Best way to interface an FSEQ playing board to a lighting board?

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1pet2_9

Active member
Hello, is anyone using their Falcon (or similar) to combine together with their DMX stage lighting and have both the Falcon and the existing stage lights play back FSEQ files? I'm using a Chamsys MagicQ XXL board--which has chases, effects, and all that, but not so much an FSEQ playback. My Kulp outputs DMX, as does my MagicQ board. My MagicQ accepts RJ45 and I think Artnet, but I don't know how exactly to configure the MagicQ as a FPP remote? That would seem the best way. Or should I reroute my MagicQ's DMX output to take in the Falcon players? Thanks!
 
You can only have one source of show data (Christmas/ Stage etc). In your case the MagicQ is the source of show data. It would need to generate the fseq messages. A quick look at the specs on a random model gets you these statements:


  • QuickQ supports output of DMX over network via ArtNet/sACN/Pathport

sACN is E1.31 wo the console can drive things like the Falcon Boards


  • Remote triggering of Playbacks and Execute items via OSC

They appear to have their own stored playback format that can be generated on a PC or MAC and loaded onto the console. That then generates E1.31 traffic to your Falcons
 
I guess I should generalize my question:. has anyone found some good best practices for running Xlights and then playing back programmed FSEQ on stage lighting? I know people are running DMX on moving heads. But this is to meld in an entire existing stage setup that's been working with a good $2500 lighting board, loaded down with bells & whistles and a 100-page user manual.
 
Thanks MM. I thought of making the MagicQ the master, but then I thought (don't know, though...) that the DMX board doesn't understand ws2811. So although it could drive E1.31 to a falcon, how would it know what to tell the pixels what to do?
 
There is no DMX in E1.31. There are 512 channels in each universe used to do whatever you want. Think of it this way: On the MagicQ console, channel 1 is Pixel 1 Red, Chan 2 = pix 1 green, chan 3 = pix 1 blue, chan 4 = pix 2 red etc. A 12 channel board can drive 3 pixels. How many channels does your board support? The saving grace here is that many controllers have the concept of pixel groups. That means you could set the controller to send the chan 1-3 data to the first N pixels and the chan 4-6 data to the next N pixels allowing a smaller number of channels to control a larger number of pixels. This is kind of like making a custom N:1 string of pixels.
 
Running this by DIYC:. my DMX board takes Artnet. I think I have my board configured to take Artnet, but I am not successful in getting an FPP player to talk to it in Artnet. The board is not Discoverable in Xlights. One does not configure the board to be an FPP remote, since it is does not run FPP. Is it correct that I ought to be able to configure my FPP master to hard-code the IP address and tell it to transmit in Artnet, non-multisync? I think that is right in principle, but I might be doing it the wrong way

Anyway, I noticed FPP has standard plugins for big green button and brightness. It seems to me that a full-blown set of sliders as a plugin is not that far off. Why even need the board? Or any board?
 
Yes you can hard code an address into the FPP output configuration that would send artnet to your board. You would be subject to the normal network limitations but it should work for a few thousand pixels.
 
My plan was to run pixels off the FPP master, and DMX off the light board, without actually having to physically rewire much. The board should be configurable just to accept Artnet in the firmware. I just must be doing something wrong, since the board is not an FPP.
 
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