Channel numbers greater than 192

[EPAC_Matt]

Heya,

We just upgraded from a Colortran Encore XL to an ETC Express 48/96 and we're having difficulties patching it the way the encore was patched. We have about 18 channels that are in the 200-range, but the Express is only letting us assign channels up to number 192. Is it possible to assign channels any higher?

Regards,
Matt

[techieman33]

i'm pretty sure you can, i think it's in the options somewhere, i just can't remember exactly, it's been a long time since i've touched an express.

[EPAC_Matt]

Eh, I'm not finding anything in the system settings. It won't let me set the number of channels to anything higher than 192 either. Which is weird, if this board is supposed to support 512 channels of DMX.

[techieman33]

it should support 1024 i believe

[EPAC_Matt]

I sure should hope so seeing as how it's capable of controlling two universes of DMX-512.. but this is puzzling me.

[techieman33]

ya, let me play with the offline editor for a bit, maybe i can figure it out.

[techieman33]

Well, i'm sorry but i can't figure it out. Though i do think there is a way to do, i just can't remember how, hopefully someone else will be able to help you out. Good luck.

[cutlunch]

Originally Posted by EPAC_Matt

Eh, I'm not finding anything in the system settings. It won't let me set the number of channels to anything higher than 192 either. Which is weird, if this board is supposed to support 512 channels of DMX.

Matt, I just checked the specs for your board on the ETC website. What you say about 192 channels is correct. What you also say about 1024 dimmers is correct. But please notice the diffrence in the wording. You only have a 192 channels you can directly control. But remember you can patch more then one dimmer to a channel that is why there is 1024 dimmers available.

I am more than happy to be proved wrong but that is my reading of the manual.

So if I have it right you won't be able to use channel numbers greater then 192 but you can patch dimmers with numbers upto 1024. From the manual it looks like moving instruments can be put on the second universe but their console channel numbers remain in the range 1 - 192. I am going to run the off line editor and check a few examples.

I'll let you know what I find out. In the meantime we might get a definitive answer from someone else.

[SteveB]

Cutlunch has it correct.

The C-Tran had a capacity of 512 CONSOLE channels AND either 512 DMX dimmer channels (XL) or 1024 DMX channels (XL2).

The Express can control 48 CONSOLE channels in 2 scene mode on the manual faders, 96 CONSOLE channels in single scene mode on manual faders and up to 192 CONSOLE channels in kepad mode allowing patching of up to 1024 DMX channels to any console channel.

Note the wording. Console channels are what you see on the CRT and what is used for cuing.

Any DMX channels (controlling dimmers, scrollers, ML's, whatever, via DMX) that were in the 193 and above on the C-Tran CONSOLE channel range, will need to be re-patched to lower CONSOLE channel numbers on the Express.

This is a limitation of the Express line vs. the Colortran. Perhaps an Expression would have been a better choice ?, with it's 400/800 or 1200 CONSOLE channels.

SB