Specifications

214 LightJockey Help file - (C) Martin Professional 2010
LightJockey Help
See also DMX in translation
DMX in translation
How to use translations
Usually translations will be used when patching a DMX in channel (e.g. from a fader on a conventional
DMX console) through to DMX out via the global patch dialog. Since a fixtures DMX protocol may map
several functions to the same DMX control channel it is often desirable to map the full control value
range (0-255) into a limited selection of the control channel values so a single function may be
controlled from a full fader range.
Note: DMX in translation values are considered global to the lightjockey installation and thus not
copied or restored when doing user library backup/restore.
To transfer any user made translation tables to a different LightJockey installation you must manually
copy the files located in the <LJ installation>\User\Valuetables\ folder from the source to the target
PC.
Example, controlling a Martin MX 10 strobe from a fader on an external console
DMX values
Function
0-49
Shutter on/off commands
50-72
Strobe fast->slow
73-207
More shutter commands and
strobe macros
208-217
Fixture reset
218-255
More shutter commands and
lamp control commands
Martin MX-10 shutter control channel (simplified)
Using translation, the full fader value range (0-255) can be translated into the value range for the MX-10
strobe (50-72) which controls the MX-10 strobe speed. The translation may even 'invert' the direction
so the MX-10 strobes slowly at low values and faster as the fader is raised, which is opposite the
fixture protocol itself which will strobe fast at low value and slower as the value gets higher.
Using a 'disable' value
Global patch disable DMX in at value 0
In the above example, mapping the full control range (0-255) into the fixture strobe control range (50-
72) is not ideal, since that would cause the fixture to strobe continuously (since DMX in patched to
DMX out). The global patch dialog implements options to temporarily 'disable' the DMX input value at
the values of either 0 or 255 - by translating a part of the original DMX values (usually the first few
values such as 0-5) to either of these 2 values, and setting the corresponding option in the global
patch dialog, the console fader now 'disables' at values 0-5.
Creating new tables
Since there are literally thousands of possible translation tables (each fixture type may require its own
set of translation tables) and LightJockey distributions only supplies a few sample tables, there is a
very good chance that users will have to create their own translation tables based on specific fixture
protocols - see below.
Available translation tables and assigned translations
When assigning a translation table to a DMX in channel, the translation table is selected from a pool
of available tables. The table pool is system-wide which means that it is available in all user libraries,