14 September, 2017

Remodeling project, DJ lighting for the music room, and out of the house use.... Things I am learning that aren't obvious.

Among my many interests, and part of the reason I am so slow between entries, is I am pursuing music as well as other passions in what free time I have. Specifically playing guitar, and electric bass...

My wife has been learning piano, and we are working on a room renovation to act as a music room. To that end, I wanted something with a, well stage feel, not to mention I figure I could do some side work by doing lighting support for events. Lighting gigs pay fairly well.... But I digress...


So to get to where I wanted to be, I needed to pick up some materials, (Source listed as well)



Lixada 192 channel DMX512 controller. Ebay seller Antiquechina
25ft DMX cable to run from controller, up speaker stand to…Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ Shop built Speaker stand lighting T bar. (in progress, materials from Home Depot)
2 @ 5 channel 86 LED DMX lights. Amazon.com
10 @ 3ft DMX cables to connect light to light. Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ 50’ DMX cable to run from second light, down stand, up T stand to next light on…Amazon.com
Chauvet T bar light stand Musiciansfriend.com
2 @ DMX RGBW moving head lihgts (Lixada) Pending from Ebay seller Antiquechina
8 @ @ 5 channel 86 LED DMX lights. Ebay seller Antiquechina.every bit as good as the ones from Amazon, for a lot less money.

First things first. Addressing the lights, well that is confusing as all get out. The documentation that came with the lights, well, isn't super helpful, I had to dig, and research and go about getting this all figured out. What I learned makes sense if you understand how binary works.


The dip switch addressing that is on the back of the lights, has 10 switches, 1 for DMX on / off, and 9 for addressing. Dip Switch #10 is the DMX on / off switch. 


So we have dip switches 1 through 9 that will have a value as shown below in Fig 1.



Fig 1.
Dip Switch
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Value
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
DMX-ON


Given that data, to set the 12 possible fixtures for the 16 channel Chauvet Obey 40, or cheap clones thereof, like the Lixada, you would set the dipswitches as follows in Fig 2..

Fig 2.
Fixture
DMX ID
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
1
1
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
2
17
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
3
33
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
On
4
49
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
Off
On
5
65
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
On
6
81
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
On
Off
Off
On
7
97
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
On
8
113
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
On
Off
Off
On
9
129
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
On
10
145
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
On
Off
On
11
161
On
Off
Off
Off
Off
On
Off
Off
Off
On
12
177
On
Off
Off
Off
On
On
Off
Off
Off
On
Some items of note I found when setting this up.

#1. on these lamps, channel 1 on each fixture on the controller in the main fade, but fade is the wrong word, the slider has to be ALL THE WAY on for the light to work, then you slide on / off / fade with slider / channel 2, 3, and 4.

#2. The board is equipped with a "blackout" button, and it does exactly you you would think it does. I sort of missed that one on my first time out the door.

#3. There is a small switch on the back of the unit that I have been told varies the polarity out of the DMX,  If your lights don't come on, try the other position for this switch.

So if you are setting one of these rigs up and trying to learn how to use it.,  Configure your lights as shown above, cable them in sequence. and make sure that channel 1 on each fixture / scan is all the way up. You might need to slide it down, then back up to get it to read properly. 

Per the manual for the Lixada, programming the device they recommend searching Youtube for Obey 40. So basically this thing is programmed the same way the Chauvet Obey 40. Again at a much lower price tag.