Help creating custom fixtures

just as a short, very general explanation: there are two number worlds: the channels and the addresses.

• a channel is what you and the console use to tell each other which fixture you mean.
• an address is what the console and fixture use to communicate with each other. this is the DMX world, it's the number you put into the fixture.
• universe is part of the address. because originally you had one DMX cable and this can transport 512 addresses. if this is full (or because of topological reasons) and you a second cable this also has 512 addresses but different ones. the fixtures connected to that cable are not aware if they're listening to the first or second cable because they're not aware of multiple cables. but the console has to know if it should feed the information into the first or second cable.
  512 addresses = 1 cable full of DMX = 1 universe.

after having set up everything you don't need to think about addresses anymore and only use channels. the reasoning is that you can choose channel numbers with a system that help you remember which light is which. addresses tend to have odd numbers that are harder to memorize. isn't it simpler to remember 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 than 1, 15, 29, 43, 57?

the patch is the only place in the console where those two number worlds touch. here you assign which channel number equals which address number(s).

Does this help?

just as a short, very general explanation: there are two number worlds: the channels and the addresses.

• a channel is what you and the console use to tell each other which fixture you mean.
• an address is what the console and fixture use to communicate with each other. this is the DMX world, it's the number you put into the fixture.
• universe is part of the address. because originally you had one DMX cable and this can transport 512 addresses. if this is full (or because of topological reasons) and you a second cable this also has 512 addresses but different ones. the fixtures connected to that cable are not aware if they're listening to the first or second cable because they're not aware of multiple cables. but the console has to know if it should feed the information into the first or second cable.
  512 addresses = 1 cable full of DMX = 1 universe.

after having set up everything you don't need to think about addresses anymore and only use channels. the reasoning is that you can choose channel numbers with a system that help you remember which light is which. addresses tend to have odd numbers that are harder to memorize. isn't it simpler to remember 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 than 1, 15, 29, 43, 57?

the patch is the only place in the console where those two number worlds touch. here you assign which channel number equals which address number(s).

Does this help?

Thank you. I feel silly having missed this very obvious thing. I truly appreciate your help!

All of this tech just kinda dropped on me without any training so I'm working my way through it all.