Control/Dimming Expression 3 android control?

[Galen]

Recently a touring one-man show absolutely wowed our tech staff by controlling our entire lighting system from qlab on his computer and iPhone. As he was loading out he told us we could hook an iPad to the midi in on our expression 3 and send it signals from our phones. As we are an android theatre I was wondering if anyone could give me some leads on android board control apps compatible with expression 3. ETC's proprietary remote control hardware is prohibitively expensive for our theatre. Thanks!

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[BobHealey]

MIDI in is not a full control scheme for an Express series console. MIDI only allows very basic remote control of things like the GO button on those boards. Definitely not full programming access.

 

[Galen]

Oh really? Can it at least run through dimmers for me while I'm on the cat?

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[SteveB]

You could write series of cues that have the catwalk channels coming on, then have MIDI trigger the cues.


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[Galen]

Yeah, cause that sounds fun and rewarding!

Is that all the official remote control does as well or does that plug into something other than midi?

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[Footer]

I real RFU for the express, wired or wireless, will give you full console control just like you are sitting at the console. It hooks into the RFU port on the desk.

You can also used Midi to fire sub bump buttons as another option. That being said, both options will probably take more time to get and keep working then your time is worth. If you can buy used, wired RFU's are popping up on ebay all the time for a few hundred bucks. I would avoid a used wireless RFU. There is also the focus phone option.

 

[DavidNorth]

MIDI can be used to fire Macros in the console. You can then program the Macros to increment or decrement through a dimmer check.

David

 

[Galen]

@Footer that focus phone is beautiful! Vintage ingenuity.

Anyway, looks like I got my hopes too much up regarding wireless control. I should probably just throw myself on the mercy of the board of directors to try to get a newer console

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[Repeater]

Recently a touring one-man show absolutely wowed our tech staff by controlling our entire lighting system from qlab on his computer and iPhone. As he was loading out he told us we could hook an iPad to the midi in on our expression 3 and send it signals from our phones. As we are an android theatre I was wondering if anyone could give me some leads on android board control apps compatible with expression 3. ETC's proprietary remote control hardware is prohibitively expensive for our theatre. Thanks!

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Galen, we have an Expression 3 also. This may not directly answer your question, but here I use an iPhone with LightingPad. There are similar apps available for Android. In addition to the app, you'll need a simple Wifi router, and, what we use, an Enttec ODE, which outputs the DMX. You'll also need a way to input DMX to your dimmers. We have ETC Sensor dimmers which have a second input, which is used for our wireless DMX input. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to integrate the Expression 3 into the solution. You could also use a DMX merger.

Having said that, not a day goes by that I don't thank LightingPad. Awfully handy.

Laryn

 

[Footer]

FYI... An actual Radio RFU can be had for 1200 bucks. In my world an RFU pays for itself in less than a month.

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[Galen]

@Repeater: Yeah, I'm essentially looking into the same setup using Osram's DMX Wi-Fi controller. Potentially cheap and effective!

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[DuckJordan]

FYI... An actual Radio RFU can be had for 1200 bucks. In my world an RFU pays for itself in less than a month.

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Unless its the ETC wireless remote... That thing is darn near useless...