Show Designer 1: programing multiple lights as one fixture

Hi Dan4governor and welcome to the forums.

That question is an easy one. What you want to do is address your fixtures the same that you want to be controlled on the same fixture channel. So for example, if you have 8 Opto 30 RGBs, and want the first 4 to be fixture one and the next 4 fixture two, simply address the first four as channel one and then address the second four as channel seven (using 6 channel mode).

I would only recommend doing this with similar fixtures, otherwise it can get pretty crazy control wise.

Thanks SerraAva,

I set up my lights on the same channel and I am able to control them as one fixture.

However, I don't think I was specific enough with my question. I was wondering if I could set up the lights as one fixture, but still control them individually.

For example, I have several American DJ par 64 LEDs that use 6 DMX channels. A fixture can support 32 DMX channels. Is there a way I can set them up so that faders 1-6 control par 1, 7-12 control par 2, 13-18 control par 3...and so on, that way I can use all 32 DMX channels per fixture and still have individual control over each light?

Thanks for your help so far,
Dan

You can do this by modifying the fixture profile. You will need to change the profile to specify that. say fixture 1, has as many channels as you would like to compile into a single fixture.

For example, if you have 3 fixtures that are 4 DMX channels each, and you want to control them as "fixture 1", you will want the profile to reflect that fixture 1 is a 12-channel fixture.

This is accomplished in the fixture setup/patching in the menu. As a result. when fixture 1 is selected, channels 1-4 control the first unit, channels 5-8 control the second unit, and channels 9-12 control the third

You have to be careful to make sure all of the other settings reflect what you want to pull off. For example, you'll have to make the blackout channel "ALL" so that all three units will black out when fixture 1 is selected. Unfortunately, this will cause gobo, color, pan, and tilt information to be lost because it will turn "all" channels to zero, rather than just the shutter or dimmer channel. This is one of the downsides to operating this way.

You should be able to make it work this way, but you'll just have to be aware of which fixture the individual units are coupled with. Otherwise, it's a crafty way to add more fixtures into the mix when the controller is initially limited to 16.

Hope that helps some.

Best,
-Tech

Thank you so much! I set it all up and it works great! Thanks for the tip about the blackout channel, I wouldn't have thought of that. I don't need to worry about gobos or anything since I'm pretty much just controlling led pars and led bars.
Thanks again for the input, you really helped me.
Dan