Need help configuring my LED lights

[jsunww]

Hello. I'm new to the forum and new to stage lighting. I've recently been asked to set up five brand new Chauvet ColorPalette LED lights along with a series of "dumb" par lights that are currently connected to two dimmer packs. The PARs are currently connected to a DMX controller that we are getting rid of and replacing with a EuroLight LC2412 controller.

My problem is with the ColorPalettes. They are currently in 27 channel mode. I guess this is the default mode but it severely limits the options I have when using the 12 Memory faders on the EuroLight. In this mode each color uses a 1/8 section of the light. I can set 3 sections of one color to each fader, requiring me to use three faders to make the whole light board show one color. So in order to do a full white I need to use nine faders. Three faders for red, three for green and three for blue.

If I can get it into 6 channel mode, I'd be able to do what I want with it. 6 channel mode would let me use only three faders for each light. (One fader for each color) which would in turn give me more options as far as controlling different lights in different configurations on different DMX channels.

If anyone can help me get these ColorPalettes into 6-channel mode with the EuroLight LC2410 I would greatly appreciate it.

[hoosierdraft]

You mean besides reading and following the section in the manual about setting the light to 6 Channel mode?

ColorPalette manual

[daver2]

First of all, welcome to CMN.

Unfortunately, the manual is not that clear and it took me a couple of reads to find the small print about how to do it... DMX channel 1 (mode) needs setting to a value between 60 and 79 (go for 70 as that is in the middle). As the mode channel is always at the base of the DMX channels assigned to the unit - it will always stay the same irrespective of the number of channels programmed. You will find this on page 13 of the manual.

This means that you need to set the base DMX channel for the unit (say 1) and adjust the first fader to give an approximate value of 70 as sent to the unit (or 70/255*100% = 27% if your faders are marked in percent). You MUST leave the first fader configured to this value - otherwise it will change modes (with some confusing results).

To be honest - this is the first time I have seen something this convoluted to change the number of assigned channels to a DMX device. It is usually a menu setting which can't then be inadvertently changed during operation.

Dave

[Esoteric]

Yeah, welcome to Chauvet.

[waynehoskins]

And welcome to Behringer. If you can upgrade the board, you'll be so much happier, especially in the future when you add more stuff.

The first two control options that come to mind are the ETC Smartfade/ML and Chamsys MagicQ/PC with a USB DMX interface like the Enttec Pro.

[Esoteric]

Yeah, I am a huge ETC guy, but I am not a fan of the Smartfade. But some people love them.

[waynehoskins]

I hated the Smartfade from seeing it at USITT '05 until a couple of weeks ago when a friend I trust suggested the ML after I asked the Facebook for recommendations for my church. So I checked it out online. It's no Element, but for a small church rig with a few color-mixers, and non-lighting-people volunteer operators, it seems like a good choice.

(I would ordinarily have picked MagicQ right away, but for my application I think a hardware board is necessary -- unskilled board ops should find the learning curve much easier, and they can't use it for a general purpose computer and break it in the process)

Still not a fan of the "regular" Smartfade. What I really want is an updated Microvision or Mini Light Palette, or half an Element -- something with a Go button, a few submasters, a keypad, and a couple of encoders.

[jsunww]

Thank you for all the advice so far. Again, I'm new to lighting and DMX and I'm learning as I go. As for setting the first fader to about 27%: does it need to stay there permanently, or do I put it there while storing certain colors in memory and assigning those settings to different faders?

My church currently has a Leprecon LP-1524 light board. Do you think that board would be easier to set up and give me more options? It's been there since before I started going to that church and it can be a little finicky sometimes, but it still works alright.

[waynehoskins]

The Leprecon 1500 series is overall better than the Behringer board, no question. It's great for conventionals. Patching on those is a little clunky, as is cueing a theatre stack, but they're a great manual board.

Where manual boards fall short, really through no fault of their own, is multi-channel fixtures like LEDs. Even most pre-2000-vintage memory boards fail at movers, because those fixtures occupy more than one channel each, with the other channels being "attribute" channels like pan, tilt, color. Most of the latest boards handle those well. You might look at ETC's Element, it might be a good choice.

[daver2]

My reading of the manual is that fader 1 has to stay put for the fixture to stay in 6 channel mode. If it strays to other values the fixture may probably enter an unintended mode (e.g. Auto sound mode 7 - whatever that does!!!).

As is the case with most budget fixtures of this type - the manual is not explicit about which modes provide what lighting effect. The best way to find out is to 'play' (sorry, become familiar) with the modes by entering them one at a time and seeing exactly what happens.

Dave

[Steve Vanciel]

Originally Posted by daver2

(e.g. Auto sound mode 7 - whatever that does!!!).

This typically means that the light will automatically change values in responce to sounds it picks up. Mostly used in dance club situations where there is a heavy bass beat and lots of random flashing colors or patterns is the norm.

SteveV
Orlando, FL

[daver2]

Sorry Steve - I was saying that with my tongue in my cheek!

The issue I was alluding to is that in the manual there is reference to Auto Sound Mode 1 up to Auto Sound Mode 15. That is a lot of different sound to light programs! I guess the software programmer had some spare time on his hands to be creative - unfortunately, none of these modes are documented in the manual as to what the differences are so it is up to the user to find out by trial and error.

Dave