Generic LED Par Cans

[oatneil73]

OK I'm not a lighting engineer by trade but trying to help out with a church install so any advice welcome!

 

We've got a Fat Frog running several Mac250's and the usual Par Cans and we've just bought a couple of LED Par can 64s from stagelighting.co.uk

 

The problem is not knowing how to assign these as fixtures so I have couple of questions:

 

1. Do they need to be assigned as fixtures (in the same way as the MACs), or can we run the desk in wide mode and use normal faders?

2. Being unbranded, do we have to use the Fixture Type editor or should there be an easier way, for example a generic RGB fixture from the fixture disk?

 

We've tried assigning them as showcase led par 64's (according to lighting.co.uk advice) but no joy.

 

Any (any!!) advice welcome

 

Thanks.

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Neil

 

Stage LIghting should have supplied a user manual with the fixtures, which would detail the channel assignments. It's most likely to be something like

1 = Mode

2 = Red

3 = Green

4 = Blue

5 = Speed

6 = Strobe

 

(thats the most common one i've seen from the chinese import LED fixtures). I tend to not bother patching the Mode, Strobe & Speed channels, but instead patch them as a <Conventionals> RGB Dimmer, which gives you 3 RGB channels. I would patch this at DMX 2, if the fixture was addressed at 1.

 

If you have a user manual, fax across a copy of the relevant page and i'll get a profile built for you. Alternatively, if you're happy with the fixture type editor, it shouldn't take long to build.

 

The problem with these unbranded products is that they could be from a number of sources, so recommending an alternative profile is difficult.

 

I hope this helps,

[Alan]

Hi

 

I want to use some led par cans also for a show. In the past I have used them off the preset faders but for each Led Can, as you state above, I end up with all 6 channels in use and it soon eats up the desk.

 

Q1. Can I some how only use 3 of the 6 channels ie RGB.

 

Q2. Do I understand from above that I can assign them as a fixture on the Fat Frog. If this is so how can I control each seperate colour (RGB) as there is only 1 dimming channel.

 

Many Thanks Alan

[K-Nine]

Personally, I would create a fixture type that matched the DMX profile given for the fixture. That way the other three parameters are there should you require them at some point in the future. If you don't need them at the present then they are simply left at their default values.

 

Because of the way dimmer (intensity, brightness) channels are processed differently on the desk to colour, beamshape and position channels, only one dimmer channel can be defined per fixture.

 

With the LED parcan I would assign the red, green and blue parameters to the COLOUR attribute. This means that these parameters will be processed LTP rather than HTP but you will have individual control of each parameter via the control wheels.

[Revenant]

hi here is what i did:

 

i used the fat frog with 8 LED pars, and we tried to build a fixture BEFORE there was one on the official fixture disk. but we didn't use the fixture becasue u dont have the LED's under controll so fast as if they are Generics. i needet only 4 channles RGB+Strobe. so i patched the desk like 123+5 and 789+11 for the first 8 channels. and i made 4 submasters RGB and 1 for the strobe. so i could easily make them all Red or green and had full controll about the strobe speed. at the end some "normal" chasers from left to regt in different collors and i was happy. and i only used 32 channels instead of 48. so i had place vor some blinders and a smoke-machine. and the coolest thing: i was able to set some light-pictures for between the songs with the generic faders. and another good thing: u can control easily the drive and the attack of ur chasers because that only works fpr HTP channels.