Hey, have any of yall ever set up a DMX512 controlled lighting system?  I have recently gotten some nice lighting for a upcoming party I am having in my shop.  I have six "PAR56" RGB LED lights that run on 7 channel DMX, a "PAR65" stage light that is also 7 channel DMX, but is RGBW LED, two "REFLEX LED" 6 channel DMX lights and a 4 channel DMX chase/fade controller for 4 or 8 250 watt stage can lights (I will be using 4).  I have a new DMX control board and have all the fixtures hung and wired, with the DMX cables run and a terminator installed.  The controller is good for 12 fixtures and I currently have 10.  With my layout, I would love to add a pair of scanner DMX LED lights with GOBOs, one at each end of the run.  I assume I should leave the starting and ending addresses open for the addition of those in the future?  I have the DMX cables laid out for the upgrade without any further changes, but i do not want to do a whole lot of reprogramming when I add the scanner lights in the future.  Any tips, suggestions and recommendations for programming these things?  I want al the LED lights to have like colors on demand and to fade, change color and strobe.  I want the 250 watt incandescents to fade/chase or be inactive while leaving the LEDs operable on demand.  I also have surrounding lighting using BLB, RED, GREEN, BLUE and GOLD F40 fluorecents (in preheat fixtures, of course!)...It looks awesome, but i really want a nice light show from the stage and dancefloor lighting.  This will be a pretty much permanent installation, as it is wired in and hung in my shop.  Thanks for any help and advice!  Photos to follow when programming and final setup is complete.

One of my many job duties is lighting design at our school's theater. I use DMX to control our stage lights all the time! However, I have never set up LED fixtures or used a chase controller. I am more familiar with traditional theater equipment such as memory consoles and DMX dimmers. If you get stuck or have any specific questions though, I might be able to help. What you mentioned sounds fine to me. Just experiment and see how well it works!

On a related note, I've always wanted to wire up some preheat fixtures and replace the starter with a 120 volt relay and power the relays with our existing dimmers. Then I would essentially have DMX-controlled starters! I could use that to make some special effects or strobe effects. Basically I could enjoy blinky preheats and be able to control the blinks! I might even be able to dim the fluorescents with our DMX-controlled dimmers.

For our last show, I wired up about eight blacklights using 4' blacklight fluorescent tubes in hardware-store-grade shoplights. I just bought cheap fixtures because I didn't want to use my good, personal lights at work. We had some interesting effects using the blacklights!

-Nelson

Well I have been organising some parties and been using(and buildin) DMX controlled lighting setups. Technical side is not so difficult if you have figured out how the adressing works in DMX(there are lots of dip-switch calculator programs for DMX adressing in the internet, very usefull tool) what comes for wiring. I recommend that specified DMX cables are used, especially if the chain is long. mic cable will work well in shorter distances but its not always best solution. also for splitting DMX signal, I recommend active splitter.

to explore and get to know your controller, I think the good way is to have some free time and sit down with the controller and manual and just play around and test its features with and the lights. what comes for the program itself is more or less artistic thing so I could say(especially without knowing what kind of event you are holding) test out different programs and see yourself, if you like it yourself, its most likely good then. For tips about what might be fancy trick, check the youtube, there are plenty of videos about people and their stage light setups and programs and even some tutorials.

When Im in some concert or event, I do always check what kind of lighting setups and programs they are using to get some good ideas I might copy.

Also, could you tell what kind of controller you have?

Thanks for the help and comments!
I have never done this sort of think before, but the guy I bought some of the equipment from is a DJ and has a production/installation business.  The controller is American DJ "Elation Professional".  The lights I have are mostly Chauvet LEDs.  I have six "PAR56", one "PAR64", two LED scanners and two American DJ REFLEX LED units.  I also have four "PAR64" 250 watt stage lights, that will be controlled by DMX with a "Elation DMX20L" controller.  I have been having parties in my shop for several years, but really wanted to go all out on this one!  I am about to add a disco ball with LED "pinspots", but will just turn it on manually.  I will post photos of the setup when complete.  I am excited to play around with this setup and really look forward to friends dancing and hearing the live performances!  Also not, I have a fog machine which REALLY makes the lighting look great and the dance area is surrounded with F40 BLB and F40/RED fixtures.