Help with DMX

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TES3S said:
no, b/c when you make scenes, 16 channels are control PER fixture. So you set one light, get off the fixture, now onto the next. You have 16 per fixture.

I have done it. Go get your obey 40 out. You will see.

Maybe it's time to call Chauvet.
Click to expand...

Kind of true. For this specific controller, you are 'allowed' up to 16 channels per fixture button on the controller. It is NOT per fixture. It IS per fixture 'button'. So we understand, you have a Core Par, which is 8 channels and (2) Freedom Par's, each 5 channels. Do you want them each to respond differently? Or the same?

As a test, what happens if you put both Freedom Pars on - as separate devices?

Logically, you might be able to setup 2 individual devices and get them to both respond - but why would you want to do that if you're not creating a scene for them? Why would you want to have to manually recreate this look each time?

BTW, from the manual:

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Programming Two Products

Programming products is sending DMX values to them to control them and create a look. The general steps for programming a product are as follows:
1. Enter Program mode.
2. Press one or more <FIXTURE> buttons to select one or more products.
3. Move the channel faders to control the product or products —use <Page Select> to move between fader pages.
4. Repeat steps 2–4 as needed for other products.
5. Save the look into a scene. See Creating A Scene.
6. Exit Program mode.

Note: If the look is not saved to a scene it will be lost when Program mode is exited.

The specific instructions below describe programming a 12-channel product on
<FIXTURES 3> and a 15-channel product on <FIXTURES 5>.

1. Enter Program mode.
2. Press <FIXTURES 3>. Its LED comes on and it is selected.
3. Move any of the 8 channel faders to send DMX values to the first 8 channels of <FIXTURES 3>. The light responds to the faders.
4. Press <Page Select>. The Page B LED comes on and the Page A LED goes out. Fader Page B is now active.
5. Move any of the first 4 channel faders to send DMX values to the last 4 channels of <FIXTURES 3> and the product responds to the faders.
6. Press <FIXTURES 5>. Its LED comes on and it is selected. Now both lights are selected.
7. Press <FIXTURES 3>. Its LED goes out and it is no longer selected. Now only <FIXTURES 5> is selected.
8. Press <Page Select>. The Page A LED comes on and the Page B LED goes out. Fader Page B is now active.
9. Move any of the 8 faders to send DMX values to the first 8 channels of <FIXTURES 5>. The light responds to the faders.
10. Press <Page Select>. The Page B LED comes on and the Page A LED goes out. Fader Page B is now active.
11. Move any of the first 7 faders to send DMX values to the last 7 channels of <FIXTURES 5>. The light responds to the faders.
12. Repeat steps 2–11 as needed for other products.
13. Save the look into a scene. See Creating A Scene.
Note: If the look is not saved to a scene it will be lost when Program mode is exited.

-----------------------------------------

As a test, setup your Freedom Par's - with addresses of 001 and 006. You should be able to fully control both devices separately on Fixture 1, Channels 1-10.
 
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Theoretically, you 'could' control all 3 within one 16 channel Fixture button - and that would be to reconfigure into one of the following:

Scenario 1:
Freedom Par: 5 channels per device (1-5, 6-10)
Core Par: 3 channels per device (11-13)

Scenario 2:
Freedom Par: 4 channels per device (1-4, 5-8)
Core Par: 8 channels per device (8-16)

Scenario 3:
Freedom Par: 4 channels per device, both devices set to respond the same (1-4)
Core Par: 8 channels per device (5-12)

---------- Separate Fixture buttons ---------

Scenario 4 (Fixture 1 and Fixture 2 buttons)
Freedom Par: 5 channels per device - Fixture 1 Button, channels 1-5, 6-10
Core Par: 8 channels per device - Fixture 2 button, channels 17-24
 
I'll also add - if you could select multiple fixtures, they must all be using the same channels for the same commands - otherwise you'll be changing things you may not want to change. Using the following Scenario as an example:

Scenario 4 (Fixture 1 and Fixture 2 buttons)
Freedom Par: 5 channels per device - Fixture 1 Button, channels 1-5, 6-10
Core Par: 8 channels per device - Fixture 2 button, channels 17-24

If you could select Fixture 1 and 2 together, channels 1-8 would have a direct affect on both Fixture buttons and all 3 devices in various ways. This would be a reason that you would not want to be able to select more than one fixture.
 
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BTW, it's not you that is the only one to notice this issue. This is on a board from 2015:

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While experimenting I've been using a Chauvet Obey 40. However, it has one major drawback - if you deselect a fixture after adjusting the sliders, it then blacks out that fixture. The outcome is that you can only manually control one fixture at a time.

It seems you can only get the manual control mode out of the Obey 40 by entering programming mode - I've verified this is the case. The problem then is that we're going to be forever overwriting our scenes by forgetting to take it out of programming mode and pressing a scene button!
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Again, it kind of makes sense because if you're using multiple fixtures, they all may not have the same controls. Those 'same brand' fixtures that you want to respond the same, can easily be done by putting them in the same channels.
 
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i have done a very bad job explaining.. Ittiger, please call me.

At least, I now know entering program mode is the ONLY way, but it doesn't solve the problem of being able to control each Up-Light fixture at a time without the values being affected if going back to fixture 1, if previously editing fixture 2.

Let's not get into the Core Pars until I get this part sorted out.

This week I am going to change my DMX values so they are technically on 1 fixture, and use channels 1-5 for 1st fixture and 6-9 as second.

That way only the Blue channel will be on the second page. That should definitely help out.
 
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With that said, my Dance floor lights (core par 80s) will be on fixture 2. So do I program them to start on DMX channel 17 since the Up-Lights will be sharing Fixture 1 (1-5, +6-10)
 
TES3S said:
i have done a very bad job explaining.. Ittiger, please call me.

At least, I now know entering program mode is the ONLY way, but it doesn't solve the problem of being able to control each Up-Light fixture at a time without the values being affected if going back to fixture 1, if previously editing fixture 2.

Let's not get into the Core Pars until I get this part sorted out.

This week I am going to change my DMX values so they are technically on 1 fixture, and use channels 1-5 for 1st fixture and 6-9 as second.

That way only the Blue channel will be on the second page. That should definitely help out.
Click to expand...

6-10 on second set of fixtures. Blue and Strobe will be on page 2.

TES3S said:
With that said, my Dance floor lights (core par 80s) will be on fixture 2. So do I program them to start on DMX channel 17 since the Up-Lights will be sharing Fixture 1 (1-5, +6-10)
Click to expand...

To make it easier to access the channels, I would set it as Fixture 2, Channel 17.
 
no, I mean for the dance floor lighting. 6-10 would be up-light 2 even though it is utilizing Fixture 1 on the controller, but use Fixture 2 on the controller for my other dance lights, starting at 17?

I think we are saying the same thing...
 
TES3S said:
no, I mean for the dance floor lighting. 6-10 would be up-light 2 even though it is utilizing Fixture 1 on the controller, but use Fixture 2 on the controller for my other dance lights, starting at 17?

I think we are saying the same thing...
Click to expand...

Correct. I was correcting the earlier part. You said 6-9 for uplight 2 and it would be 6-10.

Correct about Fixture 2 being 17.
 
I tried putting the Up-Lighting fixtures all on the same "fixture", but the problem, was when I had to dim (was doing all one color), it was not as smooth as selecting fixture 1 and 2, and dimming globally.

I also had to be EXACT when matching rgb values or it would look like two different colors.

Going to go back to independent fixture 1, 2 with DMX 1, 17.
 
What does doing them all on the same fixture mean? 001 and 006? or all 001? If all 001, then the only dimmer would have been Fixture 1, Channel 1. If 001 and 006, then the dimmer for half would have been Fixture 1, Channel 1 and for the other half - Fixture 1, Channel 6.

Electronically, there may be a slight variation from model to model as none are exactly the same - but it should be so minuscule.
 
doing them all on the same fixture (on the controller). If I want to dim all lights at once, I can't this way. So going back to DMX 1, 17, NOT 1, 6. Then, I select fixture 1 and fixture 2 when making changes.

I also had to be very careful when selecting the values so that the two fixtures look the same.

When doing it the standard way (1, 17), whatever change I make, effects both of them globally (we are talking when client wants same color).
 
Setting them under the same Fixture 1 button as discussed (half on 001 and half on 006), then channels 001 and 006 would have been the dimmers - there would be no single global dimmer. If you want them all to be the same colors, then set them all to 001 and channel 001 becomes the single dimmer for all of them.

Under 001 / 006, as long as you move Channels 001 and 006 together at the same time, then they will also appear the same.

Under 001 / 017, the reason that when you make a change to one, affects the other, is because they are both using Channel 1 as the dimmer.
 
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yes, i did set them to 001 and 006, but when the client asks for one color, it's a PITA to set color like this.

I had to keep track of the values of the first few channels, including the dimmer to match the next few channels (the other light).

With separating them on two fixtures (on the controller) and DMX 1, 17, it's honestly smoother.

Of course, I could set all lights to DMX 001, but changing the settings on 20 lights every gig is kind of ridiculous.

The other thing is I put the dance lights on the other fixture, and of course going back to the up-lighting (fixture 1) everything was reset, so I think it is definitely best to have to separate controllers.
 
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Why use a dmx controller to set all of your uplights to one color? If the client wants all lights pink for the night you could just set each one individually or use master/slave mode. I know, the answer can't be that simple for some reason.
 
TES3S said:
yes, i did set them to 001 and 006, but when the client asks for one color, it's a PITA to set color like this.

I had to keep track of the values of the first few channels, including the dimmer to match the next few channels (the other light).

With separating them on two fixtures (on the controller) and DMX 1, 17, it's honestly smoother.

Of course, I could set all lights to DMX 001, but changing the settings on 20 lights every gig is kind of ridiculous.

The other thing is I put the dance lights on the other fixture, and of course going back to the up-lighting (fixture 1) everything was reset, so I think it is definitely best to have to separate controllers.
Click to expand...

I'm glad to hear that 001 and 017 are working for you.
 
Jas said:
Why use a dmx controller to set all of your uplights to one color? If the client wants all lights pink for the night you could just set each one individually or use master/slave mode. I know, the answer can't be that simple for some reason.
Click to expand...

This works if your customer picks one of the colors available by the device. If it's a mixed color, you need a controller.
 
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