Jester 24/48 - Only the first 8 faders do something? HELP!

[alefleaf]

Hello,

 

I am very very inexperienced with lighting, but I work as a sound/media technician in a secondary school with a Jester 24/48 that we are struggling to get working in a way that we want.

 

We have:

Jester 24/48

4 x Betapack 3

42 lights in our hall.

 

 

Currently the desk only seems to work on faders 1-8 and each fader controls about 5 lights at a time. The remaining 40 faders appear to do nothing. We would like to make each fader control one individual light.

 

I'm not even sure if this is something I begin to troubleshoot on the desk or on the Betapacks. I am really stuck! Is anyone able to offer any guidance on how I would make this work in the most painfully simplistic terms possible?

 

 

Thanks in advance!

Alex

[kgallen]

Get the manuals for the Jester and the Betapack3.

 

You need to do a 1:1 DMX patch. That means the Jester talks on DMX addresses 1-24 for faders 1-24 [Preset A] (and also DMX addresses 1-24 using [Preset B], controlled by the Preset Masters) and each Betapack responds to a group of 6 DMX addresses, so your 4 Betapacks should show addresses 001, 007, 013, 019 on their front panel LEDs (*).

 

You've got 24 dimmer channels but 42 lights so some of your lights will need to be commoned (i.e. will come on together). Your lighting design might not require all 42 lights but essentially you have dimming to control 24 "things", where a "thing" might be one light, or multiple lights providing you don't exceed 2kW/10A total load per dimmer channel.

 

You'll be using the Jester in 2-preset 24 channel mode, not 48 channel "wide" mode.

 

(*) Betapack3 supports per-channel DMX address configuration. You need to make sure they are in the "simplest" mode where you give one "base" address (as per my list above).

[barefootcoder]

Hi Alex,

 

Here is the manual to help you http://zero88.com/manuals/7340300_jestermanual_3_4.pdf

 

However... there are three modes of operation for this desk:- `Program`, `Run` and `Preset`.

 

`Program` is used when you program the desk (with certain faders for certain lights).

`Run` is for running the show - here you can test all the programs that you have entered.

HOWEVER `Preset` is used to show all the lights attached to all the faders

 

`Preset` is the mode that you need to use so you can see which light is attached to which fader.

 

To help you, each operational mode (Program, Run and Preset) appear in slightly different colours on the screen. (If you have an attached monitor) ((Very useful if you do not have one))

`Program` has a background title of Red

`Run` has a background title of Green

and `Preset` is Orange.

 

To switch over from `program` and `run` mode you press the `mode` button.

To switch to `preset` mode you press the mode button for a couple of seconds. (If I remember rightly)

 

So, the first thing you need to do is to go into `preset` mode and test all the faders.

If everything works ok you will see each of your 42 lights dim and fade with your 48 faders.

(I am telling you this from memory - so i am sorry if i have got this slightly wrong)

 

(This will prove to you that all your lights work and which faders are for which lights)

 

If this doesn't happen then you need to check your hardware (cabling, dimmer packs etc)

If this does happen you now need to read the manual and learn how to program the desk.

 

I hope this is basic enough for you to understand.

If I have got anything wrong I am sorry (and I don't need flaming from anyone else - I am trying to help this guy)

 

 

Best of luck

Kind regards

 

(Please let us know how you get on)

[kgallen]

If everything works ok you will see each of your 42 lights dim and fade with your 48 faders.

 

Alex, you've "only" got 24 dimmers, not 42 (or 48), so you have 24 dimmable "things" as per my original post. You don't have the kit to have independent control of all 42 lamps.

 

4 x Betapack3 = 4 x 6-channels of dimming = 24 dimmers.

 

However I would like to note that this is a nice setup (and a properly dimensioned setup) for a school, so don't feel hard done by that you've "only" got 24 channels. Using your Jester in 2-preset 24-channel mode with the 24 dimmers is the ideal configuration for easy walk-up lighting for your school shows. It's common to have say 2 lights commoned to one dimmer channel where the lighting design needs a bit more "umph" from a certain lighting direction.

 

Of course with Jester you can get into programming, as per the manual.

 

Kevin

[alefleaf]

Thanks for those tips, that was incredibly helpful!

 

I managed it in a surprisingly small amount of time too!

[kgallen]

I managed it in a surprisingly small amount of time too!

So are you fully up and running?

[alefleaf]

So are you fully up and running?

Seems to be, apart from a few bulbs and fuses that need replacing, I think we are there. At least the lighting can't be blamed if the school christmas show is awful in a few weeks!

[kgallen]

It's the season for it... I was helping a local school on Tuesday with close to the same problem.

 

Seems the "lighting only comes out once a year for the school concert"