Simple DMX Control for Long Lighting Fades?

valerieoliveiro

Hey everyone! I usually do basic video programming on Isadora and I am helping someone with an installation where there is some video and also a desire to control about 6-8 simple (not LED or Movers) incandescent lighting objects. The artist is looking for long (10-20 minute) fades of different channels in a loop. I've heard that you can also control DMX from Isadora and I think I just need a step-by-step - I've never worked with DMX on isadora before. I am guessing that I will need some kind of DMX device that can talk to Isadora (Enttec??) - I did some internet research on those devices). The installation space is raw has no wifi so everything will need to be hard wired. I already have secured some dimmer packs.

So, I would love to know:

1) How to set up the hardware?

2) Are there particular configurations in Isadora? Is there a patch or an actor that I should be aware of?

3) Will this help me control fading and looping of all these lighting channels? How? If not, what will I be able to control?

Any help will be greatly appreciated. (I've never posted to this forum but I've always found some useful answers here for my other issues!)

Thank you!

Juriaan

Hi there @valerieoliveiro,

Most Izzy users use an Enttec DMX USB Pro giving you 512 channels of data to work with, and if you have the drivers correctly installed it works quite well ;)

1) How to setup the hardware

You will need the following hardware :

Dimmerpacks
DMX cable (Check the input of the Dimmerpacks and the output pins of your Enttec. If they are the same you are golden, if not you need an plug to convert 5 to 3 or the other way around)
Enttec DMX USB Pro
Izzy on a Windows / Mac computer

Set the hardware address of the dimmerpack (DMX start), some dimmers have an little menu for that, others have dipswitches. Look up the manual and sometimes a power reset is required for the settings to take effect (learned this the hard way)

Connect the computer to the Enttec using the USB cable provided. Connect the DMX cable to the OUTPUT of the Enttec and connect the other end of the cable to the INPUT of the Dimmerpack (not the output or thru)

2) Are there particular configurations in Isadora? Is there a patch or an actor that I should be aware of?

Look in the plugin library here https://troikatronix.com/plugi...

3) Will this help me control fading and looping of all these lighting channels? How? If not, what will I be able to control?

Yeah, with above actor you can output the desired data, what is required from you is that you create the patch to make the values loop. You can do this quite easily with Enveloppe Generators++ and sequential triggers.