Small cheap DMX controller

[White-Light]

Mark, if you haven't bought it yet, the Chamsys full MagicDMX dongle is cheaper than the Enttec Pro by a couple of £20 notes.

Only thing is the Enttec Pro 2 comes with a 3 XLR breakout included (expandable to 3 XLR + 2 Midi) compared to a single XLR from the Chamsys. Guess it depends on how many connections you need.

I see Chamsys supports both products so its horses for courses.

Just thought I'd chip in as I'd been looking at the Enttec myself, primarily because its also the breakout solution that Pangolin support.

[Insanity]

Mark, if you haven't bought it yet, the Chamsys full MagicDMX dongle is cheaper than the Enttec Pro by a couple of £20 notes.

Chamsys is the mutts nuts, if you want to grow into lighting or have control of hazers, etc then you're all set for a good few years to come. If you have a touch screen already for LP, you can drag and resize the Execute window onto it so you have a strip of DMX control at top/bottom/wherever.

Hey Adam,

I got an Enttec Pro, thought it was the best option as I could use it with BEYOND as well, once I get time to play with it and once BEYOND becomes a bit smoother on muliple QM2000's.

But yeah I agree, Chamsys is brilliant. Building cue stacks is so easy. I still have a hell of a lot to learn though. At the moment I'm trying to get my head round configuring the buttons. WookieBoy set the buttons above the cue stack faders, so I can tap a beat in and they hold the beat really well. Now I am trying to sus out how to configure the flash buttons as toggles. I use it on a touch screen, but faders are never great on touch screens.
I used the Mini Wing on a gig the other week (was freelancing again) and that makes things so much easier, but £650!!! I found some older 'B' Stock ones for £300, but they were out of stock and I am guessing will never be restocked...

Only thing is the Enttec Pro 2 comes with a 3 XLR breakout included (expandable to 3 XLR + 2 Midi) compared to a single XLR from the Chamsys. Guess it depends on how many connections you need.

I see Chamsys supports both products so its horses for courses.

Just thought I'd chip in as I'd been looking at the Enttec myself, primarily because its also the breakout solution that Pangolin support.

Not really, Chamsys only supports more than one universe and MIDI if you have a wing connected, and the Mini Wing (£650) is the cheapest... But for 5 lasers with 9 channels each and a couple of hazers, I'll never need more than 1 universe, plus I have 8 outputs on a splitter/amplifier in my stage rack. I think the Enttec Pro 2 is a fair bit more expensive than the original as well...

[White-Light]

Not really, Chamsys only supports more than one universe and MIDI if you have a wing connected, and the Mini Wing (£650) is the cheapest... But for 5 lasers with 9 channels each and a couple of hazers, I'll never need more than 1 universe, plus I have 8 outputs on a splitter/amplifier in my stage rack. I think the Enttec Pro 2 is a fair bit more expensive than the original as well...

Fair point Mark. I just noted when I was looking that Chamsys state Enttec Pro support. I don't really know the ins and outs of the Chamsys software. The Pro 2 version is £127 btw.

[m0f]

Thanks to this thread, I ordered one of the 10£ magic dmx basic usb / dmx cables a couple of days ago. Have been planning to get an enntec pro for the last couple of years to control my fog machines from beyond, but my expendable income always seems to get diverted to more directly laser related items I stumbled across these a few years ago, but somehow forgot about them. A great opportunity to learn a bit about chamsys in the mean time..

[norty303]

Now I am trying to sus out how to configure the flash buttons as toggles. I use it on a touch screen, but faders are never great on touch screens.
I used the Mini Wing on a gig the other week (was freelancing again) and that makes things so much easier, but £650!!! I found some older 'B' Stock ones for £300, but they were out of stock and I am guessing will never be restocked...

If the cue/stack is on the Execute window then you can change it's function by selecting the button in design view, and then toggle the button type using the soft button next to the E or F jog wheel (F I think). It can be S (solo), F (fader), latching (I think this is default behaviour, not sure of the letter)

If you're goig top buy a wing I'd stump for the PC wing as a minimum if you have any intention of doing more than just laser control. I picked mine up used on Blueroom for £800 some years ago iirc.

[telmnstr]

Hardware controllers I've owned are Behringer (crap, but got it for $20) and a Colortran Encore console. Non DMX includes Intellabeam LED and LCD controllers and now rebuilding a Technobeam controller.

But I mainly use Freestyler DMX. It's free, and can drive a number of DMX adapters. I have the MagicQ trial dongle from Chamsys but have never really gotten into it. The ability to run it on Linux seems neat, but I guess I haven't put enough time into learning it.

FreestylerDMX is Windows based and fairly decent. It includes a plugin for doing some Animated GIF -> LED array or dimmer pack driven array. I don't know how well it handles having multiple universes, or split artnet and usb adapters and all that.

I put in a feature request for midi channels to be split so it will work better with the Akai APC-20 and APC-40 controllers. I can't remember if it directly does OSC or if people use OSC to MIDI bridge hacks. But hey, unlike Chamsys Magic Q they don't charge you $500 for a proprietary midi dongle to plug in a controller.

FreestylerDMX is free. Give it a try. You can make custom fixtures for the laser projectors with the fixture editor.