propmonkey said:
i was looking at are
strand 300. i have a 2
dmx ports and 2 aux ports. one of each is being used for
dimmer control adn the remote. how would i hook up 2 moving mirror lights to the board.
I'm not really familiar with the
Strand 300, but in most cases you don't have to segregate movers and dimmers into different universes - you can
daisy-chain from the board to a couple
dimmer packs, then to a mover, then to a few more
dimmer packs, another mover, and so on. The control signal each will obey doesn't depend on the light's position in the
daisy-chain, but on its
address. The
address is set with switches on the light or the
dimmer pack.
In my
system, I have four movers, three 8-channel tree-mount
dimmer packs and one 4-channel
dimmer pack. I'm going from the controller's
DMX OUT to the
DMX IN of a mover at the front of
stage right, then from the mover
DMX OUT to the
DMX IN of one of the eight-channel packs, also
stage right. From the
dimmer pack DMX OUT the cable goes to two more movers and another eight-channel
dimmer pack at the rear of the
stage, centered. Then to the stage-left tree and its mover, and finally to the four-channel pack running my
portable "
footlights" on the floor at the front of the
stage. The
DMX OUT of the last device in this
daisy chain gets a
terminator (just an
XLR male
plug with a quarter-watt 120
ohm resistor soldered to pins 2 & 3).
The eight-channel tree packs are set up like a pair of four-channel packs in a common box. The
stage right pack is addressed as channels 1-4(
PAR cans with colored gels) and 17-20 (rotating moonflower
effect, Pinspot aimed at a 24"
disco ball center-stage, flame
effect perched atop the stack of speakers
stage right,
strobe). The
stage left pack is 5-8 (PARs)and 21-24 (moonflower, pinspot, flame on
stage left speakers, another
strobe). The rear center pack is 9-16 (eight pinspots pointed out over the heads of the audience at various angles). This addressing allows me to bring just the trees and my small (32
channel) board and still put on a decent show: on the small board, only channels 1-16 can be incorporated into chases, and chases are strictly bumps - not suitable for movers.
The four-channel pack (
footlights) is addressed as channels 25-28. The movers are channels 33-38 (front right), 41-46 (front left), 49-55 (rear right) and 57-63 (rear left). The big-show board is 192 channels and chases entire scenes.
You'll notice the addresses have no relationship to the order in which the lights are connected, and, indeed, I could connect them in any order without having to reprogram my scenes and chases. Connection order is a matter of convenience - how can I hook them up with the least amount of cable criss-crossing the
stage.
John