but enough excuses... how do i know, for sure, that I have
DMX? i'm not even sure what it is! i really don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on something that ends up not working...
I'll go as simple as I know ... first up,
DMX is the
protocol or language that your
console talks to your
dimmer (and/or intelligent fixtures) with. Each
dimmer channel will used one
DMX channel. So if you have a 24
channel console, you can effectively control 24 dimmers. Intelligent fixtures use 1
DMX channel for each of their attributes (e.g. a moving mirror
fixture would use 1
channel for each of the Pan, Tilt, Colour,
Shutter,
Gobo, Focus functions it has ... this example would use 6
DMX channels). So with a 24
channel console, you could control 4 of these mirrors separately. First
fixture starts at
DMX address 1, second starts at 7 and so on and so on. More about this is discussed in other threads.
Now, from what I can gather, at the moment you control your Source 4s with your
Express console. At the back of the
console will be a cable that runs from the
console to your
dimmer rack (presumable where your Source 4's are being powered from). The cable will
plug into your
dimmer rack via the
DMX In
socket (most likely a 5 pin male
socket). Normally, next to or underneath this male
socket will be a female
socket labelled
DMX Out/Loop (or similar). From this
DMX Out/Loop
socket, you can run your
DMX cable to your first
DMX fixture (or rotator in this instance). You assign the
DMX address (or starting
channel) on the
fixture/rotator and then control it using the corresponding channels back at the
console (make sense). Note though that if your
DMX loops passes through the
dimmer (as above), any
dimmer channels that correspond to the
DMX channels you are using on the fixtures will also be activated - so when you want to change
gobo rotate speed, you may also
fade up one of your Source 4's. Easy way around it is to start your
DMX addressing on the rotators one
channel higher than the number of dimmers you have (e.g. if you have 12 dimmers, start your first
DMX address at 13). There is more about
DMX addressing in other threads on this forum too.
Does any of that help??