I've bought a new DMX controller on Ebay which is capable of controlling 12 fixtures with 8 scenes and 16 channels. It's from China and doesn't have a make or brand but is like every other controller more or less that does the same things.

Now I've watched a few DMX tutorials and when you select a fixture from one of the twelve buttons on the left then you can move the sliders to make it do things. When you deselect the fixture it should leave it in the last state you left it, you should then be able to select another fixture and carry on.

When I deselect the fixture it turns it off! So for instance I have a ADJ Revo Scan on fixture one and a par 56 on fixture two. I want to leave the par can on blue and then do something on the Revo Scan but deselecting the par can turns it off.

I hope someone can understand my ramblings. Of course the manual doesn't explain it very well.

Yeah that seems strange. It's not much use if it does that!

Have you got a picture or link to the controller?

Yea here it is:



Looks pretty standard to me.

Looks similar to many other desks, but these days that could just mean that the manufacturer has faithfully copied someone else! Chinese OEMs used to copy western products, now they seem to copy each other just as much.

If you're sure it's not operator error, I'd try to get a refund.

When you're selecting the fixture, are you sure you're not "running" a sequence/chase/program? as the fixture buttons (I think, don't quote me), will act as "override" buttons, where you can grab the fixture, override it, then when you unselect it, it releases it back into the running sequence.

Check what "mode" the desk is in.

You may find that an equivalent desk (all rebrands/copies), have varying quality manuals that come with them.

Stairville DMX Master 1, Showtec Scanmaster 1, Transcension DMX Operator 1, Chauvet DMX (Obey 40, and possibly one of their Red coloured ones?), Soundlab G018WC1, And many others all look very much the same/similar, and I'm sure someone commented on here previously that another manufacturer's manual was much better than the one they got with theirs...

Its probably worth having a look around for manuals for some of the above (and more equivalents - search ebay for "dmx controller", will bring up many items that look very similar to yours), and note their model numers/brands etc and then google search for related manuals).

I had considered a similar HW DMX controller after getting frustrated with my Laptop/USB->DMX controller, however since I upgraded to a better USB DMX controller I'm much more happier.. Although I'm still lacking faders and separate knobs for doing some things

Cheers,

David

Thanks for the replies, I'm going to have another "play" with it tomorrow night. On DJ Forums.com one guy said he has the same controller and you can only grab the fixture in programme mode, so I'll try that.

Watching video tutorials on similar controllers people have been able to manipulate the fixture in manual mode and deselecting it leaves the light on.

I've finally figured it out, the unit does need to be in programme mode to be able to release a fixture and it stay on what I set it.

So now I can control all six of my par cans by dmx. Next step is to master programming scenes.

So it was operator error!

Absolutely, compounded with the normal male attitude of not reading the manual, the approach of my half century and senile dementia!

Ha! Sounds like you'll fit in well!

I'm also having trouble trying to understand the 2 page manual of a simple DMX controller I picked up the other day. I can achieve what I need, so no big problems - but I think I need to re-type the manual to work out how to set-up sequences....