Can Jester control moving lights?

[CPlater1]

I know there arent personality files on jester, but would i be able to control the lights by moving the sliders to certain levels? i will be trying for a school performance, and it would be good to get the open gobo/colour playing around.

 

any help would be appreciated

 

Cheers

 

Chris

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Cplater1

 

The Jester outputs DMX, so theoretically it can control any device with a DMX input. You should be aware that controlling fixtures via faders is somewhat complicated, particularly when busking. However, it is perfectly achievable with a little effort. Spend some time working out what level each gobo is found at and you should have very little trouble. Positioning the lights might be a little complicated, but if you're just looking for some basic movement effects, program a couple of chases using whichever faders control the Pan and Tilt of the fixtures and that should do the trick. Be aware that if the lights offer 16-bit position control, you should turn this off as the control you will be feeding the lights will be 8-bit only (the Jester does not support 16-bit parameters).

 

I hope this helps a little. Give it a try and you'll soon work out how to control the fixtures.

 

 

 

Peter

[Bob Sorich]

Pan / Tilt can be recorded as chases on the subs. Colour/Gobos can be programmed on the 24 Auxillarys.

 

I hope this helps

 

Bob 8)

[dfs04]

I'm thinking of purchasing a new lighting desk for my generics and im also going to buy some movers and scanners. Can the Jester 12/24 control moving lights or scanners using the faders for the channels or do you have to get the ML desk as a wing?

 

Many thanks,

 

Dan...

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Dan

 

The Jesters can control anything which recieves DMX, however you will find using the faders to control the moving lights and scanners very limiting - not only will you run out of channels quickly, but each moving light you add will take away from the number of generic channels you can run. I'd suggest looking at one of the Jester ML desks (say, Jester ML24) which have dedicated moving light controls PLUS 24 channels of dimming.

 

I hope this helps,

[mattr]

Hi, I’m Matt

 

Got a concert on at school, and using the Jester Lighting board and dimmer pack in the wings. We have the 24/48 channel desk is it? I was just wondering is there a way of connecting two moving heads to the jester as well, I know the dimmer works (we already use it). But is there a way to connect the moving heads as well, and can you program their motion, colours etc to work in run mode with the Go button.

 

If so am I connecting it up right? Out the DMX output into first moving head, out that one into second, and then out that into the dimmer pack? Do you have to do any other programming?

 

Tech is tomorrow so quick reply would be helpful thanks so much!

Matt

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Matt

 

Your description is correct. Once you have a DMX address set on the fixtures, those faders will control the fixtures parameters corresponding to those channels. For example, if you set the fixture to DMX address 25 and its fixture personality was 1) Colour, 2)Gobo, 3)Pan, 4)Tilt, 5)Dimmer, then the faders would work as follows:

 

25: Colour

26: Gobo

27: Pan

28: Tilt

29: Dimmer

 

I hope this helps,

[SteveWhite]

Dear Jester users,

 

I'm having just the hardest time getting any sense from my brand new, out of the box Jester.

 

I have a Chauvet 48 channel desk which has developed amnesia and keeps forgetting important things, like what I just saved to it, so we have invested in a Jester.

 

I unwrapped the Jester and plugged it in - I'm in manual mode, nothing at all fancy going on - I was just testing that the rig responded to the board in the correct way on 48 channel manual mode.

 

We have a fairly simple DMX universe, which consists of

 

Channel Device

1-6 6 channel dimmer

7-12 6 channel dimmer

13-18 6 channel dimmer

19-24 6 channel dimmer

25-29 Eurolite TS-5 Scanner

30-35 Eurolite TS-5 Scanner

36 DMX Switchbox

37-48 12 channel dimmer

 

All works completely fine on the Chauvet, and all the dimmer packs work perfectly fine with the Jester except the scanners.

 

On the Chauvet (and on other DMX boards)

 

1=X

2=Y

3=Colour

4=Gobo

5=Intensity

 

However, on the Jester there is a change in behaviour.

 

1=X

2=Y

3=Colour

4=Gobo

5=Gobo

6=Intensity

 

However, for stability, both channels 4 and 5 have to be in exactly in the same place. If they are not, the gobo oscillates between the two gobo's which are on Channels 4 and 5. Also there is no longer stability with the scanners; other channels changing cause the scanner to blip and wriggle a gobo or color or intensity.

 

This happens with both scanners, and as a test I changed one of them to start on DMX number 1, and the fault followed.

 

I have reconnected the Chauvet for a test as it works fine as a manual board, and all is correct. When I use the Jester I immediately get this behaviour.

 

This problem makes no logical sense to me; DMX is DMX and these are not exotic scanners, so I wonder if there are some recommended actions I could take to further investigate this strange behaviour.

 

Thanks,

 

Steve.

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Steve

 

This is most likely due to the DMX implementation on the scanner expecting a different DMX timing from that of the Jester. The Jester outputs DMX at a reasonably fast rate, and my guess is that the implementation inside the scanners probably can't cope with this speed.

 

You might like to try adding an isolated DMX splitter in-line. Most of these re-process the DMX data, and ouptut it at their own frame rate, which can often resolve issues like this.

 

If you have access to any DMX test gear, like the Artistic Licence Microscope, then it would be great to try that in-line too - again these re-generate the data.

 

Let us know how you get on,

 

 

 

Peter

[SteveWhite]

Well, this excursion into the world of DMX Intelligent lighting has gone a bit sour for me. The Jester outputs DMX too quickly for the Eurolite TS-5 lights. I have confirmation from the manufacturers of the Eurolite units that they cannot be made to work on the Jester board.

 

Peter (see above) defended his product like a world class product manager - and clearly it's the fault of the Eurolite units for not handling the speed output of the Jester board. In my investigations I found that other DMX controllers have a programmable option to run DMX protocol at their full speed, or at a slower speed, but this option is not available on the Jester.

 

I was also recommended to use a DMX regenerator, which is not a splitter (tried something that I could afford, it did not regnerate the DMX, but split and propagated it, and that did not work). The trouble with a DMX signal regenerator is that they are far from cheap, and I'd be pouring another £400+ into getting two £250 lights working.

 

The Eurolites have lost and I will be selling them on Ebay soon. However this now makes me nervous about purchasing any other 250w DMX Scanners - so if you know for definite of a manufacturer who sells a DMX Scanner which works with the Jester please let me know. Thanks.