Non Dim

 

We have lots of moving lights on non dims, the problem comes when you use grand master or b/o button it kills power to non dims, is there a way to unlink them. 

 

 

  • Simple answer is patch the DMX address to a channel, record the channel to sub, make the sub Sheilded and Exclusive.  Thus the channel will not respond to GM or manual control and will not get recorded into targets.  

    But it begs the question.  Are you powering the ML's off of DMX controlled relays ? or running the dimmer in Non-Dim mode?, as whenever the term "Non-Dim" is used it often times means the user is simply running a dimmer in an On/Off mode.  There is no good setting for any dimmer to be set that will allow ML's to be reliably powered.  You need either a relay module or a constant contact module (essentially a module with a pair of circuit breakers).   Note that without good power you can do major damage to the control circuits of the ML as well as voiding any warranty.

    Search this site as well as ControlBooth

    http://www.controlbooth.com/google.php?cx=partner-pub-1609603555281871%3A30nz1ydj2fn&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=powering+moving+lights&sa.x=0&sa.y=0&siteurl=www.controlbooth.com%252Fwiki%252Fwiki%252Barticles%253Flimit%253D3000

    Steve B.

     

     

  • They are running off DMX switching relays, would not dream of plugging a moving light onto a dimmer.

     

    Will give the Sub idea a go, could you do the same thing with group so as not to waste a sub ? 

     

    Daniel 

  • Is there a reason you can't just Park those channels instead of assigning a manual handle to them?

  • You could also make the channels GM Exempt from the attributes section of the patch screen.

  • Option number 7 which combines several different of the above suggestions. 

    If you have your ML power on more than you have it off, try the following. 

    Patch the channels as you normally would, BUT in Patch, toggle the GM Exempt button to get the channels to ignore the grand master.

    Then apply a reverse curve to the channels. Curve 906 is currently "Out at 100%", but you can build your own if you like. What this curve does is that when the channel is at anything below 100%, it sends full output to the dimmer. When you take the channel to 100%, it actually kills the output. 

    And lastly combing this with Steve's Shielded Sub suggestion. You can build a shielded sub so that if you are working and you don't want the movers on,  you can run that sub up and it kills power, but you can cue or whatever without recording the contents into your cues. Keep in mind that a shielded sub prevents you from evening typing the channel in the command line, so if you still want that ability, but don't want to record the subs values into the cues, you can just do an Exclusive sub. 

    In terms of "Wasting the sub" you can always call it a numbered sub way up in the high numbers that you don't map to your wing. Then to activate that sub you can just type [Sub] <n> [Full] [Enter] to take it to full, and [Sub] <n> [Home] to send it home. This gives you the features of the shielded / exclusive sub without having to take up a handle on your wing. Just keep in mind that if you go this route, you don't necessarily have the visual reminder of the physical sub being up on the wing, but the channel should still show a Yellow FL on the channel sheet. 

    One of the things that I like about the reverse option is that you can patch your DMX relayes much more specifically so that you have more control over your moving lights should you need to do do a hard reset during the show. Then you can make a SUB page of just reset handles. The advantage ist hat then you don't need to remember to keep 20 channels at full, or 20 subs at full while programming / running your show. You only have to take an action if something goes wrong. 

    HTH,

     

     

  • Continuing with the patch and curve idea, I use curve 909, always on.  I have macros to power on and shut down the fixtures by type, also the power channels are at 1000 above the fixtures, so that if I need to kill power to an individual fixture, say 361, all I have to do is remove the curve from channel 1361.  Everything is in Patch by channels I am not using any any subs or faders.

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