DMX Addressing/Address Mode
After focusing your Merlin-C, you may wish to cable it up to a DMX controller and address it.
To do that, you must first understand that your Merlin-C uses 7 channels of DMX per “Address”.
That is to say that each Merlin has 7 channels of control and so the first Merlin-C in your
system will have the starting DMX address of “
001
”, the second will have the starting address
of “
008
”, and so on.
To set the DMX address of your Merlin-C, press the “Menu” key and scroll through the menu
using the “up” or “down” keys until the display reads: “
ADDr
”. Press the “Enter” key and then
raise or lower the “address” value (or starting channel number) using the “Up” or “Down” keys
until you have found the correct number. Press the “Enter” key and your Merlin-C is now
addressed.
Note that the 4 small “Value-Marker” LED’s on the display will begin to blink as soon as you
have changed the value from where you started. This is to signify that you have made such
a change and after you press the “enter” key, they will stop. This is useful if you happen to
forget which channel or other value you started from and want to return to that channel or
other value because you have decided not to change it. These LED’s will blink anytime you
make a change anywhere in any menu and stop blinking if you return to the original value or
if you press the “enter” key and select that new value.
Each DMX channel or “handle” coming from a controller has 255 “increments” of power within
that “handle”. That channels function and the things triggered by the ascending increments
within that channel for your Merlin-C are listed here:
Channel 1: Moves The Merlin-C’s X-Axis
Channel 2: Moves The Merlin-C’s Y-Axis
Channel 3: Y and X-Axis Speed
0 is normal or “fast” and the Merlin-C will scan slower
as you increase the value towards 255, with 255 being the slowest scan rate possible.
Channel 4: Color Wheel
0-15 (open-no Color) 16-119 (individual Colors, one through
eight) 120-240 (Half-Colors) 241-255 (Color scroll, slow to fast)
Channel 5: Gobo Wheel
0-23 (open-no-Gobo) 24-191 (individual Gobos, one through
seven) 192-255 (Gobo scroll, fast to slow)
Channel 6: Dimmer Paddle
0-19 (closed) 20-127 (0 to 100 open dimming)
128-239
(Strobe, Fast to Slow) 240-255 (open)
Channel 7: Reset/Home, Lamp Power-Down
**
/Re-Strike
0-127 (nothing). 128-191 (wait 5 seconds and Merlin-C will home/reset all of its parameters:
Position, Color, Gobo and Shutter. If the lamp has been shut down or gone out due to power or
data failure, it will re-strike) 191-250 (nothing). 251-255 (Lamp will shut down
**
)
This Channel is
especially
important as it allows you to “home” or reset your “Merlin-C, should
it begin to act strange due to corrupt DMX data, dirty position sensors, local power failure or
for any other reason
**
This feature allows you to write a “Macro” program that will let you shut down your lamps,
without
shutting down your Merlin-C’s. This will let the fans continue to run (we recommend 10
full minutes) before you power down the units. This will not only save you from lamp explosions
due to over-heat, it will allow the Merlin-C to cool down at a better rate and give your Merlin-C
and your lamp a much longer life between servicing.
12
Operating Mode
This section of the menu allows you to operate your Merlin in many diverse ways. To enter the
operating mode section of your Merlin-C, press the “Menu” key and scroll through the menu using
the “up” or “down” keys until the display reads:
“
MoDE
”. Press the “Enter” key and then scroll
through the different modes using the “Up” or “Down” keys until you have found the mode you wish
to use. Press the “Enter” key when you have found the mode you wish to use. The modes, what
they do and the LED displays for each mode are as follows:
“Master” or “DMX” Mode Display reads:
“
M-DM
”
This is the mode for using DMX control. After selecting this mode, you must also “address” your
Merlin-C accordingly (See Page 12). This is also the “Master Mode” in which this particular unit will
be the “Master” of a chain of “Slave” units all doing the same thing. (See Below)
“Slave Mode” Display reads: “
SLAV
”
Selecting this mode will render this unit a “Slave”. It will now do exactly what the unit in front of it in
the DMX cable data stream is doing as long as the first unit is set up as a “Master” and has a DMX
address. For example: The first Merlin-C in your cable run is set to “Master” and given a DMX
address of 001, then you set the next two heads down the cable run to “Slave”, with no DMX
address. They will do exactly what the “Master” is being told to do by the console. You can then
place another Merlin-C in the cable run after those “slaves”, set it to “Master” and address it as 008
(a different address from the first “Master”). If you set the next unit (or units) in the cable run to
“Slave”, they will copy
that
(number 008) master unit’s movements exactly and so on down the cable
run.
“Auto Mode” Display reads: ”
Auto
”
We have programmed a small, multi-stepped program into each Merlin-C. Without any outside
control, your Merlin-C unit will go through all of its ranges of Motion, Color, Gobo and Shutter
repeatedly. At this time, and on this model, this function is not re-programmable and cannot be
changed by the end user.
“Sound-Activated Mode” Display reads: ”
SnDA
”
This is the sound-activated, “Stand-alone” mode. Each Merlin-C is equipped with a highly-sensitive
microphone (See Figure 13.) It will react to deep bass or loud sounds by going through all its
different abilities. Each Merlin-C will act differently, so you won’t have a bunch of heads doing the
exact same thing. This mode is useful if you just want to have some fun with your Merlin-C and don’t
want to set up a controller and miles of cable. Or if, for some reason, your control console has gone
down, you can still have a “moving” light show to get you through the night. The only two drawbacks
to using this function are that if the music stops, so does the Merlin-C
and
you have to manually shut
down the lamp to cool by setting the unit to “DMX” mode, then letting it shut itself off after not
receiving DMX signal for 60 seconds. After ten minutes of letting the fans run, then you can power
down your Merlin-C.
Pan/Tilt Inversion Modes
This section of the menu allows you to “invert” the pan and tilt function of your Merlin-C. This is
handy when trying to program or operate a unit that has been hung ”upside-down” from a pipe or
truss.
Pan Inversion Mode
To enter the “pan” mode section of your Merlin-C, press the “Menu” key and scroll through the menu
13
