of gear back into the truck is fun too!)

Since DMX is a one-way protocol, there is no return to a transmitted signal. It goes THAT-A-WAY: out the controller and to the fixtures/switchers/relays/dimmers/movers/whatever. They don't talk back.

So, while TX and RX apples relative to the pespective of the gear involved, it's still basically a streaming signal travelling in one direction.

Elegant is one thing. Elegant is also a matter of opinion. Right now, I hear "lazy vs doing it right". Lazy COMBINED with doing it right is an elegant solution IF the lazy person worked long and hard to ensure no issues. I'm trying to steer you clear of wireless.

I think you're better off going to like the OptiSplitter to avoid super long cable runs and to centralize cable management. Just use extra DMX Terminators, which is no big deal or cost.