Mad Scans

[panikki 0]

hi guys

ive got a little problem that you guys may be able to help me with

i have 4 MAD scans and printed on the side is "Qscan AP" i have check with NU LIGHT of warrington and they list them as a 5 channel light ...this means the setting would be...001...006...011...016 but that doesnt work...i have also spoken to MADlighting in wales and they say they should be set at 001...007...014...021... but this also does not work...i can get them to run together when they are all set as 001 but they do not mimic in this setting in fact light 1 & 3 are mirror image of eachother and so are light 2 & 4 i have tried different settings but to no avail...the cables and controller all work and the controller is a DMX 54 can anyone advise as to what the setting should be...oh yes,when i first switch on the power the reading for each light is 1511..thanks guys, hope you can help

[norty303 0]

Have you looked at this

 

http://www.pslx.co.uk/Datafiles/Mad/MADScans.pdf

 

First question really is have you used other lights successfully on this controller and are you experienced with using DMX and the controller in question, or is this a first attempt? I'm trying to rule out user error first here.

 

Also, the bootup would suggest that it is in fact a variant of the 511, however that is a barrel type effect not a scan. Can you confirm the details? Perhaps they re-used the 511 board in the later lights.

 

My Chamsys fixture file says that the Qscan is a 5 channel scan with the following DMX channels:

1 - Pan

2 - Tilt

3 - Gobo

4 - Colour

5 - Dimmer

 

Setting the first fixture to 001 and the next to 006 should give results if the desk is giving out DMX correctly on most desks, however the DMX 54 (if its this one) http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item1514.htm

works a bit differently in that it can have up to 9 heads of 6 channels each.

 

So you need to set head 1 at 001 and head 2 at 007 so that head 2 Pan falls on fader 1 when you select it as the faders are prepatched to channel numbers. Basically you can have a maximum of 6 channels, but if your lights have less then the remaining channels on that head on the desk are unused, so you'll only use 5 of the faders and the 6th will be redundant.

 

E.g.

Faders          1        2        3        4        5        6

Head1        Pan       tilt     Gobo      Col       Dim       Empty
Address      001    002        003      004      005       006

Head2        Pan       tilt      Gobo      Col       Dim       Empty
Address      007    008        009      010      011       012

 

 

Don't foget that when correctly addressed you can only manually manipulate 1 head at a time, so if you want to move all heads to a common point then you need to select each one in turn and adjust the relevant channels.

Edited December 12, 2007 by norty303

[panikki 0]

Have you looked at this

 

http://www.pslx.co.uk/Datafiles/Mad/MADScans.pdf

 

First question really is have you used other lights successfully on this controller and are you experienced with using DMX and the controller in question, or is this a first attempt? I'm trying to rule out user error first here.

 

Also, the bootup would suggest that it is in fact a variant of the 511, however that is a barrel type effect not a scan. Can you confirm the details? Perhaps they re-used the 511 board in the later lights.

 

My Chamsys fixture file says that the Qscan is a 5 channel scan with the following DMX channels:

1 - Pan

2 - Tilt

3 - Gobo

4 - Colour

5 - Dimmer

 

Setting the first fixture to 001 and the next to 006 should give results if the desk is giving out DMX correctly on most desks, however the DMX 54 (if its this one) http://www.jpleisure.co.uk/item1514.htm

works a bit differently in that it can have up to 9 heads of 6 channels each.

 

So you need to set head 1 at 001 and head 2 at 007 so that head 2 Pan falls on fader 1 when you select it as the faders are prepatched to channel numbers. Basically you can have a maximum of 6 channels, but if your lights have less then the remaining channels on that head on the desk are unused, so you'll only use 5 of the faders and the 6th will be redundant.

 

E.g.

Faders          1        2        3        4        5        6

Head1        Pan       tilt     Gobo      Col       Dim       Empty
Address      001    002        003      004      005       006

Head2        Pan       tilt      Gobo      Col       Dim       Empty
Address      007    008        009      010      011       012

Don't foget that when correctly addressed you can only manually manipulate 1 head at a time, so if you want to move all heads to a common point then you need to select each one in turn and adjust the relevant channels.

 

thanks for the advice...and yes i am new to programming the dmx what i am trying to achieve is for all the lights to do the sam thing at the sam time...my thinking is that if i set them as 1=001...2=007..3=14...4=21i should be able to do this...am i being a bit thick and expecting to much of these lights

 

[norty303 0]

I don't think you're expecting too much of the lights, although you may be expecting too much of the controller. If you record a step/cue/patch by selecting each of the heads individually and setting the parameters for each, do you achieve the desired output? If yes, then you have achieved what you want, but may have discoved the programming limitations of the controller.

 

From experience i can honestly say that if you wish to do anything worthwhile with your lights, you either need to spend a long time programming your controller, or upgrade your controller to a 'proper' DMX desk. The cheap end of the range promises much, but deliver very little.

 

The most cost effective routes are to either get a generic dongle like the Enttec Pro or OpenUSB and software such as Chamsys MagicQ or Freestyler, or to buy a rock solid 2nd hand Pulsar Masterpiece 108 and resign yourself to learning how to programme properly. Unfortunately DMX desks at the low end are sold as being very easy to use, but very seldom end up being worthwhile unless you're willing to spend some time with them, and even then only achieving mediochre results that a more fully fledged desk will do more easily.

 

I moved from the free version of MagicQ PC to buying a PC interface this year and we've been doing festival stages, all in all about £1600, but i now have a sytem that can do some seriously complex shows with multiple heads of varying types. Don't expect too much from a £50 controller.

Edited December 14, 2007 by norty303