Nonstandard DMX Lights gripe/question

[Danderman123]

My setup is very simple, I have a lot of LED lights, all set to DMX channel 1, with channel 1 being a master dimmer, #2 is red, #3 is green and #4 is blue. And that is it. Many LEDs comply with this arrangement, with subsequent channels set to strobes or other functions that are generally non-standard, so I cannot use them. For example, channel 5 might be white for some LEDs and strobe for another LED.

Some of my pars are even simpler, with Channel 1 being RED, Channel 2 is GREEN, Channel 3 is BLUE. For those, I set their DMX address to 2, which allows them to be compatible with my standard DMX addressing scheme of Channel 1 for MASTER, Channel 2 for RED, etc.

My issue is that when buying a new LED, often the channel assignments are not disclosed in the product literature, so when I receive the LED, I find out that Channel 2 is not RED but rather controls the strobe, or somesuch nonsense. So, I have a pile of such non-standard LED par cans lying around that I could only use if I set them up individually as fixtures in DMXIS. But, since each is distinct, it would be a definite pain.

Is there any way to alter the channel assignments of PAR cans in their software? Or do you guys have a different fixture assignment for each and every LED that has a "non-standard" channel assignment?

[cgrafx]

Is there any way to alter the channel assignments of PAR cans in their software? Or do you guys have a different fixture assignment for each and every LED that has a "non-standard" channel assignment?

I think in many or actually most cases each fixture/light has a separate DMX assignment, that way you can adjust each light separately.

You combine each of the fixture settings into scenes by storing them in the Preset Manager as banks and presets.

Adjust all your lights for a particular color and brightness and save it as a preset.

You can of coarse gang all fixtures of the same type on the same DMX channels, but they will then of coarse be treated essentially as a single fixture.

[Danderman123]

That is my goal, to have all my lights controlled as if they were a single fixture. I run everything in Midi, so using Scenes is probably beyond my ability, I just run simple patch changes to change the lighting.

Most of my lights are simple 4 channel MASTER-RED-GREEN-BLUE systems, but I have a Chauvet LEDsplash 200B, which has the Master function reversed, so that putting it at 255 cuts out the lights. I would love to be able to de-reverse that Master function so that it operates like my other lights, where 255 means MAXIMUM.

[cgrafx]

how many light changes do you need to make?

You can control presets with midi just as easily as the fixtures as long as your not trying to do thousands of lighting changes.

[Danderman123]

Yeah, setting up scenes and additional fixtures is way too complex for me.

Let me try this:

I have a couple of light stands, each populated by lights using the same channel assignment. So, as an example, the note D0 triggers them all to turn RED. Since they all have the channel assignments, everything works OK.

What happens when a light dies, and I need to replace it? How can I ensure that a new light has the same assignment as my current lights.

This is really an appeal for establishment of standard channel assignments, for example, that all 4 channel systems have the same DMX channel assignments, i.e. MASTER-Red-Green-Blue, as opposed to RED-Green-Blue-MASTER.

[cgrafx]

As much as you may want to have a standardized DMX channel layout, that currently doesn't exist and isn't going to happen.

So your left with two options. Only purchase lights that match your specific DMX channel layout requirements or learn to use the tools (presets) that will allow you to control non-similar fixtures.

Its really not that complicated.

in your case, match up all the fixtures that are the same on the same DMX channels. For example

Fixture type 1. 4 DMX channels Master, R, G, B would start at DMX channel 1 (occupying DMX channels 1, 2, 3, 4)
Fixture type 2. 3 DMX channels R, G, B would start at DMX channel 5 (occupying DMX channels 5, 6, 7)
fixture type 3. 5 DMX channels R, G, B, Master, Strobe would start at DMX channel 8 (occupying DMX channels 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)

Then you would adjust the corresponding DMXIS faders for channels that match the color you want and save a preset.

For example all fixtures full brightness and RED color would be channels 1, 2, 5, 8, 11
- Fixture Type 1 - Master and R (DMXIS faders 1 and 2)
- Fixture Type 2 - R (DMXIS fader 5)
- Fixture Type 3 - R and Master (DMXIS faders 8 and 11)

Set those faders to 100%, toggle DMXIS to the preset panel and save a preset and name it RED.

Repeat for BLUE, GREEN, or any other color or combination you want.

[Danderman123]

Yeah, that is what I used to do, use presets with various lights. Unfortunately, real world usage often means troubleshooting malfunctioning lights, and if are not all configured identically, it can be very difficult to get the system operating nominally.

[RichG]

This is really an appeal for establishment of standard channel assignments, for example, that all 4 channel systems have the same DMX channel assignments, i.e. MASTER-Red-Green-Blue, as opposed to RED-Green-Blue-MASTER.

This is something I never really understood. It seems like standards were not established early on and as a result channel assignments were left to the whim of the manufacturer.

I really think there should be a standard. First, the class of device (Light, Scanner, Moving Head, Laser, etc...). Second, the Channel assignments.

I've seen some devices that have 'a' and 'b' personalities for a given personality setup. For example, I have a Blizzard RokBox with 8a and 8b personalities. I'm thinking ALL devices should have 's' personalities available... 's' being standard. So a light set to '4s' would adhere to the D, R, G, B standard. If the manufacturer insists on having non-standard definitions, then they could have '4a' and define it as whatever they wanted.

What truly baffles me is when the SAME manufacturer has different channel definitions for similar fixtures! For example

Chauvet Intimidator Spot 250 (10 Ch Mode):
1. Pan
2. Tilt
3. Color
4. Gobo
5. Gobo Rot
6. Shutter
7. Dimmer
8. Effect
9. Prism
10. Focus

Chauvet Intimidator Spot 255 IRC (8 Ch Mode):
1. Pan
2. Tilt
3. Color
4. Gobo
5. Gobo Rot
6. Prism
7. Dimmer
8. Shutter

Really? Why couldn't they just make the first 8 channel defs the same??

[Danderman123]

Or if there were a D,R,G,B 4 channel.

So one of my cheapo PARS has failed, and I am looking for a replacement, but if the new fixture does not exactly replicate the channel assignments of the failed PAR, my life is going to get difficult.

[Danderman123]

I am amazed that my cheapo 18 LED 3 color PARs have different channel assignments. I don’t know if they are made by the same manufacturer, or if there are different makers of these very cheap LED fixtures, but buying one is a pig in a poke, sometimes the channel assignment are identical, and some fixtures have completely different channels.

But, it’s more than just different channels, the control architectures can be different (I don’t know the industry term for this).

So I have a pile of these with the same channel assignments, and another pile that are different, and I am not interested in integrating the oddballs into my setup.