@Cineruss Possibly you could send them to purgatory (my Catholic friends tried to explain it to me once) and start over afresh?
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.
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.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.
Sounds like a. Winner. I will have to check into this and see what happens. Thanks for the research and helpMy 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!
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.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 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.
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.Glad that you are helping them out. Repair seems to be the bane of a lot of small theatre groups.
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!
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