Control/Dimming - Chauvet DMX-70 controler help

[Nicks980]

Ok, here is what I have...
Chauvet DMX-70 with 3 par83 LED can lights and 2 Intimidator 2.0 Scanners. I have all 5 lights set to different DMX cannels so I can control them all seperatly. I have figured out how to change the colors and fade the lights up and down (i guess thats kinda the basic stuff). The part I am having trouble with is... How do I go about setting up a "show" into the controler? I have read the manuall a few times, but there must be something I am not getting right. Everytime I try to program a "show" it does not work right. Is there an easier way that someone can explaine it to me, so that I can get it working?

Also, how do I get the joystick to work? I seen some mention of it, but I would like to hook up my Sanners to that so I can use them as Spotlights if we have a speaker come in.

Any Adavice would be GREAT! Thanks!

[JD]

OK, the joystick default is channels 15 & 16. (The DMX-70 assigns in blocks of 32 channels) Your pan and tilt are probably Chn's 1 and 2. See page 9 of the manual to reassign the joystick to chn's 1 & 2. (Note- when you are looking through the list of channels, the joystick shows as P1 and T1.)

A couple of things about the joystick- It is quite a bit over-reactive! I often just use the sliders. The DMX-70 acts differently once you have your program in and you push the override buttons at the bottom- to release the light to your preset scene, you have to deselect the scanner.

As for setting up scenes for a show, that depends on if it is a series of fixed cues, or if you are just going to improvise on the fly.

I actually love the DMX-70 for "improvise on the fly" type shows because it gives you direct access to the first 14 channels at the same time, as compared to any paging. The following is just what I would do, and everybody will probably have a different way of doing things!

As the scanners are 5 channel, and your pars are 7 channel, that means you can have direct access to all the lights at the same time using manual override! To do this, use scanner 1 to feed your 1st mover (dmx 1-5) AND your first led par (dmx 6-12), use scanner 2 for your second scanner, and second par (default would be 33-37 and 38-44), and scanner 3 for your third par (default would be 70-76)

With the lights configured this way, you can take manual override on the whole show at the same time. Sliders 1-5 will control your movers, and sliders 6-12 will control your pars. The dmx 70 allows you to preset 240 scenes (30 banks of 8) When you are programming scenes (in programming mode), push on scanners 1,2,&3) and set your pars as well as your first mover. (ignore what your second mover is doing.) then punch off scanners 1 & 3 and set the second mover. When you have the look you want, select the bank you want to store it in, then tap "add" and then tap the scene number you want it stored in. (All the lights will blink)

You may want to set some scenes up where you preset the initial look and then improvise. To do this, call the scene up, then tap on scanners 1,2,&3) or any combo, and make adjustments.

Good luck!

EDIT:
Oops! Par83 not par38, so it is 4 channels not 7. All the rest applies, and you will have even more room! One more note: (you probably know this) the outputs dmx 1 to 32 appear on each scanner with the start address bumped by 32 per scanner. (ONE is 1 to 32, TWO is 33 to 64, THREE is 65 to 96, and so on) So, when you bring up slider #1 and you have 1,2, and 3 selected, you are brining up channels 1,33, & 65)

[Nicks980]

JD, do you or anyone, know how to get the light board to run "automatic" with the Sound? If i read the the manual right it runs off of MIDI sound input. But what is the best way to get sound from my sound board to MIDI so I can put that into the light mixer?

[JD]

I know the DMX-55 has a built in mic because I accidentally got into that mode while in the middle of a show I thought I had gone insane for a second. (No comments please ! ) Never tried to get into that mode on the 70. The manual says it is sound activated and the bottom of page 15 covers putting it into that mode.

The midi mode is for if you want to control the system from another midi based controller, or even a midi interfaced musical instrument or a laptop PC. You could literally have a club band where the keyboard player runs lights!

To check to see if you are in the sound mode, simply tap on the frame of the board. If it jumps to the next scene, you are in it.