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LightORama wrote:

We will have 3 pin to 5 pin converters. The will not be free but we will not look to make money on them.

Will the converters be available this year for use with the iDMX32?
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circus4u wrote:

Will the converters be available this year for use with the iDMX32?


These adapters are available on the internet. I did a quick google and found this http://www.castlestudios.com/store.cgi?p=MidiLite_DMX_Adapter&s=DMX3to5

I agree with Dan that the 3 pin XLR cords are much easier to find. When I first went looking, everyone said that it would have to be special ordered and at great expense. On a whim I bought a standard microphone cable to just try and low and behold it worked. But even the three prong cables can be expensive.

Ken
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Hey Ken hows it going. Any idea how these microphone cables hold up to the weather?

Have a good one!

John



Ken W. Good wrote:

circus4u wrote:
Will the converters be available this year for use with the iDMX32?


These adapters are available on the internet. I did a quick google and found this http://www.castlestudios.com/store.cgi?p=MidiLite_DMX_Adapter&s=DMX3to5

I agree with Dan that the 3 pin XLR cords are much easier to find. When I first went looking, everyone said that it would have to be special ordered and at great expense. On a whim I bought a standard microphone cable to just try and low and behold it worked. But even the three prong cables can be expensive.

Ken
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John Paul wrote:

Hey Ken hows it going. Any idea how these microphone cables hold up to the weather?

Have a good one!

John



I did not have any problem with my cables last year. They are not water proof, but the connectors do seem water resistant. We had a lot of rain last year and I never had a problem with the DMX stuff. If there is any concern, you could wrap the connections in some type of tape.

Ken
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Ken W. Good wrote:

Ken, how do the dmx lasers and lights hold up outside?

I know you mentioned the intimidator - do you have this light? Has it held up well? How many do you recomend for a show?

Thanks

John

John Paul wrote:
Hey Ken hows it going. Any idea how these microphone cables hold up to the weather?

Have a good one!

John



I did not have any problem with my cables last year. They are not water proof, but the connectors do seem water resistant. We had a lot of rain last year and I never had a problem with the DMX stuff. If there is any concern, you could wrap the connections in some type of tape.

Ken
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Ken, John did not quite ask the full question. There are a lot of PM's emails and phone conversations going on about how to house the yoke devices to keep them out of the weather. I am thinking some sort of dome, but those are very expensive, and I have not been able to find one supporting the dimension I need in height and diameter. What did you do?

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  • 2 months later...

LightORama wrote:

lkcubsrule wrote:
LightsByGreg wrote:
I'm a little confused about how many channels this thing will output to. Will it only control 32 DMX channels or will it somehow control 512?

It can control 512 channels...the 32 means "smart channels". Here...I'll give you a situation.

You'd need a smart channel if you are going to say, take a moving yoke, and while having the light on, move it around your house. A "non-smart" channel would be for like a snow/fog/bubble machine where you'd only need 1 channel--ON and OFF.

But, if you want to use your moving yoke and just have it point to a place on your house, and not move, that wouldn't need a smart channel. (I watched Ken Good's DMX animated lighting movie...it really explained a TON!)

Someone else...please chime in.

EDIT: The 'non-smart' channel would say to a moving yoke, go here...and stay there....but if you wanted it to go to place "x", and move to place "y" (while light is on), the "smartness" does the 'calculating' of how fast it moves over however long a period of time.

-------

I recommend anyone interested in this, watch Ken Good's class online. The link is in his signature a few posts above.





Ken Good's wonderful class on DMX can be divided into two categories. One part of the class provides good information with respect to DMX in general. It has to do with how DMX fixtures are configured, etc... This is applicable to any DMX application. As far as setting up a sequence to control a DMX device: DMX is an intensity based system (The only information sent in the DMX world is the intensity to set a channel to) Hence the information about using intensities to control things in DMX is applicable.

The other category of information in Ken's class was specific to a particular DMX interface module and software. That part of Ken's class is not as applicable to LOR. In particular the specifications of the DMX interface module in his class has no bearing on the LOR iDMX32.

Briefly the iDMX32:

The iDMX32 automatically configures itself. There are no dials, switches, ranges, Intelligent channel ranges.... etc. All of that is done automatically for you. If you have more than one iDMX32 then there is one configuration step: you will need to set the Unit ID to a number other than 230(the default value). The big difference between a iDMX32 and other LOR devices is that the iDMX32 has 512 channels where as a typical LOR controller has 16 or 8.

There are two types of channels: Intelligent and Standard. A Standard channel can handle Intensity changes only. You can set the intensity from 0% to 100%. An Intelligent Channel can handle high level light commands like fades and twinkles (as well as intensity changes).

The iDMX32 has 32 intelligent channels... Those channels "float" around in the available 512 channels provided by DMX. For example: If you use a command on DMX channel 122 that requires intelligence then that channel automatically becomes one of your 32 available intelligent channels.

So what this really means is that when you plug your DMX fixture into the DMX network, you can pick any DMX channel you want for your DMX fixture (all 512 channels are available). Now lets say that your particular DMX fixture requires 8 contiguous channels: 3 intelligent channels and 5 standard channels. That fixture will automatically use 3 of your 32 intelligent channels.

In the Sequence Editor you only define the DMX channels you are using. For example: Lets say you want to add a DMX fog machine to your DMX stuff and this fog machine has a DMX address of 64.

To control this DMX device, you would add a new channel to your sequence. The channel can be added anywhere in the grid that is convenient. You would set the device type to LOR-DMX, Set the Unit ID to the Unit ID of your iDMX32 (Just like you set the unit ID of any LOR controller) and you would set the DMX channel to 64(remember 64 matches the DMX address of the fog machine). Because you would only be using intensity changes to turn the fog machine on/off, this device would automatically be considered a standard channel and it would not use one of your 32 Intelligent channels.


Now just to make things confusing:
Because the 32 Intelligent channels "float" you can actually have more than 32 things that require intelligence in your DMX universe HOWEVER only 32 of them can be be used at one time. For example you could only have 32 DMX channels twinkling at one time You could twinkle a mix of any 32 channels you want then later twinkle a different mix of 32 channels.


OMG I think I finally understand this stuff after reading this and watching the video. So please, someone just *tell me* I'm right so I can quit worrying.

I have purchased the new iDMX32, and have a few DMX devices already. The iDMX32 will control those - I add a channel in the software, but it uses a channel on the iDMX32 not a channel on one of my LOR1602W controllers.

So in other words... I have 211 of my 320 LOR1602W channels currently allocated to my strings of lights, and I was saving the rest cause I thought I'd need them for the DMX stuff. But if I understand correctly, the iDMX32 gives me the additional channels and I can use my LOR1602W remaining channels for non-DMX stuff. Right????

Thanks!

medman2000
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  • 1 year later...

bossgroove wrote:

What is the absolute minimum I need to turn on a fog machine from LOR?

I would ASSUME ... you are talking in the DMX world (there are other cheaper ways - with a few user modifications - Relays).

- A DMX Fog Machine
- LOR DMX Controller (iDMX32)
- DMX Cable
- Cat5 Cable
- LOR Adaptor / Director

Harrison
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bossgroove wrote:

I am completely lost. This post is so old I don't know if anyone will see my question.

What is the absolute minimum I need to turn on a fog machine from LOR?

If you are not using DMX, you can rewire the remote to a relay and connect it to a LOR channel.
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Donald Puryear wrote:

bossgroove wrote:
I am completely lost. This post is so old I don't know if anyone will see my question.

What is the absolute minimum I need to turn on a fog machine from LOR?

If you are not using DMX, you can rewire the remote to a relay and connect it to a LOR channel.
I did exactly that for a concert I was running lights for and it worked wonderfully (that is, until we set the fire alarm off...lets not go there). Anyway I just took the remote and wired a relay to the button you would press to get fog, then plugged the relay into a dimmer channel (but in your case an empty LOR channel would work...same thing basically) thus allowing me to control the fogger via DMX.
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bossgroove wrote:

Donald,

Your suggestion sounds easier and cheaper. Can you explain in detail what I need to do and buy?

THANKS


A LOT most lickly < $30 where DMX > $300 *NUMBERs WAY rough.

As videoguy said just wire a replay in to the trigger of your fog manine - so when 120v is apply (LOR Chaneel) the switch is triggered. Can't give you a step by step on this each brand remote is diffrent- but isn't to hard to do. Maybe an hour you can easy get it.

Harriosn
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The only reason to use DMX would be if you fog machine had variable output that was controllable via DMX

the same can be applied to snow machines

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bossgroove wrote:

Donald,

Your suggestion sounds easier and cheaper. Can you explain in detail what I need to do and buy?

THANKS

I use solid state relays. They sell a product calles a RIB (relay in Box) They work great, been using them for 3 years. What brand of fog machine do you have? Most fog machine remotes have three wires. Inside the remote on goes to the switch, one to the light, one to the switch and light. You would wire the n/o contacts from the relay to the wires conacting to either side of the switch. Then the coil of the relay would conect to LOR.
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