Ok, I did it. I've made the upgrade to DMX control. I just purchased the following toys (cost including shipping) and am eagerly awaiting their arrival:
I plan on using the 4-channel dimmer pack to control both lighting and triggering of another prop via VSA so my 3-axis skull routine is timed well with surrounding props. Cool thing about DMX is that I can add relay and dimmer packs as needed. Oh the possibilities!
Next year I'll be ready to create an entire show fully sequenced in VSA, and have the props interact with eachother all from one computer.
Looks good, though I would have recommended the Enttec Unit at $60 over the Velleman at $75, not only because its cheaper but none of my DMX show control software supports the Velleman.
I considered the Enttek, but I went with the Velleman because it was already 3-pin so I didn't need the 5-pin adapter (another $10), and VSA supports it. It ended up only a couple bucks more expensive, and there's one less connection to worry about since it doesn't need an adapter to go to the more common 3-pin configuration. It also comes with its own lighting control software, Light Player DMX, which is probably more than I'll need for any lighting purposes outside of VSA. The Enttek didn't come with any software.
What show control software do you use besides VSA? I'm totally new to this protocol.
You will probably be fine with then Velleman unit, especially if your planning on keeping things simple.
VSA isn't one of mine, its Brookshire,s, the most significant product is DMXorcist, but if you wanted to go to a BoC servo drive then you will either have to use it at default settings or get an Enttec to reprogram it.
The problem with VSA is that you will only be able to play one routine to your DMX chain at a time, once you get into DMX that starts to become a major drawback.
DMXorcist was designed to fix that problem as it give you the opportunity to play up to 16 VSA routines at the same time over a single DMX chain, this means you could control an entire haunted house from a single computer over a single DMX chain, a couple of routines could be background loops for example, and you could have the rest tied to trigger switches or timers to play a routine on demand.
There is also plenty of free software that uses the Enttec, looking at the download page I count 20 free titles that work with Enttec (and Velleman), the software that comes with the Velleman is pretty limited, I recommend you take a look at freestyler, Im fairly sure its Velleman compatible.
I can understand why you thought the 3 pin connector was a saving, but as you get into DMX you will find that its a false economy, your going to need plenty of 5pin/3pin converters, 5 pin is the correct DMX standard, the problem with 3 pin is that its too easy to screw up your DMX network by using a mic cable instead of a DMX cable.
Watch out for cheapskate sellers on Ebay who sell you Mic cables instead of DMX and try and tell you Mic cables are fine, they are not.
Thanks for the advice. So BoC doesn't work with the Velleman for custom routines? What's do you mean about "default settings?"
I'll probably be using the SSC-32 for a while anyways, but one of the main reasons I went with DMX was to start a foundation for future expansion using a well supported protocol. Who knows, maybe a DMXorcist is in my future.
Velleman provides a DLL with the unit. Would that be sufficient for Skulltronix to start supporting it? I admit, I'm speaking beyond my expertise here
The BoC is programmable over DMX and we have a utility that handles the programming that only supports the Enttec. To run a routine it will be able to connect to any DMX chain so the Velleman will be able to send a routine to it, but, it wont be able to reprogram it.
Velleman do indeed supply a DLL, as indeed do all PC-DMX units, to add support for each one of these devices to all our DMX based programs will cost about $1,000 per device, and since the demand for the Velleman unit has now maybe risen to a total of possibly 1, it would make more economic sense for me to buy an Enttec unit and send it you gratis.
Maybe if demand increases then adding support for the Velleman device will make sense, but in the mean time I strongly recommend the Enttec over the Velleman.
DONT use PRO if you want to use VSA, its not compatible.
The open unit is a bit of a fudge, and there are some reports that it doesn't work with some devices, however, Ive yet to find anything that I cant control using an open device.
I'm going DMX baby!
Linear Mode
