Controlling LEDs with ancient board?

We've booked a show into our black box space that would benefit from some LEDs. I can borrow some ETC D22s and D40s from our mainstage, but the only board available is a venerable ETC Smartfade. I've never used LEDs with a board like this before, but I would wager it can be done by manipulating individual channels in the profile, yes? Any tips?
 
For the smart fade, program the show using the offline editor. It's doable, but tedious by manipulating the individual channels.

OR buy a USB to DMX adapter and use a program such as Chamsys MagicQ
 
This
is a venerable ETC Smartfade.
Along with the thread title, "Controlling LEDs with ancient board"--
The eight year-old SmartFade IS NOT ancient.

(And this may be the one and only time I defend the SmartFade family.)

If I can program 14 moving lights (and a volcano) on an Expression I, you can run a few LEDs on a SmartFade non-FX.
 
This
Along with the thread title, "Controlling LEDs with ancient board"--
The eight year-old SmartFade IS NOT ancient.

(And this may be the one and only time I defend the SmartFade family.)

If I can program 14 moving lights (and a volcano) on an Expression I, you can run a few LEDs on a SmartFade non-FX.

"Ancient" might not be right, but then I have actually never seen the Smartfade, we would be borrowing it. It was described to me as a "two-scene preset board that has memory but isn't compatible with external monitors, the only display is a tiny LCD screen". So I made an assumption regarding its age. Anyway, I doubt this board was ever intended to deal with non-intensity parameters, so my question remains legit, I think. As a footnote, the board that actually *lives* in that studio space is circa 1984 and is pre-dmx, which is why we will not be using it for this show.
 
Smartfade can do it. Read the manual and then come ask questions.
 
This
Along with the thread title, "Controlling LEDs with ancient board"--
The eight year-old SmartFade IS NOT ancient.

(And this may be the one and only time I defend the SmartFade family.)

If I can program 14 moving lights (and a volcano) on an Expression I, you can run a few LEDs on a SmartFade non-FX.

This. A thousand times this.
I also program LED on a Smartfade ML quite a bit. Depending on if you're on a Smartfade or Smartfade ML will change how you want to approach it.
 
What's older, though still not ancient as far as im concerned, is a first generation GrandMA.

Ancient would be an MX-48/96.

Really quite fun (though highly impractical) to run a moving head on.
 

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