Thread: Are you looking to get started in DMX Lighting?

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I saw a few people had questions on how to set up a DMX capable light?

Now I know its a-little late in the season for most to tackle DMX if you haven't already started but heres food for thought.

Last year was my first year using DMX and I had a lot to learn. This is how to set up a light that is capable of recv DMX signals.

If anyone has any thing to add please do!

I am using Chauvet Splash Jr. These lights use up 4 Channels of your DMX.

So assuming your DMX chain is all set up with the enttec and a terminator is at the end of your chain? If you need any help with that just ask.

You want to assign a number to each of your DMX devices and this number will be the channel number you use in your software (in my case Im using VSA) to program that device.

On the back of my lights are 10 dip switches.



I must have the 10th dip switch flipped down to tell the light to recv DMX signals.

So with dip switches 1 - 9 flipped up and 10th down.

Now its your choice as to what number you want to assign to that light. You assign the number you want by flipping down the dip switches to add up to the number you want.

Dip switch #1 has a value of 1
#2 has a value of 2
#3 has a value of 4
#4 has a value of 8
#5 16
#6 32
#7 64
#8 128
#9 256


So if you wanted to assign your DMX light to be number 10 you would flip down dip switch #2 & #4 (plus the 10th).

If you wanted to assign the number 99 (as shown in the photo) you would flip down dip switch #1, #2, #6, #7 (plus the 10th).


One more example for assigning number 118. Flip #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, #7 (plus the 10th).


Now if you have a light that has a digital display like this one that O have on my relay boxes than its even easier. Just change the number to the number you want. Example I have this set at number 73.

Note that as mentioned this light takes 4 channels. So if you assign number 99 to a 4channel DMX device than you will be controlling that device with channels 99, 100, 101 and 102. So don't assign your devices to close together.

So now that you have your device set to a number you will open up your software and use that channel.

The rest of this will be using VSA.

Open VSA and go to: Tools and then Settings (opens a new window)



Scroll down to the number you assigned and name that number to the device. In this case mine is 99


I named my light "Sit" as this is the light pointed at the prop that is sitting. Double click "Device #99 and rename to what you want. The first channel (99) is the control so I named it "Sit C". Second channel (100) is for the color red so i named this channel "Sit R". Third channel (101) used is Green and is named "Sit G". Fourth channel (102) is blue and is named "Sit B".

Next in the "Type" field double click and select from the drop down box "DMX Dimmer"


Next in the "Port" field double click and select Enttec-0 (assuming your using ether Enttec Open or Pro).


Next double click in the field "-Value" and change "Minimum" to 1 and change "Default" to 1


All done. Make sure to save these settings. Click the icon at the bottom left of the opened settings window and "Save as Defaults"

couple of points

1) in VSA you dont have to use device 99 to address DMX channel 99, VSA Device number and DMX address are different

2) in VSA DMX Addresses start at 0 and on DMX devices they start at 1, so a VSA channel set to DMX address 99 will actually address DMX address 100 on the DMX device

3) many chauvet lights have a 'spare' DMX address at the start, so a 4 channel light that you would expect to be brightness/RED/GREEN/BLUE, is actually SPARE/Brightness/RED/GREEN/BLUE, so, when you set the units DMX address so say 99 then the SPARE would be 99, Brightness 100, Red 101, green 102 and blue 103.

4) because points 2 and 3 actually cancel each other out then if you are using a chauvet light then you will find that VSA channel and DMX channel appear to match, but this is only true for VSA using Chauvet lights, replace 1 or the other and you find there is an address error of 1

These pics would have saved me some time starting with DMX. Once I got DMX lights working in VSA, I found that I was spending a lot of time, experimenting with different values on the channels for color and brightness to get the settings that worked best. This is a very tedious process from within VSA. I found free program on the web that allows you to change settings "live". Once I got the light colors and brightness just right, I copied the settings over to VSA events.

Here is a thread I started about that process.

Previewing VSA DMX settings

Thanks Phoenix for the info!

I did wonder why in the case of my lights I wasnt having to add 1 to the number. Guess since there is a "spare" than that would explain it.

I did not know you didnt have to use the same device number to be the same as the DMX number. So what your saying is I could use device #1 (as example) and set it to what ever DMX number I want. Very cool, save me a little scrolling up and down in the window.


buckaneerdude, "very tedious process " is an under statement. I have been writting all my routines just as you described. I did not know there was such a program. I will be sure to use this next year. Thanks for posting.