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[Craig Leerman]

Hi all,

I have an install coming up that needs a bunch of inexpensive LED pars. They could be RGB, RGBW, RGBA, RGBWA, etc as long as they are at least 40 or 50 watt units as they will have a 20’ throw to the stage.

The problem is that the lights will be for a stage wash and they will be placed on a circuit that will be turned off when not in use as the lighting and sound area gets placed in the audience area and struck during the week. Since they are going to unplug the console from the DMX line, I don’t want the lights to go into automatic/random mode when they lose signal. I had the electrician put the overhead lighting circuits on switches so they can turn the power off.

As the lights will be mounted about 20’ off the floor, I don’t think the venue wants to get a ladder or lift to reprogram the units every weekend.

Somebody in a thread a while back mentioned Monoprice units but before I could offer them up as a suggestion, a local musician friend of the venue owner suggested some Chinese knockoffs. The price was right and the musician swore they held the programming. They did not.

I checked with OPPSK and they said the units I was looking at did not hold the DMX address.

These could be COB (chip on board) style or lights with lots of emitters on the front. As long as they hold the programming when unplugged (DMX address as well as programming modes) they will work. Plastic or metal body is fine. I just need to wash a stage.

Do the 90 watt Monoprice units hold all programming when unplugged?

Are there any other cheap (under $100) lights I should look at?

Thanks in advance
Craig

[Brian Jojade]

Hmm, I can't remember using any lights that didn't remember their DMX settings through a power cycle.

Lights that didn't would be essentially useless as any power fluctuation would mean reprogramming.

[Jeff Lelko]

Hi Craig,

The ADJ Mega Hex Pars are the cheapest "generic use" fixtures that I typically recommend and consider useful.  I own a handful for truss warming and other miscellaneous purposes that don't require anything higher pedigree.  At around $100/ea they'll hold their settings when power cycled but getting 20ft of usable throw out of one is asking a lot...  Something like the Chauvet SlimPar Pro H would be more appropriate here as a baseline minimum, but will set you back around 3x your $100 maximum.  As always, you get what you pay for!

[Tim Weaver]

I use Hexpars occasionally too. They are pretty decent for the money.


I've found that most cheap lights that default back to some mode when DMX is not present WILL let you set up a static color and just default to that instead of epilepsy mode. It's a lot better to have them all just turn white instead of "disco death ray".

[Craig Hauber]

Hi all,

I have an install coming up that needs a bunch of inexpensive LED pars. They could be RGB, RGBW, RGBA, RGBWA, etc as long as they are at least 40 or 50 watt units as they will have a 20’ throw to the stage.

The problem is that the lights will be for a stage wash and they will be placed on a circuit that will be turned off when not in use as the lighting and sound area gets placed in the audience area and struck during the week. Since they are going to unplug the console from the DMX line, I don’t want the lights to go into automatic/random mode when they lose signal. I had the electrician put the overhead lighting circuits on switches so they can turn the power off.

As the lights will be mounted about 20’ off the floor, I don’t think the venue wants to get a ladder or lift to reprogram the units every weekend.

Somebody in a thread a while back mentioned Monoprice units but before I could offer them up as a suggestion, a local musician friend of the venue owner suggested some Chinese knockoffs. The price was right and the musician swore they held the programming. They did not.

I checked with OPPSK and they said the units I was looking at did not hold the DMX address.

These could be COB (chip on board) style or lights with lots of emitters on the front. As long as they hold the programming when unplugged (DMX address as well as programming modes) they will work. Plastic or metal body is fine. I just need to wash a stage.

Do the 90 watt Monoprice units hold all programming when unplugged?

Are there any other cheap (under $100) lights I should look at?

Thanks in advance
Craig

I've suffered through piles of the cheapest eBay plastic crap fixtures possible (community theaters) and discovered that if you remember to always press "enter" after your settings on the ubiquitous 4-button menu provided on their rear controls they will remember that setting indefinitely.
Quite frustrating until that little tidbit was discovered.  Because many of them will allow you to dial in what you want then just leave it hanging at that point but will lose once you power cycle.
Haven't found any sub-$100 china fixtures that doesn't act in this way.

-Also recently discovered that the Monoprice 9-led RGBW flat-par is my current lowest possible usability fixture of that genre. 

[Debbie Dunkley]

My Blizzards, ADJ's, Chauvets, Solenas, and other no name chinese branded fixtures ALL hold their settings when powered down. Like Brian, I have not come across any that do not.

[Paul G. OBrien]

I too have not seen any fixtures that don't at least remember thier DMX address. As for other settings.. when the DMX signal is lost they typically revert to whatever built-in setting they were last configured for, so as long as you make sure that wasn't an auto or sound active setting and where possible set them as a slave... they will be tolerable.

[Mal Brown]

I have 22 of the monoprice 9x10's.  The remember their dmx address when powered down.  They also remember RGBW direct coded input.  You always want some color off the rgb chart, you can hard code it.  At $60 a unit they are hard to beat.

[John Schalk]

I have 22 of the monoprice 9x10's.  The remember their dmx address when powered down.  They also remember RGBW direct coded input.  You always want some color off the rgb chart, you can hard code it.  At $60 a unit they are hard to beat.

These are now $70 and, like most of Monoprice's better LED fixtures, they're out of stock

I am looking at this fixture for front light trees for small to medium stages outdoors.  Think city street festivals.  A band I worked for owned Chauvet SlimPar 64s which are very bright, but have a narrow beam angle, so 4 per side did not provide enough coverage outside on a dark street.  What do you think of these fixtures? 

https://www.pssl.com/products/eliminator-lp-12-hex-12x5w-rgbwa-plus-uv-led-par-light

Edit To Add: Shortly after posting this I received an "Ad" email from Sweetwater, which now carries this fixture.  Big Brother really is watching.

[Paul Johnson]

What would be the point of any lighting fixture that forgot it's programming - none of mine have ever done this, and some remember it for over six months I have found. If anything does not have this feature - I'd never buy them. It's vital.

[Mike Karseboom]

One other aspect that seems to vary by fixture is what happens when the DMX signal is lost.


Suppose you have your fixtures on a bright white that is set via DMX signal for load out and try to leave them powered up until every thing else is packed up.  If you maintain the power to the lights  but disconnect the DMX signal cable - what happens.


Some fixtures stay at that last setting, even though it was set via DMX.  Other fixtures go black.  I like the ones that keep burning at the last setting as eager helpers often unplug dmx cables thinking they are mic cables.


On the other hand, if you have fixture color set by dmx and loose both power and DMX, then you restore the power, the fixture probably will NOT come back at the previous color.  It will typically stay black.  You have to give it a DMX signal again to get the color back.


Moving head fixtures seems to have one difference, the ones I have go through some sort of calibration movement whenever power or dmx is lost and then restored.   And when set to a DMX address and DMX signal is lost, they start flailing about wildly.  Probably a feature only available on the cheap (older ADJ) movers I have.  Sucks for me but maybe it is the preferred behavior for DJ's.  Better to have the fixture flogging about and strobing than blacked out.


But I am with the others, I haven't seen a fixture that doesn't save its back panel setting when powered down.  If it is a color or chase manually preset in the fixture - it comes back with  the same color or chase as soon as power is restored.  If the fixture was set to a DMX address for DMX control, then restoring the power normally keeps the fixture at the same DMX address although blacked out until a DMX signal is also restored. 


Typically a fixture cannot have both a manual color or chase set and a dmx address at the same time.  They are two different modes of operation.  If power is lost then restored it returns to the last used mode. 


I did use some fixtures once that were not mine that automatically shifted to DMX mode when a DMX cable was plugged in.  If DMX signal was lost, it reverted back to the last color/chase that was manually set.  So there seem to be a lot of variations. 


All in all, except for the fixtures that black out when dmx signal is lost, it seems like a logical way for them to work.  These observations are from my limited experience and YMMV.


RDMX might be completely different.  That is above my pay grade.

[Debbie Dunkley]

One other aspect that seems to vary by fixture is what happens when the DMX signal is lost.


Suppose you have your fixtures on a bright white that is set via DMX signal for load out and try to leave them powered up until every thing else is packed up.  If you maintain the power to the lights  but disconnect the DMX signal cable - what happens.


Some fixtures stay at that last setting, even though it was set via DMX.  Other fixtures go black.  I like the ones that keep burning at the last setting as eager helpers often unplug dmx cables thinking they are mic cables.


On the other hand, if you have fixture color set by dmx and loose both power and DMX, then you restore the power, the fixture probably will NOT come back at the previous color.  It will typically stay black.  You have to give it a DMX signal again to get the color back.


Moving head fixtures seems to have one difference, the ones I have go through some sort of calibration movement whenever power or dmx is lost and then restored.   And when set to a DMX address and DMX signal is lost, they start flailing about wildly.  Probably a feature only available on the cheap (older ADJ) movers I have.  Sucks for me but maybe it is the preferred behavior for DJ's.  Better to have the fixture flogging about and strobing than blacked out.


But I am with the others, I haven't seen a fixture that doesn't save its back panel setting when powered down.  If it is a color or chase manually preset in the fixture - it comes back with  the same color or chase as soon as power is restored.  If the fixture was set to a DMX address for DMX control, then restoring the power normally keeps the fixture at the same DMX address although blacked out until a DMX signal is also restored. 


Typically a fixture cannot have both a manual color or chase set and a dmx address at the same time.  They are two different modes of operation.  If power is lost then restored it returns to the last used mode. 


I did use some fixtures once that were not mine that automatically shifted to DMX mode when a DMX cable was plugged in.  If DMX signal was lost, it reverted back to the last color/chase that was manually set.  So there seem to be a lot of variations. 


All in all, except for the fixtures that black out when dmx signal is lost, it seems like a logical way for them to work.  These observations are from my limited experience and YMMV.


RDMX might be completely different.  That is above my pay grade.

I have some Blizzard Quads that if the DMX cable is removed but fixture is still plugged into the mains, they go crazy and start flashing like mad. Very annoying.

[ProSoundWeb Community]