Dmx info for beginners

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badger4543

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Is there a good dmx break down/tutorial/how to video of Dmx stuff that a beginner should watch before purchasing..

Is dmx lights/moving heads all controller-able or only certain types?

And are smaller/cheaper moving heads worth the muck around or would you just be disappointed with them?
 
DMX is simply a physical wire specification and protocol for transmitting channel data on a balanced electrical pair. It's official designation is E1.11
E1.31 wraps this data up into UDP packets for transmission on a network, which is how show players etc communicate to the cotnrollers.
The protocol itself doesn't care what's behind it - they could be dimmer packs, moving heads, smoke machines, or even pixels.
Many controllers have a DMX output on them, typically exposed as an 8p8c connector following ESTA pinout. From there you can make a cable to a 5 pin XLR female for compatibility with fixtures. Some cheaper fixtures use a 3-pin XLR, despite it being prohibited by the DMX standard.

Anything that's DMX capable can be controlled by xLights - either by using the DMX effect (Setting channel data directly) or with the new Moving Head stuff; mapping the channels across.
 
badger4543 said:
And are smaller/cheaper moving heads worth the muck around or would you just be disappointed with them?
Click to expand...
What you want to do with them depends on any potential disappointment.
The moving heads that are popular in a lot of videos are several hundred watt versions and are projecting into the air and relying on dust, smoke, fog to be visible. If the air is nice and clear even they struggle to become visible. They need to be several hundred watts to provide the large quantities of light necessary for foreign bodies in the air to be highlighted. The cost of being several hundred watts is that the lighting element in them often has a fairly short life and will eventually need an expensive replacement.
I use a couple of little 30W moving heads that have gobo element inside them and they are made for projecting onto something like potentially a wall or something like that. I have mine in an area where they are projecting up into the leaves of a bunch of gumtrees and I like the effect.
In short if you are projecting into the sky then expect to need thousand dollar plus multi hundred watt moving heads.
 
So if I wanted to just beam something down from the roof line height to the drive way you’re not really going to get that kind of effect/impact over the show that moving heads should have are you??

I’m not entirely sure the actual effect I’m looking for but maybe leaning toward like a laser type thing to punch up the drive way as more like a dance floor maybe..

Do you guys know of anyone using lasers in their show?

I’m guessing it again comes down to the price of the unit but can lasers be used to a similar effect or are they typically just do there own job reacting to the music..

just realising I don’t actually know what controls them haha..
 
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