Anyone good with DMX Lighting?

[TubsAlwaysWins]

I am trying to get some DMX lighing to work on a stage. We have a bunch of Blizzard fixtures (I cant find them online but they say "ProPar" on the side). I got those all to work together (set them all to d001 for simplicity, easy red/blue/greens). We also have a dimmable light controller (Leviton D4DMX-MD5) at the end of the daisychain of lights. I can't get the dimmer controller to work for the life of me (Granted most of my expertise is in audio equipment but Im trying to learn as I go). I have everything set back to the factory settings on it, and as soon as i plug it in the first light in the chain changes color and stays the wrong color. Unplugging the dimmer from the chain fixes the problem. Can anyone direct me on what setting to set it to to make it work correctly?

 

Quick hardware walk through and the settings: Lighitng controllr is a Blizzard Snokontrol - this goes into a Blizzard ProPar with d001 as the setting across the board (there are 10 of them daisy chained from stage left to stage right), and then adapting from 3 pin DMX to 5 pin DMX into a Leviton D4dMX-MD. The controller is set up with no chases, just scenes for each color (Scene 1 for red, 2 for blue, etc - And I want scene 8 to turn the lights attached to the dimmer on)

 

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? What settings does the dimmer switch need to be on? What about the lighting controller? 

 

Thanks!

[mr moose]

3 hours ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

I am trying to get some DMX lighing to work on a stage. We have a bunch of Blizzard fixtures (I cant find them online but they say "ProPar" on the side). I got those all to work together (set them all to d001 for simplicity, easy red/blue/greens). We also have a dimmable light controller (Leviton D4DMX-MD5) at the end of the daisychain of lights. I can't get the dimmer controller to work for the life of me (Granted most of my expertise is in audio equipment but Im trying to learn as I go). I have everything set back to the factory settings on it, and as soon as i plug it in the first light in the chain changes color and stays the wrong color. Unplugging the dimmer from the chain fixes the problem. Can anyone direct me on what setting to set it to to make it work correctly?

 

Quick hardware walk through and the settings: Lighitng controllr is a Blizzard Snokontrol - this goes into a Blizzard ProPar with d001 as the setting across the board (there are 10 of them daisy chained from stage left to stage right), and then adapting from 3 pin DMX to 5 pin DMX into a Leviton D4dMX-MD. The controller is set up with no chases, just scenes for each color (Scene 1 for red, 2 for blue, etc - And I want scene 8 to turn the lights attached to the dimmer on)

 

Any thoughts on what I am doing wrong? What settings does the dimmer switch need to be on? What about the lighting controller? 

 

Thanks!

My immediate thought is if all your other scenes work but the dimmer doesn't, then the dimmer function might be cactus.

 

I'm just starting to learn this stuff too, so probably can't be much further help.

 

EDIT: have you tried swapping the dimmer scene to 1 to rule out the controller having a scene issue?

 

[Kisai]

It's been 20 years since I've done anything with stage lighting, but the thing that comes to mind is that the lighting controller might not have something programmed for it. The system I was familiar with had like 24 channels and a dipless crossfade feature, but channel 23 and 24 were connected to the house lights which could be overridden at the stage or the front-of-house. 

 

https://www.leviton.com/en/docs/D4DMX_User_Guide.pdf

If I'm reading this right, the dimmer can operate independently of the lighting controller, which is what it sounds like it's doing. You have to program the dimmer with what channels to listen on for the lighting controller to take it over. Then in the lighting controller you have to assign those addresses to channel(s)

 

https://www.blizzardpro.com/products/snokontrol#downloader , grab the manual for the lighting controller and check how to program it.

 

Take note of this part:

Quote

3.1.2 Fixture Addressing The controller is programmed to control 32 channels of DMX per fixture, therefore the fixtures you wish to control with the corresponding SCANNER/PAGE buttons on the unit, must be spaced 16 channels apart

So with that in mind you want to make sure the D4DMX is programmed according to the table.

 

[TubsAlwaysWins]

36 minutes ago, Kisai said:

It's been 20 years since I've done anything with stage lighting, but the thing that comes to mind is that the lighting controller might not have something programmed for it. The system I was familiar with had like 24 channels and a dipless crossfade feature, but channel 23 and 24 were connected to the house lights which could be overridden at the stage or the front-of-house. 

 

https://www.leviton.com/en/docs/D4DMX_User_Guide.pdf

If I'm reading this right, the dimmer can operate independently of the lighting controller, which is what it sounds like it's doing. You have to program the dimmer with what channels to listen on for the lighting controller to take it over. Then in the lighting controller you have to assign those addresses to channel(s)

 

https://www.blizzardpro.com/products/snokontrol#downloader , grab the manual for the lighting controller and check how to program it.

 

Take note of this part:

So with that in mind you want to make sure the D4DMX is programmed according to the table.

 

Even with the dimmer set to be controlled by the controller, it won' work.

I figured out how to get the dimmer to operate seperatly from the controller (so at least i can turn them on), but its getting it to work with the controller that's the problem. It makes the rest of the lights freak out (change colors, turn off, etc)

 

Im having the contractor that installed them come out next week to hopefully fix them and teach me a thing or two.

 

I will go back at it tomorrow (if I have time) and try the things in the manual again

[TubsAlwaysWins]

2 hours ago, mr moose said:

My immediate thought is if all your other scenes work but the dimmer doesn't, then the dimmer function might be cactus.

 

I'm just starting to learn this stuff too, so probably can't be much further help.

 

EDIT: have you tried swapping the dimmer scene to 1 to rule out the controller having a scene issue?

 

Im thinking its probably a setting on the control board because I know it worked at one point

[mr moose]

5 minutes ago, TubsAlwaysWins said:

Im thinking its probably a setting on the control board because I know it worked at one point

Ahh, then I am no more help to you.  Hope you work it out.