Simple DMX Chasing Rope Light Controller?

[scrogers]

Hey all,

So I have searched CB and googled it etc and I feel like I'm looking for a simple product, but just cannot find it. I have a couple rather old chaser controllers for molex-style chasing rope light (old I know). All of my molex chaser strands have long since died, but I loved the simple controller which is basically two dials: pattern and speed. I see lots of new 3-pin chasing rope light and am thinking about getting a LOT of it, and there appear to be many very similar simple pattern and speed (or, at least speed) 3-pin chaser controllers, but are there none that are DMX capable? I have seen: http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/lighting-electrics/16866-dmx-rope-chasing-lights.html and it even sounds like the product I am looking for may be one in one of the first posts, but many of the links are bad or outdated.

I have made many chase sequences with 3 or 4 dimmers and my board and I know of that option, but I'm really looking for the simplicity of that nice little controller box (for 1/2in 3-pin chasing rope light), except with a DMX in and a couple channels that I can control the intensity, pattern, and speed from (or at least intensity and speed). Honestly, I feel like it would be an obvious product since there are just so many manual (non-dmx) chasing rope light controllers out there.

Anyway, I apologize if I'm missing something very obvious, but I feel like the product I'm looking for is simple, but I just cannot find it. Thanks for any/all suggestions.

~S

 

[derekleffew]

Color me confused.

You have this, or similar:

...For a while in the early 1980s, controllers by EDI (not that EDI--Electronic Designers Inc.) were everywhere.

Fast Track Auction.com
Now they're antiques.

and want to use it to control "3-pin chasing rope light"? It's the latter that's confounding me. If analog, it would be only two circuits. If digital, would need a proprietary controller. Can you post a link to the "fixtures" in question?

 

[chausman]

...and want to use it to control "3-pin chasing rope light"? It's the latter that's confounding me. If analog, it would be only two circuits. If digital, would need a proprietary controller. Can you post a link to the "fixtures" in question?

To me it sounded like he had a rope light, with three circuits. (For example) C1 --- C2 --- C3 --- C1 ---C2 --- C3 ... and needs something to control it.

 

[scrogers]

Sorry for the confusion. While I have an old controller similar to the one above... I'm planning to to ditch it. I was just using that for reference to my experience and the simplicity I was looking for.

I'm looking for all new, likely 1/2in 3-pin chasing rope light and a new controller. I just feel that one of these chaser controllers should be DMX capable rather than a stand alone unit. That way I could control intensity, pattern and speed all from my board.

All I was saying in my post is- I can't find one, and I feel like this is a product that a number of people would use(?). There are tons of (relatively cheap) modern 1/2in 3-pin chasing rope light controllers out there that are stand-alone. Does someone make the same "simple box" that is DMX controllable? I am aware of other options such as breaking out the circuts and making the effect in the board, but I'm searching for the simplicity of an "all-in-one" unit.

Thanks and sorry for the confusion.

~S

 

[porkchop]

Could you please post a link to the 3-pin chasing rope light of your choice, and also any of the stand-alone controller units you have found? I think some terminology is getting in the way here and links would help us out.

 

[scrogers]

Here is an example of the chasing rope light I'm looking at: Chasing Rope Light Spools with Free Accessories

I feel like 120v 1/2in 3pin chasing rope light is pretty standard/generic and so just googling "rope light" brings up many places like the one linked above that sell (seemingly) the same stuff.

Here is an example of a 3-pin chasing rope light controller from the same place: Chasing rope light Deluxe controller 3 wire rope lights

Again, most of these chaser controllers seem rather generic and another quick google search can return many of these simple (stand-alone) 3-pin chasing rope light controllers (again, seemingly all interchangeable with vendors etc).

All I'm asking/looking for is one of these 3-pin chaser controllers that is DMX controllable. So, rather than a box with on/off, and a dial for pattern and a dial for speed, how about a box with DMX in/out and then 3 channels: intensity, pattern and speed? These are some parameters I'd love to be able to build into ques from my board using a few channels of DMX. I understand about splitting circuits on the rope and wiring up manually, but I'd really just like the simplicity of an all-in-one box that I can control from my board.

Thanks again for anything and sorry if this has gotten too confusing.

~S

 

[porkchop]

Ok this is what I thought you where talking about. By three wire rope light you mean 2 channel common neutral rope light. And I just wrote a long paragraph about how to make a shoebox dimmer into a chase unit before I read the part where you said you knew how to do that already. Sadly, no I've never heard of anything like that. If you want me to expand on turning a shoebox dimmer into what you need let me know, but it sounds like that's not what you're after.

 

[scrogers]

Thanks for the post. Yeah, I had looked at some cheap stand-alone shoebox/DJ dimmers, some of which even have a built-in chase function. That said, all the ones I've seen that support DMX only allow for DMX control of the 4 dimmers and not control of any of the built-in programs such as chase etc. Those "features" all only seem to work when using these cheap DJ dimmers in a standalone mode rather than DMX input.

Even still, I can do the same thing with my built-in dimmers and wouldn't need a another dimming unit to do it. I guess, from what I'm seeing, the simple little "all-in-one" DMX controllable chaser controller solution just doesn't exist. I posted feeling like this is a product that would be useful to many which was why I couldn't believe I couldn't find one, but I guess people just use the standalone controllers for rope light, or build the sequences within the board and split out the circuits.

Thanks for the input.

~S

 

[porkchop]

Yah pretty much, I've worked on shows that have up to 1/2 a mile of the crap running all over the place and it's all either controlled /directly from the console or by one of the pre-set standalone controllers.

 

[JChenault]

Ok this is what I thought you where talking about. By three wire rope light you mean 2 channel common neutral rope light. And I just wrote a long paragraph about how to make a shoebox dimmer into a chase unit before I read the part where you said you knew how to do that already. Sadly, no I've never heard of anything like that. If you want me to expand on turning a shoebox dimmer into what you need let me know, but it sounds like that's not what you're after.

Porkchop

If you would expand on this I would appreciate it. Im looking for suggestions as to the best way to attach ( say on a 4 ckt 5 wire rope light ) the four connectors ( let's assume pin plugs )

What I am considering is taking the rope light and carefully stripping it back exposing the 5 wires. Put some heat shrink around each wire , add a bit of electrical tape, put it in a handy box with strain relief, attach four cables to my rope light leads, etc. ( and of course being careful about my common neutral )

Is there a better way? Am I missingg something obvious?

 

[porkchop]

I swear we used Novelty Lights rope light and accessories, but I can't find anything more than 2 channel on their webpage. It might be worth a call to them to see if they have 4 channel accessories that aren't listed on the website.

Regardless we used tails similar with what is pictured here. Basically you stab the pins of the connector into the conductors of the rope light and the connector housing does all your strain relief and retention on the rope. After that you just connect your 5 wire tail to the housing and your wired. We cut off the edison and soldered on an Amphenol EP6 so we had individual control of the channels then plugged those into junction boxes where we did all the distribution back to the dimmer rack. It was a fiddly system, but considering the abuse it took it was pretty robust.

Additional thoughts if you want to do this:

• Buy extra rope light, trim the conductors very neatly before stabbing the pins in, and take your time. it's not easy to get all 4 channels.
  
• Keep your face away from the connection the first time you power it on after making the connection. This seems obvious, but I've seen crossed pins blow up in the face of every person who did a decent amount of rope light work (including me).
• We used an EP6 because they where rated for 200VAC @ 20A. That might be a bit heavy duty for most applications, but the tails we got where 12'ish AWG so soldering it into something like an XLR would be a real pain (also I don't think XLR's are rated for 120AC).

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Note, of course, that 3w/2ch rope isn't really "chasing"; it just rocks back and forth, which becomes more obvious the slower you run it.

I wonder if Doug Fleenor makes something that would do this.

Depending on your board, of course, *it* might be able to do the chase part...

 

[porkchop]

Note, of course, that 3w/2ch rope isn't really "chasing"; it just rocks back and forth, which becomes more obvious the slower you run it.

I wonder if Doug Fleenor makes something that would do this.

Depending on your board, of course, *it* might be able to do the chase part...

Hence using 4ch/5wr rope light.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

Hence using 4ch/5wr rope light.

Well, sure, but that's not what the OP asked about.

 

[porkchop]

Well, sure, but that's not what the OP asked about.

OP was in 2012, I was responding to JChenault's question from Tuesday.