COLORSplash JR. - Strobing only?

[Charc]

Quick question here, the house opens in a minute. Chauvet won't pick up the tech-support line... the guy on their tape is annoying.

Regardless, the two COLORSplash Jrs. I got today seem to have an error. I have them set to DMX mode, patched correctly, but the Intensity fader Channel 1 over about 50% is supposed to be intensity, it's only strobing at high frequency. Needless to say it's un-useable now, unless the effect I'm going for is a bunch of epileptic kids.

Troubleshooting done so far:

Tried on the other DMX out on real DMX cable, same issue. The issue appears in both lights, which are daisy chained, dip switches 3 and 10 are toggled. No issue is effecting my conventionals. Anyone got any ideas?

[derekleffew]

RTFM!? DMX values on channel 2 (channel 1 is unimplemented) are
000-001 (00%) Blackout
002-127 (01%-50%) Strobe Slow>Fast
128-255) (51%-FL) Intensity 0%>100%

So you never want to take them below 50% unless you want them to strobe at whatever color is set by the next three channels.

On a real console I might make a submaster that has all the channel 2's at 50%, and never take that down, or write a custom profile on the "dimmer" for the channel 2's.


Hope this helps.

[derekleffew]

With dipswitches #3 and 10 ON, you have the fixture set as address#4, correct? Ignore channel 4, Channel 5 is your master, and Channels 6,7,8 are your RGB. Mine is set up exactly that way on my Pocket Console and is performing as expected. Below 50% is strobing, 50%-100% is fading. Hope this reaches you in time. You have my Cell#, right?

[soundlight]

If you have the newer fixtures, channel one does nothing, channel two is intensity, channels 3-5 are colors.

[Charc]

Thanks Derek, and sorry guys I couldn't check back in earlier, I was busy with running the show and could not get on the laptop.

I resolved the issue.

So first, let me say that I miss-typed the channel before in the original post. I did know it was 5 channels, #1 being unused. I decided to play with the dipswitches and addressed the COLORsplashes to Channel 4 (as opposed to addressed to channel 3, where the issue was) and noted that the problem did not occur when the master & r/g/b's were brought up. I suspect the issue to be with DMX channel 5 output from the board... because I've only ever had 4 lights, I never checked channels 5, 6, 7 or 8 when we first received the board. Bummer, I assume it's out of warranty now, by a long time.

I ended up setting the board to 16 x 1, which messed up some of my thoughts with two-scene pre-set. Using the LEDs in conjunction with my chases was tricky, and required a lot of juggling due to the values I had stuff recorded at. However by intermission I had a good system down.

Unfortunately one specific performer absolutely hates light, and did a "level check" with me and had me turn the lights to about 5%, I couldn't see his face. Needless to say once he was stuck on stage for his acts I brought the lights up. Other than that I thought it was pretty solid. Experimented with some new ideas. Due to some technical difficulties (read: juggling the LEDs and PARs) there were some awkward moments near the beginning, but it got resolved, I don't think anyone noticed, except when I accidentally strobed the COLORsplashes during a quiet song...

So here is what I did: 2 x 200W PAR48-MFL as washlights, a light blue, R60ish. 2 x 200W PAR-48-NSP as specials on the mics, amber, somewhere around R04. I used the COLORsplashes as side-lights. Worked out well, added that nice touch. From tonight I've drawn the conclusion that LED is a poor idea for frontlight. I was glad I had normal PARs, not LED PARs.

It was fun to get a chance to play with color; some live color mixing: my first time! (The R/G/B was taken out of the CYC lights right when I started getting interested in lighting... ) I did get some compliments on this point specifically.

Impression of the units: I liked 'em. They performed exactly how I thought they would (Which I assumed would leave me wanting just a little more punch). So yea, a bit more punch woulda been nice, 10% or so, but they performed as expected. They feel solid. They have manual color-mixing which is cool for architectural applications. Oh, I added some diffusion. Just the only two cuts we have, random cuts too. I think I'll pick up some R118. I think R118 would really help with the color mixing, but I'm not sure at what cost to output. It was pretty good, it just got sorta weird when all three colors were on to around the same level.

I think that's it...

[soundlight]

Cool! I should get mine soon if they're not already in the campus mailroom (it isn't open over break for students, just for receiving). I can't wait to get them and then hook them up to my DMX70 when I get that. Until then, I'll just hook 'em up to the department's Pocket Console and hang them in the e-shed.

[derekleffew]

Glad it worked out for you, charcoaldabs. A couple of thoughts. What kind of board was it? Could it be that dimmer 5 was not patched into channel 5? I believe you used PAR38s or PAR46s, as I've never hear of a PAR48. I think you'll find you lose too much intensity with R118, I'd use R114 or, my favorite, R104 to spread in only one direction.

Good thinking using the LEDs as sidelight. I've never seen any LED, other than the the CTO/CTB ColorBlast12s, look good lighting people. You can never mix a natural white, with RGB.

The COLORsplash Jr. is a fun little fixture, and I love that one can string 50 of them together with one power cord. Think of the matrix one could make. Of course, DMX only allows for 32 devices, but I bet one could stretch that to 50 of these. Imagine an 8x8 matrix of these, (with a two way opto) and then with a grandMA, pixel-map them to show a very low-res image, or send them video to spell out scrolling words...the possibilities are endless.

soundlight, your dept. has a Pocket Console? Every dept. should have one of these. Very handy device.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

soundlight, your dept. has a Pocket Console? Every dept. should have one of these. Very handy device.

It's a very valuable device when testing things or doing class demos. However, I'd buy a Leviton 1000 series instead if given the decision. Nice little board, can be battery powered, and actually has a keypad for data entry. And it still fits in your hands.

[derekleffew]

Nice, but not $700 nice. I have got to get out my $89 Monster DMX and play with it.

[soundlight]

Originally Posted by derekleffew

Nice, but not $700 nice. I have got to get out my $89 Monster DMX and play with it.

Ehhh, I've got a line on it for under $280 from a reputable dealer.