User Guide

Quick Guide to the controller
Page 8
2. A quick guide to the controller
This section explains quickly how to access the main features of the controller. If you
don’t know much about intelligent lighting, this section is for you.
Each function is described in more detail later in the manual. If you are familiar with
intelligent lighting or you want to know something specific, you can probably skip this
section.
2.1 What is a head, and how does the controller talk to them?
The controller can operate up to 16 individual heads (intelligent lighting effects). The
controller continuously sends out commands for all 16 heads, whether they are
connected or not, one after the other. These commands are sent out in a standard
control format called DMX (Digital MultipleX).
Each head has its own unique numerical address telling it which commands to
respond to from the controller; this is usually set by miniature switches on the heads
(called dip switches). In standard operation, the controller sends 4 commands for
each head; one moves the mirror left-right, the second moves it up-down, the third
controls the colour and the final one controls the gobo (pattern). So Head 1 has
addresses 1-4, Head 2 has addresses 5-8, Head 3 has addresses 9-12, and so on. On
each head, you set the lowest address it is to use, so Head 1 will be set to 1, Head 2
will be set to 5, and so on.
The dip switches are set in binary code. If you are not sure how to set the dip
switches, the controller can show you a picture of how they should be (see section
4.3 on page 16), or the head will have a label on the back of it.
2.2 How do I make the heads work?
There are 4 ways to make the heads work:
• Manual operation - use the joystick and controls to manually work the heads
• Scenes - When you have positioned the heads to give a nice effect, you can save
the position of all the heads as a Scene. Then you can recall the effect whenever
you want with one button press.
• Chases - You can string together up to 64 scenes to form a dynamic moving
chase
• Light show - The controller will automatically work the heads for you.
You’ll probably want to use all of these ways of operating the controller. Each one is
useful for different applications. Read on…