Anyone ever used Obey 40

Cineruss

Active Member
Someone i am working with has a small theater that has an Obey 4 led lighting console and a whole bunch of LED pars. I am wondering if anyone has had success in using these in a theater setting and how ro use them without daisy chaining.
 
The Obey are primarily DJ lighting controllers. We had one that failed in its primary function as door stop - it didn't weigh enough. A DMX dongle attached to a recycled laptop running the free lighting software of your choice would be far, far better for theater.

Good luck with your project.
 
The Obey are primarily DJ lighting controllers. We had one that failed in its primary function as door stop - it didn't weigh enough. A DMX dongle attached to a recycled laptop running the free lighting software of your choice would be far, far better for theater.

Good luck with your project.

Yea..definitely DJ. I feel.like i am on a mission from God. A husband wife team that own a small theater and his wife aent him to getl lights and he comes back with dj lighting
Now i have to help him figure out how to use this with his current lekos and an etc board.
 
Yea..definitely DJ. I feel like i am on a mission from God. A husband wife team own a small theater and his wife sent him to get lights and he comes back with dj lighting
Now i have to help him figure out how to use this with his current lekos and an etc board.
@Cineruss Possibly you could send them to purgatory (my Catholic friends tried to explain it to me once) and start over afresh?
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard
 
Ignore the Obey, and daisy chain the LED pars off the end of the DMX cable from the ETC -- SmartFade? -- and then program them like that.

They'll chew up channels on a Smartfade, but on newer ETCs (ones that actually have fixture profiles), you should be ok.

Do you have any references to this? I really do want to trash the Obey and just use the pars. The etc board is slightly old though
 
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Do you have any references to this? I really do want to trash the Obey and just use the pars. The etc board is slightly old though
It would help the conversation if you would tell us the model of the ETC board. or better yet, a photo. "Old" has very little to do with the equation other than what your channel count requirements are.
What is old to you may not be to me.... is 5 years old or is 30?
Again, the specifics are important. What is a "whole bunch" of LED PARs....10, 50, 100? How many channels does one of these PARs require to function? Just trying to get a better picture of your situation.
 
It would help the conversation if you would tell us the model of the ETC board. or better yet, a photo. "Old" has very little to do with the equation other than what your channel count requirements are.
What is old to you may not be to me.... is 5 years old or is 30?
Again, the specifics are important. What is a "whole bunch" of LED PARs....10, 50, 100? How many channels does one of these PARs require to function? Just trying to get a better picture of your situation.

Yes it would and my apologies..it is an ETC Express 250 and he has around 20 led pars some are Elation Eled tripar 56 and Mega par profile plus instruments. The place has very little electrical for running cables and he is currently running the etc console through 2 Leprecan dimmers that currently connect 6 ellipisoidals that work just fine. I am just thinking about how to integrate these led pars with the etc conaole and bypass that Obey 40 unit. Of course i guess i would lose the color changing properties if i was to run it through a board. But running the Obey unit is going to be a lot of cable runs as well that i want to remove.
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My quick research shows the Elation ELED Tri-PAR can use either 4 or 7 channels each and the Profile Plus either 4/5/6/9/10 channels each. So 20 fixtures at 4 channels each would only use up 80 of your 250 channels.
For example you could set each fixture to 4-channel mode, then program a starting address (on the fixture) by adding 4 each time: set fixture 1 @ 001, fixture 2 @ 005, fixture 3 @ 009, etc.
Then patch them into the Express console as you would 4 individual dimmers: channel 1 (DMX001)=Red/chan2 (DMX002)=green, etc.
This would be the most basic way to do it until you understand how everything works. Depending on how flexible you need to be, several fixtures could be addressed the same and would operate identically.
I believe the Express 250 has a fixture profile "library" where you could find a generic 4-channel fixture and it would make it easier to patch and operate, but just remember things will not be as easy as using a more modern console but it certainly can be done as I've operated moving lights with an Express 48/96 for simple shows from the cue list (many years ago).

As @TimMc says, things would go far easier with a DMX dongle/laptop and more modern software, but if the Express is what you have, it's really not that difficult once you wrap your head around it!
 
My quick research shows the Elation ELED Tri-PAR can use either 4 or 7 channels each and the Profile Plus either 4/5/6/9/10 channels each. So 20 fixtures at 4 channels each would only use up 80 of your 250 channels.
For example you could set each fixture to 4-channel mode, then program a starting address (on the fixture) by adding 4 each time: set fixture 1 @ 001, fixture 2 @ 005, fixture 3 @ 009, etc.
Then patch them into the Express console as you would 4 individual dimmers: channel 1 (DMX001)=Red/chan2 (DMX002)=green, etc.
This would be the most basic way to do it until you understand how everything works. Depending on how flexible you need to be, several fixtures could be addressed the same and would operate identically.
I believe the Express 250 has a fixture profile "library" where you could find a generic 4-channel fixture and it would make it easier to patch and operate, but just remember things will not be as easy as using a more modern console but it certainly can be done as I've operated moving lights with an Express 48/96 for simple shows from the cue list (many years ago).

As @TimMc says, things would go far easier with a DMX dongle/laptop and more modern software, but if the Express is what you have, it's really not that difficult once you wrap your head around it!
Sounds like a. Winner. I will have to check into this and see what happens. Thanks for the research and help
 
Someone suggested earlier using a free software for controlling DMX lighting from your computer (mac preferred but can do windows). Does anyone have any suggestions. I may just bypass this Obey40 unit.
 
The express 250 is plenty of console for what you have.

While the Obey is a “newer” console in age as far as brains the “ETC” wins hands down even if it is 30 years old.

Also I don’t see a monitor hooked up to your Express. If you don’t have one get one and get yourself a manual and read up on the Express. You would be amazed what it can do.

@microstar the express has a fixture library but of fixtures from the 90s. You would have to use the OLE personality editor to make a profile and then get it on a floppy and hope the console can read it.

The best attack is to make groups of zones or areas of colors of the fixtures as you don’t get 250 faders to throw to do your color mixing of 20 fixtures.
 
The express 250 is plenty of console for what you have.

While the Obey is a “newer” console in age as far as brains the “ETC” wins hands down even if it is 30 years old.

Also I don’t see a monitor hooked up to your Express. If you don’t have one get one and get yourself a manual and read up on the Express. You would be amazed what it can do.

@microstar the express has a fixture library but of fixtures from the 90s. You would have to use the OLE personality editor to make a profile and then get it on a floppy and hope the console can read it.

The best attack is to make groups of zones or areas of colors of the fixtures as you don’t get 250 faders to throw to do your color mixing of 20 fixtures.
I love the Express 250 and would prefer to stay. With that. This Obey. 40 was not my choice but somehow have to get these par LEDS to work with the Express board a good primer on setting these channels for the new LED’s and hoping it works would be great. And I just saw this stupid little Obey 40 does not fade..only chase. If I had only been able to talk to the guy who purchased these I would but I have to somehow figure this out.
 
It’s not really a hope thing. It’s a run some dmx into them and address them and you will be up and running in a day if you work slow.
 
It’s not really a hope thing. It’s a run some dmx into them and address them and you will be up and running in a day if you work slow.
I know and thanks. It was a bad choice of words. I am just here helping some people who got together and said “let’s make a theater” and it is far from it so dealing with a lot of issues other than lights and they have very little money. For example, their spot quit on them and instead of getting it repaired (simple task) they used one of their Lekos as a spot at floor level. I could tell you more stories but that would have to be a sewerage thread.
 
I know and thanks. It was a bad choice of words. I am just here helping some people who got together and said “let’s make a theater” and it is far from it so dealing with a lot of issues other than lights and they have very little money. For example, their spot quit on them and instead of getting it repaired (simple task) they used one of their Lekos as a spot at floor level. I could tell you more stories but that would have to be a sewerage thread.

Glad that you are helping them out. Repair seems to be the bane of a lot of small theatre groups.
 
Glad that you are helping them out. Repair seems to be the bane of a lot of small theatre groups.
Yes and glad to have this forum..seems like a lot of us are dealing with something similar..lots of motivation from people to have a theater but sadly the technical suffers big time in many of them.
 
My quick research shows the Elation ELED Tri-PAR can use either 4 or 7 channels each and the Profile Plus either 4/5/6/9/10 channels each. So 20 fixtures at 4 channels each would only use up 80 of your 250 channels.
For example you could set each fixture to 4-channel mode, then program a starting address (on the fixture) by adding 4 each time: set fixture 1 @ 001, fixture 2 @ 005, fixture 3 @ 009, etc.
Then patch them into the Express console as you would 4 individual dimmers: channel 1 (DMX001)=Red/chan2 (DMX002)=green, etc.
This would be the most basic way to do it until you understand how everything works. Depending on how flexible you need to be, several fixtures could be addressed the same and would operate identically.
I believe the Express 250 has a fixture profile "library" where you could find a generic 4-channel fixture and it would make it easier to patch and operate, but just remember things will not be as easy as using a more modern console but it certainly can be done as I've operated moving lights with an Express 48/96 for simple shows from the cue list (many years ago).

As @TimMc says, things would go far easier with a DMX dongle/laptop and more modern software, but if the Express is what you have, it's really not that difficult once you wrap your head around it!

Okay, so I am getting a 5 pin to 3 pin adapter for the end of my Leprecan dimmers to extend DMX and will daisy chain LED fixtures in 4 channel mode provided the right DMX address is programmed into the fixtures. So since my ETC Express console was patched 1 to 1, I am unsure as to how to add the fixtures since I do not have the personality profile added. I am only using 6 ellipisoids right now on these dimmers. I am including a screenshot of my current patch without the added fixtures on the daisy chain. But I am totally confused on how to patch these into the console since it is set 1 to 1.
 

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Since I do not know how many channels of Leprecon dimming you have, I'll just guess and say 12. Consult the LED fixtures' instruction manuals as to how to set them to 4-channel mode. After that is done, you need to program the starting address into your first 4-channel LED fixture . That would be 13. Note you are programming the fixture, not the Express. Add 4 and program the starting address of your second fixture to 17. Continue until all fixtures are programmed. You only need to program the starting address; the fixture knows what the next 3 assignments are because you set them to 4-channel mode.
Since the Express is patched 1:1, you are done. If you bring up channels 13, 17, 21 etc., on the Express, you should have only red light. Only 14, 18, 22, etc you should have only green light.
There are better ways to do this, but this will get you operational. You can record all the red channels into a submaster, for example, and not deal with bringing up individual channels each time.
Then sit back and enjoy your LED's!
 
Working off of what Microstar posted above about addressing. If you have fixtures that are always going to be the same color and intensity you can save a lot of time down the road by giving them the same DMX address. Then they both always do the same thing. It's not the ideal situation for a big time designer, but in the community theater world it's often much better to be fast and easy than it is to have detailed control.
 

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