Automated Fixtures New to Moving Lights - Need HELP!!

[Brian553]

Hi Everyone,

I know there are a few other posts on moving lights, but my particular question wasn't covered in a previous post. I'm hoping you guys can help me out:

I teach High School theatre and do some tech theatre work on the side. Been a tech guy since I was a kid, over 20 years. I'm getting into moving lights for the first time. I've finally got the funds to rent some fixtures for my show this spring at the high school. I'm looking at getting 3 Martin Mac 700 profiles.

I'm having an issue getting anything programmed to my light board. I am the unfortunate owner of a Lehigh Millenium. I know its not a fantastic board, but I'm stuck with it for now.
Here's my set up:

72 dimmers installed
Millenium has DMX A & B, each capable of 512 DMX.
The Millenium is a 48/96, with "125 memory channel" capability.

If I understand the manual correctly,
I should be able to have my standard desk channels patched to DMX A. I've got a 1-1 patch right now. The board is supposedly moving light capable, creating moving light patches on "virtual channels".
I plan to use the virtual channel patches to control 6 scrollers and 3 Mac 700's. So in theory, we're looking at almost 100 channels for this equipment.
IN THEORY,
Shouldn't I be able to patch DMX A for channels 1-125 (the "memory channels" or actual, physical channels) and then DMX B for channels 126-512? Then set the addresses on the equpiment starting at 126 and above for the scrollers and moving lights?

This is exactly what I've been doing. The equipment has the LED signal indicator light lit, but I absolutely cannot control this equipment at all. Can't even get the scrollers to move. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.
Should both DMX A and B start at channel 1 in the patch profile? I've tried it this way too - no good.
Should DMX A start at 1 and DMX B start at 126? Again, no go.

The manual claims that the virtual moving light channels add up to "another 512 virtual channels" beyond the capability of the memory channels.

A few other details -
In the patch attributes, I've tried several different things. The board defaults to the following:
Number of Channels - 125
Number of Dimmers - 1024
I've stuck with this, I've also tried channels - 125 and dimmers - 72.
I've also tried channels - 72 and dimmers - 72.
I've also tried channels - 72 and dimmers -512.

None of this works.
Anyone have ANY sort of idea about these virtual channels and how to get them to work? I know the Millennium has a lot in common with ETC boards, I've worked a good bit on both and they are similar. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

[NickVon]

I'm no expert on patching such systems but i have some experience. I'm not familiar with your console. However on some consoles you need to enable your DMX output 2, or B in your case. I think the ETC express, for instance, by default mirror's DMX 1 and 2 until told not to do so.

Also to keep things simple as far as "custom settings" keep your DMX/output assignments default and try setting your MAC's to 512 + find out how many control channels they use and still set them with enough space between them. so if they are 16 channel fixtures set one to 512, the next to 528, etc. Even though it though your console does virtual channels (sounds much like how the the ETC Eos line handles movers) make sure the are addressed at the fixture inappropriately.

Someone with more knowledge of yoru console or fixtures hopefully will chime in.

Looking at at it again.... Don't let the virtual channels confuse you i think your console will still look at each "channel" of the Mac and want a separate DMX DIMMER for it. I think the virtual channels are just for ease of programming and soft-patching. I'd set A to 1-511, 2-512-1024 Start your MAC's at 512 and go from there.

 

[kevinrichie]

Ok - So I found what I could on the Millenium console - not much available online.

Here's what I can tell you from the information you've given, you have the 48/96 125 model which means you can have the faders work as 96 individual channels or as a 2 scene preset using 48 channels in each scene.

As for the channel total capacity, you have 125... (typically) that's it. You have 2 universes of DMX totaling 1024 addresses, but you have to patch them into channels 1 through 125. There may be a function of your console that will allow you to patch a "fixture" as 1 channel but use 40 channels of control... this would be like a moving light that has 40 paramaters... I could not find the actual manual to confirm or deny this. SO... there are a few things you can do to make this work for you.

You have 72 dimmers - patch those to 1-72 this will leave you 53 channels open

your 3 moving lights can be addressed separately, but map some of their paramaters to the same channels. for example if you're always going to want their color to be the same or always in the same gobo, patch all 3 fixtures to the same channel for those attributes. Then patch the parameters of pan and tilt separately so you can move each light independently. Depending on your skills, you could also just put your lights in "Basic Mode" and skip the "fine" parameters. This will save you some channels.

You would accomplish this by patching each channel individually instead of patching it as a fixture in the console.

-- I did locate the manual on Lehigh's website. It is a bit confusing.... but from what I can tell you are still very limited even with the "virtual channels". I believe after reading through the manual that you do only have 125 channels available to you. The virtual channel is to allow you to patch fixtures that need an outside dimer for intensity.

Good Luck,

-techietx

Hi Everyone,

I know there are a few other posts on moving lights, but my particular question wasn't covered in a previous post. I'm hoping you guys can help me out:

I teach High School theatre and do some tech theatre work on the side. Been a tech guy since I was a kid, over 20 years. I'm getting into moving lights for the first time. I've finally got the funds to rent some fixtures for my show this spring at the high school. I'm looking at getting 3 Martin Mac 700 profiles.

I'm having an issue getting anything programmed to my light board. I am the unfortunate owner of a Lehigh Millenium. I know its not a fantastic board, but I'm stuck with it for now.
Here's my set up:

72 dimmers installed
Millenium has DMX A & B, each capable of 512 DMX.
The Millenium is a 48/96, with "125 memory channel" capability.

If I understand the manual correctly,
I should be able to have my standard desk channels patched to DMX A. I've got a 1-1 patch right now. The board is supposedly moving light capable, creating moving light patches on "virtual channels".
I plan to use the virtual channel patches to control 6 scrollers and 3 Mac 700's. So in theory, we're looking at almost 100 channels for this equipment.
IN THEORY,
Shouldn't I be able to patch DMX A for channels 1-125 (the "memory channels" or actual, physical channels) and then DMX B for channels 126-512? Then set the addresses on the equpiment starting at 126 and above for the scrollers and moving lights?

This is exactly what I've been doing. The equipment has the LED signal indicator light lit, but I absolutely cannot control this equipment at all. Can't even get the scrollers to move. I can't figure out what I am doing wrong.
Should both DMX A and B start at channel 1 in the patch profile? I've tried it this way too - no good.
Should DMX A start at 1 and DMX B start at 126? Again, no go.

The manual claims that the virtual moving light channels add up to "another 512 virtual channels" beyond the capability of the memory channels.

A few other details -
In the patch attributes, I've tried several different things. The board defaults to the following:
Number of Channels - 125
Number of Dimmers - 1024
I've stuck with this, I've also tried channels - 125 and dimmers - 72.
I've also tried channels - 72 and dimmers - 72.
I've also tried channels - 72 and dimmers -512.

None of this works.
Anyone have ANY sort of idea about these virtual channels and how to get them to work? I know the Millennium has a lot in common with ETC boards, I've worked a good bit on both and they are similar. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!!!

 

[xander]

First of all, my condolences. I've never used a Lehigh board, but after looking over the manual, I am not jealous of you.

If I am understanding correctly, there are three different Millennium boards; the standard, the ML, and the XP. While it says that the standard one can do moving lights, the manual doesn't talk about them at all, while it does in the ML and XP user manuals. So, my first thing to check would be uf your console has a fixture patch at all. If you hit [Patch] S7 should be {ML Patch}. If you have that, then we can walk through actually patching your fixtures.

For what it's worth, I think you will be hitting your head against the wall trying to use these Studio Spots on this console. Personally, I would only rent 2 fixtures and then use the money to rent a better console.

Let us know if you have a ML Patch in the console and then we can help you patch your fixtures.

-Tim

 

[tk2k]

This might sound like a silly question, but do you have any room in the budget to get a proper lighting console? Even an element, or an old Express, will make this substantially easier. If you are dropping $30k on new lights without the control interface to use them properly, the functionality will be severally reduced.

 

[Brian553]

Ok - So I found what I could on the Millenium console - not much available online.

Here's what I can tell you from the information you've given, you have the 48/96 125 model which means you can have the faders work as 96 individual channels or as a 2 scene preset using 48 channels in each scene.

As for the channel total capacity, you have 125... (typically) that's it. You have 2 universes of DMX totaling 1024 addresses, but you have to patch them into channels 1 through 125. There may be a function of your console that will allow you to patch a "fixture" as 1 channel but use 40 channels of control... this would be like a moving light that has 40 paramaters... I could not find the actual manual to confirm or deny this. SO... there are a few things you can do to make this work for you.



-- I did locate the manual on Lehigh's website. It is a bit confusing.... but from what I can tell you are still very limited even with the "virtual channels". I believe after reading through the manual that you do only have 125 channels available to you. The virtual channel is to allow you to patch fixtures that need an outside dimer for intensity.

Good Luck,

-techietx

Thanks for the help TechieX.
I was afraid that I only had 125 channels at my disposal. I didn't want to believe it, but thats the only answer I could think of as well.
If I can't figure it out any further or no one else has any info, I'm going to call Lehigh on Monday. You are correct, their manual is very confusing, and not very helpful.
As far as patching similar characteristics on each light together - I don't know how I would do that. If I'm not mistaken, you essentially set the starting address on the fixture (lets say channel 80, for instance) and then the fixture uses channels 80-110 for all of its various characteristics. I need to read the info on the Mac 700's of course, so perhaps I'm incorrect.
I can also save some channels via my patch map as well. Instead of doing a 1-1 patch, I can increase that. Channel 1 could control dimmers 1,2,3, which are FOH position lights that light DSR. (Watching wattage on the fixtures of course to not overload the circuit). By doing this - which is more work up front creating the patch map - I could probably free up another 30 or more channels if I'm savvy.
Thanks again - if anyone else has any other feedback, I'd love to hear it!!

 

[chausman]

This might sound like a silly question, but do you have any room in the budget to get a proper lighting console? Even an element, or an old Express, will make this substantially easier. If you are dropping $30k on new lights without the control interface to use them properly, the functionality will be severally reduced.

The OP is not planning on buying, but renting. But your point is valid.

I agree with xander, and two fixtures with a better console will probably be more useful for you, then three fixtures with a much more difficult console to use.

 

[Brian553]

First of all, my condolences. I've never used a Lehigh board, but after looking over the manual, I am not jealous of you.

If I am understanding correctly, there are three different Millennium boards; the standard, the ML, and the XP. While it says that the standard one can do moving lights, the manual doesn't talk about them at all, while it does in the ML and XP user manuals. So, my first thing to check would be uf your console has a fixture patch at all. If you hit [Patch] S7 should be {ML Patch}. If you have that, then we can walk through actually patching your fixtures.

For what it's worth, I think you will be hitting your head against the wall trying to use these Studio Spots on this console. Personally, I would only rent 2 fixtures and then use the money to rent a better console.

Let us know if you have a ML Patch in the console and then we can help you patch your fixtures.

-Tim

Tim,

Thanks for the condolences. You're the 2nd person in 2 weeks that has said "oh.....my condolences" when I told them I was the unfortunate owner of a Lehigh!!
It is indeed a Millennium ML.
Its got a moving light patch. I've patched and unpatched a scroller and a little American DJ light that I'm testing things out with 100 times. (Into the moving light patch map, or into the above referenced "virtual channels")

I thought about maybe renting an ETC. The whole thing is budget budget budget. Also, its a learning curve since it is a high school and I have students help me with tech and light board programming. While the ETC is very similar to the Millennium, its not identical. (The older one they just discontinued - not the newer one. Thats quite different).

Unfortunately I'm stuck with the millennium for now. I'm hoping to have $5000 or more in the next year or two to replace it.
Thats what happens when a building principal makes upgrade decisions (10 yrs ago) without asking anyone who knows what they're doing - you're stuck with crap!

 

[Brian553]

The OP is not planning on buying, but renting. But your point is valid.

I agree with xander, and two fixtures with a better console will probably be more useful for you, then three fixtures with a much more difficult console to use.

Indeed. Renting the moving lights is the key. We're talking $450 or so for a week for 3 of these lights.
I didn't check into the rental price for an ETC or something similar. There's also a learning curve that I mentioned in another post. I'm pretty handy at consoles - but at my school shows I'm the Jack of All Trades: Directing, designing set, running crew, designing lights, managing the light hang, set construction, set painting, etc. My kids work their way up to the light board Op position, which is quite coveted. They train as underclassmen, and then during tech they're quite quick on the programming end of things. To throw a brand new board at them only during tech (1 or 2 week rental period) could work well, but could also have disastrous results. Its a risk!!

 

[icewolf08]

Also to keep things simple as far as "custom settings" keep your DMX/output assignments default and try setting your MAC's to 512 + find out how many control channels they use and still set them with enough space between them. so if they are 16 channel fixtures set one to 512, the next to 528, etc. Even though it though your console does virtual channels (sounds much like how the the ETC Eos line handles movers) make sure the are addressed at the fixture inappropriately.

Looking at at it again.... Don't let the virtual channels confuse you i think your console will still look at each "channel" of the Mac and want a separate DMX DIMMER for it. I think the virtual channels are just for ease of programming and soft-patching. I'd set A to 1-511, 2-512-1024 Start your MAC's at 512 and go from there.

So, let me start by saying that about 90% of this information is incorrect and not applicable to this situation or any.

You cannot set the address of any fixture to anything beyonf 1-512. So you can't set your MAC700s to 512 and 528, and so on. DMX does not work that way and your fixtures won't let you address them that way.

Also, seeing as a DMX universe is 512 channels, your A output would be 1-512 and B would be 513-1024.

So, now that we have cleared the misnomers, let's get back to the OP's issue.

You should leave the default settings for the console in place. So, your number of dimmers should be 1024 and the number of Channels should probably just be set to whatever the maximum allowable number is. In your case probably 125. If there isn't a setup page that configures the DMX A & B outputs, then it is probably safe to assume that the outputs default to A being 1-512 and B being 513-1024. However, it is important to know that these numbers are only how the console thinks of the outputs. Both outputs only send signals to devices that are addressed between 1-512.

This is a fundamental of how DMX works. Each universe outputs a data stream for 512 channels. The devices know their address and don't care what universe they are connected to. The console differentiates Universe 1 from Universe 2 by naming the address in universe 2 513-1024 by the actual data going down the line is 1-512.

So, if you have your dimmers connected to the A port of your console they will respond to channels 1-72 (assuming a 1-to-1 patch). If you connect your moving lights and scrollers to the B port, you will have to set their addresses and then patch those addresses to control channels.

As far as the actual patching goes, I am not sure what the actual patching procedure is, but you probably have to tell the console what kind of fixture it is, what it's starting address is, and what port it is patched to. Each fixture needs to have a unique address, this includes the scrollers as well. Make sure that the addresses don't overlap, so if the fixture needs multiple control channels, then make sure you leave enough room for them.

 

[chausman]

Indeed. Renting the moving lights is the key. We're talking $450 or so for a week for 3 of these lights.
I didn't check into the rental price for an ETC or something similar. There's also a learning curve that I mentioned in another post. I'm pretty handy at consoles - but at my school shows I'm the Jack of All Trades: Directing, designing set, running crew, designing lights, managing the light hang, set construction, set painting, etc. My kids work their way up to the light board Op position, which is quite coveted. They train as underclassmen, and then during tech they're quite quick on the programming end of things. To throw a brand new board at them only during tech (1 or 2 week rental period) could work well, but could also have disastrous results. Its a risk!!

Depending on the consoles available to you, your students can download the OLE and learn how the software works before you get it, and most are very intuitive to learn on. Consoles like the ETC Ion are very intuitive, and your students can probably figure them out easily. And, if it's an ETC console, there are many people who know ETC very well on here, as well as some ETC Employees as well who can help.

 

[tk2k]

So, let me start by saying that about 90% of this information is incorrect and not applicable to this situation or any.

Seconded.


To start out with, learning how to control intelligent fixtures on fader based boards can be difficult. I learned on a pair of mac 2k profile 2's off an Express144, and it was not intuitive.

I think you've gotta ask yourself why are you renting the lights. If you are renting them for educational value, and for real-world experience, I would strongly urge you to rent two, and get a proper control interface. The difference between two and three moving lights for a show is not going to be dramatic in terms of usability, or what you can create. Don't worry about the learning curve, ETC has fantastic video tutorials for their newer gear.

Again I know i'm not really addressing your core question, just thought I'd throw in my $.02 as someone who learned on rented moving lights in high school

 

[kevinrichie]

--As far as patching similar characteristics on each light together - I don't know how I would do that. If I'm not mistaken, you essentially set the starting address on the fixture (lets say channel 80, for instance) and then the fixture uses channels 80-110 for all of its various characteristics. I need to read the info on the Mac 700's of course, so perhaps I'm incorrect. --

You are correct... but for the purpose of my example, and it may not be well suited for you... but it does work, think of these addresses 80-110 as dimmers... you have 1024 dimmers (DMX addresses) available to you but only 125 channels... so lets say you have three Mac 700s addressed 80, 120, 160

looking through the manual for the Mac 700 I find that in extended mode (30ch) ch. 10 is the color wheel. I want to control all 3 fixtures color wheel on channel 75 in the millennium console... so I would patch DMX addresses 89, 129 and 169 to control channel 75.

This is exactly the same as you would do if you wanted to control say dimmers 1,2,3 with channel 1. There is no risk of overloading a channel. If you were so inclined, you could patch your entire system into 1 channel with no risk of overloading that channel... DIMMERS can be over loaded but as long as you have under the allowable amount on any given dimmer, you can control as many of those dimmers as you want with any given channel.

Console channels via patch are there to make your life as an operator easier. If you have say a row of cyc lights and want to control all the red ones with one channel or at least channels that go in order rather than by what dimmer they happen to be plugged into, that is what your patch is for.

I believe there are plenty of people on this forum who can help you understand that... I know from experience I am not a good teacher. So I hope I didn't just add to the confusion.

Thanks for the help TechieX.
I was afraid that I only had 125 channels at my disposal. I didn't want to believe it, but thats the only answer I could think of as well.
If I can't figure it out any further or no one else has any info, I'm going to call Lehigh on Monday. You are correct, their manual is very confusing, and not very helpful.
As far as patching similar characteristics on each light together - I don't know how I would do that. If I'm not mistaken, you essentially set the starting address on the fixture (lets say channel 80, for instance) and then the fixture uses channels 80-110 for all of its various characteristics. I need to read the info on the Mac 700's of course, so perhaps I'm incorrect.
I can also save some channels via my patch map as well. Instead of doing a 1-1 patch, I can increase that. Channel 1 could control dimmers 1,2,3, which are FOH position lights that light DSR. (Watching wattage on the fixtures of course to not overload the circuit). By doing this - which is more work up front creating the patch map - I could probably free up another 30 or more channels if I'm savvy.
Thanks again - if anyone else has any other feedback, I'd love to hear it!!

 

[Brian553]

-

You are correct... but for the purpose of my example, and it may not be well suited for you... but it does work, think of these addresses 80-110 as dimmers... you have 1024 dimmers (DMX addresses) available to you but only 125 channels... so lets say you have three Mac 700s addressed 80, 120, 160

looking through the manual for the Mac 700 I find that in extended mode (30ch) ch. 10 is the color wheel. I want to control all 3 fixtures color wheel on channel 75 in the millennium console... so I would patch DMX addresses 89, 129 and 169 to control channel 75.

This is exactly the same as you would do if you wanted to control say dimmers 1,2,3 with channel 1. There is no risk of overloading a channel. If you were so inclined, you could patch your entire system into 1 channel with no risk of overloading that channel... DIMMERS can be over loaded but as long as you have under the allowable amount on any given dimmer, you can control as many of those dimmers as you want with any given channel.

Console channels via patch are there to make your life as an operator easier. If you have say a row of cyc lights and want to control all the red ones with one channel or at least channels that go in order rather than by what dimmer they happen to be plugged into, that is what your patch is for.

I believe there are plenty of people on this forum who can help you understand that... I know from experience I am not a good teacher. So I hope I didn't just add to the confusion.

Ah yes.
I have patched things in the past to make my life easier.
I wasn't thinking of the moving lights quite the same way as you described. (Channel 10 in the string for the fixture is the color wheel, in our example that would easily be patched together with the other color wheels on the other 2 fixtures).
You did not add to the confusion at all, thanks for the help.
The more I think about it - the more it seems like re-patching the whole system will solve the problem.
OR,
rent another board, as many other people have suggested.

 

[xander]

Ok, so you have the ML Patch. Is that where you patched your Studio Spots? It might be easier if you set your settings back to the default. Port 1 = 1-512 and port 2 = 513-1024. Are your fixtures daisy chained out of port 2? I really don't like how this console does patching, but anyhow, if ML Patch you choose Add Fixture. Hopefully the HES SS is in the library already. Add 3 fixtures. The console automatically patched them in port 2 starting at address 1. This is stupid, but you can change it to match the addresses you chose for your fixtures using the Modify button. Choose the correct port radio button and then select the correct starting address for each. Perhaps you address them as 1 and 50 and 100. It doesn't really matter if you skip a bunch because you aren't going to be using all of your addresses anyway. The key here is matching the console patch to the address you gave the fixture.

Now, if you have done this all correctly, you should be able to control them by selecting the fixture using the S4 {Fixture}, and then you are lucky enough to have the ML version which has encoders!!

Mind you these are not the "channels" on your display that are your 125 desk channels. In this way it is very different than your ETC Express fixture patch. The moving lights only exist as fixtures or "virtual channels" as Lehigh has decided to call them. This means you are not limited in a channel (fixture) capacity, you are just limited by the number of DMX addresses you can fit into your 2 universes.

For the scrollers, I would just patch them as a desk channel. I would find that much easier to use.

Hope that helps. Come back with specific questions if something isn't going well.

-Tim

 

[xander]

Haha. Every time I post something, there have been 3-4 post since I've read the thread..

That's what I get for trying to reply while running a show

 

[Brian553]

Ok, so you have the ML Patch. Is that where you patched your Studio Spots? It might be easier if you set your settings back to the default. Port 1 = 1-512 and port 2 = 513-1024. Are your fixtures daisy chained out of port 2? I really don't like how this console does patching, but anyhow, if ML Patch you choose Add Fixture. Hopefully the HES SS is in the library already. Add 3 fixtures. The console automatically patched them in port 2 starting at address 1. This is stupid, but you can change it to match the addresses you chose for your fixtures using the Modify button. Choose the correct port radio button and then select the correct starting address for each. Perhaps you address them as 1 and 50 and 100. It doesn't really matter if you skip a bunch because you aren't going to be using all of your addresses anyway. The key here is matching the console patch to the address you gave the fixture.

Now, if you have done this all correctly, you should be able to control them by selecting the fixture using the S4 {Fixture}, and then you are lucky enough to have the ML version which has encoders!!

Mind you these are not the "channels" on your display that are your 125 desk channels. In this way it is very different than your ETC Express fixture patch. The moving lights only exist as fixtures or "virtual channels" as Lehigh has decided to call them. This means you are not limited in a channel (fixture) capacity, you are just limited by the number of DMX addresses you can fit into your 2 universes.

For the scrollers, I would just patch them as a desk channel. I would find that much easier to use.

Hope that helps. Come back with specific questions if something isn't going well.

-Tim

Tim,

In theory, this is how I ASSUMED that this would work.
I did it EXACTLY as you described. For hours. Using every possible scenario.
But it does not work that way.
Yes, I have all of the equipment that you described.
But it seems that the board does NOT send a totally separate universe through DMX Port 2. It seems to be a mirror of DMX 1.
For instance, I did indeed try patching the fixtures to channels 1, 40, 80. Port 2 radio button selected when the fixtures were patched. Appropriate matching address set on the fixture.
The fixtures appear in the "fixtures list", and I am able to change the value on the various characteristics, but nothing happens on the fixture itself.
Similarly, when I bring up DESK channel 1, 40, 80, the fixture moves. Mind you, the standard desk channels are patched to DMX port 1.
So, its as if DMX port 1 and 2 are identical, and there is no way to separate them. They are merely there for the convenience of not having to use a DMX splitter to serve both the standard desk channels serviced by the dimmers via the wall port and the scrollers and any other fixture that you may want to install. Not a separate universe, but just a mirror port. Why they named them Ports 1 and 2, we'll never know.

 

[derekleffew]

Set Number of Channels to 125.
Set Number of Dimmers to 1024.
Set DMX Out 1 to 1-512.
Set DMX Out 2 to 513-1024. [-](If you can't find this setting, let us know and we can rework the chart for you.)[/-]
EDIT: From page 13-1 of MillenniumML V2.05 and later.pdf :

Also, the fixture patch will default to Port 2 when creating a new show. This default is to simplify most applications so that conventional or desk channels are on the DMX Port 1, and all fixtures are on DMX Port 2. This is a default but the console provides the flexibility to manage the DMX stream anyway you wish.

Delete dimmers 1>1024. Patch as below. You'll have to figure out the patching of dimmers 1>72 into channels (1>50) by yourself.


Here's how I would patch and address the fixtures. I don't know the Millenium console, but suspect it is similar to an Express/ion.

The 3 MAC700s (make sure they are in "16-bit Basic Mode") are addressed as 1, 24, 47 and are on Universe#2. The scrollers are addressed 70-75, also on Universe#2.

The Millennium ML probably allows you to call up a unit by "Fixture 1" or some similar name, and then populates its encoders with the parameters, so you don't have to keep referring to my cheat sheet.

 

[xander]

Ooooh. I didn't get that from your first post. I thought you couldn't figure out how to patch them into the "virtual channels". So, this is an easy fix. One of two ways. The easiest one is to just change the Port 2 output settings to start at 513. To change the DMX port setup press [SETUP] and select "Setup/Default...” Click on the "DMX Ports" tab. Change Port 2.

The other way would be to just change the address of your fixtures to something above 125 so there are not conflicts. The console will automatically unpatch your desk channels if the fixture patch overlaps them. Stupid board...

Hope that works.

-Tim

 

[Brian553]

Ooooh. I didn't get that from your first post. I thought you couldn't figure out how to patch them into the "virtual channels". So, this is an easy fix. One of two ways. The easiest one is to just change the Port 2 output settings to start at 513. To change the DMX port setup press [SETUP] and select "Setup/Default...” Click on the "DMX Ports" tab. Change Port 2.

The other way would be to just change the address of your fixtures to something above 125 so there are not conflicts. The console will automatically unpatch your desk channels if the fixture patch overlaps them. Stupid board...

Hope that works.

-Tim

It is indeed a stupid board.

So I assume that Port 2, starting at channel 513, would essentially be
Universe 2, Channel 001??
The fixtures don't populate addresses above 512.
I may have tried this, don't remember. Its definitely on the list to try again tomorrow however! If the two DMX out ports are mirrors then essentially this might bypass the issue since the BOARD will think its turning on dimmer 513, while the FIXTURE thinks its listening to channel 001.
Thanks for the advice!