Patching a dmx fog machine to ETC Element 40

[ademhayyu1]

Greetings,

I am the lighting designer and tech supervisor at my high school and this year we're planning on buying a fog machine and I'm doing some research on some good fog machines. I chose the
Chauvet DJ Hurricane 1800 Flex Adjustable Angle Fog Machine (25,000 CFM) because of the dmx control

I have a good understanding about DMX (two universes, 512 addresses each) now when I plug the dmx cable to the back of the fog machine, where do i plug in the other side. My hypothesis is that I would plug it into our Enttec DSplit. But what universe would that go to? The Element only has two universes, one for the dimmers, and one for our ColorSource PARs. It just gets confusing after I plug it into the fog machine.

Help,plz..

 

[techieman33]

It can run on either universe, as long as you have a channel available for it. You could plug it into your splitter if it's nearby, or if your leds are close then you could run a line from them to the fog machine.

 

[ademhayyu1]

So the DSplit has four ports, I can plug into any one of them and it'll be fine as long as I tell the board which universe to put it in? Ok so how do I know which address to put into, it doesn't have a display like the LEDs.

 

[RonHebbard]

So the DSplit has four ports, I can plug into any one of them and it'll be fine as long as I tell the board which universe to put it in? Ok so how do I know which address to put into, it doesn't have a display like the LEDs.

@ademhayyu1 Here's a little info' that MAY point you in the right direction.
Step 1; Read your fogger's manual to learn how to address it AND how many control channels it may occupy depending upon how much remote control it offers via DMX 512. I'm not familiar with your fogger but it may conceivably allow you to remote control fan speed, volume of fog produced, burst or steady streams, duration of bursts, yada, yada, etcetera. I suspect your fogger's manual will tell you all of this.
Once you've learned and decided upon the aforementioned;
Step 2; Connect a DMX cable between your fogger's DMX 512 input and an available DMX output on your DMX 512 splitter OR a DMX 512 output on any conveniently available DMX 512 device in your system. Your fogger will likely only be directly addressable for channels between 1 and 512 inclusive.
IF you address your fogger for #1 and plug it into your first DMX universe, it will operate on channel 1 along with any other device addressed to channel one on your first DMX universe.
IF you address your fogger to #1 and plug it into your second DMX universe, it will operate on channel 1 along with any other device addressed to channel one on your second DMX universe.
IF you address your fogger to 53 (for example) your board will think of it as #53 if on your first universe OR #565 (512 +53) if connected to your second universe.
Optimistically this points you in the direction of understanding. I suspect anyone who correctly spells the word "hypothesis" and employs it correctly in a sentence can comprehend DMX 512 and make it work for them. Good on you! More queries? Post away and bring them on.
Take care Sir!
Toodleoo!
Ron Hebbard.

 

[CrazyTechie]

IF you address your fogger for #1 and plug it into your first DMX universe, it will operate on channel 1 along with any other device addressed to channel one on your first DMX universe.
IF you address your fogger to #1 and plug it into your second DMX universe, it will operate on channel 1 along with any other device addressed to channel one on your second DMX universe.
IF you address your fogger to 53 (for example) your board will think of it as #53 if on your first universe OR #565 (512 +53) if connected to your second universe.

Ron hit it right on the head. The only clarification I would make is that in Eos, unless you are patched 1-to-1, your addresses and channels are not necessarily the same things.

So if your fogger is on address 1 in universe 1, then anything else listening to address 1 in universe 1 will also follow the same instructions that you send to that particular address.

As far as what universe you can use from your DSplit, it's whatever universe the DMX in is plugged into on the splitter.

 

[coldnorth57]

on the fog machine is a set of switches (DIP) and with page 10 of the fog machine manual you cane set the DMX address.

 

[Dionysus]

If your console is up to date enough (not sure when it was introduced) it will have a "profile" for that fogger.

Patch the fogger into your DSplit as mentioned. I would assume that it is on your second universe for your coloursource PARS.

Then goto PATCH on the console.
Select your desired channel (type for instance 420). Command line will read "Chan 420".
Then press "Type" on the screen, it is on the right. Command line will read "Chan 420 Type".
Then go to "Chauvet" and page over to "Hurricane 1800 Flex", and select it.
That CHANNEL will now associate to the correct PROFILE
then type "@2/" then the number you chose as the address, for instance "@2/500", then hit enter. Command line will read "chan 420 Address 2 / 500".
Now it will show up as the hazer and have the correct control information.

IF you just leave it as a dimmer, im sure you'll also be fine, I haven't used that unit before and haven't read the data sheet or manual however it looks like it only uses one address and has nothing special to its operation.
Id still use the profile so that intensity parameters don't accidentally trigger your fog.