Question about Chauvet controller

B

BJ James

Junior
Jan 11, 2011
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I just picked up a Show Designer 50 controller for rentals. Just needed something cheap. I see now that it is a 48 channel controller. One lighting package we rent out is LED's and small dimmers with the last 4 channel fixture having a starting address of 73. I cannot find a menu on the controller that lets me output DMX to any channel past 48.
Am I SOL here? I never dreamed there would still be a controller with this limitation still being sold. Or am I missing something obvious on the controller?
Any help much appreciated.
BJ
 
Re: Question about Chauvet controller

48 channels does not get you very far in DMX unless you're dealing with a very small number of fixtures with very minimal channels required per fixture. If you are not willing to compromise and re-allocate some of your fixtures to share an address, you're out of luck.

You could probably do something useful with 4ch mode LED pars and 4 ch dimmers. You can have 12 unique outs this way. Not great, and forget about movers etc, but usable for simple rentals.
 
Re: Question about Chauvet controller

BJ James said:
I just picked up a Show Designer 50 controller for rentals. Just needed something cheap. I see now that it is a 48 channel controller. One lighting package we rent out is LED's and small dimmers with the last 4 channel fixture having a starting address of 73. I cannot find a menu on the controller that lets me output DMX to any channel past 48.
Am I SOL here? I never dreamed there would still be a controller with this limitation still being sold. Or am I missing something obvious on the controller?
Any help much appreciated.
BJ
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what you expected for $200!?

According to the manual there is a little patching ability (pg 10), but it doesn't mention being able to patch above channel 48. Even if you could, I don't see how you could control 73 channels with a 48 channel board.

Your other option, as Jeff suggested, is doubling up the LEDs.

Duane Massey often recommends the Elation ShowDesigner series - you may want to look into those.
 
Re: Question about Chauvet controller

I also brought this particular unit in because I needed a hardware wing for Bluelite software. The submasters are arranged in 2 rows of 12 as is the SD50. I guess I was just also hoping to use it as a standalone unit as well, although it will do fine for smaller setups. I do notice pretty bad flickering when fading out a scene with the SD50 as a wing. No noticeble flickering when fading directly from the software/laptop. For sure wouldn't mind picking up a half decent controller.
BJ
 
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