Cobra DMX Lights easy start - Rookies

[PyroFL]

I am a rookie when it comes to DMX and I didnt find the information on how to build colors or do effects like strobe on cobras website so I hope this helps someone out here if your looking to add lights to your next show.

First thing you will need to do is make a line in CSC to tell it your going to be working with DMX lights on your show. This one event is just to tell it what brightness you would like your lights at.

For each DMX event in your timeline you will need to use ALT+D to create a new event.

Here is what you will need to start, telling CSC you are going to use DMX lights:


Event Time: I just started at 10 sec
Universe: Whatever universe you have setup on your Module for your lights
Channel: 1 (this tells your module your about to send the light level of brightness it will need to be on)
Cue/Value: 1-255 (this will be your brightness level)
Event Description: I labeled it "DMX Lights On"
Duration: Blank
Pre-fire: 0
Lift Time: 0
Pulse Time: 0 (If you dont use zero nothing will work)

From there your ready to start scripting your DMX lights for your show.

Now for each color you will need to find the RGB color mix (code) for each color your looking to use if your looking to use more then just Red, Blue or Green. I found a great website, no need to pay for a app:

https://tools.picsart.com/color/picker Also works great on your phone with a shortcut saved to your home screen

When you find your color your looking to use you will have to enter all 3 RGB color event with all having the same time and duration. Using RGB here are the codes for each color you will build off of

2= Red
3= Green
4 = Blue

Sample to make RGB color Yellow

Event Time: 1:00
Universe: Whatever universe you have setup on your Module for your lights
Channel: 2 (Red)
Cue/Value: 255
Event Description:"Yellow DMX Light"
Duration: Blank
Pre-fire: 0
Lift Time: 0
Pulse Time: 5s

Add another event same as above with new color and color brightness to make the mix

Event Time: 1:00
Universe: Whatever universe you have setup on your Module for your lights
Channel: 3 (Green)
Cue/Value: 255
Event Description:"Yellow DMX Light"
Duration: Blank
Pre-fire: 0
Lift Time: 0
Pulse Time: 5s

Then add one more

Event Time: 1:00
Universe: Whatever universe you have setup on your Module for your lights
Channel: 4 (Blue)
Cue/Value: 0
Event Description:"Yellow DMX Light"
Duration: Blank
Pre-fire: 0
Lift Time: 0
Pulse Time: 5s

Sample above is full Red on and full Green on making Yellow

After that load into your 18R2 and your ready to go ...

Last, if you would like to make the yellow light strobe you will need to add one more command. This command will be another event with the same time line and can be placed before or after your color event line build.

Event Time: 1:00
Universe: Whatever universe you have setup on your Module for your lights
Channel: 5 (telling it you would like for it to strobe your yellow light)
Cue/Value: 30 (strobe speed which range is from 8-255, start with a low number to get started until you find the speed you would like)
Event Description:"Yellow DMX Strobe Command"
Duration: Blank
Pre-fire: 0
Lift Time: 0
Pulse Time: 5s

Cobra DMX system is a basic level system and in no way a full system. Its lights on and off, pick your color, effect and thats it across all lights on that Cobra DMX kit/module. All the lights from one module/DMX kit will all have the same color/effect not unless you split them up to another module.

If your looking to control lights and fire machines like am doing you will need 2 DMX kits for modules, if your looking to do more than one color at the sametime you will also need more DMX kits and modules per.

For myself am just using KISS and all my lights will be the same color at the sametime with the same effect.

This information is for lights only, I am still working on Fire Machines

[Jay_]

Thank you very much for taking the time to post/walk through this. Will be a great startup resource for anyone making the jump and trying to make sense of how things work.

I am still on the fence about adding DMX this year, but have been working on a DMX script just in case. Man, talk about some work.

My intro song is a little over 2 minutes long and I have over 500 DMX events in it.

[PyroFL]

Jay any pyro that does a pyro musical and in one show has rap, metal to country and it all makes sense in a show ... then for his 2022 show does 500 DMX events for his first 2 mins of his show HAS TO DO IT!!

I don’t make the rules Jay the Pyro Gods Do

Look forward to seeing your show in July

......

Any extra input/advice on scripting DMX lights with using CSC please share

Thanks for the great feedback

[esgrillo]

My intro song is a little over 2 minutes long and I have over 500 DMX events in it.

DMX programming line by line can be insane with lights. I feel for you guys using the Cobra or Firetek to do the DMX. Ive been using my Audiobox to trigger my DMX software (Compu SDE) for a few years. Fortunately it uses a timeline similar to Show creator where you drop effects in that are functions & can change color, do movement functions for rotating heads, etc. and the software creates the steps automatically. The number of events created with the functions was over 6000 the last one I checked. It is a crazy amount of programming. I have honeslty though the cobra system would be best for on off only devices like flames.

I have some recommendations. First keep in mind that fireworks are very bright and if there are a lot of things going off, you wont see the lights anyway so don't bother programming them. Also when you point the lights, they have to be pointed at something, that something can be smoke or an object (I have a treeline I have used). If there is nothing to bounce off, you really wont see the lights.

That being said... the are a pretty cool addition to a show when you get it right.

[Jay_]

Jay any pyro that does a pyro musical and in one show has rap, metal to country and it all makes sense in a show ... then for his 2022 show does 500 DMX events for his first 2 mins of his show HAS TO DO IT!!

I don?t make the rules Jay the Pyro Gods Do

Look forward to seeing your show in July

......

Any extra input/advice on scripting DMX lights with using CSC please share

Thanks for the great feedback

Ha Thanks! Yeah I'm all about some diversity when it comes to music selection. The bummer is that since its a family show, I use only clean versions of the tracks which limits my selection. I actually scripted "b***ch betta have my money" by AMG for my 2019 show, but then figured that it may be a little tacky with about 30 kids under the age of 10 riding home after the show with their parents reciting the chorus.

I'm just hoping that there will be a show this year. If I cant get my hands on several cases of slices then I may just hand light some stuff with the fam on the 4th and not do a show until 2023 in hopes of an improved flow of product.

[Jay_]

DMX programming line by line can be insane with lights. I feel for you guys using the Cobra or Firetek to do the DMX. Ive been using my Audiobox to trigger my DMX software (Compu SDE) for a few years. Fortunately it uses a timeline similar to Show creator where you drop effects in that are functions & can change color, do movement functions for rotating heads, etc. and the software creates the steps automatically. The number of events created with the functions was over 6000 the last one I checked. It is a crazy amount of programming. I have honeslty though the cobra system would be best for on off only devices like flames.

I have some recommendations. First keep in mind that fireworks are very bright and if there are a lot of things going off, you wont see the lights anyway so don't bother programming them. Also when you point the lights, they have to be pointed at something, that something can be smoke or an object (I have a treeline I have used). If there is nothing to bounce off, you really wont see the lights.

That being said... the are a pretty cool addition to a show when you get it right.

Thank you Ed. Looks like I have a bunch of homework to do on Compu SDE and DMX in general. I'm pretty sure that I don't have the stamina to do a full 15 minute show working through csc.

Did not really think about the lights being covered up by the light of the fireworks but it does make sense, and will have to be kept in mind. Also pointing at something...that may be a job as well.

We removed a bunch of the tree line that was behind my shoot site last month when we did some dozer work out there....so other than smoke I would not have much to point them at. I had planned on getting my 54 this year and planting some 5" guns in that area, but I drug my feet and still have not applied. Probably would have a tough time getting any product anyway. Should have just left the trees there.

[Engineer Cat]

You guys with all that DMX light scripting must be the same people that do this to their houses on other holidays. ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SU29kUndWwQ

[WithReport]

I think adding DMX and lights adds a cool factor, but have mixed thoughts on DMX lights with "pyromusicals". But regarding setting colors, I'd suggest buying a $50 controller so you can manually adjust values and get the colors or even the strobe rate you are after than would align with the music.

6202


Also, especially for the inexpensive lights, you might find that the same DMX value results in noticeable differences in hues or even strobe rates. Two of my PAR lights (all the same brand) have vastly different gains for strobe rates and for some of the colors are different at the same DMX value. I just marked those two odd ones and run them on different channels when I use them - which is rare.

I have also noticed this in other's shows where they may have a string of DMX lights and a few of them are just slightly off.

All of this is another reason to buy from quality brands.

Also, if you are curious on your capabilities of distinguish differences in colors, you can take a hue munsell test. There are some OK on-line versions (https://www.colorblindnesstest.org/farnsworth-munsell-100-hue-test/), that are actually a bit interesting to take. At work, we have suppliers that have to inspect things to matching colors and they have to have taken recent hue-munsell test.

[PyroFL]

@ Ed

Great advise on setup with the lights and something to think about. For myself I am in a open area so I'll have to bounce it off of smoke and I agree you need something the lights will hit to make it work.

The lights that Cobra is selling are great for a backyard show which is the market for those size lights I believe. I will be doing some testing when I get back home on the 24th of May to see if there even going to make a dent into the almost 6 acres I have to cover around a pond. Going to use my halloween smoke machine and a fan to get some smoke in the air and see what happens, but my gut is telling me I will be way underpowered in watts/lumens.

@ Engineer Cat

PLEASE dont give Ed anymore ideas! Am having enough trouble telling my wife I need another 3-4 36M for our show

@ WithReport

Glad you said something about the lights that they could be not all matching but rare, had a feeling about that at $30 per light. Goes back to you get what you pay for ... Nothing wrong with the lights they have but there more for backyard shows. Whats your and Eds thought on brand and watts/lumens output? I have almost 6 acres people need to be able to see them bouncing off the smoke.

I am looking at other lights so I can use PowerCon cables rather then 8 extension cables with higher watts/lumens. I would really like to add some lights like Ed has but honestly the one thing I don't have is time to learn and program another effect. My average work week during the year is 84 hours per week and upto 115-120 hours so that doesnt give me much time to even script my normal CSC show.

I do like your idea about getting a small DMX board if I could find someone to run it during the show. For myself all am looking to do during the show is just push fire with one hand and control the volume of the music and in the other hand a glass of Midleton and enjoy the show.

@ all

Thank you for all the input it really does help rookies like me with DMX and lighting

I did have a good laugh about distinguishing colors and I checked out your link knowing I would fail as am parshal color blind. Which is very funny because of what I do for work ... If it wasnt for Tektronix I would be in a world of trouble and thankfully am one of the senior guys so if its something I cant see I can send one of the young guys to do it ... Hand me a CAT3 telco cables and am 100% lost after the first 8m start mixing colors and its over ... LOL

[WithReport]

...I do like your idea about getting a small DMX board if I could find someone to run it during the show. For myself all am looking to do during the show is just push fire with one hand and control the volume of the music and in the other hand a glass of Midleton and enjoy the show. ...L

My suggestion for the controller board was for figuring out the DMX devices and desired values. You can adjust the DMX channel values with the sliders and when you get the right color, brightness, strobe rate, pattern, motion, etc. The controller displays the DMX value. You can then use the DMX value in your script.

I was not suggesting using the DMX control board during a show. You could, but it would be pointless, if you have DMX capability with your firing system.

Even the recent 5 head Moka unit I bought last year came with no instructions - they said it was a newer unit and didn't have instructions yet. They sent me something they thought would work - it didn't I plugged it into the DMX control board and played around with the channels and had it all figured out in about 15 minutes. I then sent Moka a set of instructions :p

[esgrillo]

You guys with all that DMX light scripting must be the same people that do this to their houses on other holidays. ;)


That's insane lol

[esgrillo]

@ Ed

Great advise on setup with the lights and something to think about. For myself I am in a open area so I'll have to bounce it off of smoke and I agree you need something the lights will hit to make it work.

The lights that Cobra is selling are great for a backyard show which is the market for those size lights I believe. I will be doing some testing when I get back home on the 24th of May to see if there even going to make a dent into the almost 6 acres I have to cover around a pond. Going to use my halloween smoke machine and a fan to get some smoke in the air and see what happens, but my gut is telling me I will be way underpowered in watts/lumens.


I am using Chauvet 140sr Hybrids. The have 140w bulbs... 382,000 lux at 5 meters... they are pretty good in spot mode for brightness. If I had to do it again I would get fewer bells and whistles and a more powerful light with the same brand. Keep in mind, colors are great but reds and blues are pretty hard to see compared to white or green. Just my experience

[Tmaas77572]

Anybody have any luck with channels outside of color selection or strobe? The par lights (purchased from Cobra, as I'm just getting started) show channel 7 being Color Selection and Channel 6 offer color options on 0-210, and sound control on value 211-255.

I'm pretty sure I'm not issuing the correct DMX commands to it, but have tried every variation I can think of in an effort to learn how these two channels work. I'm primarily interested in the Channel 6 211-255 (Sound Control). My goal is to have the lighting respond to specific spoken word portions of the script. I've been unable to find any lot of info on the par lights, and the card it ships with isn't much help either. I know the basic RGB DMX commands are working perfectly, so don't believe it's the cable or equipment related.

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Any tips and tricks you can pass on to a novice?

[PyroFL]

@ Tmaas77572

I did the same and couldn’t get it to work but knowing the fireworks will be at 136db+ without having a speaker right on it, it’s not going to work.

Idea would be use only 1 light for that part of your show that’s right on the speaker. This would only work if it’s at the start of your show as you would have to turn it off after the voice part.

That said, I am 100% a cobra fan but this rebox product didn’t fit my needs and went with another brand with a lot higher output and aluminum casing that will hold up a lot better then plastic for a extra $25

Cobra isn’t in the DMX lighting business which I fully understand but I feel they could of picked a better product to rebox.

[Tmaas77572]

@ Tmaas77572

I did the same and couldn’t get it to work but knowing the fireworks will be at 136db+ without having a speaker right on it, it’s not going to work.

Idea would be use only 1 light for that part of your show that’s right on the speaker. This would only work if it’s at the start of your show as you would have to turn it off after the voice part.

LoL. Perfect description of exactly what I am doing. 3 PA speakers on stands, each with a light on it. Was hoping to use the SA portion with the first couple of seconds in Hooked on a Feeling.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t have the experience with DMX specifically, but I do have a professional background in telecom and building automation. Your initial post was huge for me in understanding the basic DMX coding method deployed (thanks again for taking the time to explain that in such detail).

[Tmaas77572]

Quick update from my side of this problem.

I've narrowed it down to the light's physical ability to receive and interpret sound when placed in the SA mode. While coding channel 6 value 211 and channel 6 value 255 individually did not appear to have any effect on the visual produced, it wasn't until I had my test speaker aimed directly into the back of the par light did I achieve the desired result.

Tested this with two different lights at the same time, both set to same channels. Had the lights on my test bench, speaker next to them, all facing the same direction. Set lights to the SA mode on the lights themselves, and noticed that lights were responding but not very well. Positioned speaker behind one, and it worked perfectly while other (off to the side) was working better but still having issues keeping up. Set them side by side and they worked perfectly.

Put the lights back in DMX mode and set up my script. Coding ON/OFF values at certain points in a test script yielded no changes in the way the lights behaved, but I had to really have the speaker cranked up for it to work. Was using an Onyx Studio speaker for the audio playback, which is admittedly a better quality speaker than the powered PA speakers I'm using during the show, so am curious if the PA will behave differently.

Bottom line, I think I'm still going to script this into my show with a hard channel value of 0 to clear the lights and restore them back to the manual mode in the event they aren't behaving properly. It's a 7 second intro of the script, worth the chance of weirdness for my application.

[PyroFL]

Quick update from my side of this problem.

I've narrowed it down to the light's physical ability to receive and interpret sound when placed in the SA mode. While coding channel 6 value 211 and channel 6 value 255 individually did not appear to have any effect on the visual produced, it wasn't until I had my test speaker aimed directly into the back of the par light did I achieve the desired result.

Tested this with two different lights at the same time, both set to same channels. Had the lights on my test bench, speaker next to them, all facing the same direction. Set lights to the SA mode on the lights themselves, and noticed that lights were responding but not very well. Positioned speaker behind one, and it worked perfectly while other (off to the side) was working better but still having issues keeping up. Set them side by side and they worked perfectly.

Put the lights back in DMX mode and set up my script. Coding ON/OFF values at certain points in a test script yielded no changes in the way the lights behaved, but I had to really have the speaker cranked up for it to work. Was using an Onyx Studio speaker for the audio playback, which is admittedly a better quality speaker than the powered PA speakers I'm using during the show, so am curious if the PA will behave differently.

Bottom line, I think I'm still going to script this into my show with a hard channel value of 0 to clear the lights and restore them back to the manual mode in the event they aren't behaving properly. It's a 7 second intro of the script, worth the chance of weirdness for my application.

Same exact problems I had word for word.

I only order one for testing and thought maybe I just had a bad light, mic was broken or it wasnt going to work the way I would like. In the end I ended up ordering 9 lights from different companies to test and found the one that will work perfect for me and the brightest by a lot.

My plan for my cobra light is to just use it for halloween when I script my haunted house using CSC.