Basic DMX Scene player

[KevinE]

not sure if this is overkill but the Showtec TR512 is ideal. It can also be remote mounted and controlled from a wall plate button panel.

 

https://www.showtec.co.uk/onlineshop/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=997&search=tr-512

[ianknight]

16 hours ago, richardash1981 said:

The Sixer controller I have is indeed the Strand one re-badged (with a small mod inside so it can take power via the spare pins in the DMX cable). It's useful to know that all of these devices are not the same. It's also triggered the thought that I might know where I could borrow a (number of years old) Transcension SDC 6 from for the period, which might be the way to avoid doing anything else in a rush this year (if it works, which will need to be tried!).
 

The Sixer & SDC 6 will also run off a 9v battery if you're tight on power sockets.

Lightprocessor stuff is rock solid - a lot of their kit was designed by Mick Hannaford so complies with DMX standards, simple but robust electronics too. Lightprocessor got amalgated in to Cooper Controls along with Zero88 & iLight (for the history buffs) and then disappeared as a brand despite some nicely designed kit. A lot of the staff stayed with Zero88 for a while and I think their old office in Watford is still part of the Signify operation.

Support for Lightprocessor is still handled by Keith at Zero88  though mostly these days it's help with circuits & diagnostics.

[ianknight]

16 hours ago, xllx said:

I have a six way desk, can't remember the brand, but it is one of the cheap clones. It doesn't seem to output channel 1 correctly, depending on what it is controlling 2-6 can work fine, but often 1 just does nothing.

Mike - yeah - we had fun at CTS with them trying to control Alphapacks & Beta 2's - we were given some replacement PIC's to try but they didn't change things sadly. We were constantly told "It's the same electronics as in the SDC 6" but there was plainly an issue even when we showed our Prolight rep who came back with "But it works ok with our Transcension dimmers...". Just sloppy programming of the DMX routines in the PIC I suspect (or deliberate...)

[musht]

Recorder route , DMX King le DMX Pro 4 , primarily pixel controller allows some expansion, with DMX output ,on board SDcard and 4 dry contact inputs,think will boot to last state.

[richardash1981]

Thanks again for enlightenment.

Unfortunately I think I do need to use DMX at both ends. The display outside isn't consistent year to year, and more to the point will switch over on Easter Sunday. That is 12V LED strips, so an analogue triac dimmer isn't really an option (There is an NJD10000 around, and I built the "Desk" for that from scratch!). Indoors I have a mixture of LED PARs (DMX only) and old strand tungsten (on a DMX dimmer), so that end needs basic DMX control as well - just enough to get an RGB PAR can to come on saturated red, with a grand master to switch the whole lot on/off. This is the all-tugsten version, the PAR56 have since been swapped for LEDs:

The odd result of all this is that I could probably get away with hard wiring all the channels of the indoor scene as 0% or 100% - but need to go down DMX to get to the LED PARs. So if the faders are too nasty, they could end up wired out on the back ...

[sandall]

All the cheap'n cheerful RGB Pars I have can be set manually to a colour & will power up in that colour, so for say a static red wash no DMX is needed.

[david.elsbury]

On 3/8/2022 at 9:14 AM, sandall said:

All the cheap'n cheerful RGB Pars I have can be set manually to a colour & will power up in that colour, so for say a static red wash no DMX is needed.

Which is fine if you can physically access the fixtures; and/or don’t mind climbing up a ladder and on a roof (obv situational dependent)

[sandall]

38 minutes ago, david.elsbury said:

Which is fine if you can physically access the fixtures; and/or don’t mind climbing up a ladder and on a roof (obv situational dependent)

Which of course you have to do to rig them in the first place

[sunray]

Have you asked around withing the church community if anyone has access to anything?

[richardash1981]

35 minutes ago, sunray said:

Have you asked around withing the church community if anyone has access to anything?

Fair question and I haven't specifically - people tend to come to me with this sort of question, the contacts I have are not very "tech"! The option to borrow another SDC-6 type controller is from the wider church community, but I know they are trying to offload the lot (controller, 2 x Botek dimmers and 8 x PAR56 on two stands) so I don't want to stand to close - I don't have room for it!
I have a Light Processor Q24 on it's way to me by Tuesday next week, it looks to be in tidy order so I hope I can find a group of 6 channels on one preset which work reliably!

[david.elsbury]

3 hours ago, sandall said:

Which of course you have to do to rig them in the first place

In case you missed this from the OP- there are pre-existing fixtures installed. 

>>The background is that my church has a display at key times of year outside in a wooden "hut", which is lit with some 12V LED strip. 

[themadhippy]

Quote

If you get a DMX shield and an Arduino, and you really only want 6 channels, and you know what levels you want, it's about 10 lines of code to make something which has the levels hard coded into the program.

And only a few more to read the analogue ins   to  set the  6 outputs levels,,6 pots wired between +v and 0v with the wiper to the  analogue ins  and youve a basic desk.

[richardash1981]

Light Processor Q24 arrived today (in a very solid home-built wooden transport case). After doing a board reset all seems to be working fine, no sign of flicker on the first 8 faders, which is all I need. I'm not sure I understand some of the features, but enough to use it as a 1-preset desk is definitely working!