It’s hard to believe that Lumenradio released CRMX2 two years ago.  Mostly that’s because lighting manufacturers have been so slow to implement it.  This is the first show my Gaffer and Best Boy have decided to use CRMX2, so there have been some adventures and more than a few misadventures at this point that I thought might be useful to you if you are prepping a show.  It’s worth noting that most of the manufacturers were not suggesting any of the updates we did, so please don’t mistake this article for any judgement on them- this was our decision and we accept responsibility for the successes and failures.  Hopefully official support will be out from all these companies and their products will be fully compatible soon.

The Good News

Vortex units seem good to go.  This isn’t accomplished via a firmware update, but rather by booting up the light and using CRMX Toolbox to update the Timo chip itself directly.  So far, every unit has worked perfectly and the process was easy, though a bit lengthy at 4-5 minutes each.

Astera Products are compatible if you sign up for the latest beta firmware.  We updated to 5.12.96 and so far our experience has been positive, except for the process of updating itself.  This (as usual) took from between 20 minutes and two days.

Skypanel 360 was updated via the latest firmware.  Weirdly, I could only pair the unit by entering the Linking Key and Universe.  I only have one unit on the truck package and I was in a hurry, so I’m not sure if I am missing something, or that’s how it is.

The Less Good News

DMG Dashes were updated through Supernova connected to the DMG Dash.  Out of 8 updates, 3 were successful, 3 cannot be unpaired from the FX1 we used to update the software (but also state they are not paired to anything) and 2 will not respond to anything but local control.  Support is trying to figure out how to help us and the process is ongoing.

A Litemat Spectrum controller was also updated via Supernova, and the fixture was totally unresponsive to wireless following the update.  We stopped at only one unit since we didn’t have replacement alternatives that were close.

Those are the lights we have attempted so far.  If you have experience that contrasts with these, or if you have upgraded fixtures I haven’t yet touched, please tell me about it in the comments.  Special request- if you know how the Timo chips work, I’d LOVE to hear from you.  I assumed the chip did the work to translate the wireless data into DMX values and sent those along to the fixture, but my experience here makes me think otherwise.  Let’s share some knowledge and happy programming!