Module 1: Practical Foundations & Hardware Essentials

Welcome to the foundational module of the Unilighter Course.

Before touching software faders, programming palettes, or designing cue sequences, you need to understand what gear is hanging in the venue, how it physically connects, and how to verify that everything works before rehearsals begin.

🎯 What You Will Master in This Module

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  1. Identify every common fixture type on a stage rig (PARs, pixel bars, wash, spot, beam, and profile heads) and understand their optical capabilities.
  2. Properly set up atmospheric haze to make light beams visible without triggering venue smoke alarms.
  3. Wire a reliable, fault-tolerant DMX daisy chain using genuine \(110 - 120\,\Omega\) cables, avoid the dangerous "microphone cable trap," and terminate lines correctly.
  4. Connect a physical USB DMX interface or Ethernet Art-Net/sACN node to Unilighter on desktop, browser (WebUSB), or mobile (OTG).
  5. Calculate fixture footprints, set start addresses via digital menus and binary DIP switches without channel conflicts.
  6. Conduct a hands-on pre-show hardware verification using Unilighter's Simple Desk (channel faders) to test dimmers, colors, and pan/tilt motion before creating a show file.

📑 Module Lessons

  1. Lesson 1.1: Luminaire Types & Optics: PARs, Bars, Wash, Spot, Beam & Profiles
    • Deconstructing stage fixtures: static lights vs motorized moving heads.
    • Optical differences: beam angles (\(1^\circ\) to \(60^\circ\)), edge sharpness, gobos, prisms, and framing shutters.
  2. Lesson 1.2: Atmospheric Dynamics: Hazers vs Fog Machines
    • Why light beams are invisible in clean air (Mie scattering).
    • Water-based vs oil-based hazers, fan placement, and venue smoke alarm safety.
  3. Lesson 1.3: Physical Cabling: Daisy Chains, Adapters & Terminators
    • Unidirectional DMX wiring (Out to In) and the 32-fixture limit.
    • 3-pin vs 5-pin XLR connectors and using simple adapter cables.
    • Why \(45\,\Omega\) audio mic cables cause erratic fixture flickering.
    • The \(120\,\Omega\) terminator and active opto-isolated splitters.
  4. Lesson 1.4: DMX Interfaces: Connecting Hardware to Unilighter
    • USB DMX dongles (FTDI, uDMX, buffered interfaces).
    • Connecting via WebUSB in the browser and native drivers in Unilighter Desktop.
    • Mobile OTG operation from Android devices.
    • Introduction to multi-universe Ethernet nodes (Art-Net & sACN).
  5. Lesson 1.5: Addressing & Binary DIP Switches
    • Understanding channel footprints and calculating non-overlapping start addresses.
    • On-board digital menu configuration (d001).
    • Binary DIP switch math (\(1, 2, 4, 8, \dots, 256\)) and Switch 10 functions.
    • Introduction to RDM (Remote Device Management) for ladder-free re-addressing.
  6. Lesson 1.6: Hands-On Lab: Hardware Verification with the Simple Desk
    • What the Simple Desk is (English: Channel Faders / Manual Desk; Russian: «расчёска»).
    • Step-by-step soundcheck procedure: testing unknown fixtures fader by fader.
    • Discovering dimmer, shutter, RGB color, and pan/tilt channels on unbranded lights.
    • Transitioning from raw manual faders to fixture profiles and live workspaces.