Is THIS a good light controller?

[fueledbymusic]

Its hard for me to know whether the Dj community will say its good or its a peice of shit! Well anyway. Is THIS a good controller or will I be criticized???? I don't know alot about them. But Im learning more and more about it, as time goes by.

Well for myself I am interested in buying this controller (HAHA, looks like an equalizer!)


Its a Chauvet Obey 40. http://www.ebay.com/itm/390441182710...ht_2414wt_1149 The reason this ad catches my attention is the incl DMX cables for which I will need to. So why not save money by buying this auction! It almost safe to say that, online is the ONLY place. Cause it gets really expensive to go a store out of IMPULSE to buy this! For instance. I was looking at DMX cables. Guitar Center is asking about $30 for a 25 foot cable. DAMN. Buying 4 will put me out of business! LOL. It it very substantially CHEAPER to buy on Ebay than in a physical store! For another instance: Bought my American Audio CDI300 system for $500 brand new with free shipping. That was 2 years ago. At that time, at guitar center, they had that same CDI300 system for $700+ tax.

WELL ANYWAY, enough of that! Now to talk about light controllers. I am not too concerned about the price. I just want a light controller that I can mount on my rack along with the light switch sys.
I will be looking at moving all light "switches" to the top of the rack
I was looking at the Obey 10, as this looks like a nice one, then I saw the 40, which is alot better than the 10 and only $20 more. So what the heck! Ill just get the 40. Now for the Obey 70, I don't have any desire for that one basically cause it is way more than I need.

I just basically want a controller that I can use to control the 4 Chauvet LEDsplash 86bs I have (planning on 2 more LEDsplash 86bs). As of now, I don't have any other DMX light other than the 4 par cans I have (later 6). But Im very sure I will be buying a couple DMX lights in the future. May not be soon.

Now one other thing. The LEDsplash 86b's have a 3 pin DMX hook up. The cables they are incl in that auction. They are 5 pin. Will I have a problem trying to use those 5 pin DMX cables on my LEDsplash 3 pins EVEN if I have an adaptor? Like this one http://www.ebay.com/itm/DMX-5-PIN-MA...item53e1411f0c

[Silver Man]

I have the Obey 40 and I only use it as a backup so you should be good with it if you are only running a couple of LED fixtures. I run about 20 LED Pars, 6 Scanners, 2 heads, hazer, and several dimmer packs. This is undersized for what I need to do and I use computer base. Again, I do use this as a backup in case the computer part fails. Again, for what you have, it should be fine. The biggest thing to think of is what will you do when you expand beyond the Obey 40?

As for the cables, I am assuming that they would sell you 3 pin DMX as the Obey is a 3 pin connection. As for the quality of the cables, that you need to be careful of. In my experience, the cables that came with lights/controllers were not worth anything and I often throw them away. If you need cables, I would check out Nick of Event Pro Live on the forums. He can probably hit you up with cables at a better price than what you are finding locally.

[djscrizzle]

Do note that you can make or buy XLR 3 to 5 pin adapters as needed. 3 pin XLR is far more common, and 5-pin is the original DMX standard. The industry has mostly went with 3 pin XLR, as it's significantly cheaper than 5pin connectors.

[Synaxis]

The Obey 40 will suit your needs just fine. I used to have an Obey 70 too, but I upgraded after wanting more features.

[DJ Riddims]

I purchased the Obey 40 a few months back to run a pair of moving heads and a LED bar and I am happy with it. It will be fine for your use. It took me only a few days to become comfortable using it. It will be fine for your use.Though, it took me a few months to create a decent looking chase. It will be fine for your use. I wasn't sure how much of an improvement dmx would make to for my small light rig but in my first gig using it I got compliments on my lighting from guests for the first time. Just remember you need to put a decent amount of time in creating scenes to actually see an improvement in your lighting rig even for your wash lights. Randomly selecting colors, brightness, etc. makes dmx pointless for a mobile dj in my opinion.

[fueledbymusic]

I have the Obey 40 and I only use it as a backup so you should be good with it if you are only running a couple of LED fixtures. I run about 20 LED Pars, 6 Scanners, 2 heads, hazer, and several dimmer packs. This is undersized for what I need to do and I use computer base. Again, I do use this as a backup in case the computer part fails. Again, for what you have, it should be fine. The biggest thing to think of is what will you do when you expand beyond the Obey 40?

As for the cables, I am assuming that they would sell you 3 pin DMX as the Obey is a 3 pin connection. As for the quality of the cables, that you need to be careful of. In my experience, the cables that came with lights/controllers were not worth anything and I often throw them away. If you need cables, I would check out Nick of Event Pro Live on the forums. He can probably hit you up with cables at a better price than what you are finding locally.

When you say the cables that come with this auction are not worth anything. It what way are they bad. Quality like in breaking apart easily? Oh also. When you say you run 20 par and etc. Are you meaning that you need a controller that can control all 20 of those par cans by each individually one?

One other question about this. If I DMX daisychain my 4 par cans, does that count as hooking up 4 fixtures out of the capacity of 12 on this Obey 40 or is it considered "one channel" as in one fixture out of 12. Cause I have seen that while daisy chained, where all 4 will simultaneously do the same thing as the first one. For example, if I want to make one par can red, they all simutaniously all turn red. That is considered "one channel" right? OR HOW DOES THAT WORK??

[djscrizzle]

My understanding is that one channel of DMX can be assigned to several identical fixtures, or relay packs for that matter. They all have to be set to the same address (to respond as just one would) too.

4 Colorstrips can occupy one group of channels, 16 pars can take up another, 8 moving heads assigned to another group. Each fixture usually wants a group of 4-5 channels. The more channels a fixture has, the more control you have over it.

[sss18734]

You can set your par cans to separate DMX channels to have independent control, OR you can set them all to the same DMX channel so that they all do the same thing. Your choice. The Obey 40 is fine for your needs.

[Silver Man]

When you say the cables that come with this auction are not worth anything. It what way are they bad. Quality like in breaking apart easily? Oh also. When you say you run 20 par and etc. Are you meaning that you need a controller that can control all 20 of those par cans by each individually one?

As for the cables, the quality is not good in that I had signal issues with the cables provided. The wire/connectors they used was so bad that it made the signal dirty and it confused the lights. (I have since moved away from running DMX cables to using wireless with 17 receivers and 2 transmitters (1 for backup)) As for the pars that I run, I have each on a separate set of channels so I can control each individually. My full lighting system utilizes about 250 DMX channels.

One other question about this. If I DMX daisychain my 4 par cans, does that count as hooking up 4 fixtures out of the capacity of 12 on this Obey 40 or is it considered "one channel" as in one fixture out of 12. Cause I have seen that while daisy chained, where all 4 will simultaneously do the same thing as the first one. For example, if I want to make one par can red, they all simutaniously all turn red. That is considered "one channel" right? OR HOW DOES THAT WORK??

DMX requires you to daisy chain all your fixtures together. Go from the controller to light 1, light 1 to light 2, light 2 to light 3, light 3 to light 4. As a side not, at this point, I would strongly suggest using a DMX terminator at the end of the run to avoid any signal bounce back that will cause your lights to run erratic. Now, let's clarify the channel discussion. Each DMX lights run on a set of channels. When you configure your light, you only set it to the first channel that is used, but it will require the use of subsequent channels. A simplified LED DMX light will use 3 channels. Channel 1 will control the Red LED, Channel 2 will control the Green LED, and channel 3 will control the Blue LED. So, the fixture will use channels 1-3. If you want purple, you will put channel 1 and channel 2 to 100% and leave channel 2 at 0% (this tuns on red to full and blue to full.)

When you hook up multiple lights, each one will have to have it's own dedicated set of DMX channels for each light to work independently. If you don't mind each light doing exactly the same thing (All red, all blue, all purple, etc), then assign them to the same starting channel. With your setup, I would set it up as following. I would put Fixture 1 on channel 1, Fixture 2 on Channel 17, Fixture 3 on Channel 33, Fixture 4 on Channel 49. This is because the Obey 40 assigns a group of 16 DMX channels per fixture. This will give you more options on control and give room for more fixtures later. You will have quite a few channels that are not used in between, but for what you are doing , that is fine. Does this help clear it up?

[Silver Man]

Do note that you can make or buy XLR 3 to 5 pin adapters as needed. 3 pin XLR is far more common, and 5-pin is the original DMX standard. The industry has mostly went with 3 pin XLR, as it's significantly cheaper than 5pin connectors.

Slight correction, 3 pin DMX is more common in lower level equipment. This would include DJ lighting equipment. When you get to the professional touring and stage equipment, they predominately use the 5 pin connections. You can buy or make cables that transfer between 3 and 5 pin (my hazer is 5 pin, but everything else is 3 pin.) So, it depends on level of equipment you use as to which type of connection you need.