# Patching an LED Par into Express 24/48



## Franklinscott57 (Jul 11, 2011)

hey Guys,


I'm using one LED Par light in a show I am lighting, and can not get the fixture to patch into the theatre's board. The board is an ETC Express, and the fixture a COLORdash Par from Chauvet. I have looked, but can not find any tutorials on patch LED fixtures into an express as intensity channels, or as a personality.

Can anyone please help me out here? Preferably, I would like to know how to set up the fixture as three different intensity channels RGB. Even links to a tutorial would help.

Thanks


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## derekleffew (Jul 11, 2011)

From COLORdash :

> 3, 4, or 9-channel RGB wash light
> Operating modes:
> 3-channel: RGB control
> 4-channel: RGB, dimmer
> 9-channel: RGB, ID addressing, dimmer, macro, strobe, auto / custom



To patch the light *without* using a fixture personality:
1. Make sure the light is in 3-channel mode.
2. Set the DMX address to something higher than your dimmers, i.e. if you have 96 dimmers, I'd address the light as 101.
3. Patch "dimmers" 101, 102, 103 to three consecutive channels. It now works no different that if it were three lights connected to three dimmers, just all focused in the same place (like a striplight/cyc light).

To use the light *with* a fixture personality:
See Programming Moving Lights on an ETC Express(ion) - ControlBooth .
Decide on which mode best suits your needs (probably more than the basic 3-channel RGB mode).
If you can't find an existing profile, beg HansH, starksk, or other, to write a personality for you, or do it yourself using the Expression Personality Editor program.
Follow the rest of the steps in the manual and the collab. article above.


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## xander (Jul 11, 2011)

Everything derekleffew said is correct, but I might just add that using the fixture patch for an LED unit on the Express would be a horrible idea. Without any encoders it would be far more cumbersome to use than just patching as individual channels like you had planned to do.

I would also add that if (I know that's a big if with only 96 channels) you have enough channels available, I would use the 4-channel mode. The additional channel is a phantom intensity channel. This becomes extremely useful when fading LEDs to black and vice-versa on a simple board like the Express that can't switch color spaces. I would then take it one more step and make the 3 color channels (2, 3, and 4) independent and LTP in the channel attributes screen.

-Tim


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## jglodeklights (Jul 11, 2011)

A note about the "dimmer" function on some LED's. I do not know if it is true with the ColorDash, but on some Chauvet and other brands' fixtures the "dimmer" function works the opposite of the way we normally program. As you raise the value of the "dimmer" on the console, it makes the fixture darker.


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## xander (Jul 11, 2011)

jglodeklights said:


> A note about the "dimmer" function on some LED's. I do not know if it is true with the ColorDash, but on some Chauvet and other brands' fixtures the "dimmer" function works the opposite of the way we normally program. As you raise the value of the "dimmer" on the console, it makes the fixture darker.


That is not the case with the ColordashPAR, but good note. If it were true, you could always flip that for the channel so it would act "normal".


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## Franklinscott57 (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice. Turns out, I forgot to change the number of dimmers in my set up to a # above 512 (as I am running my DMX from the board's second port to the fixture) . Just a simple step I forgot, and it caused me soo much agony. I really should try to be less forgetful...


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## DuckJordan (Jul 12, 2011)

Or paperwork helps out alot, making a DMX chart is a good way to keep track of those.


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