How to address intelligent lighting fixtures dip-switch-style

Not so long ago I saw a setup with a lot of Martin Atomic fixtures … and by a lot I mean a lot (anybody heard of Tiësto? ) This remembered me of the good old days and my beginnings in showbiz and the lighting industry. Actually one of the first things I was taught when I started was calculating in binary to address a lot of Martin RS812 Scanners. And it was so confusing in the beginning. Lighttechs were running around mumbling numbers, an there was not a single production without addressing mistakes. (I still can hear the sentence “Could someone hand me a small screwdriver? I can’t switch this %&ç*ç dip” ) Those were the days.

I wonder if newbies nowadays still know how to use the dip-switches? If not, here’s the “maboo guide to binary dip-switch addressing”.

First of all, a small introduction into binary numbers. There are only 2 of ‘em 0 and 1 witch makes it quite easy doesn’t it? Every number has the same function as in a decimal system, and they are incremented the same way, the length of the number just grows faster. So in a decimal system the length grows after 10 digits (0,1,2,…,9 then 10) in binary with only to digits available this happens faster (0,1 then 10). This is the basic of everything. Easy ain’t it? The decimal 2 becomes 10 in binary; 3 would become 11. If it’s still confusing to you, remember how children are taught the decimal system in school, using tens and hundreds. (In decimal 25 is nothing else than 2 times 10 + 5 times 1 with 10 as base to increment length)

Back to out fixtures. Imagine you have a fixture like the Martin Atomic, without neat display to set the address. What can you do? First of all, you need to know the DMX address of the strobe, check your console or ask the technician having a plan . We assume in our example the fixture address is 361.

The first step is simple math. We saw that it’s not 10s or 100s that increments the length of a number in binary. These numbers would be 1,2,4,8,16, 32 … and so on. Know how do we get the right dips out of 361? The simple method is to take the number and look which is the biggest decimal switching value in it.

256 is the first option, and 361 is bigger. So the value of the dip-switch for 256 is 1.

Then we subtract 256 from 361, this gives us 105. So what is the next value? 128 is not, because it’s bigger than 106, but 64 must be on.

We repeat this step, subtract 64 from 105, which gives us 41. Now it becomes obvious, 32 is in it, the rest is 9 so 16 is not active, 8 is, 4 is not, neither is 2 but 1 is.

In fact: 361= 1 + 8 + 32 + 64 + 256.

As the values for dip-switches are the same binary values the switches must be like this:
1 - 2 – 3 – 4 –  5 –   6 –   7 –    8 –     9
1 - 2 – 4 – 8 – 16 – 32 – 64 – 128 –  256

See there’s no magic about it, it’s just training. But let’s be honest we sometimes we work under pressure, have deadlines or are so tired that counting becomes something quite mystic. So there are some tools that make this exercise a bit easier. If you are an iPhone or iPod Touch owner, there is a free app called “Dip-switch calculator” which makes the job. It does even more and can tell you how often a specific fixture can be assigned in an DMX universe (if you know how many channels it uses) or give you the number of the next fixture. I know this is everything simple math, but you know how the mind sometimes works if your body wants to sleep.

Dip-Switch Calulator on iTunes

Martin built a pictogram into the patch window of their Lightjockey, which shows you the states of the dip-switches as well. (Small ray of light if you are stuck with Martin LJ )

And one last warning with dip-switches. Always, and I mean ALWAYS check, if they are built the right way into the fixture. I saw a Hungaroflash once, with the print on the fixture body pointing “on” upwards, and the little arrow on the dip-switches showing “on” was pointing … guess what … right … it was pointing downwards.