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Sound Reinforcement - Forums for Live Sound Professionals - Your Displayed Name Must Be Your Real Full Name To Post In The Live Sound Forums => Lighting Forum => Topic started by: Mark Holley on April 01, 2012, 05:57:48 PM
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I have the opportunity to pick up 4 chauvet intimidator 1.2s at a steal price.
5 channel fixture ch1=gobo, ch2=color, ch3=strobe, ch4=pan, ch5=tilt
I already have 2 intimidator 1.0 which is the same ch assignment as the 1.2 exept the 1.0 has a combined color/gobo wheel.
so it's assignment is ch1=color/gobo, ch2=strobe, ch 3=pan, ch4=tilt.
Question #1: Lets say I put 2 of the 1.2 fixtures on ch1 and 2 fixtures on ch6 (2 stage left & 2 stage right) wouldn't I be able to assign my 1.0 fixtures to channel 2 & 7, which should line up the channels for all fixtures as far as pan/tilt/strobe and would put the 1.0 lights color choice on the same channel. (the 1.2's have more color choices but thats OK with me.)
Question #2: The 1.2's have the option to flip the pan&tilt... question is this..... is there a way to ONLY reverse the pan without effecting the tilt... that would allow me to put all four fixtures on same channels as they would mirror each other then just creatively aim them for coverage... I am limited on channels which is the reason for conservation here... I haven't moved to a true intelligent board yet.
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The correct answer is "not very well".
(1) The colors would not line up at all. Color channel has 11 postions, gobo and gobo/color channels have 14 positions. Also the gobo wheel is used for blackout/strobing.
(2) It is not clear in the manual, but I suspect the p/t inversion only affects the stand-alone operation.
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stupid DMX >:( ;D
well I think for the price it's a no brainer to get the four 1.2 fixtures ( $150-$200 for all) and Ill just have to burn 10 channels instead of 5... maybe I'll sell the 1.0s to a DJ in the area... 4 is better than 2 (but 6 would have been cool too) :P
The correct answer is "not very well".
(1) The colors would not line up at all. Color channel has 11 postions, gobo and gobo/color channels have 14 positions. Also the gobo wheel is used for blackout/strobing.
(2) It is not clear in the manual, but I suspect the p/t inversion only affects the stand-alone operation.
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If you're using a controller with limited channels I'd suggest using all 1.0's on one address and all 1.2's on another. Unison functions would be more impressive than "random" color/gobo combo's.
What controller are you using?
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Using an elation stagesetter8 (a6 channels) for the movers. 4 chls for the stage left, 4 chls for the stage right. i also run 4 color changers on this board using up 2 or 4 channels depending and 4 conventional pars as well. might have to move the color changers over to my other controller (an am dj stage desk 16) to open room for the 1.2's if I get them. I have the opportunity to buy a controller (AM DJ operator pro) which has the intel light control on the left and 8 sliders on the right for conv pars. Just a matter of money
If you're using a controller with limited channels I'd suggest using all 1.0's on one address and all 1.2's on another. Unison functions would be more impressive than "random" color/gobo combo's.
What controller are you using?
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Don't bother with the Operator unless you can get it for under $100, as it would still be limiting and frustrating for you. Watch eBay for a used Showdesigner (sometimes find one for under $ 200-300).
Without a decent controller you will have little ability to get the most out of movers/scanners. Personally I'd rather have less-expensive fixtures and a good controller than expensive fixtures and a limited controller.
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With a showdesigner, can I still have open faders to use in real time as I have front lights at shows where Im actually running lights and not playing keys... See currently I use the two 16 channel boards to run basically what amounts to a back rack all programmed in scenes and chases (wash and eye candy) and front lights I run manually to light faces. That operator pro gives you that functionality with the 8 faders on the right side of the board being intended for par cans and the left all intel.... Does SD do something similar... (I'll research i as well)
Mark
Don't bother with the Operator unless you can get it for under $100, as it would still be limiting and frustrating for you. Watch eBay for a used Showdesigner (sometimes find one for under $ 200-300).
Without a decent controller you will have little ability to get the most out of movers/scanners. Personally I'd rather have less-expensive fixtures and a good controller than expensive fixtures and a limited controller.
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Mark, the key to intelligent light systems is per-programming. To be utilized properly you need to have a large number programs/scenes to choose from with only one or two buttons to push. Certainly the ability to grab fixtures and make changes in real-time is important, but once you get into scanners/movers etc you really start to lose the capabilities of the fixtures if you can't have a good selection of presets.
If you are comfortable using 2 separate controllers, that's not a bad solution, and you can make it work better by using one as a master controller to call up scenes from the other via MIDI. You could easily use the SD for all your current needs, as well as future expansion, by doing a lot of pre-programming and then using the live capabilities to make real-time changes to the par fixtures.
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I'm real familiar with scenes and programs....
I've got 8 banks of chases (32 scenes each) for the scanners, then 8 flash buttons (which are flash scenes) for scanners+ acl arrays in different patterns... then the LED controller has a multitude of scenes and programs Ive set up for various situations... 4 banks of chases (100 steps each) of basic color washes that I run on a slow fade (all cans same color) and then punch through that with either acl's or scanners or my color changers... then lots of banks of general usage chases (alot designed to run with the tempo tapped in on the quarter note) in those chases, nothing changes for 8 bars, then several scene changes, then back to no movement for 8 bars, things like that.
I have a pretty comprehensive assortment of scenes and chases set-up (as far as I can take it at this level with this gear me thinks)
ON ANOTHER NOTE ;D
The LEDPAR64's lights are working now!!! 7 out of 8 are anyway.
It's very odd whats going on but as long as the PARS are by themselves no problems... I've discovered they will not play well with the chauvet Color Strip... just wont mesh... I can have the whole thing set up, and add the color bars, and the 3 suspect cans go off instantly... with the bars, works great...
I think all of this has to do with A.(cheap cans with inferior parts) B.( the reversed polarity is suspicious)
But they will work with my AM DJ color changer 250's in the chain (they are also reverse polarity) ;)
So I just had to adjust how I put my fixtures in the 2 different universes... means reprogramming 8 banks of scenes to accomodate the color changers but at least no scanner programming !!!
So whole rig is working now and I have the variety I was looking for, at least for now, and didn't have to buy a replacement PAR :) I might just add two more color bars to stack on their channels as they wash actually pretty well...
Thanks sooo much for your help and interactivity Duane and others on figuring this thing out!
Mark
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Mark, the key to intelligent light systems is per-programming. To be utilized properly you need to have a large number programs/scenes to choose from with only one or two buttons to push. Certainly the ability to grab fixtures and make changes in real-time is important, but once you get into scanners/movers etc you really start to lose the capabilities of the fixtures if you can't have a good selection of presets.
If you are comfortable using 2 separate controllers, that's not a bad solution, and you can make it work better by using one as a master controller to call up scenes from the other via MIDI. You could easily use the SD for all your current needs, as well as future expansion, by doing a lot of pre-programming and then using the live capabilities to make real-time changes to the par fixtures.
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Glad you got it working. Very odd problem, but sometimes these things happen and then "fix themselves" without anyone really knowing what was screwing up.
Much easier if the problem shows up and stays until you can isolate it.
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Another odd thing is those LED par cans don't want to be on channel 13 thru 16... Anything 1 - 12 is fine, can't test any address higher but that's just wierd... maybe it's a chinese thing? lol I don't know.
But it is definitely the color strips that cause them to go bonkers. crazy stuff!
Glad you got it working. Very odd problem, but sometimes these things happen and then "fix themselves" without anyone really knowing what was screwing up.
Much easier if the problem shows up and stays until you can isolate it.