Hybrid devices, dimmers, addresses and channels

in your example:

"Coloursource:
Channel to unit address: fine. channel 81 to address 2/321
what about the power source? channel 300 to dimmer 1/54"

Is the colorsource getting power from a dimmer or a non dim circuit? The Dimmer field in LW6 refers to the power source. Using a conventional instrument, the address actually is calling out a dimmer. that address can be anywhere between 1 and 512. LW6 usage in the Dimmer column would never be able to go beyond the number of dimmers you have. your address for the first dimmer in the rack may be 321, but as far as LW6 is concerned the Dimmer Column is talking about the dimmer in slot 1.

Think of the dimmer column as your load calculation center. I know, it's not how I grew up thinking about dimmers. The way DMX started was to fire off dimmers, and that term has been used as a synonym for DMX Address forever.

LW6 has a killer load balancing application found under Setup / Dimming and Control. You can define where the rack is fed from, give it a name, specify dimmer or non dim, rack size, start # and end#, etc. the Details tab allows you to specify how the rack is built for phasing. you can load pre-made phase templates, or make your own.

For dimmers, I name them D1 > D whatever, and for non-dim racks I use N1>N whatever, depending on how many circuits that rack has. as long as the phasing is accurate for the rack you're going to use, and the Load column is accurate, the reports section of Utilities has fantastic tools that makes load balancing quick and easy.


"what is the "typical way" to list this? would unit 1, channel 81 address 2/321 also list dimmer 54, since that is the power source for the unit?"

I'm unclear here. is your address 2/321 patched to the 54th dimmer in the rack? If so, then yes, if you've set up your rack (say a 96 ch rack) to have dimmers 1>96. This way you can use the dimmer field to print labels for your rack, in the order they occur.

Dimmer Column is always associated with a fixture. a fixture may have a channel number, but the dimmer column only refers to the power source.

"Right now I can have in the instrument hook-up, channel 19 patched to unit 14.1, dimmer 232, AND unit 14.2 IQ patched to dimmer 236 (since that is the power source), BUT 14.3 lists channel 300 patched to dimmer 236 (which is actually correct, as the non-dim power supply). so it reads as if 2 channels controlling 1 non/dim."

let's break it down,

Channel Unit# Dimmer
19 14.1 232
? 14.2 236
300 14.3 236

you can have as many fixtures on one circuit as the load allows. I routinely put 5-8 LED fixtures on one non-dim circuit. There is no control. There is only a switch. you don't need a channel number for a non-dim circuit.

hope this helps!

Hi Andrew,
We have the same problem and as a work around we use a User column and label it Hotpower. I have all the ND in my LW file with the appropriate CH and Dimmer info and then I use  the Hotpower column for the CH of the Hotpower supply.

I hope that makes some sort of sense to you...


Florian