Light O Rama iDMX-1000 User Manual

iDMX-1000

Intelligent DMX512 Converter

User Manual

October 8, 2007

V1.01

Copyright © Light O Rama, Inc. 2007, 2008

Table of Contents

Introduction.............................................................. 4

What’s in the Box..................................................... 4

Important Considerations......................................... 5

Quick Start Guide .................................................... 6

General DMX Discussion......................................... 7

Experimenting with the Hardware Utility ................ 10

Sequence Editor and iDMX-1000 .......................... 14

Hardware ............................................................... 17

Assigning a Unit ID............................................. 17

Network Connections......................................... 19

Powering the iDMX-1000 ................................... 20

Data LED ........................................................... 20

DMX Connections .............................................. 20

Polarity Switch.................................................... 21

Select Button...................................................... 21

Resetting the iDMX-1000................................ 21

Starting a Standalone Sequence.................... 21

Status LED......................................................... 22

Termination Resistors ........................................ 22

Nitty-Gritty .......................................................... 23

Hardware Utility Version ........................................ 25

Standalone Mode................................................... 26

Updating the Firmware .......................................... 27

Troubleshooting..................................................... 30

Refresh does not find the controller ................... 30

Status LED not on at all ..................................... 30

iDMX-1000 Unresponsive – Status LED

On/Fluttering ...................................................... 31

DMX Fixture Does Not Respond........................ 31

Appendix A – LOR/DMX Intensities....................... 32

Appendix B – Unit ID to DMX Channel .................. 33

Specifications and Features .................................. 35

iDMX-1000

Page 4

Introduction

The iDMX-1000 is a Light O Rama (LOR) controller
that converts LOR protocol to DMX512 protocol. It
allows shows designed with the LOR Showtime
software to control DMX512 lighting and effects
fixtures.

Whether the show is controlled by your PC, an LOR
Show Director or an LOR controller running in stand
alone mode, you can add a new dimension to your
display using DMX enabled devices like moving
head lights, strobes and smoke machines.

The iDMX-1000 can also operate as a stand alone
device. Its flash memory can hold 5,000 LOR
commands that can direct DMX512 fixtures without
being connected to an LOR network.

This intelligent device allows access to all 512
channels in a DMX Universe. It also supports 64
intelligent channels that can perform high level LOR
controller commands like fades, twinkling and
shimmering. There is no configuration for intelligent
channels, they are automatically allocated by the
iDMX-1000 as needed.

What’s in the Box

In addition to your iDMX-1000 Converter you will
also receive this user manual

The latest copy of the manual is available at

www.lightorama.com ► Support ► Using the

Hardware – Documentation and Firmware section.

iDMX-1000

Page 5

Important Considerations

There are two versions of the LOR Showtime
Windows software, LOR I and LOR II. LOR I can
only handle controllers with 16 circuits or channels.
LOR II can handle controllers with 256 circuits or
channels.

Only the first 256 DMX channels can be used by
either version of the software. In a future release of
the LOR II software, controllers with 512 circuits will
be supported. This will make available all 512
channels on the DMX network.

The iDMX-1000 supports two addressing modes.

1. Unit ID set to a multiple of 16 (e.g. 10, 20, 30,
…E0 in hex)

2. Unit ID set to any other Unit ID between 1 and
F0 hex.

If its Unit ID is set to a multiple of 16 then it will take
16 Unit IDs in sequence. For example, setting the
Unit ID to E0 would allocate Unit IDs E0, E1, E2, ,,,
EE & EF to this iDMX-1000. DMX channels 1-16
would be referenced in a sequence by using circuits
1-16 on Unit E0. DMX channels 17-32 would be
referenced by using circuits 1-16 on Unit E1, etc.

You can use “multiple of 16” Unit ID mode to access
256 DMX channels through a single iDMX-1000 in a
LOR I environment. Either Unit ID mode works in a
LOR II environment.

Appendix B – Unit ID to DMX Channels gives the
mapping of LOR Unit IDs and circuits to DMX
channels (addresses.)

iDMX-1000

Page 6

Quick Start Guide

This section assumes that you are familiar with LOR
lighting controllers, the Showtime Windows software
and that you have Hardware Utility (HWU) version

1.6.5 (see the Hardware Utility Version section) or
later and have already configured and connected an
RS485 adapter on your PC.

This section will get you to the point of controlling a
DMX fixture through the iDMX-1000 with the
Hardware Utility.

If the default Unit ID of E0 hex is not convenient for
you, see the Assigning a Unit ID section to change it.

The iDMX-1000 must be powered by a USB485B
RS485 adapter, a nearby lighting controller or a 12
VDC power pack. See the Powering the iDMX-1000
section for more information.

Cable the iDMX-1000 to the PC’s RS485 adapter
with a CAT5e LAN cable and start the HWU. The
Status LED on the iDMX-1000 should go from
blinking to on steady when the HWU is running.

Connect your DMX fixture to the DMX Out on the
iDMX-1000. Its DMX address range must be less
than 256. For this discussion, we will assume the
DMX fixture’s start address is 1 which would
correspond to Unit ID ‘E0,’ circuit 1 on the LOR
network. See the Assigning a Unit ID section for
more information.

Start the HWU and click the Console button on the
upper right. The Test Console window will pop up. In
the Controller Type section click the iDMX-1000
radio button. In the DMX Channel Mode section click

iDMX-1000

Page 7

the Virtual Controllers radio button. Use the Select
Unit Id drop down menu to select the address of your
iDMX-1000. Since “multiple of 16” unit addressing is
being used, only the most significant digit of the
address can be selected.

Pick a DMX address for the device that does
something visible like pan. If the pan DMX address is
4, this would be circuit 4 on the LOR network side.
Move the slider for DMX channel 4 and the fixture
should pan from left to right. If it does not, try
changing the Polarity Switch on the iDMX-1000.

Refer to the Experimenting with the Hardware Utility
section for more information.

General DMX Discussion

DMX512 (Digital Multiplex) was initially developed by
the US Institute of Theater Technology in 1986. It is
a very simple system that uses the RS485 electrical
protocol to transmit packets of up to 512 bytes. If you
are only using DMX channels 1 to 256, then the
packet only needs to be 256 bytes. The data rate is
250,000 bits per second. The data packets are
transmitted back-to-back as quickly as possible.

The maximum length of all cable in a DMX512
network is between 1,000 and 1,500 feet, depending
upon the number of DMX fixtures daisy chained. The
maximum number of ‘loads’ (usually fixtures) in a
daisy chain is 32. It is important to use good quality
cables and make sure the network is terminated.
‘Terminated’ means placing a 120 Ω ¼ w resistor
between pins 2 & 3 of the cable of the last DMX512
device in the network.

iDMX-1000

Page 8

The DMX512 specification calls for the use of 5-wire
cables using XLR-5 connectors. These cables tend
to be very expensive and two wires in the cable are
almost never used. It is also inconvenient for
theaters to keep separate sets of cables for DMX
and audio. For these reasons, most DMX512 fixtures
you will see use 3-pin XLR microphone connectors.
Adapters that convert between XLR-3 and XLR-5 are
readily available. Microphone cables without
termination will work in environments with short (100’
or so) cable lengths. Trial and error works here.

Each byte in a DMX512 packet corresponds to a
DMX channel. The first byte is channel 1, the second
byte is channel 2, … The bytes can have values
from 0 (minimum intensity) to 255 (maximum
intensity.) How this ‘intensity’ is used is up to the
DMX fixture. It could be the actual intensity of the
light, or it could be that 0 means ‘all the way to the
left’ and 255 means ‘all the way to the right’ for a
lighting device with a moving mirror.

DMX fixtures usually have many channels assigned
to them. You generally set the base address
(channel number) of the fixture, and then that
address and perhaps the next 7 are also assigned to
the fixture. Here is a partial channel assignment for a
theoretical light scanner:

Channel Value Function

1 000-255 Pan, Left ►Right, 128 = center
2 000-255 Tilt, Up ► Down. 128 = center
3 000-005

006-128
129-240
241-255

Shutter closed (no light)
Shutter open (0-100%)
Variable Strobe (slow ► fast)
Shutter fully open (max light)

4 000-025 White

iDMX-1000

Page 9

026-050
051-075
076-100
101-125
126-150
151-175
176-255

Red
Blue
Yellow
Green
Orange
Purple
Linear color change

5 000-015

016-031
032-047
048-063
064-079
080-095
…

Gobo 1
Gobo 2
Gobo 3
Gobo 4
Gobo 5
Gobo 6
…

Figure 1

You could configure this fixture to be on DMX
channels 1-5, or you could use its address setting
configuration menu to change it to channels 17-21. If
it were moved to DMX channels 17-21, then DMX
channel 21 would be used to select the ‘Gobo.’
(Gobos are translucent films that can be rotated in
front of the light to overlay patterns or shapes)

Notice that there is often a range of values that
select a function. This is done because these fixtures
are often controlled by light boards with sliders being
moved by humans. People are not accurate enough
to move a slider to the 203rd position out of 255, so
the fixtures respond to a range.

DMX fixtures are daisy chained together. They are
normally given unique address ranges so that each
fixture can be controlled individually.

Remember that the values in the DMX512 packet
are being transmitted over and over. If the light

iDMX-1000

Page 10

controller (person using a console or iDMX-1000
converter) changes a channel that controls intensity,
then the fixture that is looking at that channel will see
the new value the next time a packet is transmitted.
The fixture will then move to the new intensity. Even
with all 512 channels in use, the packets are being
transmitted over 40 times every second.

See the Experimenting with the Hardware Utility and
Sequence Editor and iDMX-1000 sections for
information on using DMX fixtures with LOR effects.

Experimenting with the Hardware
Utility

This section explains how to use the Hardware Utility
(HWU) on your PC to experiment with DMX fixture(s)
attached to your iDMX-1000. You must have HWU
version 1.6.5 or later, see the Hardware Utility
Version section.

You can use the HWU to experiment with different
intensities to determine how the fixture reacts.
Depending upon the DMX channel referenced and
the capabilities of the DMX fixture, the intensity may
select the lamp’s brightness, the color of the light, a
gobo, the horizontal or vertical position, etc.

You can also experiment to determine starting &
ending fade percentages and fade rates to
determine what fade will move the light beam from
the starting position you want to the ending position
you want in the time you want. If one DMX channel
controls pan and another controls tilt, in the
Sequence Editor you can simultaneously fade both
channels to get the light to move in both directions at
once.

iDMX-1000

Page 11

If you do not have the iDMX-1000 cabled to your PC,
see the Assigning a Unit ID section (it is ok at this
point to have other controllers connected to the LOR
network.)

For the purposes of this demo, the theoretical light
scanner from General DMX Discussion section will
be our test case, and it will be configured to use
DMX addresses 1 to 5. This means that it will be
circuits 1 to 5 on the iDMX-1000. Refer back to
Figure 1 for the DMX channels assignments.

Start the Light O Rama Control Panel: click start ►

All Programs ► LightORama ► Light-O-Rama

Control Panel. There will be a light bulb with a blue

halo on the right side of the task bar at the bottom of
the screen. Right-click the light bulb and select
Hardware Utility (HWU) from the menu. You will see
this window:

Click the Console button on the upper right. This will
bring up the Light-O-Rama Test Console:

iDMX-1000

Page 12

In the Controller Type section on the lower left, click
the iDMX-1000 radio button.

In the DMX Channel Mode section on the lower right,
there are two options:

1. Virtual Controllers – in this mode, the iDMX­1000 appears as 16 consecutive controllers
starting at the base Unit ID. You will only be
able to select the most significant digit of the
Unit ID from the Select Unit Id drop down
menu.

2. Extended Circuit Ids – in this mode, the iDMX­1000 appears as one 256 channel controller.
This mode is not supported by the LOR I
Sequence Editor, but is supported by the LOR
II Sequence Editor.

See the Assigning a Unit ID section for more
information on these two modes.

In either Unit ID mode, the Select Channel Group
slider allows you to choose which block of 16 DMX