Stupid DMX question

[jer75]

Hi all ,

I run 32 Lor channels which is more than enough for my main lights but I wanted to go into DMX as well , After talking to my brother about it he purchased without me knowing 2 of the dmx boards from Ray-Wu along with a couple of 12v /30amp power supplys , I already had the dumb strings here as i was going to get a 3 channel unit and have a play .

My question after watching countless vids and reading countless pages are that I've confused myself a bit about how to setup the boards in LOR with my 32 channels already there on my sequences . what number do I start the dmx at and how many channels do i setup for a single board for the moment.

My thinking is my lor finishes at 32 so the first dmx channel would be 33 onwards but this is where I've confused my self .

What confused me was a DMX universe is 512 channels but the boards only use 9 groups of 3 , so thats only 27 channels in that universe is this correct and can I dasiy chain the 2 boards together thus using 54 channels in that universe ?

would anyone be willing to setup a channel layout that I could import into LOR for 32 channel LOR and 2 of Ray-wu boards .

[Ken Benedict]

The ultra simple answer is to get a LOR iDMX1000 unit and it will work just fine AND allow the Hardware Utility to do testing and playing arouond with it.

I have several and they work like a dream. Yes, they're pricey, but they're Plug-and-Play.

Generally, the LOR addresses and DMX addresses are completely seperate, so even though LOR uses 1-32, your DMX addresses will be 1-27 and 28-54, whether you use the iDMX1000 or a seperate USB-DMX device (like the $40 DMXKing unit). If you use a seperate DMX device, the Hardware Utility will not work with it.

Whichever you use, you just define 54 more channels (or 18 RGB channels) in the Sequencing software.

Search Google for "27 channel rgb dmx" and there should be hours of enjoyment on how others have made them work.

Such as:

and:

There's videos on Holidaycoro.com and discussions on the LOR Forum, right here.

Keep searching; there's lots of people who have made the board work with LOR software.

(you may need the Advanced S3 license if you use an external DMX device).

[Jack Stevens]

I suspect you odn't have a single 32 channel LOR controller, do you? If so, you're probably the only one who does.

You probably have them set up on Network 1 (or "Regular Network"), controllers 1 and 2, and each controller having 16 channels.

Think of DMX as a single controller having up to 512 channels. If you use an iDMX1000, that's exactly what you'll have; a single LOR controller having up to 512 channels that can be on that "Regular Network"

The run DMX on S3, you'll need another dongle or an E1.31 device. A dongle is easy; plug it in, go to Edit -> Preferences -> Network Preferences and set up the dongle or E1.31 device there. You can also set up more LOR dongles there, as either a LOR network or a DMX univierse.

After that, it's just a matter of setting up each DMX device's starting address, similar to setting up the LOR unit ID. You won't be able to use the LOR Hardware Utility to set the DMX addresses, though; there are too many different ways to do this. Check your device manufacturer's manual on how to do this.

You can mix those Ray Wu, Holiday Coro, and LEDExpress controllers with other controllers on the same universe. You just can't mix them on the LOR network; that's a different protocol. You can run the LOR devices in DMX mode, but then it'd be on a DMX universe and not a LOR network.

Keep in mind, too, that the wiring is probably different. LOR uses pins 4 and 5 of the RJ45; if the DMX device is using an RJ45, it'll probably be using pins 1 and 2, or if using 4 and 5, there's a good possibility that the polarity would be reverse that of LOR, such as in the case of a Renard device in DMX mode.

Once you have all that set up, in your sequencing editor, a channel is a channel is a channel. Single color channels all program the same; DMX RGB programs the same as LOR RGB, etc. You can copy and paste channel programming from a LOR to a DMX or vice versa and have the same effect.

[MCas4380]

Just so i'm clear on this we are talking Pixel controllers right? or is it the same for Dumb strip controllers?

[scubado]

Just so i'm clear on this we are talking Pixel controllers right? or is it the same for Dumb strip controllers?

This thread is referring to RGB dumb ribbon.

[MCas4380]

Thank you, So you would be looking at 170 seperate RGB Dumb strips or other channels like 16 LOR to be one universe is that correct?

[jer75]

Thanks for the help all , got it sussed , now im going to start playing