Just purchased an Elation FC-400 foot controller and two Eliminator ED15 dimmer packs. Have eight lights and need to set them up for a small band, small club application (maybe 4 in front and 4 back lights). Unfortunately the instructions seem to assume that I already know alot about dmx - not true. This is my first venture into this stuff and I need some help.

Not interested in any of the sound/chase features. Just want to set up a few scenes to be able to easily switch between looks while I'm playing guitar, singing lead, running sound, etc...

Where do I start?

I may have posted this question in the wrong forum. Forgive me for being such a newbie!

yup! This is an elation question. Sorry sincerely,

Well, you asked.

Set your dimmer packs to the same channels. I'm not familiar withe packs you mention, so I'll just assume they are 4-channel DMX dimmer packs. I suggest 1 per channel per pack, which gives you 2 fully populated dimmer packs, one in the front and one in the back.

Plug in your PAR CAN lights into the channels on the packs you wish to us.

Plug DMX from the FC400 into the first dimmer pack, and use the DMX out/thru and run to the second dimmer pack. Put terminator into the last DMX dimmer pack(good practice, may not always be necessary, but I recommend it). DMX COULD be run off regular XLR mic cables, but you should use DMX cables. DMX cables look and are wired the same, and could ALMOST be used interchangably, but don't.

I don't know how to program an FC400. Have fun! Seems you have the right stuff for your application though.

Thanks for the reply! Just a few questions. The units are 4-channel DMX packs, as you assumed. They can be set to:

-Dimmer/Swich Mode
-Slave Mode
-Auto mode
or
-Audio Mode (don't think I want this)

In order to just set up a few scenes between which I can easily switch with the FC-400 (scroll through) I assume I use the Dimmer Mode.

Am I even close?

The dipswitches are what's confusing me.

Just want the dimmer packs to understand what the foot controller is telling it.

See the discussion over in the other area.

DIP switches are easy, but they crammed too much onto it. I took one glance at the manual mainly to see the dimmer pack and had it figured out from that. But I'll save the rest for the other area.

Thanks, I'll do that. But I seem to have figured it out - even a blind squirrel finds a nut occassionally, I guess.

Thanks for your help!

I really dig the FC400 controller.