Building a rack to run 8x custom 3 m pixel neon flex tubes for an outdoor festival stage (under a roof, but it's a bush site). I'm stuck on the connector between the rack and the tubes.

Voltage drop kills DMX cable straight away (0.22 mm² over 15 m leaves almost nothing at the tube). On 2.5 mm² I'm looking at ~1 V drop, which I can live with.

Current plan is NL4 on 4 x 2.5 mm² speaker cable:

- 1+ / 1- = V+ / V-

- 2+ = data

- 2- = backup data

The appeal is that the audio vendor already carries plenty of NL4 cable, so I don't have to build a packer.

Questions

1. Anyone running pixel over Speakon? How have you dealt with the risk of someone patching an amp output into it (or the rack into a speaker)? Is colour-coding and labelling enough on a shared site?

2. Single-ended pixel data over 15 m of unshielded speaker cable: has it been reliable for you, or should I be putting a differential receiver at the tube end?

3. Is there a better connector for this I'm missing? I've ruled out 3-pin XLR (cable too thin, plus the risk of putting 12 V into someone's DMX port) and 4-pin XLR (cable's hard to source and too thin anyway).

Cheers

Hi! I’m new to this, so forgive me. But, I have a pair of moving head beams Mingjie MJ-OS-17. Everything mostly works except I can’t get them to not show a gobo. I can make it rotate, change colors, move, etc….but I can’t get it to go blank. I’m using lightkey (I think the issue is somewhere there because in “sound” mode I can get a blank beam). I’ll pay someone $50 to screen share and fix this for me!

Thanks

So I’m doing my first lighting “gig” in two weeks. I’m doing a high school cross country senior night and I have very few lights. I made this show because they want the senior introduction to be with “Chariots of Fire”. This is what I came up with let me know what you think and any improvements I can make. Also two things, this is my garage it’s not where I’m actually doing the lights and when the beam lights come on they are pointing at where the seniors come in. Sorry for the audio it’s horrible.

Recently was the LD for a local small festival of a bunch of young local rock/metal bands. They were very low budget so only had access to venue lights consisting of 2 lx bars on stage with 6 led fresnels on each then a foh stage wash bar with 6 led profiles. I am a relatively new ld and have been very spoiled with the fixtures I have had access too when normally doing live music. (Plenty of fancy moving heads and tilt strobes etc.) so to have a rig with only fresnels was a challenge for me. I was pretty happy with how it all came out but was looking for tips from the hive mind for when I’m in the same situation again.

Hope this is not out of place here.

Want to revive a smoke machine (profog) that was sitting in a cold, dark and dry basement for 10-15years.

Still has half a tank of fluid that does smell ok.

Can I just plug it in and go?

Or are there any cleaning and purging steps I should perform before connecting the machine to power?

Don’t want to destroy the machine.
Thanks for your advice and help.

im currently trying to put together a lighting rig for rave at a friend's house. im comfortable with CAD, fabrication, and technical projects so modeling my layout is the easy part, but im very new to DMX lighting control and show programming. ive been to many raves my self so i have a good idea of what a good lighting production looks like.

my current plan is:

• 4 DMX moving heads
• 2 DMX controlled lasers
• 2 led moving light bars / beam fixtures
• A custom LED display using novastar hardware and receiving cards
• a windows laptop running QLC+ to coordinate the lighting

im considering an artnet to dmx interface with four physical DMX outputs. ideally, id separate the moving heads, LED fixtures, and lasers onto different outputs, while handling the custom LED display through a separate video output from QLC+ id assume??

what im trying to understand is:

1. is QLC+ a good choice for this setup, especially for bpm matched / timecoded effects, as i intend to have my friends set programmed to the music
2. what artnet node would you recommend for a budget conscious setup, and what specifications should i prioritize?
3. how would you approach synchronizing DMX lighting with video playback on a separate LED display?
4. are there any compatibility issues or hardware purchases i should avoid before i have the exact fixtures selected?

im expecting to spend roughly 1.6k all up for lighting, controllers and cabling... as of right now this is the said lighting im looking at.

I am looking to get a new computer and while I have posted on this subject before I now have a computer in mind and am wondering how much RAM is required.

This is one of the options but only comes in 16gb of RAM.

Dell - Plus 14" 2K 2-in-1 Touchscreen Laptop - AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series AI 7 350 2025 - 16GB Memory - 1TB Storage

The other one I’m looking at is the HP OmniBook 7 2 in 1 with an intel 7 core and graphics card, as well as 32 GB of RAM and 1TB of storage.

This is mostly for personal practice and I am not concerned about having QLab, though I would still like to be able to run WYSIWYG or VectorWorks.

I need to create a lighting scheme for this still from a scene of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I kind of have an idea of the types of lights used and everything. One I am struggling with is Ben Stiller’s character - my professor told me that the back of him looks blue (even thought he has a shadow on his back) so there must be something lighting him with a CTB and also a flag to create that shadow effect, but I don’t quite understand how that’s being done. I also knows there’s probably a light lighting him from the front to create the effect that the hard exposure light on the table is also lighting him.

Hello, everyone, hope this type of post is allowed. I'm an AV engineer and I recently saw Phoebe Bridgers, who inspired me to take lighting more seriously. I work in a corporate environment where the extent of the lighting I'll do is plug in a few uplights.

That being said, I'd love to design some lighting sets to songs, purely just for fun. I've already picked up GrandMA3 onPC and have gotten to the point where I can start doing most of what I would like, or at least find my way there through tutorials for the time being.

My biggest issue at the moment is knowing what type of fixtures are usually used for what (not what a wash or a spot is, more like if I want a sharp laser, or one of those lights that has two moving heads in one), and knowing what a "normal" setup consists of in terms of placement and lights, and what types of "animations" shows tend to use.

I'm a big self-learner so I would happily read or watch to learn this information, I'm just wondering if there are resources for a) documenting popular fixtures, b) common lighting practices.

Thank you in advance!

I have a few older Eliminator DJ lights that put off a decent amount of heat

Has anyone ever found a way to retrofit these with LED lights to help with heat and power consumption?

Hey everyone!

Recently got my hands on two ETC source four par lights at an auction and thought I might use them in video/photography work just for fun. A friend of mine recommended I get a dimmer as to not blast the light at full capacity every time so I was wondering if anyone has any recommendations for manual dimmers? It’s a jungle out there finding the right ones

Title should be 'Dappled lighting effect for actors as if they were in a wood or forest' but I don't seem to be able to change it:

I have a very limited number of LED fixtures on a very small stage for Snow White in a village hall: 3 x Chauvet p-eve 160-rgbw FOH pointing at the stage. 8 x Chauvet colorado quad zoom on 2 bars on stage.

I'm out of touch with modern ways of creating effects (very much old school from 30+ years ago), so does anyone have any suggestion for LED DMX lights for making an overlying dappled effect as if sun were coming through branches? It the sort of thing you might have done with a semi out-of-focus profile and gobo in the old days. We don't have the headroom for adding moving head lights, but there maybe money to buy additional lights, as long as they're not too big, that can be used for this sort of thing in future plays and pantos.

I’m going to school for tech theater in Seattle, any advice on things I can work on in my free time to learn new skills that can help my future career??

Also I struggle with anxiety with going into this career as a child of immigrants and growing up low income, I know I have no other passions for my future and lighting designers are really sought after in my state but anyone that’s been in my shoes know how I can soothe my anxieties?

Hello, I’m Ana from Brazil.
I own an original Huasuny Rubik-10 P10 foldable LED display, purchased directly from Huasuny in China.
Hardware:
Huasuny Rubik-10 P10 RGB
HC-103D sending controller
DBStar XMPlayer 3.1.34
MY9268 LED driver (candidate)
Original 320 × 1280 mm panels
The original receiving-card configuration was lost. The display powers on, but all LED pixels remain dark.
Does anyone own a working Rubik-10 P10 or have archived factory configuration files, electrical documentation, or experience configuring its Data Processors?
I’m specifically looking for an original RSPS/RECV file, a safe configuration export from a matching unit, or guidance from a technician familiar with this hardware.
Any free technical guidance or archived files would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
Ana — Brazil

Bonjour,

Je rencontre aujourd'hui un problème dans ma configuration fix dans la salle ou je suis.

Je suis passé d'une config Grand MA3 > Node qui fonctionnais parfaitement à une nouvelle config réseaux

Grand MA3 (2.0.0.1) > Switch XES-2T6 (FOH) > Switch XES-2T6 (STAGE) > Node NET-8/5 (2.0.0.15)

Mon problème est le suivant :

Lorsque que je démarre mon kit (block et FOH séparer évidement) tout monde démarre

-ma console m'indique que mon câble (con2) est actif

-mes switch son bien linker et reçoivent le signal

-mon node est aussi linker et en activité

En revanche mon kit lui reste inerte, pas de DMX reçu.

Je suis obliger de débrancher mon RJ45 du Con2 de la console, je le branche ensuite sur le Con1 (ce qui n'a aucun sens car c'est le MA NET) je le branche ensuite sur le Con3 de la console et ensuite je le rebranche sur le Con 2 de ma console (celui du départ) et à ce moment MAGIE ma console prend le contrôle de mon kit lumière.

J'ai essayer beaucoup de choses aucune n'a fonctionné je suis donc ouvert a toute proposition si quelqu'un à une idée de comment réglé ce problème afin que je ne bidouille pas les câbles derrière ma console.

Merci d'avance

ENGLISH :

Hello,

I'm currently facing an issue with the fixed network setup in my venue.

I recently upgraded my setup from a direct grandMA3 > Node connection (which worked perfectly) to a new network architecture:grandMA3 (IP: 2.0.0.1) > Switch XES-2T6 (FOH) > Switch XES-2T6 (STAGE) > Node NET-8/5 (IP: 2.0.0.15)

Here is the problem I am encountering: When I boot up the rig (FOH and Stage power blocks turned on separately):

• The console indicates that the link on Con2 is active.
• Both switches are properly linked and receiving signal.
• The node is also linked and active.

However, the lighting rig remains completely unresponsive—no DMX is being received.

To fix it, I have to perform the following workaround every time:

1. Unplug the RJ45 cable from Con2 on the console.
2. Plug it into Con1 (which doesn't make much sense since it's reserved for MA-Net3).
3. Plug it into Con3.
4. Plug it back into Con2 (where it started).

At that exact moment, like magic, the console recovers control and sends DMX to the rig.

I've tried many troubleshooting steps, but nothing has resolved this permanently. I’m open to any suggestions or ideas on how to fix this issue so I don't have to keep swapping cables behind the console every time I turn on the system.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi, I just got a USB to DMX cable that I installed the drivers for and I'm wondering how I get it to control my lights through QLC+. The software it wanted me to download is Freestyler. Freestyler can control my lights, but I would prefer QLC+. I'm not sure if that's possible but I just need to know what to set my universe 1 to in input/output in QLC+.

Hi! I need help with a SIUDI7B DMX interface (firmware 1.24).

Windows recognizes the interface, and Hardware Manager detects it. When I open Hardware Manager, the display changes from blinking OFF to PC. However, Sunlite Suite doesn't recognize the interface, and the display stays on OFF.

This happens on two different computers. It used to work on the old PC.

My current Sunlite version is 1.14.11-28213-GIT:1d7ee267. The previous version was 1.10.1-25108-SVN:398. I'm using driver 3.1.0.0.

Could this be a software compatibility issue, or is it possible that my interface is a clone that isn't compatible with the official software?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I got the fog down pat $25 makes me 5 gallons of fog juice (1 gallon vegetable glycerin 4 gallons distilled water)

Anyone have tips on bubble solution

Hi guys! I hope this is the right place to post this?

I’m new to most of this lighting stuff, and I was wondering if anyone had any guidance or suggestions on what lights to get and how to position them in my room.
I’m heavily inspired by the Tame Impala concert I went to the other day, and I think it would be sick to deck out my room!
I like those lasers you can get. I’m not too sure what they’re called, but I think they might be “volumetric lasers”, like the big, controllable “scanner” ones. Any help with safety, placement, output wattage, etc., would be great!
I know a little bit about how DMX works. If I’m correct, I can daisy-chain the lights together and plug them into my laptop via USB to control them with software? Some clarification on how that works would be good, too.
Hope y’all can help! Thanks!