Express & Nomad Splitter

[carsonld]

So question... Im working in a concert venue and we usually run about 50 pars for a show. When doing so, we use the etc express as our board. I am looking a personally purchasing a ETC nomad. If I do this I would like to start using that rather than the express. But I would want the express as a back up. The sustem has a five pin cable that goes to a splitter that then splits into our dimmer rack, upstage movers, and midstage movers. Usually the movers arent on. Can I set up a splitter to split the dmx so it can go into the express and nomad? If I can, when I turn channel 1 on the express does channel 1 come on the nomad?

 

[BobHealey]

DMX is effectively a single source -> many destinations protocol (Let's leave RDM out of this for the moment). Splitters operate by replicating whatever they see in their input ports to their outputs. You can't back feed a splitter to turn it in to a combiner. If you want multiple DMX sources active, there are at least 2 ways to do it. One method is purchase an active combiner that takes both data streams and recreates a single data stream via priority rules. The second, more flexible, and probably cheaper way, is to convert the DMX to ACN off the Express, take the ACN off the Nomad, and let the ACN->DMX gateway figure out the rules of priority when both sources are active. Having two active sources is often a recipe for chaos, since HTP and priorities sometimes lead to very unexpected results in things not turning on when they should or not turning off because the wrong console has priority or is at a higher level than anticipated.

 

[Amiers]

Short answer no. Whichever console you use will take priority over the other. So Nomad ch 1 FL won't register on the Expression and visa versa.

You could Nomad into the Express and control the Express from the Nomad via DMX in.

 

[carsonld]

That's what I was afraid of. I was hoping that maybe I didn't know enough about DMX and there was a way D:

Would I be able to use the express as a "fader wing"?

Short answer no. Whichever console you use will take priority over the other. So Nomad ch 1 FL won't register on the Expression and visa versa.

You could Nomad into the Express and control the Express from the Nomad via DMX in.

I'm also not to sure what you're saying.

 

[Amiers]

https://www.controlbooth.com/threads/expression-3-and-smartfade-via-dmx-in.11857/

This thread has a bit more detail. About the DMX in and out for the Expression.

My theory would be Nomad in DMX IN on the Expression and the Expression Out to Dimmers. The Nomad could send signal into the Expression for 1 universe as stated in the thread linked. Any extra commands you would want to do outside U1 you would have to use just the Expression.

https://www.etcconnect.com/uploaded...sion 3 Lighting Control System v.3.1 RevA.pdf

Refer to the manual for exact setup as I haven't done this so I don't know the setup off the top of my head.

Tldr: Think as your Nomad as a glorified RFU with this setup.

 

[Dionysus]

Honestly, Id just unplug nomad and plug in the express. The KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) rule applies much more greatly when you don't derive any real world benefit from having both consoles running at once.

As mentioned before, stuff is much more likely to go wrong or work unpredictably when you needlessly over complicate something. Plus it literally takes 10 seconds to unplug the cable from the Nomad output and into the express.

 

[MRW Lights]

Honestly, Id just unplug nomad and plug in the express. The KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) rule applies much more greatly when you don't derive any real world benefit from having both consoles running at once.

As mentioned before, stuff is much more likely to go wrong or work unpredictably when you needlessly over complicate something. Plus it literally takes 10 seconds to unplug the cable from the Nomad output and into the express.

I would give this plan the +1. The only time I hook up two consoles together is if they are exact mirrors and it's show critical that they continue to operate, but I can also say I've really only done that on tours and it's really a matter of convenience. We'll use one console on stage for focus and then have the show console FOH. We leave the console on stage down the line running as a slave console, but I can't honestly think of a time that we had such a catastrophic failure that we actually needed it...

If you were going to do it, I would run the same software, the same version and then still use a customized KVM to direct the data flow. The less points of collision and failure the less problems you're likely to have.