ETC EXPRESS DMX SET UP.

[reagansuch]

Hello everyone! I am a fairly new technical director with no previous knowledge of the theater I’m working in, or the equipment they have. I have two lighting trees with four Mega TRIPAR Profile Plus dimmers each. I’m trying to connect them by DMX cables to an ETC Express Board. The Mega TRIPAR lights come with the option of channel 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10, do these channel numbers correspond to the channels on the board? When the lights are plugged in via DMX cable to the board there are 10 dimmers, but when I set them to a channel and then the channel to the sub master, nothing happens! Does this mean the lighting trees are not properly connected to the board? What are the “dimmers” on the board referring to if not the lighting tree dimmers when plugged in? All in all, I guess my question is how do I make sure the lighting trees and board are really connected and corresponding?
Any information would be greatly appreciated, this is the first time I’ve had to fully set up a board. Thank you!!

 

[Mac Hosehead]

The Mega TRIPAR lights come with the option of channel 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10

This refers to the number of DMX addresses used by the fixture. There is a starting address for each light so if it is set to d041 and uses 10 channels then it will respond to DMX 41 - 50.

do these channel numbers correspond to the channels on the board?

No. Each channel on the board is assigned to control none, one, or more DMX addresses through the patch. If your patch is cleared then you will get output but no levels. If all DMX addresses are assigned to one channel on the board then you will probably see some output from the PARS when brought up. I assume a 1 to 1 patch would work best.

All in all, I guess my question is how do I make sure the lighting trees and board are really connected and corresponding?

Really, if everything is setup properly then control shouldn't be tough. Keep in mind that expanded channels for a fixture usually include an intensity master. So to get blue from the PAR, both blue and master have to be up.

 

[Amiers]

That poor express. All that tape, the shame. I would sit down with whoever is still there and ask for a rundown of all things lighting before you dump the patch and start fresh. This is a basic board and as a TD you should have the basic knowledge of all thing Audio Video and Lighting.
If nobody can help you then save the show to a floppy and revert the patch back to 1 to 1 and set your lights address spaced in whatever mode you want to use them in based on the DMX chart in the fixture manual. The DMX chart will also tell you what each channel does. Because you have an Express 250 you will have to hand program in your values then record to whatever you want cue or sub.
If all of this sounds like gibberish I would say hire a freelance L1 for a day have them set it up for you.

 

[Lafalot]

There are still Express videos available to watch on YouTube -

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies

Where are you located in NY? A local theatrical dealer or stagehand from a local theater may be willing to drop in and help.

 

[almorton]

Is your grandmaster set at 0 (looks like it from the screen)? That's going to stop any output at all.

 

[jayvee]

Is your grandmaster set at 0 (looks like it from the screen)? That's going to stop any output at all.

I definitely read "Is your grandmother set at 0"

 

[derekleffew]

Ideally, once one has chosen the desired fixture mode (4, 5, 6, 7, 9, or 10 channel), one would build a fixture profile on the Express or Express Offline. Hope you still have a PC with a working floppy drive. One would then refer to the fixtures as Fixture 1, Fixture 2, etc.

If you are not going to do that, I'd suggest sticking with 4-channel mode (RGB,UV). Reds will be board channels 1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29. You'd want to make that a group. Continue with Greens 2,6,10,14 etc, Blues, and UVs.

The Collaborative Article https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/programming-moving-lights-on-an-etc-express-ion.13796/ may be helpful.

 

[seanandkate]

The Express is pretty LED / "multi DMX channel" hostile just because of its age. If you have spare faders, I would definitely use one fader per DMX channel to control your LED lights. If you're low on faders by the time you consider your conventional lighting, you can use higher channels that you access through the keypad. It will just take you a little longer to get the look that you want. If you want to simplify programming, use the lowest channel mode on the LEDs that you can get way with (the manual can help you determine how many control parameters you actually need) and if you are always going to have some or all of them doing the same thing all the time, you can give those instruments the same DMX address to simplify things by reducing your channel count.