Hi,
I purchased optima dmx 512 ,it has 16 channels.
I have laser and 2 intelligent lights that I want to control but just can't get anything to work.I read all the info about addressing the dmx and all I just don't get it.
I need someone to explain to me step by step how to operate just one fixture please,i think if I figure out one fixture operation rest should be easier.I have 10 dip switches in the back of the fixtures,how do I set them because dmx is saying one way,the fixture manual is saying the other way,I tried both ways it doesn't work.I am so frustrated with this.
Please any help will be appreciated.
thanks everyone
Al

Download the 101 PDF and also the dip calculator. They will both help you immeasurably. If you still have questions let me know. your controller isn't a Elation product but I can help you with DMX basics.
Sincerely,

I downloaded PDf 101 and DIP calculator but I still don't understand the procedure how to get my lights to produce any light,pan ,tilt or any other options.I don't know what setting to use on my dip switches or what address to set my controller.This is so confusing.
Please help me out.
Thanks
Al

Aww ok. no problem. 2 questions: 1) do you have any elation lights or ADJ lights that you are trying to use with this controller? Just seeing if there is any real reasoning for helping you out as your controller is not one of ours unless I am not correct on which controller you have. but if it is not Elation or ADJ we really don't "support" it, get what I mean?
2) give me a link to your controller.

So but for example the ADJ DMX operator 192 provides 192 of dmx channels for a user to control. It does this by giving the user 12 fixture button which each button contains 16 channels of DMX control. So 12x16 is: 192. So say we had 4 ADJ com scan LED's which are 5 dmx channels and we wanted a different com scan attached to a different fixture button on the op 192. So scan one would be set too start at dmx address 1. which is dip switch 1 on and all the others off or down but most fixtures have a 10th dipswitch to tell the fixture to listen for dmx or do it;s own thing via a built in mic. So fixture 2 would start at dmx channel 17 which would be using our handy dip calc from our website we type in 17 for the dmx section and we see that the calc is telling us that dips 1 and 5 or to be on and the rest are off. now fixture number 3 needs to start at 33. that would be dips 1 and 6. fixture 4 would be a starting address of 49 which would be dips 1 and 5 and 6 on. Make sense? when you hit fixture button 1 you then are controlling with each single fader a channel between 1 and 16. for fixture button 2 channels 17-32. you see the pattern?

Now Dipswitches, each dip switch has a value that lets you combine many of them to tell the unit to start listening to which DMX starting channel. The fixtures programming tell the controller how many channels it is using. so here is the break down for dip switches.
I will post the number of the dipswitch and the corresponding value for that number of dip switch.
1=1
2=2
3=4
4=8
5=16
6=32
7=64
8=128
9=256
So to get a dmx address of say 123 you would use dips 1,2,4,5,6,7.
A easier example would be to set a address of say 9. that would use dips 4 and 1. So you see by adding up the values of the dip numbers to arrive at a certain starting address that tells you which dips to use. Make sense? hope this helps.
Sincerely,