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Author Topic: MIDI Foot control question  (Read 18344 times)

Bob Charest

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DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #10 on: December 14, 2008, 07:37:11 PM »

Gregory Lawrence wrote on Sun, 07 December 2008 21:31

This sounds very similar to the controller I am using. The Elation DMX Operator. What controller are you using?
I know what you mean about the faders not responding (or lights).
It also seems as though I can't have a fast smooth fade. Either it doesn't go lower than "14" (of 255) or there is something broken. I would like to achieve a fast smooth fade transition, but the lowest setting I can get it to "respond" to is still kind of slow. Anybody else experiencing this?


Hi Greg,

When I started getting into DMX, I bought a DMX Operator, and my experience with fading, and control in general, was just like you've experienced. Sometimes, I would have to move the fader to full on or full off before it would acknowledge the value I was trying to designate with the fader. It was as though the DMX value the fader would have indicated was never coming out the DMX output.

Are you trying to have one fader increase one light's intensity while decreasing another for a cross fade? Are you doing this manually or are you programming a chase with fast fade times and long durations of colors?

Best regards,
Bob Charest
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Gregory Lawrence

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #11 on: December 15, 2008, 01:04:26 AM »

Thanks for the reply!

I am not trying to do anything "fancy" with the lights.

I want to switch from say, -one full on green light bank preset to a full on blue bank preset smoothly within 1/2 second or so.

Using the fade slider, I was hoping to get a fast smooth scene change, but it seems as though the lowest value I can get it to, is 14. A fader value of 14 takes about 2-3 seconds for the scene to change, and it changes in a "clunky" fashion. Not smooth at all.

Is this normal, or do you think there is a problem with my controller?

I do not have any terminators installed, and I have no idea if there is any termination built-in to my Par cans. Everything else seems to work fine other than the frequent needing to move faders over and over to get them to "respond" sometimes, but I am not using this controller "on the fly", moreso I am using it to change from preset scene to scene, so I can live with the occasional "non-responsive" fader movement.

Any experienced insight, tricks, tips or helpful hints from Heloise would ALL be appreciated!
Greg
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Bob Charest

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #12 on: December 17, 2008, 09:20:56 AM »

Greg,

I will pull out my Elation DMX Operator this week and test with the one fixture I've got that is not packed away.

Regarding termination, I would always do it. Depending on the complexity of the data being transmitted, cable length, and number of fixtures, it might not always be truly needed, but signal reflections without termination can certainly be a problem. Terminators are inexpensive to buy or can be made very cheaply with an XLR connector and a 120 ohm resistor soldered between pins 2 & 3.

Best regards,
Bob Charest
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Gregory Lawrence

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #13 on: December 17, 2008, 11:41:26 AM »

Thanks again for the quick reply!

I have run into another situation that is baffling me:

It seems as though some of the lights will blink, chase, change in perfect synchronization, and yet there are a couple that are completely out of sync, or a couple of changes behind.

Example: The first light seems sluggish and slow, lights 2,3 and 4 are in perfect sync, light 5 is weird, light 6 seems to sync exactly with 2,3, & 4 - the same with 7 & 8 (7 is out of sync and 8 is in sync.)

All of the DIP switches are set correctly, and when selecting RGB colors, they respond correctly, but when strobing they will be out of sync.

I am using DMX specific cables with no termination.
I am using the Elation DMX Operator controller.

Any suggestions of what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance,

Greg
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Stephane Desormeaux

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #14 on: December 17, 2008, 01:04:25 PM »

You are right (couple of posts ago), I do use the Elation DMX Operator, and I'm pretty happy with it.

As said before, only trouble is getting DMX control to the fader by exagerating movement of it before it responds.

As to lights not being in sync, I have the same problem with led Rains, but only when I use color macros or programs, In RGB Mode, they all stay in sync. Have not used the strobe a lot, but if the lights are daisy chainned, and not master-slave, I think that might be the problem. If the lights are daisy chained, and you send a DMX value, I suppose it is possible that different lights respond differently, as one might be just slightly more sensitive, and the other might be just that much less sensitive, etc..

If they are master-slave, from what I understand, its the master that has total control of the slaves, and the slaves respond to the masters commands, not the dmx value.


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Stephane Desormeaux

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2008, 01:14:43 PM »

When I tried slow-smooth scene changes, I also got very lousy changes from my leds.

I think this is because, it is all the dmx values that slowly changes, and not just color and-or intensity.

So, for example, My Colorstrips might have a dmx value of 100 for scene 1, and a dmx value of 150 for scene 2. (Colorstrips have mostly color and program macros). But a slow shift from 100 to 150 will trigger 4 other programs that have dmx values assigned between 100 and 150.

Other example would be value 0-50 is dimmer, 51-151 is strobe, and 152 to 255 is a program. So to go smoothly from value 20 to 140, you trigger just about all the lights functions. And this is just from 1 channel, immagine if your lights have 7 different channels that all run through dmx values.
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Milt Hathaway

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #16 on: December 17, 2008, 01:36:21 PM »

Gregory Lawrence wrote on Wed, 17 December 2008 10:41

It seems as though some of the lights will blink, chase, change in perfect synchronization, and yet there are a couple that are completely out of sync, or a couple of changes behind.

Example: The first light seems sluggish and slow, lights 2,3 and 4 are in perfect sync, light 5 is weird, light 6 seems to sync exactly with 2,3, & 4 - the same with 7 & 8 (7 is out of sync and 8 is in sync.)


That's because you are running macros that are internal to each fixture, and the clocks in the fixtures are not perfectly synced. The only way to get chases (etc.) that perfectly sync is to program the chases into the control console itself, and not to use the onboard macros in the fixtures.
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Gregory Lawrence

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #17 on: December 17, 2008, 01:56:23 PM »

I understand what you are explaining and it is good advice to realize.

My problems exist not while moving faders "on the fly" or editing scenes in manual or program mode, but while going from one bank preset to another bank preset.

Those values should already be stored, thus having no need to "run through" a series of programs, controls or presets. It would simply send a static value as opposed to a series of values that correspond to possible preset programs or functions.
(i.e.- It would only send value 147 and not values 24-thru-147.)

Of course, any other insight, advise or wisdom is always appreciated!

Thanks,

Greg
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Gregory Lawrence

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #18 on: December 17, 2008, 02:00:19 PM »

Thank you!
What you are explaining to me sounds reasonable.

The only problem I have to fathom is:
"Why would 5 of the 8 lights work in perfect synchronization?"

BTW- These are regular P64 Par 64 American DJ LED cans. 6 channels.

Greg
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Bob Charest

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Re: DMX Operator Experience
« Reply #19 on: December 17, 2008, 05:35:27 PM »

Hi Greg,

I don't remember seeing the actual DMX address of each fixture in the previous posts. The reason I'm asking is because the behavior (or similar behavior) you're describing occurs to us when a dip switch has been inadvertently moved on one of the fixtures during setup.

Just to level-set me, please tell me the fixtures you're using and the way you've got them addressed. No way that should be happening...

Best regards,
Bob

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