NSI Light Board and Expansion Question

[Kent]

At our church we are using a 16 channel (MC 7016) NSI light board. We use a 3 prong XLR cable from the board to our first 5600 dimmer pack. I think its a DDS5600 but may need to verify the exact model. Regardless, recently we purchased another 5600 dimmer pack and are using another 3 prong XLR from the first dimmer pack to the second dimmer pack. Everything works great and we have 8 functional channels.

In regards to an expansion. We are thinking about expanding to another dimmer pack that take us from 8 channels to 12 channels or maybe in the long run adding yet another one that would take us to 16 channels.

1. Will we be able to continue to expand by utilizing a 3 prong XLR?
2. So we need to continue to use the NSI dimmer packs or can we utilize other dimmer packs.

Thank you all for any input you may have. I am slightly new at some of these details especially with this potential expansion. Please let me know if you need any more information.

 

[BillESC]

You can continue to add NSI or any other dimmer packs that use Microplex as the control protocol.

I'd suggest you look at your anticipated load patterns when choosing your next dimmer pack. It may be more cost effective to pick up a larger capacity dimmer pack (for your general wash circuits) than keeping with the 600w dimmers.

 

[mstaylor]

Yes you can continue to expand your dimmers by daisey chaining the DMX. You can use another manufacturer or even add a regular dimmer rack. Youcould also chain through other DMX equipment, LEDs, hazers, and movers. There is a limit per chain, 32 I think, but the exact number has temporarily escaped me. There will be others along that will confirm or correct me. I would look it up and correct myself but I am getting ready to crash. I am doing Tyler Perry tomorrow and am prerigging at 7:00 AM.

 

[Les]

You can use another manufacturer or even add a regular dimmer rack.

Unless your board speaks Microplex (NSI's proprietary language). You may want to look in to this. If you are in fact running DMX, you can use any DMX dimmer packs [even the five-pin, as long as you have the adapter]. If you find that you're running Microplex, you'd better stick with NSI.

 

[soundlight]

If it's an NSI board with 3-pin, it's almost certainly Microplex, which means you can only run Microplex dimmer packs off of it and nothing else. But yes, you can string as many dimmer packs on the daisy chain as you want, within reason.

 

[JohnA]

Important facts about the NSI 7016:

-It uses the microplex signal protocol.
-Do NOT use DMX equipment with this unless you purchase a protocol translator.
-The maximum number of (individually) controllable channels is 32 (wide mode).
-Patching is on a 1 to 1 basis: channel 1 controls dimmer 1.
-NSI dimmer pack addresses start with 0000.
-You can add as many dimmers as you want, but can only control 32 unique channels.
-You can set several packs to the same address--but everything sharing that address will come on when that fader is raised.

I hope this info helps you.

 

[Kent]

Thank you all for your input. This has all been very helpful.

Kent