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Weekend Warrior Stage Lighting Discussion

#262
Okay, so I scanned that manual for the Ebay lights, and through the horrible language, I finally figured out the chart they had was the DMX binary addressing schema, which is a long winded way of saying, the lights I have do use the binary dip switching that was linked to previously.

So I addressed the first 2 lights, cabled them up, and went to try to use them with the controller... Problem. Most likely with ME trying to figure out how to use it.

As a reminder, the guy I got the board from demoed it and showed it working, I just don't know what I am doing with it... Sadly he's heavily involved in hurricane clean up so not a resource I can tap for info for a while... Probably a long while...

I'm wondering if possibly the American DJ cables I am using might not be any good.... Or if I just don't know what I am doing with the controller...

*EDIT* I just heard back from the guy I got the board from. There's a switch on the back for polarity or something like that, if it is one position lights work, the other no joy. Something about US V.S. EU standards? Dunno, but I am going to try that tonight to see what happens...
 
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#263
Big Hoss said:
*EDIT* I just heard back from the guy I got the board from. There's a switch on the back for polarity or something like that, if it is one position lights work, the other no joy. Something about US V.S. EU standards? Dunno, but I am going to try that tonight to see what happens...
Click to expand...

Yes, definitely try the switch, although mine used to flash and strobe allot (instead of being off) when the switch was in the other position. If you have dmx cables and a terminator (I have used them without a terminator fine) then you should be fine there. Then all you do is select the fixture and it should work. Some lights you can turn up channel 1Red and they activate but others have a master dimmer (usually the last of its channels) that needs to be up also. I will add that I have had my share of wacky issues with cheap led spots so that could always be an issue.
 
#264
Big Hoss said:
Okay, so I scanned that manual for the Ebay lights, and through the horrible language, I finally figured out the chart they had was the DMX binary addressing schema, which is a long winded way of saying, the lights I have do use the binary dip switching that was linked to previously.

So I addressed the first 2 lights, cabled them up, and went to try to use them with the controller... Problem. Most likely with ME trying to figure out how to use it.

As a reminder, the guy I got the board from demoed it and showed it working, I just don't know what I am doing with it... Sadly he's heavily involved in hurricane clean up so not a resource I can tap for info for a while... Probably a long while...

I'm wondering if possibly the American DJ cables I am using might not be any good.... Or if I just don't know what I am doing with the controller...

*EDIT* I just heard back from the guy I got the board from. There's a switch on the back for polarity or something like that, if it is one position lights work, the other no joy. Something about US V.S. EU standards? Dunno, but I am going to try that tonight to see what happens...
Click to expand...
You're cables are most likely fine. Check the polarity switch first and then start with just one fixture and one cable. Make sure the dip switches are set to DMX channel 1 and then select Fixture 1 on the console. Make sure only Fixture 1 is selected. Set all the channel sliders to zero. Even if they're set to zero to start with, slide them to 100% and then back down to zero to "reset" them. Make sure that the "Blackout" button isn't selected. Make sure that you are on "Page A" of the sliders. That will control channels 1-8. From there you should be able to start sliding up the sliders and seeing some sort of output on the lights. Do you know the function of each channel? You need to find out which one is the master dimmer and make sure that it is full on. Then you can start mixing colors.
 
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#265
SuperK said:
You're cables are most likely fine. Check the polarity switch first and then start with just one fixture and one cable. Make sure the dip switches are set to DMX channel 1 and then select Fixture 1 on the console. Make sure only Fixture 1 is selected. Set all the channel sliders to zero. Even if they're set to zero to start with, slide them to 100% and then back down to zero to "reset" them. Make sure that the "Blackout" button isn't selected. Make sure that you are on "Page A" of the sliders. That will control channels 1-8. From there you should be able to start sliding up the sliders and seeing some sort of output on the lights. Do you know the function of each channel? You need to find out which one is the master dimmer and make sure that it is full on. Then you can start mixing colors.
Click to expand...

That blackout button! That one used to get me.
 
#266
SuperK said:
You're cables are most likely fine. Check the polarity switch first and then start with just one fixture and one cable. Make sure the dip switches are set to DMX channel 1 and then select Fixture 1 on the console. Make sure only Fixture 1 is selected. Set all the channel sliders to zero. Even if they're set to zero to start with, slide them to 100% and then back down to zero to "reset" them. Make sure that the "Blackout" button isn't selected. Make sure that you are on "Page A" of the sliders. That will control channels 1-8. From there you should be able to start sliding up the sliders and seeing some sort of output on the lights. Do you know the function of each channel? You need to find out which one is the master dimmer and make sure that it is full on. Then you can start mixing colors.
Click to expand...

Hopefully I don't come off as too dumb here but. Huh?

They are 5 channel fixtures (El Cheapo Ebay fixtures).

Yeah, the polarity switch was my plan A, one fixture at a time...

Blackout button. That's new to me, but I see where it is. So I will make sure that is good too...

Is there any harm in starting out with the sliders at zero, 100, then fiddling back down to zero to see what happens?
 
#267
If they are 5 channel fixtures there should be some document that lists what each channel controls. Something like:
1 = dimmer
2 = mode
3 = red
4 = green
5 = blue

There's no harm in moving the sliders around. It would just be very helpful if you knew what each one did.
 
#268
SuperK said:
If they are 5 channel fixtures there should be some document that lists what each channel controls. Something like:
1 = dimmer
2 = mode
3 = red
4 = green
5 = blue

There's no harm in moving the sliders around. It would just be very helpful if you knew what each one did.
Click to expand...
Sadly the documentation that came with these things well they're cheap Chinese Imports do I need to tell you anymore?

That might explain something though because I'm trying one slider up at a time but if there's a master dimmer Channel and they color Channel then if none of the colors are turned on the master slider won't bring anything on and if the master slider is off none of the colors will come on. That should be something I should try.

It probably would be very helpful if these lights came with something resembling a decent instruction guide.
 
#269
Success!

Channel one or slider one however you want to say it is the master dimmer Channel 2 is red Channel 3 is green Channel 4 is blue.

I haven't tried Channel 5 but I suspect that controls flickering / flash rate. So overall I got fixed your number one to work and fixed your number to to work I have not tried any of the others yet but will be working with them.

Just so you all know you guys are a gold mine of information I really appreciate the help! While lots of people deserve credit I want to call out to users in specific who were very very helpful to me in this endeavor. Mind you they're far from the only ones but these guys advice really pointed me in the right direction.

SuperK, and Maxmaroon. You two pointed me to exactly the information I needed thank you so much!
 
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#271
Well the good thing is it's all starting to kind of click mind you just kind of right now but I think we are good to go. I have a long way to learn but I've got the resources now to get going with it and we'll be happy to get this all done.

*EDIT*

Fixtures 1 through 4 done, working...

Need a shower and sack time... more later...
 
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#272
Okay slight update. As I mentioned, the light fixtures appeared to be the same at first glance, but they came from 2 different sources, the first few came from Amazon, the rest (the last 8) came from Ebay on the cheap...

On the Amazon lights, channel 5 controls flashing. It would appear the Ebay lights lack that function as channel 5 appears to have no effect on those fixtures.

Moral of the story. Cheap ebay lights, work-ish. But boy are they a pain in the tail, and lack some of the features you may want... Lesson learned, but they are cheap, and they WILL work for what I am doing, for the foreseeable future.

I think the more I get into this though, I will probably be looking for some decent moving head RGB spots, and a couple of constant on wash lights.
 
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#273
Okay so here's the status of diving headlong into DMX lighting.

First things first. Learning curve warning! This is not something to go into for the faint of heart... I am learning, learning, learning.

I have all the lights addressed, and they respond as they should. I have programmed several basic scenes and chases, I need to figure out timing, but overall, not too shabby.

I am a ways off from doing the midi controller thing, but might go that way in the future, or I might just go with a USB / DMX controller and then midi that way. See a DJ friend of mine demoed his USB DMX controller and I think the app is called FreeDMX or something like that. Pretty awesome. Oh well again, that is a ways off...

I found an old, unused slightly damaged stand case that I was able to take into my tailor and get the damage fixed. Fits the stand / truss perfectly. With the lights removed. :-(

Still working ideas....
 
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#274
Big Hoss said:
Well the good thing is it's all starting to kind of click mind you just kind of right now but I think we are good to go. I have a long way to learn but I've got the resources now to get going with it and we'll be happy to get this all done.

*EDIT*

Fixtures 1 through 4 done, working...

Need a shower and sack time... more later...
Click to expand...

Good luck!

That video you linked above was the single most helpful thing I found for unlocking the basic princples of DMX. Fortunatley, I also have the Obey 40, so it was even easier! Every now and again, I forget the addressing I need to use for my cheapo PARs. That catches me up sometimes. Need to put a little sticky label on those lights as a reminder.

Maybe start simple as well? For what we do, an elaborate light show is not necessary and is somewhat distracting, IMO (we play mostly country, some rock, a little pop) mostly in bars. We use 2-3 different statics scenes (ie., no chases), with one static scene that acts as an "idle" setting between sets. our key scene uses a setting as close to "bastard amber" as we can get with our fixtures. Stay away from saturated reds, greens and purples. Most times, I find myself adjusting for brightness (depending on the ambient light in the venue) as opposed to wanting a dynamic light show.

As an aside, I went to see a buddy's band last friday playing at the local tavern - they had a nice dual chauvet tree setup and left it on sound-activated/random all night - but pointed at the band instead of the dancefloor. No straight ahead wash lights pointed at the band. Great sounding band, but after a half hour, I had to look away the lights were so distracting. These guys are VERY well equipped for a $400/night bar band but the light show was a bit of a let-down. They would have been much better off employing the KISS principle.
 
#275
DirtDog said:
Good luck!

That video you linked above was the single most helpful thing I found for unlocking the basic princples of DMX. Fortunatley, I also have the Obey 40, so it was even easier! Every now and again, I forget the addressing I need to use for my cheapo PARs. That catches me up sometimes. Need to put a little sticky label on those lights as a reminder.

Maybe start simple as well? For what we do, an elaborate light show is not necessary and is somewhat distracting, IMO (we play mostly country, some rock, a little pop) mostly in bars. We use 2-3 different statics scenes (ie., no chases), with one static scene that acts as an "idle" setting between sets. our key scene uses a setting as close to "bastard amber" as we can get with our fixtures. Stay away from saturated reds, greens and purples. Most times, I find myself adjusting for brightness (depending on the ambient light in the venue) as opposed to wanting a dynamic light show.

As an aside, I went to see a buddy's band last friday playing at the local tavern - they had a nice dual chauvet tree setup and left it on sound-activated/random all night - but pointed at the band instead of the dancefloor. No straight ahead wash lights pointed at the band. Great sounding band, but after a half hour, I had to look away the lights were so distracting. These guys are VERY well equipped for a $400/night bar band but the light show was a bit of a let-down. They would have been much better off employing the KISS principle.
Click to expand...

So far, I am starting simple, mostly color shifting, but learning fast. It's actually kind of fun.

We've got friends that are dealing with the mess that Hurricane Harvey left. One of them is an older Single lady that is my wife's hair dresser. Self employed and had no flood insurance. We are spending time with her tomorrow to give her some extra business, and I am going to be working on pulling her tack strips and filling the slab afterwards...

It's probably going to be a while before any of the venues we do are able to host shows / parties. So I have time to work the light show component of the stage show up...
 
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#276
The most important part of DMX programming is making sure you have the DMX Channel Assignment and Values chart handy, and either a label maker or stickers to write on handy when you start programming. Also take copious notes to refer back to: trust me during the panic of setup, you will forget.

Here are some tips:
  1. Decide whether you are using 15 or 3 Channel depending on your lights: and write it down in your notes
  2. Program your lights to the Address in your DMX network: make a label for the light with the address: and write it down in your notes
  3. Draw out your stage with the lights w/ the Addresses so that you know what lights goes where: and write it down in your notes
  4. Decide how many and what Scenes you want to program (make note of the values of each channel on each light): and write it down in your notes
  5. Create a cheat sheet for Scenes you will use at the show: I also use the label maker to label each Scene on my Obey 40: keep this cheat sheet in your notes
I can't tell you how many times I forget how to set up the lights and DMX in the rush of setting up the stage. I have found my notes to be extremely helpful during setup.

Hope this helps.
 
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