Vintage DMX Colortran conversion to analog dimmers

Bcoole

New Member
Hello everyone. My name is Brian and I'm a technical director at a high school with an older than dinosaurs spaghetti patch lighting system. We recently picked up a Colortran Compact Elite digital board with remotes and we have analog dimmers. What kind of converter would I need for this system as I believe it may have been left behind after we bought the board at this shutdown sale of a small theater. Any help is appreciated!!!
 
Hello everyone. My name is Brian and I'm a technical director at a high school with an older than dinosaurs spaghetti patch lighting system. We recently picked up a Colortran Compact Elite digital board with remotes and we have analog dimmers. What kind of converter would I need for this system as I believe it may have been left behind after we bought the board at this shutdown sale of a small theater. Any help is appreciated!!!
@Bcoole In addition to DFD, Doug Fleenor Designs, there is also Shaun Johnson at Johnson Systems in Calgary, Alberta, not to be confused with Johnson Controls, a totally different company.
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.
 
Not nearly enough information to give you a good answer. Can you take a picture of the board and the connectors on the rear panel? Also pictures of the dimmers and any connectors that might be visible or the jack the old control console plugs into to try to figure out what the analog dimmer control voltage is.. Are you sure the Colortran is DMX? I've never heard of the Colortran Compact Elite so would be interested in seeing it.
 
Thanx people.. I will look into the two companies mentioned.. we are also considering other options.
Amiers...I so get the joke.. when I started researching this thing.. it kept coming up as vintage..I say FOOOEY.
but i gotta try for the kids...LOL
 
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The Compact Elite looks like part of Colortran's Prestige series.
Well they certainly re-used the tooling from the Prestige3000 face panel.

@Bcoole , be thankful it's not one of these:
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Now, post a picture of the dimmer rack, and we'll get you sorted. The challenge is always the analog output connectors, as virtually no installed system uses the DB-25 or Centronics 36 connector(s) found on the larger DMX-analog protocol converter s. Many didn't use any connectors at all. One wire per dimmer, plus a number of neutral/grounds, ran from the analog console to the dimmer rack. But there may be barrier strips at either end to jack into.

How many dimmers are we talking, anyway? Almost certainly less than 96, so one fine option: DFD DMX96ANL.
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Pathway Connectivity and Northlight Systems are viable also.
 
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I'm going to guess that the console is fairly useless without at least one monochrome, 9-pin monitor. That may cost more than the console is worth. Then, I suggest testing the console with some known to be functional DMX dimmers before spending any more money to interface with your dimmers.
 
I'm going to guess that the console is fairly useless without at least one monochrome, 9-pin monitor. That may cost more than the console is worth. Then, I suggest testing the console with some known to be functional DMX dimmers before spending any more money to interface with your dimmers.

On Dec. 9 2015 I posted a lengthy article about a 9-pin MDA/CGA to VGA converter that should work on this. Can't seem to find it now.
 
Can't seem to find it now.
UR not loking very godd.
Please forgive the lengthly post, but I’m excited to have finally found time to test a GBS-8219 MDA/CGA/RGB to VGA converter box, which in theory would allow the use of a standard VGA monitor with many of the “old school” memory consoles with 9-pin video displays from the late 1980’s to the mid-1990’s such as the GAM Access, Rosco-ET Eclipse, NSI Melange, and ETC Vision and Microvision.
The converter cost $155 plus shipping and was obtained from:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/XVGA-box-MDA-RGB-CGA-EGA-to-VGA-industrial-video-Converter-/171238250695
They ship very promptly.
The instruction manual proved to be somewhat cryptic, so experimentation was necessary. Consoles I tested the unit with were GAM Access and NSI Melange which output a MDA signal, and an ETC Microvsion FX which outputs a CGA-type signal.
First up was trying to get a display on the VGA monitor from an NSI Melange MDA output.
A cable with a molded DB-9 male on one end and bare wire on the other was supplied with the converter. A loose DB-9 male and female were also supplied, but without hoods. If you still have a RadioShack, the hood is stock number 276-1513.
Difficulty getting the MDA to work was encountered with the supplied cable because pins 6 and 7 were tied together inside the molded DB-9 end, which meant that the pin 6 Intensity and pin 7 Video signals were shorted to each other producing an unusable display. Twisting off pin 6 fixed that problem.
The converter itself has an on-screen menu which customizes the unit. Looking at the attached photos, the important choices are RGB (A) format, separate H &V sync, 75 ohm impedance, and progressive scanning. In theory pin 7 should carry the video signal, but the converter manual indicated that pins 6 and 7 were not hooked up inside the converter. By playing with different combinations of connecting the molded plug’s pin 7 Video wire to pin 3 (Red), pin 4 (Green), and pin 5 (Blue) of the male DB-9 you’re putting on the bare end, you can create the color text you desire on a black background. I tied the pin 7 wire to pin 4 (Green) for the classic “green screen” look. See the MDA cable wiring diagram for details.
The same cable worked fine using a GAM Access console.
The resulting display is sharp and very usable, but not perfect. Some of the text has slight imperfections, and there is a little what I would call “jittering” or slight pulsing of certain graphics lines. You can see some of this in the photos. But hey, for a reasonable price I’ve got a nice lightweight flat panel monitor for my 25-year old memory consoles!
Getting a display on the VGA monitor from an ETC Microvision FX’s CGA-type output was pretty straight forward and the results were similar. See the CGA cable wiring diagram for the details. Have fun!
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The other point on this board to keep an eye on - assuming you can get an RGB (EGA/CGA) monitor that works, and you'll need that, from what I remember this series of boards when reset default to CMX as the output as DMX is an optional choice so if everything else fires up be sure to verify that you are actually outputting DMX on those ports.
 
The other point on this board to keep an eye on - assuming you can get an RGB (EGA/CGA) monitor that works, and you'll need that, from what I remember this series of boards when reset default to CMX as the output as DMX is an optional choice so if everything else fires up be sure to verify that you are actually outputting DMX on those ports.

Yes colortan consoles from this era certainly default to CMX. If you can't find the manual online (really do try the website) you can easily check in the settings menu.

Im interested if you can scrounge up a converter box still. I looked into that a while ago and had no luck, however did not have the mentioned link. Could make life easier with boards such as these, including a few Lightboard Ms I know. Not that I'd want to spend over $250 to get that Lightboard M back up. I got them a Strand 300 a few years back (for $100), that while the keys are no fun it works quite well enough for them.
 

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