DMX help
- Thread starterShawncfer
- Start date
soundlight
Well-Known Member
I'm a visual learner and teacher, so I've gotten good at making charts like this really quick. Didn't help that my computer randomly decided to hate me halfway through. It's back to normal now, though.
Attached.
Attached.
But I also wanna make sure, if I have moving lights and a color scroller and gobo rotator and the rotator and scroller bothe need power generator, would it hurt if I ran the cable through the power supply, to the rotator and scroller, then to the moving lights beforeReturning to the power supply or is it bad if the power supply runs through the moving lights? Besides the fact that its a four pin vs five pin?
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soundlight
Well-Known Member
It would kill the DMX chips in the moving lights. DMX and Scroller lines are not interchangeable. Scroller power supplies can ONLY be used with devices that require them. Such devices include scrollers, some DMX rotators, some DMX irises, the Rosco Icue mirror assembly, and several other devices I'm sure.
Hey so ice got anothe couple questions non dmx related. I just saw a play and they had thee things that caught my eye. Number one, they had a source four that had a baby blue gel and a small circle in the middle that was purple. It looked like it was taped on to the blue gel. I'm guessing they do that to create a purple circle with a baby blue surrounding but did they tape it on over it or how did they do that. Second and third questions, I saw two different source four lights and one had like a cylinder at the end of the barell to make the barell longer, what does that do? and the other source for had a mini scoop looking thing attatched to the barell. I know it changes the shape or something of the lights, but what do they both do to the lights?
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Oh dude your PDF was fantastic.
It makes perfect sense!
Now what about gobo movers?
After the DMX cable comes out of the last intelegent, does it run to the gobo movers? and then another cable comes out of the AC power distro thingy and run into each one of the gobo movers? and also, when the power runs from the power distro, is there an individual cable from it to each intelegent? or is it daisy changed or what?
It makes perfect sense!
Now what about gobo movers?
After the DMX cable comes out of the last intelegent, does it run to the gobo movers? and then another cable comes out of the AC power distro thingy and run into each one of the gobo movers? and also, when the power runs from the power distro, is there an individual cable from it to each intelegent? or is it daisy changed or what?
soundlight
Well-Known Member
There are three types of "gobo movers" in the frame of reference that we're talking about here. The first type are the kind (such as the Apollo Smart Move DMX) that use the same power supplies as scrollers, so they're essentially hooked up the same as a scroller with the same kind of power supply, and can even be run off the same power supply as scrollers if the total power draw is under the power limit of the power supply.
The second type is those that take DMX directly. These have an external power supply (wall-wart transformer) and have a 5-pin DMX input and DMX output, just like a moving light, so these would fall in the situation you're talking about where you take the DMX out of the last moving light in to the DMX in of the first "gobo mover"/gobo rotator.
The third type actually just plugs in to the wall and has a variable speed dial on top that you set ahead of time, or a variable voltage power supply that allows you to set the voltage to change the speed. Some rotators of this type are also designed to be "dimmed" in order to change the speed.
Power for movers: Power is not daisy chained unless it's low power LED fixtures of certain types or special fixtures that have Powercon in and out connectors. Usually there is a single cable run to each mover or two (sometimes you can run two movers off of a single circuit with a twofer or similar), and the multiple power cords are often run independently if the fixtures are spread around, or you run a special multicable (socapex with a breakin and breakout) in order to get six circuits to the same place and power a bunch of moving lights.
Just wanted to make sure these two questions didn't slip through the cracks.
The first source four you were looking at probably had a top hat on it. These are essentially aluminum or steel tubes fitted with a plate on one end that slides into the accessory slot or the gel frame slot on the front of a Source Four (or other ERS). They are coated with a matte finish on the inside, either black matte paint or black felt. Top hats serve to reduce flare from lights - when you look at the output end of an energized ERS, you see the illuminated lens/barrel/gel of the instrument even if the instrument isn't pointed directed at you. The top hat masks this illumination, and to some degree helps mitigate spill - stray light outside the primary beam of the instrument.
Alternatively, the instrument may have had a color extender on it. Like a top hat, a color extender fits into the accessory slot on the front of an ERS, but has its own gel slot on the opposite end. This allows delicate (or especially saturated) color media to be placed farther from the lamp of the light, protecting it from heat and preventing it from fading too quickly.
The second source four probably had a half hat on it. Similar to a top hat, but it has only half a cylinder projecting out from the instrument instead of a full one, rather like the "scoop" shape you describe.
Shawncfer said:
Scrims can be used for many things! The glossary article hits many of them pretty well. When front lit, a scrim is almost opaque; when back lit, it becomes almost transparent. This can be used as a special effect for a "reveal" moment, as a means of hiding part of the stage to affect a scene change, as drop that disappears without needing to fly it, as a means of giving a cyc "depth"... even, as a pinch, as a projection screen! All kinds of good things.
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