Man With Feathers

I'm looking into a piece that would involve 8 "domestic" lamps being controlled independently from a max patch.

I am looking at the best way to do this that's reliable and doesn't have flicker.

It looks like something that could be best acheived with:

Has anyone any comments, ideas or experience with this? Could this be achieved cheaper?

I really just need to be able to send 8 individual signals to independently dim 8 regular lamps

Hello,

I'm looking into a piece that would involve 8 "domestic" lamps being controlled independently from a max patch.

I am looking at the best way to do this that's reliable and doesn't have flicker.

It looks like something that could be best acheived with:
 2 * Chauvet DMX-4 Dimmer (or similar)
1 * Enttec DMX USB Pro

Has anyone any comments, ideas or experience with this? Could this be achieved cheaper? 

Hello,

I'm looking into a piece that would involve 8 "domestic" lamps being controlled independently from a max patch.

I am looking at the

dmx-and-domestic-lamps

I made several works based on "domestic" lamps controlled via DMX. Nothing very complicated, but you need lamps with "old school" bulbs (not LEDs) for smooth control. I'm using MIDI2DMX (http://www.midi2dmx.eu) and DecaBox (http://response-box.com/gear/decabox-midi-to-dmx-bridge/) - both devices works as expected.

Oh, there is also a new version of the MIDI2DMX gizmo - can be controlled over Ethernet (UDP) - I didn't use it yet, but as I think, this is something really interesting.

yes those Chauvet/generic 4x DMX dimmers you mentioned are perfect for that kinda thing, if you know anyone in show production they might have 10 units gathering dust you can borrow.

They can hang upside down/any which way behind set pieces easily.

DO have a little math session to make sure your total amperage draw is not too much... few things bumm a show worse than a blown breaker/fuse/fire. I have used a few of those 4x units that had strange, nonstandard fuses in them. Suuper long AC runs from the next building on skinny cheap extension cords are also your enemy.

My only experience w Max and DMX is thru Enttec ODE controllers via Artnet, works awesome, but cannot speak to any USB controllers.

Hey Adam!
yes those Chauvet/generic 4x DMX dimmers you mentioned are perfect for that kinda thing, if you know anyone in show production they might have 10 units gathering dust you can borrow.
They can hang upside down/any which way behind set pieces easily.

DO have a little math session to make sure your total amperage draw is not too much... few things bumm a show worse than a blown breaker/fuse/fire. I have used a few of those 4x units that had strange, nonstandard fuses in them. Suuper long AC runs from the next building on skinny cheap extension cords are also your enemy.


My only experience w Max and DMX is thru Enttec ODE controllers via Artnet, works awesome, but cannot speak to any USB controllers.


There is no "generic" method for handling USB->DMX devices from within Max (no objects or externals as far as I know), because these devices are not standardised. If you want to use Max on the software side I recommend devices communicating over MIDI or Ethernet. Some Ethernet-based devices are using ArtNet and you can find nice ArtNet externals for Max. But personally I prefer MIDI.

I hadn't quite realised the variety of control options.... those lan boxes look great, but beyond the budget of the project!

It looks like the Antecc USB Pro route is the cheapest (£135 with purchase of external?) - this worked for me about 10 years ago, it looks like there's a few problems with the drivers for some people - does anyone know if it works with Max 7 / Sierra Mac?

DMX and domestic lamps