DMX Foot controller opinions?

[twostone]

So I'm still adding on to my DMX led lights so far I got a pair colorstrips a pair of ADJ Pearl Leds (white moon flowers) and 4 splash jr's I'm gonna add a pair of DMX strobes. BTW we play small clubs so what I got so far really does a great job in these small clubs. Just wondering since I mix from stage and play bass and don't use any foot pedals for my bass rig would the ADJ FC400 foot controller be decent enough to switch between which lights I want during performances. It would be nice to have like blackout abilities just have like strobes for a passage during a song then maybe blackout the strobes and let the pearl moon flowers during another passage of the same song. So far its all sound activation which is okay but have the foot controller would give me better stage light plots.thanks.

[bigjd]

:thu:I use one of those and i find it real easy to set up different themes with it though it's a little limited.I use a operator 192 for my moving and effects lights,and the FC for my stage lighting.

I like my effects to be seperate from the lighting of our performance on stage.For scenes its great ,simple to program,blackouts and all on effects it works good.

[twostone]

 

:thu:I use one of those and i find it real easy to set up different themes with it though it's a little limited.I use a operator 192 for my moving and effects lights,and the FC for my stage lighting. I like my effects to be seperate from the lighting of our performance on stage.For scenes its great ,simple to program,blackouts and all on effects it works good.

 

 

Yea I knew it only has 4 dmx channel didn't know if i could be able to blackout 3 fixtures at once or one at a time just learning about dmx. Thanks for the info.

[bigjd]

I still like my old fashion PAR's,but i use a DMX relay pack for my non-DMX fixtures,like moons,strobes,ect.That way I can assign them to one of my scenes with the foot controller and get some pretty bright stage scenes(think blinders),and still have ten other wash/scenes to toggle through.

It's been a pretty handy controller and EASY to program.

[BillESC]

Your best bet for food control would be a mini note generator. With mini you can access the first 15 banks of scenes (120 different looks,) and the six chases in most of the entry level controllers. You also can blackout.

[soundlight]

 

Your best bet for food control would be a mini note generator. With mini you can access the first 15 banks of scenes (120 different looks,) and the six chases in most of the entry level controllers. You also can blackout.

 

 

I assume you mean MIDI, Bill. I've heard that people have favorable results with the Behringer FCB1010 and midi-note-actuated DMX controllers.

[twostone]

I assume you mean MIDI, Bill. I've heard that people have favorable results with the Behringer FCB1010 and midi-note-actuated DMX controllers.

 

Doesn't this require a some kind of DMX unit to go along with it or can you hook up your DMX fixtures directly to the FCB1010. I need some thing simple nothing to complex just wanna be able to blackout and toggle thru different dmx fixture during different time periods can this unit do this ? with out a degree science. Reason I ask I've tried midi before only to fail to accomplish what I wanted to do, hopefully it's nothing like midi with KB's and sequencers:mad:

[bigjd]

Unless your already doing a ton of midi stuff then maybe,but for me and my band the FC is the way to go.Like i said before EASY to program,,enough basic capabilties to keep it interesting.

As a working musician with enough stuff going on stage,the extra programing time isn't always there,and I wanna play my guitar anyways,so for us this is a way better solution.

[flyinblind50]

MBT SCX101.

Works great ..only 16 Channels though

[twostone]

Unless your already doing a ton of midi stuff then maybe,but for me and my band the FC is the way to go.Like i said before EASY to program,,enough basic capabilties to keep it interesting. As a working musician with enough stuff going on stage,the extra programing time isn't always there,and I wanna play my guitar anyways,so for us this is a way better solution.

 

Well simple is good I like playing bass and not programing and mapping out midi because I suck at midi so sounds like the best way to go, not sure about how DMX works. This unit only has 4 dmx channels I'm assuming I can assign each dmx fixture to one channel and then toggle between them on what stays on and off during any giving time period is this what you saying it can do? if it can then I'm sold on it

[soundlight]

No, each fixture has multiple channels. For instance, the Pearl LED has a channel for dimmer/strobe and a channel for rotation. the Jrs have 4 or 5 channels, depending on how new they are. The older ones (that I have) use 4 channels and have dimmer/strobe, red, green, blue as the channels. I think that the new ones have an unused channel 1. So, just your 2 Pearls will take up 4 channels, and your Jrs will take either 16 or 20 channels. That doesn't even include the colorstrips yet.

[twostone]

 

No, each fixture has multiple channels. For instance, the Pearl LED has a channel for dimmer/strobe and a channel for rotation. the Jrs have 4 or 5 channels, depending on how new they are. The older ones (that I have) use 4 channels and have dimmer/strobe, red, green, blue as the channels. I think that the new ones have an unused channel 1. So, just your 2 Pearls will take up 4 channels, and your Jrs will take either 16 or 20 channels. That doesn't even include the colorstrips yet.

 

 

Gotcha then guess that might be a waste guess just gonna have to bite the bullet buy a dmx controller then add a midi foot switch because I plan on adding more dmx fixtures thanks guys you folks really been helpful on my decision.

[BillESC]

Yea, I meant to type Midi.... The entry level programmable DMX controllers are very easy to operate. Midi access becomes quite easy once you've programmed the scenes.

[brywool]

 

Yea, I meant to type Midi.... The entry level programmable DMX controllers are very easy to operate. Midi access becomes quite easy once you've programmed the scenes.

 

 

I'm searching through old posts trying to figure out what to do as far as a lighting controller. I'm going to go with the Behringer midi footcontroller, but now I need to figure out what board to get... I'm a bit confused.

 

I'm going to get 3 color strips, at least 2 movers, and 4 LEDPar64s for the front. Now, all together, that's only 9 lights, plus a fogger. So, I'm thinking a 12 channel light board will be fine... however, then the LEDs and color strips take up more channels, so I'm totally confused. Do I buy a board based on how many lights I have or how many channels they take up?

 

Can someone please recommend a decent, midi controlled light board that will not be insufficient (will handle all the lights and more) and that's reasonably inexpensive? Is the Chauvet DMX-70 something that would work, even though it only controls 12 intelligent lights? What if I have more than 12 lights? Are LEDs considered 'intelligent'? Thanks!

[DexNeedsHelp]

I'm searching through old posts trying to figure out what to do as far as a lighting controller. I'm going to go with the Behringer midi footcontroller, but now I need to figure out what board to get... I'm a bit confused.

 

I'm going to get 3 color strips, at least 2 movers, and 4 LEDPar64s for the front. Now, all together, that's only 9 lights, plus a fogger. So, I'm thinking a 12 channel light board will be fine... however, then the LEDs and color strips take up more channels, so I'm totally confused. Do I buy a board based on how many lights I have or how many channels they take up?

 

Can someone please recommend a decent, midi controlled light board that will not be insufficient (will handle all the lights and more) and that's reasonably inexpensive? Is the Chauvet DMX-70 something that would work, even though it only controls 12 intelligent lights? What if I have more than 12 lights? Are LEDs considered 'intelligent'? Thanks!

 

Hi Everybody,

I'm sorry I know I dig up this topic from nowhere.

 

I'm totally new here, [just Signed In yesterday], I've browsed Harmony Central Forums for few days now, you guys are great, contains lot of informations & seem to have a very active Community.

 

So, long Story short, it happens that this man above me [brywool], was asking a question that I'm currently asking to myself, that's why I dig up this topic to search & gather the most informations I can get before posting a new topic concerning my own questions.

 

[i'm also leaning towards an FCB1010, but I'll post my own Lighting Project & its constraints in a future Topic. Soundlight & StratGuy22 have provided loooots of valuable answers (from what I've seen so far).]

 

Anyways, here we go, I'm wondering about Brywool's question aswell, especially this part :

Can someone please recommend a decent, midi controlled light board that will not be insufficient (will handle all the lights and more) and that's reasonably inexpensive? Is the Chauvet DMX-70 something that would work, even though it only controls 12 intelligent lights? What if I have more than 12 lights? Are LEDs considered 'intelligent'? Thanks!

 

Thank you all !

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

EDIT : LOL, ok so, literaly 30s after posting this, I've found this from Soundlight [again] :

 

Lights are not channels. The DMX-70 from Chauvet is able to control 384 channels of DMX. Which means each of the 12 fixtures can have up to 32 channels. A single DMX light (LED par, Scanner, Pearl, what have you) is a fixture, not a channel. Each light occupies several channels. The Irradiant pars are 5 channels each if I remember correctly. This means that on a 16 channel controller, you can have 3 fixtures with 5 channels, for 15 channels. However, you can address multiple fixtures to the same address, so you can have 3 groups of fixtures that are addressed the same and each take up the same channels. So you could have a frontlight group and two backlight groups or a group for each side of frontlight and one group for all of the backlight or whatever.

 

I guess that answer my question : A 12 Fixtures DMX Controller can control more than 12 individual Devices [PAR Led, Scanners, Etc], as long as they are assigned as "Groups", right ?

 

Meaning I can control 78 Devices/Lights [Exagerating on purpose], with a 12 Fixtures Controller Do I understand this correctly ? I'm probably on the wrong path here... DMX is a confusing world when you just begin to dive in "How Lights Work".

[stevegarris]

 

Hi Everybody,

I'm sorry I know I dig up this topic from nowhere.

 

I'm totally new here, [just Signed In yesterday], I've browsed Harmony Central Forums for few days now, you guys are great, contains lot of informations & seem to have a very active Community.

 

So, long Story short, it happens that this man above me [brywool], was asking a question that I'm currently asking to myself, that's why I dig up this topic to search & gather the most informations I can get before posting a new topic concerning my own questions.

 

[i'm also leaning towards an FCB1010, but I'll post my own Lighting Project & its constraints in a future Topic. Soundlight & StratGuy22 have provided loooots of valuable answers (from what I've seen so far).]

 

Anyways, here we go, I'm wondering about Brywool's question aswell, especially this part :

 

 

Thank you all !

 

----------------------------------------------------

 

EDIT : LOL, ok so, literaly 30s after posting this, I've found this from Soundlight [again] :

 

 

 

I guess that answer my question : A 12 Fixtures DMX Controller can control more than 12 individual Devices [PAR Led, Scanners, Etc], as long as they are assigned as "Groups", right ?

 

Meaning I can control 78 Devices/Lights [Exagerating on purpose], with a 12 Fixtures Controller Do I understand this correctly ? I'm probably on the wrong path here... DMX is a confusing world when you just begin to dive in "How Lights Work".

 

You are getting there. Most of my fixtures (lights) can be used in 5 channel or 8 channel modes. The 5 channel mode has control over the master dimming of the fixture, and the other 4 channels are for the fixture colors (RBGW). Now if I choose to use them in 8 channel mode, I can now adjust the previous 5 channels, along with some other features that are built into the lights, such as strobe, sound active, and auto-run programs.

 

To assign a fixture, you start with the required number of channels needed, let's say 8. So fixture #1 is dmx channels 1-8 (set the dmx to ch 1). Now, your next fixture #2 is assigned to channels 9-17 (set the dmx to 9), and so on. With this scenario, your 8 backlights will use up 32 channels. Why not 64? See below.

 

A typical light show backlighting is set up symmetrical, so that the lights on the left side are doing the same as the lights on the right side. Let's say you have 8 lights across the back, you only need to assign 4 of them to their individual channels. So using the above scenario, you assign fixtures #1 through #4 on the right side, and again fixtures #1 through #4 on the left side (mirrored).

[Mikhaelgp]

I have some programmable LED lights, a Chauvet Obey 40 controller, and a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI footpedal controller.

 

For some stupid reason I cannot ascertain, light systems are programmed to use NOTE ON commands, instead of MiDI Program Change commands. Counter-intuitive, to me anyway.

 

I can program the scenes I need on the Obey40. I can progam the FCB1010 to shoot out Note On commands to change scenes. What I CANNOT seem to do is to STOP the FCB1010 from putting out a Note Off command when I take my foot off the pedal! Either that, or get the Obey40 to ignore the Note Off command! The result is that when I step on a pedal, the Obey40 responds with the correct scene. When I take my foot off the pedal, all the lights go out! "Blackout" on the Obey40 is not being called, since the Blackout LED on the Obey40 display is not turned on, but it has the same effect.

 

So I don't know if the FCB1010 is the right controller to use for light programmers or not.

 

Anyone have an answer for this? HELP! I need the bloody thing to work this Friday...

[bigjd]

I have some programmable LED lights' date=' a Chauvet Obey 40 controller, and a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI footpedal controller.

 

For some stupid reason I cannot ascertain, light systems are programmed to use NOTE ON commands, instead of MiDI Program Change commands. Counter-intuitive, to me anyway.

 

I can program the scenes I need on the Obey40. I can progam the FCB1010 to shoot out Note On commands to change scenes. What I CANNOT seem to do is to STOP the FCB1010 from putting out a Note Off command when I take my foot off the pedal! Either that, or get the Obey40 to ignore the Note Off command! The result is that when I step on a pedal, the Obey40 responds with the correct scene. When I take my foot off the pedal, all the lights go out! "Blackout" on the Obey40 is not being called, since the Blackout LED on the Obey40 display is not turned on, but it has the same effect.

 

So I don't know if the FCB1010 is the right controller to use for light programmers or not.

 

Anyone have an answer for this? HELP! I need the bloody thing to work this Friday...

 

Get an editor for the fcb and look at it that way and see if it can do what you need.

I would recommend a software solution.

the 40 is pretty basic andas you grow a software solution can grow with you.

myself as well as others here use dmxis.

Pretty easy and does a lot of stuff as well as allowing you tons of control.

[madjack]

I don't know if it's helpful to others, but I have taken a somewhat different approach. I have a couple of older laptops that I don't use for much anymore, so I picked up a Sushi dmx dongle, which has access to free downloadable software. Initially the programming was a little difficult until I grasped how the program worked. To give me foot control, I took an old usb keyboard and popped off most of the keys. I program the scenes I want, then assign an available key to go to that scene. As long as I'm somewhat gentle using a toe to hit the key on the usb keyboard, I have decent foot control off my scenes and fairly straightforward programming. Works for me; YMMV.