# Galaxian sky by ADJ, pretty darn awesome.



## arcuhtek

So my new addition to the yard haunt this year is my American DJ Galaxian Sky laser.






I decided that I wanted to see if I could get a true green sky about 9 feet over the sidewalk to my front door. The GS arrived yesterday and I used it briefly last night for the first time. My wife and sister thought it was the coolest thing ever! I do too. Now, it does give a little more techno feeling to an otherwise ancient looking haunt. However, the fog from my fog machine (just used one for testing, but have 5 for the real deal) passing though the laser beam made it seem like there were green clouds and on a clear night, see the moon through green clouds was just amazing!

The beam spread covered all of my front yard, the entire street in front of my front yard, the entire park directly across the street, and each neighbors yard across the street diagonally. The good news is that everyone has lots of trees so the laser was not able to actually scan their home facades, etc. So no intrusion. But the park, with no trees was awesome. But you could only see the beam and not the clouds since the fog was not making it across the park before dissipating.

I have never used a DMX machine at least not attempted to program one. So I do have a problem....the true sky feel is accomplished by the beam staying perfectly horizontal during sull left to right scan. The machine goes through a series of random patterns, one of which is the liquid sky effect. I dont know how to get it to stay on that setting. There are tons of DMX control numbers on how to program the lasers movement, but I dont have a clue. I tweaked around with it, but made it worse, so I used the reset feature to erase my programming.

I HIGHLY recommend this machine even though it is $249) if you want something unique. I bet indoors would be unbelievable. But it DOES work outside, which was my main skepticism. The fog has to be continuous as you might guess.

I am going to call ADJ as soon as they open to try and get them to help me program this one setting. But if you know how to program DMX could you help me? The Owners Manual is very sparse on HOW to program, but the programming channels and numbers are shown. They just dont mean anyting to me. Here is the OM
http://www.americandj.com/pdffiles/galaxian_sky.pdf

This picture sucks, but it is the only one I could find.








Go watch the video.

If one needs an external programming device, I am screwed. They mention a DMX512. But I do not believe it is required here because I can use the LED and menu inputs on the back to access the "channels" but I just dont know what to do from there.

Anyway...this this is the bomb. There is a patter, called Pattern 17, that gives you the liquid sky but the beam broadcast pattern is very much like a "sine wave" you did way back in geometry class. It goes from horizontal into this wave pattern and when looking at if from below, through fog it is awesome and the "ceiling" of clouds appears to move much like an ocen wave over your head. VERY COOL!


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## bigshowdj

Unfortunately you do need a DMX controller to easily control the unit and change the patterns, etc....


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## NickG

wow, I bet that was cool.


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## randyaz

this is cool. I looked through adj site. It says it has a tunnel effect to. I wonder if this could be used for a vortex tunnel. 

Would you try the tunnel effect and let us know?


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## arcuhtek

I will try the tunnel effect this year...I will have a DMX controller to get that effect and report back.


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## Rod Zombie

DMX is an communication protocol. Your Laser is able to be controlled by a DMX controller but also has some built in functions. What you are currently accessing are the built in functions. 

If you want to try running using DXM I would recommend Vixen software because it's free. I use the Velleman K8062 USB to DMX controller. I think it was about $60 bucks for the kit or you can buy pre-assembled for a slightly higher price.

Obviously you will need a computer to run all of this. 

Don't forget to buy a DMX cable if you go this route. 

Is the DMX plug on your laser 5 or 3 pin XLR?


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## Rocky666

You can get a vortex tunnel out of even the really cheap lasers like the laser widow as long as they have manual controls. Just take it out of sound activated mode and tweak the knobs for a while and you'll get to the tunnel. cheaplights.com has the "Froggy" which is a 4.9mw laser with a manual setting for $90.


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## Lucyfer

Hey - did you end up figuring out how to set the liquid sky mode with the DMX? I got the Galaxian Sky for my haunt this year but realized after getting it that liquid sky is not one of the pre-programmed modes. Appreciate any help/info!


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## jlcproperties

*Galaxian Sky Liquid sky effect*

I am also trying to obtain a true horizontal line with the galaxian sky to create the liquid sky effect. I did find by playing with the machine the PAN test is only the horizontal line. I called AMDJ and asked if they knew if using the test mode indefinitely would hurt the machine. They couldn't give me an immediate answer but said they would try it out on one of their machines and call me back. Try it yourself to see and I'll report back when I hear from AMDJ.


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## Lucyfer

Good thinking with the pan test. I am planning to do some practice runs with where to place the fog machines and will try that tonight. I had called AMDJ and the guy I spoke with was absolutely no help and just kept talking about the presets and didn't know anything about setting the horizontal line for the sky effect. Thanks for the info.


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## jlcproperties

The person I worked with at AMDJ called me back regarding the PAN test mode. He stated that he ran one of their machines in PAN test for 4 hours and did not notice any adverse affects. It apparently will not shut off automatically after a specified time. I think this is the only way to achieve the flat line without a DMX controller. 

I also had the opportunity of speaking with someone from AMDJ that was not helpful when I had questions before my purchase. The person was from sales and couldn't answer the most basic questions about the machine. The person that did help me was very kind, knowledgeable and will to help.


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