MADRIX Forum

Hi, I am new to MADRIX, still learning the software & thinking about purchasing. I have a question I haven't been able to answer reading through the manuals.

I have a series of addressable RGB 5050 pixel strips that I'm trying to control with MADRIX via the SANDevices E681. I also have a mono color (warm white) version of the same pixel strip that uses the same chip (8806). The warm white strip is effectively the same as the RGB strip, except that the 5050 LED chips have three white LEDs in them instead of one red, one green, and one blue.

What I'm trying to do is effectively create a virtual RGBW "fixture" by placing the RGB and WW strips alongside each other in the cove where I'm using them. The idea would be that the RGB strip lights for the RGB signals, and the WW strip gets the "W" information for the RGBW fixture.

Here's my question: is there a way to have a fixture's addresses span more than a single DMX universe?

My plan would be to map 170 RGB pixels to a single DMX universe, per normal practice, but then to map the "W" channel to a separate universe. The idea would be that this virtual "fixture" could be controlled by a single set of fixture controls, rather than as two separate fixtures with separate color and intensity controls.

Can this be done? I guess the other alternative would be limit the size of each of my fixtures to 256 channels (half a universe), such that the fixture definition assigns the first half of the universe to the RGB pixels, and the other half to the WW ones, but there are a couple of places where I need about 4m/13ft of strip and would like to avoid having to subdivide them into different fixtures.

Thank you,
Matt

Hi,

with the MADRIX Fixture Editor you are able to create new Fixtures.
The Editor doesn´t take care if it is in real live one or two fixture. So generally it will work what you have in mind.

But.
No you can not create a fixture which covers more than one universe.

And.
Your white fixture didn´t need the same amount of dmx channels as like as your rgb fixture. So you are able to control 128 RGBW Pixel with one universe.

Your white fixture didn´t need the same amount of dmx channels as like as your rgb fixture. So you are able to control 128 RGBW Pixel with one universe.

Well, not exactly. This white strip is still addressable -- you can light the individual pixels one at a time -- but it still uses a standard 3-element 5050 LED and the 8806 driver chip. It's something of a fiction. It's as if the white strip is an RGB strip, but all three chips in each LED are white, not RGB.

So each 5050 has three LEDs that are individually addressable in them, just as it would if they were red, green, and blue -- in this case, they just happen to be white.

So for my purposes, I would want to set my fixture to act as if it only has one white channel, but in fact all three white LEDs in each 5050 are being addressed at the same time. You give up a lot of each chip's potential intensity otherwise. I think I can do this in the driver but I'll need to tinker a bit.

Thanks for the tips -- I will figure out how I need to divide fixtures to make this work without spanning universes.

Matt