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OPERATION MANUAL
JB SYSTEMS
®
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OVERHEAD RIGGING
Important: The installation must be carried out by qualified service personal only. Improper
installation can result in serious injuries and/or damage to property. Overhead rigging requires
extensive experience! Working load limits should be respected, certified installation materials
should be used, the installed device should be inspected regularly for safety.
Make sure the area below the installation place is free from unwanted persons during rigging, de-rigging
and servicing.
Locate the fixture in a well ventilated spot, far away from any flammable materials and/or liquids. The
fixture must be fixed
at least 50cm
from surrounding walls.
The device should be installed out of reach of people and outside areas where persons may walk by or be
seated.
Before rigging make sure that the installation area can hold a minimum point load of 10times the device’s
weight.
Always use a certified safety cable that can hold 12times the weight of the device when installing the unit.
This secondary safety attachment should be installed in a way that no part of the installation can drop
more than 20cm if the main attachment fails.
The device should be well fixed; a free-swinging mounting is dangerous and may not be considered!
Don’t cover any ventilation openings as this may result in overheating.
The operator has to make sure that the safety-relating and machine-technical installations are approved by
an expert before using them for the first time. The installations should be inspected every year by a skilled
person to be sure that safety is still optimal.
ELECTRICAL INSTAL ADDRESSING
Important: The electrical installation should be carried out by qualified personal only,
according to the regulations for electrical and mechanical safety in your country.
Electrical installation in DMX-mode:
The DMX-protocol is a widely used high speed signal to control intelligent light equipment. You need to
“daisy chain” your DMX controller and all the connected units with a good quality balanced cable.
Both XLR-3pin and XLR-5pin connectors are used, however XLR-3pin is more popular because these
cables are compatible with balanced audio cables.
Pin layout XLR-3pin:
Pin1 = GND ~ Pin2 = Negative signal (-) ~ Pin3 = Positive signal (+)
Pin layout XLR-5pin:
Pin1 = GND ~ Pin2 = Negative signal (-) ~ Pin3 = Positive signal (+) ~ Pins4+5 not used.
To prevent strange behavior of the light effects, due to interferences, you must use
a 90
Ω
to 120
Ω
terminator at the end of the chain. Never use Y-splitter cables, this
simply won’t work!
Make sure that all units are connected to the mains.
Each light effect in the chain needs to have its proper starting address so it knows
which commands from the controller it has to decode. In the next section you will learn how to set the
DMX addresses.
How to set the DIP-switches to obtain the right starting address:
Each of the first 9 DIP-switches correspond to a certain DMX-value:
DIP
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
Value
1
2
4
8
16
32
64
128
256
Slave inversion not
used in DMX-mode
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OPERATION MANUAL
JB SYSTEMS
®
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You can combine the values of these switches to become any starting address between 1 and 512:
Begin address = 01
switch 1=ON
values: 1
Begin address = 05
switch 1+3=ON
values: 1+4 = 5
Begin address = 09
switch 1+4=ON
values: 1+8 = 9
Begin address = 13
switch 1+3+4=ON
values: 1+4+8 = 13
…
Begin address = 62
3+4+5+6=ON
values: 2+4+8+16+32= 62
HOW TO OPERATE THE UNIT
1. Standalone 1unit:
Important: The DMX address MUST be set to 001.
(first DIP switch = ON, all other are OFF)
Just connect the unit to the mains and put on some music. The unit will start working automatically to the
rhythm of the music.
2. Two or more units in master/slave setup:
Connect 2 or more units together using good quality balanced XLR microphone cables. The unit that has no
cable connected to its input will react as master, the others are the slave units.
Important: On the master unit the DMX address MUST be set to 001.
(first DIP switch = ON, all other are
OFF)
The slave units can have any DMX address value but NOT 001!
You can inverse the behavior of one or more slave units by changing the position of DIP-switch n°10 on
these slaves. Just try it and see if the effect becomes better. Changing DIP-switch n°10 on the master has
no effect.
3. Connect the optional CA-8 controller for more control:
The CA-8 controller can only be used in standalone or master/slave mode. Connect the
controller to the jack input of the first unit (master). Now you can control all the connected
units:
4. DMX-mode:
When the units are connected in DMX-mode, they can be controlled using the following DMX-chart:
Stand by
Blackout the unit
Function
1. Synchronous Strobe
2. Alternating Strobe
1. Clockwise Rotation
2. Counterclockwise Rotation
Mode
Sound (LED OFF)
Slow ~ no sound (LED ON)
