The letters: KISS, need to flash on and off, then flash in sequence (i.e. K, then I, then S, and then the last S.) as well as “chase” where the lights appear to be moving and tracing the letters.

I repair computers, so I am familiar with the concepts of resistance, capacitance, inductance, voltage, and amperage.

I can see the potential of DMX, but cannot seem to rectify how it can be used to control non-dmx intelligent devices, or devices that are not lights- such as strobes and fog machines.

One of my ideas was to give the drummer a couple of midi pads which would trigger a sampled explosion sound simultaneously with a single strobe flash and a burst of smoke to simulate the pyrotechnics that no one will let you use since the Great White disaster in Rhode Island.

I have been to umpteen billion sites, but this seemed to be the best, as you seem to be the most knowledgeable.

Setting up a bunch of DMX intelligent lights and setting them to react to the music is not difficult, but a Kiss tribute poses its own unique set of challenges.

The technical complexity that lighting presents mean that a decent light tech would probably cost more than we make. I have one of those multi-pedal midi foot controllers that behringer makes and it would be great if there was a way to program it so it manipulated a DMX board.

Any help you can give is greatly appreciated.

Matt

It sounds like you have the LED PARs set to the same DMX start address. It’s not an issue of the number of cables, that doesn’t change. You need to set the start addresses differently and tell your lighting desk which one is which. For example, I use some LED PARs that use six channels (you need to know how many your’s use – it should be in the manual or preloaded on your desk, depending on the desk type). My six channels are Red, Green, Blue, Strobe, Effect and something else that I can’t recall at the moment. So if I had three of these running I might start my dimmers at 001, and it I had ten dimmer channels my first LED PAR would start at 011. Then LED2 would start at 017 and LED3 would start at 023 and finish at 029. To set the DMX start address there will either be a display on your LED PAR units or, more likely, dip switches which use binary.

I hope some of that helps!

Matt

Im running a show in which I have 3 LED’s and a few Pars. I’ve sent a DMX cable from stage right to stage left where the board is, and I have no problem running the pars (they’re on separate dimmers) but when i try to control the LEDs individually, I can only run all three at the same time. I’m low on DMX cables. Is there a solution that would allow all three to run individually without affecting the other LEDs?

Depends what mode it’s in and depends which MAC250 you have. Do you have 250, 250+, 250 Krypton, 250 Wash or 250 Entour? It’s well worth checking out the manual to find out which mode you want your fixtures in – depends whether you want extra fine control or you want to conserve channels. If you have a good lighting desk you can normally load up your fixture profiles from the library and just click next available address – then you don’t even need to knwo how many channels it uses because the desk works it out for you – you still need to know which type and which mode you are in though.

If you’re still stuck just post which type you have and which mode you are in.

Matt