What I have learned about the WiFly NE1

This controller appears to have been designed as an upgrade to the American DJ UC3 control concept.

History of the UC3 controllers from the past as a reference:
The American DJ UC3 control protocol was a great improvement for DJ’s that were previously controlling today’s intelligent lights by just switching the power on and off using a power relay controller. UC3 was also much simpler to use than programming a DMX show, because it simply utilized already built in programs and options. However, UC3 was limited to fixtures that were made by ADJ, and that were designed with the UC3 protocol. Fixtures by other manufacturers, and even fixtures by ADJ that were not designed with UC3 compatibility, could not be controlled by this innovative and convenient control protocol. Also, as handy as UC3 was, it was still very limiting in how much control you had over your fixtures. 

The goal of this controller is to provide the following:

1. An easier light controller alternative for DJ’s that want more control, but do not want to deal with a full DMX desk or DMX software.
2. Provide simplified control, with good flexibility that can control most intelligent fixtures with DMX.
3. Provide more flexibility in control than what was possible via UC3, including being able to switch saved “scenes” at the touch of a button rather than having to press several buttons in order to make a significant light show change.

You will not get the ultimate flexibility of a full DMX controller, but you will also not get the complexity of having to spend hours and hours programming chases, and then rebuilding those chases if you find you are not satisfied. For those of you who do want that ultimate flexibility of a Full DMX controller, or DMX software, but are completely new to figuring out DMX, this would also be a great stepping stone. For those who do want that ultimate flexibility of a full DMX interface, I highly recommend ADJ MyDMX2.0.

What kind of Control does the Wifly NE1 provide?

1. “On the Fly” Access: Rather than just a row of nameless faders like most hardware DMX controllers, the NE1 uses specific “Mode” buttons for Fixture, Color, Gobo, Show, as well as the NE1 built in Effects mode. The NE1 also has 12 function buttons that work in conjunction with the before mentioned Mode buttons. Regardless of which fixture you are using, these mode & function buttons should stay the same and operate the same. You will notice there are other straight forward control functions on board the NE1 as well. The NE1 is a smart controller that uses fixture DMX profiles to route the appropriate function to the appropriate control. This layout of controls makes it easier to access a specific function on a fixture or several fixtures during a show, than it would be trying to remember which DMX fader on a regular DMX board controls the function, and what value you need. Again, this controller is about providing the ability to quickly manipulate your fixtures at a live show, where as with an average DMX board, you might be pulling out a manual to figure it out, given that each fixture DMX profile is different. 
2. Scene Changes (kind of like in theatre): While this controller was not designed to create complex DMX chase programs, it was designed so that you could create and save “scenes”. For example, with previous non-DMX controllers, during a fast song you might have turned on a couple of LED effect fixtures while also having a wash light fixture on, and perhaps a couple of moving heads on as well.  Perhaps your next song was a slow song, and you wanted to change your wash light to a static color, dim it down a little, turn off your effect lights, and turn your moving heads to a built in slow mode, maybe on a star or hearts gobo. That’s a lot to do while mixing from to a new song, isn’t it? With the Wifly NE1 you could setup up each “scene” the way you want,, and save it as separate memories. You would press one memory button for that fast dance scene, and when you mixed to that slow song you would just have to press the other memory button to change it all for you. It works much like DMX, but with utilizing the already built in programs in your fixtures, as well as static scenes of your choice instead of programming complicated DMX chases. That is the goal with this controller.
3. Something Cool for those that like Customizing Midi Controllers: For those of you who work with midi controllers, and like to customize your controls, you can do that here. You will need to get used to how DMX values work, and how this controller functions, but there are a lot of cool little tricks that can be done with how you assign values in fixture profiles, much like creating macros.

 Ideal Fixtures for this controller:

1. Moving Heads, Scanner, & Rollers are great fixtures to use with this controller. If these fixtures do not have built in programs, the built in effects generally work quite well with these fixtures.
2. Effect lighting with built in programs that are accessible via DMX in auto mode (not sound active). Fixtures running off sound active mode are fine, but you can not sync two twin fixtures in sound active mode with this controller. Naturally, if you are only running one fixture with a sound active program, this is not a problem. If you plan to run twin (2) fixtures and want them to sync their shows, you will want to be sure that the built in programs are pattern based, can run properly without sound active mode on. This is the case with most ADJ fixtures, and often the case with fixtures from other manufacturers.
3. If you are using effect fixtures that do not have built in programs that are accessible via DMX, you will be more limited with what you can do. However, you can still use static scenes, and may find creative ways to utilize the Effects section.
4. DMX relay packs:  Get a relay DMX pack for those fixtures you may have that are not DMX compatible, or that all you want is to turn them on/off and maybe master/slave link.  Chauvet makes a DMX-4 relay pack.  This can help fill in that gap between your lights that you want DMX control over, and those that you just want/need on/off control over, and still be able to program them into scenes via the NE1 controller.

Things I have learned:

1. Read the manual for the NE1 and the Profile Creator word for word for word. Import notes are not highlighted, but are there. You will miss them if you do not read carefully.
2. Any adjustments to master dimmer or the strobe slider while controlling ALL fixtures in your scene, will NOT save into memory. If you want dimmer and strobe functions saved to your scene, you need to adjust each fixture individually with these faders before saving.
3. MANUAL CONTROL: READ page 17, section 6 in the NE1 manual. This tells you how to manually access all of the other controls that are not present physically on the controller, including manually adjusting RGB. This is why there are all those labels in the Profile Creator for controls you can not physically access normally on the controller... there is a manual way to do so, and it's fairly easy to access.  I am hoping ADJ eventually designs  a more advanced version of the NE1 that will have additional common controls.  We will see.
4. When creating/editing a profile, you can only use each color (RGBAWUV) 4 times each.
5. Maximum file name length is 8 characters. If you go beyond that, ne1 will not recognize it. All file name letters need to be in capital letters. Additionally, the fixture name you assign while in profile creator (not the filename) can not be the same as any other fixture name.
6. Effects are not chases in any form, whether used for RGB+ or moving heads. Its the same function as the "shapes" in dmx software, so the effects can create smooth movements for moving lights, or smooth fades for RGB+ lights. For those that are not DMX experienced, think of an effect as a shape on an X-Y axis, and X may be attributed to Pan, while Y is attributed to Tilt, and as you travel along the continuous "shape", it effects the values for Pan & Tilt. For an RGB fixture, think of it as a 3-D shape. In either case, it’s a continuous movement on a set of axis’s that returns to the start position and continues on. That’s why all effects are smooth movements, or smooth fades, unlike chases. You can manipulate the shape size, movement speed, direction, and you can put a delay on some of the fixtures when using multiples (looks really cool for movers).
7. Pause only appears to function for effects, it seems to be tied to that.
8. For most effect lights with built in programs (Stinger, Quad Phase, WashFx...etc) if you trigger the built in programs in automatic and NOT sound active mode, and with both fixtures selected, they will sync their programs just fine, simply because they will run the same exact patterns at exactly the same speed. I have tested this.
9. Blackout feature seems to only affect shutter/strobe and master dimmer functions directly. If running a built in show on an effect light, blackout will not stop it.
10. You can assign the same trait to multiple channels. It is possible to create some convenient macros this way. Alternatively, you currently can not assign multiple traits to the same DMX channel.

Sound Active: Why isn't there a built in Mic?
First, you need to understand how Sound Active on a full DMX controller works with a built in Mic:
With a full DMX controller, you usually have a built in mic where you can run the entire show off a trigger provided by the built in mic, or by a audio line in. It's important to understand what this mic trigger does on a full DMX board. With a Full DMX controller, as mentioned earlier, you are creating complete chases consisting of many programmed scenes that run in a chase. The mic trigger will trigger the progression from one scene to the next, to the beat of the music. It is important to understand that the DMX controller built in mic DOES NOT act as a trigger for a fixtures own built in programs, but only to trigger the progression from one scene to another in a DMX programmed chase, consisting of many scenes.

Because the NE1 is not programming chases, but rather saving individual scenes, and relying on
fixture built in chases to simplify the process, an NE1 does not have a scene to progress to. Hence, a
built in Mic would only repeat the same scene again and again and again. This would actually prevent
your pattern based built in programs from progressing because it would force them to start the
programs over again, and again, and again, creating a problem, not an effect. For this reason, there is
no built in mic in the NE1 (despite the reference in the manual), and no reason to have one for this type of controller. You can access sound active programs that are built into the fixtures, but you can not trigger them using a mic from the NE1, even if one existed. An audio signal is not part of the DMX protocol, and even if it was possible, fixtures do not have a way to receive an audio signal from a DMX line, which would be required in order to trigger their built in programs via the mic channel.


It does have a mic - Solutions:

1. Don't use sound active:  Simply use auto mode programs (not triggered by sound), choose the same program, and adjust to the same speed (adjusting the dmx value with both fixtures selected will do this). As long as the built in programs are pattern based like most fixtures, they will stay in sync. If the built in programs for the fixture you are using, use some kind of random pattern, rather than a professionally programmed pattern based chase program, then this will not work.
2. Use a DMX controlled relay power pack:  Chauvet and a few others make a DMX controlled relay dimmer pack.  The Chauvet DMX4 relay dimmer pack has 4 power outlets, that can be switched between dimmer and straight relay.  You can then plug in fixtures to this DMX relay pack, such that you can control the on/off function of the fixture of your choice, and master slave them off each other, because fixtures plugged into the DMX relay will not be directly plugged into DMX.  This way, for fixtures that you want to sync multiples of the same fixture in sound active, and you don't need any more control than that, you can do that, and still have on/off control via the NE1, such that you can program scenes accordingly.  The one down side to this is if your fixtures have a long bootup time, then there will be a delay starting them.