Trying to figure out DMX + LOR

[NorthwestBrendan]

For Christmas, I purchased 2 LOR controller boxes (CTB16PC), and had an awesome time programming our 32 channel light show on the house. LOR network was easy to setup, and it all makes sense.

Now I want to run with DMX because I want to use lots of RGB LEDs.

First question, can I use both the LOR network boxes and channels designated through DMX if I were to use an ENTTEC open DMX usb adapter? I was hoping I could just setup my channels to each network and run them through the software at the same time so I could use both.

Currently I have 3 RGB LED strips that have 150 SMD 5050 LEDs on them. Next question, how many channels do each strip take? I have been confused by this. With LOR am I able to control each pixel individually so I can work with some special effects? If so, that would make each strip 450 channels since they are RGB. This sounds wrong.

I noticed that LOR CCRs allow you to work with individual pixels, or at least in groups of 3 I believe. Is trying to emulate those features with RGB strips and a DMX controller going to give me good features, or do I simply just get to control colors and fading for the entire stip as a whole?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

I did film some songs that were programmed. This was the first time I got to work with LOR and had a blast. Hard to capture the width of our show, but I used a 10-22mm lens on my Canon 7D to accomplish the task. Crop factor 10mm x 1.6 = 16mm.

http://www.youtube.com/northwestbrendan

Cascada vid is one of my favorite shows, and I will be updating all for next year.

[thebaddruid]

I am not an expert but this is what I did last year for adding DMX to my LOR dispaly. I used 2 of the LOR usb Ethernet adapters and used 1 to run all my LOR controllers and the second I setup to just run my dmx controllers. I ran 7 3 channel DMX controllers this way and setup was fairly simple. You man not get all the special effects that you get while running straight LOR devices like CCR's but with the raw DMX you can control the RGB lights. Since you plan on running smart strips I would wait for the E1.31 support that will come out latter this year and that will not limit you to 512 channels for each DMX universe. There is the ELOR out right now that will allow you to use a E1.31 controller off of a LOR controller and basically gives you 4 universes of awesomeness. When LOR adds E1.31 support you would not need the ELOR from my understanding.

[NorthwestBrendan]

Excellent! Ok, so to add up the channels I am assuming each RGB strip takes 3 channels, 1 per color. And since I can setup more DMX universes, and E1.31 will boost the channel support, I will be broke buying equipment before I max out my channels it seems.

[zman]

OK let me attempt to add color:

If you are wanting to convert to DMX, then yes your LOR controllers will work as AC Dimming packs. As stated above, you can leverage your rs485 device, or obtain a DMX dongle.

If you want to use RGB, then something like an Enttec Pro, or Ultra DMX will help. THe latter is a Enttec Pro knock off that others have used successfully (cheaper too). These are DMX dongles that will offload the computer from having to broker the DMX overhead, and push the overhead to the dongle. You will need one per universe.

If you want to individually control the LEDs, you will need a pixel controller. I will be talking more about this at our CLAP gathering in May, plus I hope to have a decent Universe(s) set up to use as show and tell. E1.31. will assist with this because it allows DMX over ehternet and manages the multiple universes these elements create.

LOR S3 is not advantageous for progamming pixels, nor handling the channel explosion they require. LOR will support E1.31 this summer as stated, but what I have not heard is what they will do to enhance the sequencing environment (besides just outputting E1.31) to manage the latency thousands of channels cause with S2/S3.

Now if you just want to control color on your elements, all the above is overkill. You need to set them up in a "dumb" DC environment and purely control 3 channels as RGB color, using a DC controller.

Keep asking questions.

[flogger7]

Nwbrendan - Check out the acl101 manual over at http://auschristmaslighting.com/

It will answer a lot of your questions

[Blake]

1. How do you convert the LOR IDMX-100 three prong to Enttec Pro which has five prongs?
   

[Ponddude]

You will need a C-Point adapter. Remember to get a C-Point one as the LOR adapter converts it to the LOR pinouts. That is fine if you are going to the LOR controllers but if you are going to a DMX device you will need the DMX standard which C-Point makes.