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...
