Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

DMX interface kit a possibility?


Tim Fischer

Recommended Posts

As my display budget is woefully small, jumping to DMX is quite a hurdle. I'd love to get a DMX fixture or two, but there's that $230 hurdle in the iDMX, in addition to whatever the cost of the DMX fixtures are, which usually aren't exactly cheap, which means adding even a single DMX fixture is going to be pushing $400...

So I was wondering, has there been any thought of offering the iDMX as a kit? I don't need the fancy anodized case, and would love to put some sweat-equity into it to knock as much off of the price as possible...

Just wondering,

-Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 45
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • Tim Fischer

    11

  • Robin

    7

  • iresq

    6

  • stachows

    3

I believe that Dan has said they will be offering their own DMX fixtures starting sometime this year. Which I think will be great. I don't think he has said anything about offering it as a kit with the iDMX, but that would be a great idea. Sort of like the showtime products that help you get a jump into things.

Basically...I want to second Tim's idea....lol

Greg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

+1

Kit assembly is my preferred MO. I'm looking to add some DMX this year starting with my halloween display. But, I'm in the same boat as Tim. I'm waiting for the LOR sale to pick up another CTB16K and an iDMX if the tax return lasts that long. LOL I also give a nod for an iDMX kit.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would definately be interested in a kit for the iDMX1000.

I am thinking of picking up a couple of the Chauvet ColorSplash Jr's instead of getting mutliple colored LED flood lights.... At $79 a piece they are not bad at all, but to then throw another $260 on top just to use them... Not sure that is in the budget yet...

Thanks,

Scott

Link to comment
Share on other sites

stachows wrote:

I would definately be interested in a kit for the iDMX1000.

I am thinking of picking up a couple of the Chauvet ColorSplash Jr's instead of getting mutliple colored LED flood lights.... At $79 a piece they are not bad at all,

Those are one of the options I'm looking at...

-Tim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff Millard wrote:

Although the iDMX seems pricey, it has the ability to add a DMX universe or 512 channels of control to your display... (about 46 cents per channel...)

The sale price last year wasa little more affordable too...


Oh I'm not even knocking the price of it-- it's kind of a specialty item and there were certainly development costs that need to be covered over a smaller user-base than a normal controller...

I'm just saying if I could order it without the case, assemble it myself, etc. I'd appreciate some of the savings passed on to me.

As it stands, I'm kind of priced out of DMX because of it...

-Tim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A less expensive alternative. They have a kit that is even cheaper, just out of stock.

How about DIY


I have some DMX equipment and have never thought of putting them in a display because I use them during December. I have contemplated going computer based dmx for my DJ business. Just holding back because the dmx software curve is steeper then LOR!

For those that use dmx, how do you protect your equipment from the weather and theft?


edited for content.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

iresq wrote:

A less expensive alternative. They have a kit that is even cheaper, just out of stock.

How about DIY

Any alternatives would have to be able to be controlled via the sequence editor/show controller to be usable for me. And I'm not that interested in a reverse-engineered solution... first of all I want to give my support to LOR, secondly I don't want to have an expensive paperweight if/when LOR changes their protocol...

-Tim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Jeff Millard wrote:

I have a strange vision in my head of the internals of the iDMX case. What I see is mico miniature surface mount parts, tightly packed onto a small PCB.

See page 23 here if you want to know what the insides look like.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

After a bit more research, I see were LOR uses it's own protocol to trigger dmx. In that case, no other product would work with LOR anyway. May bad.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

dslowik wrote:

Jeff Millard wrote:
I have a strange vision in my head of the internals of the iDMX case. What I see is mico miniature surface mount parts, tightly packed onto a small PCB.

See page 23 here if you want to know what the insides look like.


Wow, not bad at all, certainly less components than a 16-channel controller...

-Tim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tim Fischer wrote:

dslowik wrote:
Jeff Millard wrote:
I have a strange vision in my head of the internals of the iDMX case. What I see is mico miniature surface mount parts, tightly packed onto a small PCB.

See page 23 here if you want to know what the insides look like.


Wow, not bad at all, certainly less components than a 16-channel controller...

-Tim

The picture on 23 of the manual is of a prototype and was taken prior to the delivery of the production cards. The production cards are just about the same except they are a little nicer looking.

Most of the development cost of the iDMX1000 was the firmware. The card does not have a tremendous number of parts but from a kit perspective it would need to be re-enginered because most parts are SMT.

The part count was kept low by putting more inteligence in the firmware. Even things like polarity are done electronically rather than using a switch on the data line like most interfaces do.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info, Dan.

Like I said, I'm not whining about the price-- I understand there are development costs to be recovered. But if you could make a kit and amortize that firmware development cost across more units sold by reducing the price point, I'd be one of the first in line to sign up! :)

-Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A word about DMX channels.... I've picked up several fixtures... Chauvet MinWash and a couple of ColorSplash 196's... I didn't pay attention to the channels before I ordered the 196's and just found out the the 7 channels were 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 Blue... Most other fixtures have a single channel for all of the same colored LED's, a seperate channel for intensity and strobing... I'll put these Colorsplash 196's back on ebay as it would be a real pain keeping up with needless repetative channels....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

randallr wrote:

A word about DMX channels.... I've picked up several fixtures... Chauvet MinWash and a couple of ColorSplash 196's... I didn't pay attention to the channels before I ordered the 196's and just found out the the 7 channels were 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 Blue... Most other fixtures have a single channel for all of the same colored LED's, a seperate channel for intensity and strobing... I'll put these Colorsplash 196's back on ebay as it would be a real pain keeping up with needless repetative channels....

When you say 3 red, etc. what do they control subsets of the red LED's or...

Let me know when you have them listed, I might be interested...

-Tim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apparently the are subsets... On the Chauvet site, it has a DMX table for each fixture... My idmx1000 will be here tomorrow, so I will get to really figure it out... Also, the MinWash is really cool.. and SMALL... However, I may also put it back on ebay and go for MinSpot...

I was really amazed how bright the minWash was though. It will blind you at 20 feet.. Can imagine how bright the minSpot will be.

I've got a couple of snow machines, a 1700watt fogger, and a bubble machine. At some point during a song, I'm going to turn on fog on front porch.. 2 MinSpots will be mounted between columns on each side (at top) and will do some sweep effects.. A little fog in the air should make it look nice.... (Though about taking the THX intro- the part where it breaks and all lights go off- add a longer pause and turn on fog machines... might get the fire department called though)

I really worried I'm crossing the line- rock concert instead of Christmas show.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest wbottomley

randallr wrote:

A word about DMX channels.... I've picked up several fixtures... Chauvet MinWash and a couple of ColorSplash 196's... I didn't pay attention to the channels before I ordered the 196's and just found out the the 7 channels were 3 Red, 2 Green, 2 Blue... Most other fixtures have a single channel for all of the same colored LED's, a seperate channel for intensity and strobing... I'll put these Colorsplash 196's back on ebay as it would be a real pain keeping up with needless repetative channels....


On my Chauvet ColorSplash 200, the DMX values are:

1) Function

2) Red

3) Green

4) Blue

5) Effects

6) Dimmer
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Randell is right... if you pull down the DMX channel info from Chauvet. The 196's have 7 concentric circles... each with it's own channel, with the level being the intensity for that ring (3 red...2 green and 2 blue) no other channels....

Still... that is not to bad... since you can cut and paste in LOR!!!



If Tim does not want them, I might be interested...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...