Strobe Lights

There are numerous fixtures.  Contact your nearest theatrical lighting dealer and they should be able to help you out.

Martin Atomic 3000, Diversitronics, Chauvet, American DJ, Elation...

Any fixture that has DMX control will work with an Ion.

I'm currently working on a project where we are planning on strobe like effects from LED fixtures. I have yet to test it out, but I know LEDs flash pretty fast.

I believe the Ion is limited to 0.1 second time increments. So a limited strobe is possible.

Actually ion's timing can be sized up to hundredths of a second (.01), however, depending on the type of fixture you will be using, the DMX refresh rate can get in the way.

If it's available, it would be much easier just to use the strobe channel on your LEDs. I'm no software engineer, but seems like running a step based effect on a console such as ion with the intensity flashing on and off very quickly (i.e. .01 second per step) would bog it down. 

EDIT: Sorry everyone - My hands were moving faster than my brain could keep up! Hopefully that will clarify things.

unfortunately there are led-fixtures with no strobe channel, e.g. there seems to be a lighting company with three letters based in middleton, wisconsin that produces fixtures with an unique system of color mixing that lack a strobe channel ;-)

guten morgen corey.

uhm, no. to be honest, i hadn't been aware, that the desire line of led fixtures offer new features. i have seen them at the selador roadshow, but haven't had a close look at the dmx charts before. so, i stand corrected:

"unfortunately there are led-fixtures with no strobe channel, e.g. there seems to be a lighting company with three letters based in middleton, wisconsin that produces fixtures with an unique system of color mixing that lacked a strobe channel ;-)"

:D

My Selador D40 Lustr+ LED instruments have the option to be in a mode (called "General") where they use 7 channels for color, 1 for intensity and 1 for strobe.  Not sure why yours don't have that option.

But I'm stuck with my new Ion board: I have patched channels with the instruments, and they work fine with intensity and the encoder controls (or color wheel) for color mixing. But I'm stuck at how to access the Strobe features!  I've tried going to the channel that should correspond (the 9th one - e.g., if the instrument is set to channel 201, the 209 channel should have the strobe, I'd think), but it doesn't work. Does anyone know how to make use of the D40's strobe ability??

Thanks!

Strobe is a Beam: Form category parameter.

It's found under the [Form] button.

(Edited for accuracy - thanks Josh)

*Note Strobe is a "Beam" parameter but you need to hit the [Form] button in the top right of the Ion console.

OK, thanks for the info. I'm still unsure about how to make this happen, though. 

What's the sequence of key inputs? Is it: (select instrument) (beam) (form) @level?

Sorry to need so much hand-holding! I really appreciate the help!

Select the fixture that you want to manipulate strobe on. Press the [Form] button on the top right of the console, this will change the Encoder Pages that display in the internal LCD screen. You should see an encoder that reads Shutter Strobe. Start rotating it until you reach the desired effect. 

OK, hmm. When I select a channel with a D40 on it, then hit [form], I don't get any options on the encoders in the little LCD display on the board. 

To be clear: I'm clicking the mouse on the channel "gravestone" to get control of the D40's (starting) channel, making it outlined in gold. (That's the same as entering it through the keypad, I understand.)

Thanks for your ongoing help!

don't confuse addresses with channels. there is no such thing as a starting channel, but there is a start address. in patch you assign channels to addresses (or vice versa). your D40 has _one_ channel number. this channel has various properties (aka parameters) and these parameters control the various dmx addresses your D40 takes.

you have to make sure, that the profile you set in your D40 matches the one you chose on your console. there are plenty of D40 profiles in your desk, one for each of the various modes the D40 can be set to. so if you put your D40 in a mode that supposedly lets you strobe it, you won't be able to do that if on your Ion you chose a profile that doesn't support that mode. and i guess that's what happened. if you can't see an encoder named Strobe that means the profile doesn't know anything about the fixture's strobing functionality.

so: go to patch and change the type of the channel to a profile that maybe reads D40 Vivid Strobe (i'm not in front of a console now, so i'm not sure if that's the profile's exact name, but there should be Strobe in it. and also be sure to replace Vivid with whatever D40 type you have).

don't confuse addresses with channels. there is no such thing as a starting channel, but there is a start address. in patch you assign channels to addresses (or vice versa). your D40 has _one_ channel number. this channel has various properties (aka parameters) and these parameters control the various dmx addresses your D40 takes.

you have to make sure, that the profile you set in your D40 matches the one you chose on your console. there are plenty of D40 profiles in your desk, one for each of the various modes the D40 can be set to. so if you put your D40 in a mode that supposedly lets you strobe it, you won't be able to do that if on your Ion you chose a profile that doesn't support that mode. and i guess that's what happened. if you can't see an encoder named Strobe that means the profile doesn't know anything about the fixture's strobing functionality.

so: go to patch and change the type of the channel to a profile that maybe reads D40 Vivid Strobe (i'm not in front of a console now, so i'm not sure if that's the profile's exact name, but there should be Strobe in it. and also be sure to replace Vivid with whatever D40 type you have).

Ah! That's it! Thanks for pointing out the D40 concern - we had Lustr+ Direct, but not Lustr+ Direct Str chosen. That made all the difference.

Thanks VERY much, everyone!

Hi there -

I'm very glad it's all working now - but just in case that changes be aware that there is also a setting on the D40 itself that can enable/disable the strobe function. So, if you ever get to a point where it was working, and the console looks right, but the strobe function doesn't work anymore, it's possible that someone has disabled the function in the fixture's menu.

Happy programming!

Sarah