DMXter4 RDMtm
The New STANDARD DMX Tester
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON DMXter4(A) RDM

SOFTWARE RELEASE NOTES -V4.32 and all earlier releases too.

View the Supported RDM PID's

TRANSMIT -

  • The DMXter4 can ADJUST ONE SLOT at a time.
  • It can AUTOFADE thru a dimmer system, bringing each successive dimmer up to full and down again.
  • It can ADJUST A RANGE of dimmers to the same level; the range may be set to any width. Optionally it can cycle thru  ranges.
  • It can ADJUST ALL SLOTS to the same level.  
  • SEND/EDIT SNAPSHOT can resend data recorded from a console, or let you build or edit that data as it is sent
  • The DMXter4 supports the alternate start code messages that are a feature of E1.11 including:
    • Send and receive text packets
    • Send the DMX512A hex 55 test packet.
    • Send and receive System Information Packets (SIP)
  • SIP software allows monitoring the number of packets received, while keeping track of three different types of errors. This code may be used to monitor working systems in the field or help with the development of new systems supporting SIPs. The extent of this code can be judged by the fact that it adds a dozen new menu items. Many of these items are cursor menus with four or five different parameters per menu item.

Intercept and Modify

This feature  allows you to receive a universe of DMX  while resending the same universe. You can inspect any of the slots and take control of those slots, modifying their levels.This means you can share the lighting system, taking control of just the slots you need to do your work.  This routine also cleans up DMX512 with unusual timing, allowing the use of  receivers that require a conservative DMX flavor.
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Graphic Receive routine

This routine allows 32 slots to be viewed at once for a quick overview. Each slot is displayed as a 10-state bar graph. One state shows which slots are at zero, one state shows which slots are at full. The remaining 8 states show intermediate levels. Optionally the exact level of the first displayed slot can be read in all three number formats.

Viewing Received Levels on a PC

If you have a PC with a terminal emulator installed you can now view the DMX levels on your PC.  The display on the PC will  look like the one shown below. This display shows slots 1 through 128. Three other pages are available to show all 512 slots. The display below is a percent display; decimal and hex displays are also supported.
 

DMXter 4 RDM   View Levels Page 1 (1-128)
 PROTCOL:DMX%   Receiving Data

  
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20
 100 100      57  86  12      

  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40
                                 100              75  50  77  76  50          56

  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50  51  52  53  54  55  56  57  58  59  60
  90            2 100                        

  61  62  63  64  65  66  67  68  69  70  71  72  73  74  75  76  77  78  79  80
                                             100

  81  82  83  84  85  86  87  88  89  90  91  92  93  94  95  96  97  98  99 100
                   22                     31                          39

 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120
                 100                      44              45          71     100

 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128
          79         100 


Flavor Control - Variable DMX512 Timing

The DMX512 standard is widely used in theatrical lighting and effects. Different equipment uses different aspects of the standard for a wide variety of purposes. The DMX512 standard allows wide variation of certain parameters. We allow you to vary five important parameters of the transmitted signal to help the DMXter4 mimic as many products as possible. We group these parameters into presets which we call ‘flavors’. The DMXter4 provides you with eight flavors, three of them user-defined. Those parameters you can vary are:
  • Break Length in μs
  • Mark After Break Length in μs
  • Numbers of slots sent
  • Interslot time in μs
  • Mark Before Break  in m/μs (Interpacket Time)
  • Receive can measure all the above, and it can measure the interslot time between the START Code and the first data slot.
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MULTI CHANNEL MODE
DMX512 was conceived as a dimmer control protocol. Today many different theatrical devices are controlled by DMX512. Many of these devices, particularly moving lights, use more than one DMX slot. Our Multi Channel Mode moving light software will let you:
  • Define a fixture type using 2 to 99 slots.
  • Define the number of similar fixtures in a contiguous block. A block may contain from 1 to 99 fixtures.
  • Many multi channel fixtures have an internal dimmer, but some do not. For fixture types that use an external dimmer, the software allows patching of the intensity control channel to any slot.
  • If the external dimmers are in contiguous blocks, a simple auto patch routine will set up the patch with the absolute minimum of key strokes.
  • Some multi channel fixtures use discharge or arc style lamps. Many of these lamps may not be turned on and off at will. To make it easier to deal with these fixtures, the software can define one slot as the arc lamp control slot. This slot’s level will never be changed except by an explicit instruction.
  • Enter test values for any specific fixture. Consider you are testing a lighting system with 15 moving lights; the first light starts at slot 93, each light takes 11 slots, and the iris is on slot 7. What slot is the iris on lamp 13? Just select fixture 13, slot 7, there is no need to calculate the absolute dimmer channel address. If you wish to view the absolute address, a simple key press will display it. Once you are finished testing one fixture, you may move to the next one with a single key stroke. As an option the values you set for the first fixture may be copied to the next fixture. The old fixture is returned to one of three definable conditions.
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ShowSaver

How would you like to have a backup DMX512 controller? ShowSaver allows your DMXter4 to work as a backup device.
  • Store up to eight 512-slot ‘looks’. Record the looks from the output of your console or create them using the DMXter4's keys.
  • Assign a 1-16 character name and a 0-30 second fade time to each look. View and edit stored looks - live or blind.
  • During playback, cross-fade between any two looks or fade to black. During playback, adjust individual slot levels on-stage without altering the levels in the stored look.
  • During playback, adjust a proportional Grand Master.
The DMXter4's ShowSaver is useful for testing dimmers and color scrollers too!

Our more sophisticated show controller is called ShowPlayer.

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RECEIVE SCOPE TRIGGER HARDWARE OPTION

All DMXters provide a synchronization output that may be used to trigger an oscilloscope to view the unit's output. Synching a scope to an unknown source of DMX512 is notoriously difficult. For occasions when this is necessary, the RECEIVE SCOPE TRIGGER hardware allows you to synch to a received DMX512 signal from any source. This option provides the hardware; the software is included in all units. The hardware is an external scope trigger generator card. The RECEIVE SCOPE TRIGGER hardware option is not for general DMX512 users. This is an analytical test function valuable in the R&D lab and for serious component level troubleshooters. The RECEIVE SCOPE TRIGGER option will allow you to:
  • Trigger on beginning of BREAK
  • Trigger on end of BREAK
  • Trigger on beginning of START CODE
  • Trigger after any slot - this may be set to be conditional on START CODE and/or slot level. One shot or continuous modes available.

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Goddard Design Company
51 Nassau Ave.
Brooklyn NY 11222 USA
718 599-0170 718 599-0172 fax
http://www.goddarddesign.com

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last updated Aug. 21, 2016

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