Hey folks, I am a solo singer and have recently obtained a couple of small moving heads and some front washes. I'm now looking for a dmx controller that I can store a number of scenes on, that is relatively small so I can mount it near my mic and easily switch between scenes/hit blackout etc whilst I'm performing and that won't break the bank too much (won't be getting any extra for having jazzy lights!).

I'm thinking hardware rather than software but welcome any recommendations!

If anyone has any suggestions for a small lighting controller that would be ideal for this kind of set up please let me know... and I know if you buy cheap you generally buy twice but if anybody has first-hand experience with a cheap option that won't fall to bits straight away that would be doubly helpful!!

Thanks in advance.
Frank.

Most DMX controllers are 19" rack width so not exactly tiny but there is the ADJ Wifly NE1 which appears to be about 1/2 that width. I have never used one but this appears to check off all the boxes and then some, to get the most from moving heads you really should have a controller that can generate movement effects. This unit can further simplify things if it's combined with wireless recievers on each fixture or on each stand at the very least, do check to see of this requires ADJ specific devices or if generic model will work. I regularly do lighting with nothing but wireless links between the controller and fixtures... many events in very large spaces and with no issue, so you should not have any problem with everything on stage.

Failing that the other obvious solution is to use a phone app with a wifi-dmx bridge, you should be able to do everything you want with that and it too minimizes the amount of cables you have to run... which can be the most time consuming thing about lighting.
Most of the fixtures I own have wireless DMX built-in, I have added it to others and also have some plug in wireless XLR recievers for the moving heads. I do have a couple hardware controllers but use software on a laptop as well, it just depends who is operating the lighting for an event... me or someone else that is less knowlegable.

Thanks a lot for this watched a video on the controller last night and it looks decent! Just out of curiosity... Which phone app would you recommend and how easy is it to make older lighting fixtures compatible with wireless dmx?

I have not used any phone apps as that would involve building a different wireless system and I'm already invested in hardware that uses wireless DMX. For clarity wireless DMX is not the same as WI-FI.. to use a phone app you need to create a portable Wi-Fi network which has a bunch of it's own challenges, and in general the light fixtures would then be hardwired from the WI-Fi reciever(also known as a wifi-DMX bridge).. you would not use wireless DMX links as well. For this reason alone this isn't as desirable for me as it doesn't save me any work.

There are a several ways to add wireless DMX to older fixtures.
There are small plug in recievers that simply attach to the DMX in connector on the fixture, these are only slightly bigger than an XLR connector and can be battery or AC powered.

There are box style DMX recievers that can mount on a stand or truss, typically only one of these is used per stand/truss section and all the fixtures on that stand or truss section are hardwired to it.

If you're good with electronics you can buy a wireless circuit board kit and mount it inside your fixtures, I have done this with some of mine.

Chauvet foot C2