Creating Fixture Profiles

In the top right corner of the Fixture Profile page is a 3-dot menu button. Click here and navigate to “+ Add Profile”, then select “ADD NEW”.

1. Add your fixture profile, enter relevant information, and save.

Note: The Restore from Backup tab allows users to upload previously created fixture profiles. This feature is useful if users want to share profiles.

2. Click the menu button or ‘add a new mode’ text to add a new mode and enter the number of channels then save.

3. Each channel in your newly added mode can be re-ordered and assigned a name and attribute type. The Details section shows specific channel settings, which can be edited by clicking the 3-dot menu. Refer to your fixture’s DMX specification for necessary information.

4. Click a channel’s 3-dot menu button to edit the channel. Depending on the type of Attribute assigned to the channel, different Attribute Properties will be displayed. 

For Static channel types (STATIC, MASTER DIMMER, SHUTTER, etc) you can define the static:

•  Value 

For all Dynamic types: PAN, TILT, ZOOM, ACTIVITY, LED Color Control, etc you can define the following Attribute Properties:

• Smoothing: This will add smoothing to the channel, which will, for example, make the lights change color more slowly and fade from one color to the next if it is a color channel.

• Output Range: Limits the range in which this channel can operate.

• Invert Value: This will invert the channel data eg 1-255 will be 255-1

  • Note:  Maestro will add mirroring and symmetry automatically, you likely will not need to invert at the attribute level (such as pan/tilts on movers).

Uniquely to PAN and TILT types you can define the following Attribute Properties:

• Offset: Only available for PAN and TILT channel types, the offset defines the pan or tilt center point

• Width: Only available for PAN and TILT channel types, the width defines the pan or tilt range

For Effect button control types:

• ON: Only available for FOG and EFFECT channel types. When triggered via the SHOW page’s Trigger Button, the ON value will be set

• OFF: Only available for FOG and EFFECT channel types. When triggered via the SHOW page’s Trigger Button, the OFF value will be set

5. Click “Save Channel”

Repeat steps 3-5 for each channel and repeat steps 2-5 to create more modes. 

Using MASTER DIMMER vs DIMMER Types

When looking at the built-in fixture profile you will see that both MASTER DIMMER and DIMMER attribute types are used. When the MASTER DIMMER type is used, it is generally set to ‘255’ when a fixture mode has a dimmer channel along with LED color channels such as RGBW, etc. In this case, MaestroDMX takes care of the dimming via the levels of the color channels. This can be useful to set the relative brightness between fixtures.

However, if you are using a fixture profile with a dimmer channel AND it uses a color wheel and does NOT have any LED color control (RGBW etc), then the DIMMER attribute type is used. The DIMMER type is intelligently controlled by MaestroDMX and will pulse the dimmer on the fixture in sync with the music.

Using GOBO and PRISM Types

MaestroDMX allows autonomous control of GOBO and PRISM attribute types. Before a GOBO or PRISM channel can be controlled by MaestroDMX, the GOBO and/or PRISM channels of your fixture profile must have steps defined. The specific ranges can be found in the fixture profile’s DMX specification available from the manufacturer. 

A step has the following properties: 

• The name of the specific gobo or prism effect at a specific DMX channel value.

• A range of DMX values correlates to the effect.

• Enabled toggle status.

Use ‘ADD STEP’ to add a new step and click the garbage icon to remove the step. Be sure to SAVE once you have made changes. The image below shows an example of the GOBO channel, however, the setting up of a PRISM channel is the same.

NOTE: Use ‘ENABLE/DISABLE ALL’ to toggle the gobo steps as needed.

Once your GOBO and/or PRISM channels are configured, MaestroDMX will autonomously trigger the steps based on changes in the music.

Using COLOR WHEEL Types

As of software v1.1 MaestroDMX allows autonomous synchronization of a fixture's COLOUR WHEEL attribute to the internal RGB colour space. Before a COLOR WHEEL channel can be controlled by MaestroDMX, the COLOR WHEEL channel of your fixture profile must have color wheel steps defined. To define a color, you must set the DMX range and choose a close representation of the color from the color picker. The specific colors for each step can be found in the fixture profile’s DMX specification available from the manufacturer.

NOTE: As of software V1.2 the COLOR WHEEL attribute is being used for any channels that have colors specified such as: Color Wheels, Derbys, and Lasers. 

A step has the following properties: 

• The name of the specific color at a specific DMX channel range.

• A range of DMX values correlates to the color.

• A color picker along with easily selectable common colors, and HEX and RGB input fields  

• Ability to add Split Colours for channel ranges with multiple colors defined

Use ‘ADD STEP’ to add a new step and click the garbage icon to remove the step. Be sure to SAVE once you have made changes.

Once your color steps are defined, MaestroDMX will autonomously synchronize the colors on your COLOR WHEEL channel with the internal color palettes. 

Dealing With Undefined Colours

Some fixture manufacturers do not define the color at each step, i.e. the manual may say ‘color 1, color 2, color 3…etc’. In this case, you will have to visually discover the colors by temporarily setting the color wheel channel on your fixture to a STATIC type and moving through it via the slider on the ‘Controls’ page. This way you can visually verify and take note of the colors at each step. You can constrain the range on each step to a single value rather than a range of values.

Using the ACTIVITY Attribute Type

The Musical Activity Level, as viewed on the Audio page, is directly connected to the ACTIVITY attribute type. This gives you the ability to connect a measure of how exciting the music is to any DMX channel. For example, you could set ACTIVITY to:

• The rotation speed of a fixture(s)  to have it speed up and slow down with the music.

• The dimmer levels of a group of fixtures have them get brighter or darker with the music.

• The intensity or movement of a laser effect.