Kirkup_xp

Just a bit of a tip... it may be obvious, but always works for me. Whenever i'm inserting a cue, I go for .5 first. Then if i need to insert a cue before or after it, I can do this up to 4 times each way - .3 and .7 come next, followed by .2, .4, .6, .8. If necessary, .9 can be used, although you may have to shift other point cues around to get the gap where you need it. Sometimes renumbering cues is a bad option - if your show is called by a DSM, they will hate for renumbering all the LX cues just to fit one more point cue in. If you were to introduce a renumber cues option, it would be best to have it selective, ie over a range. I might want to renumber all of the cues within a scene, or musical number. If there werent enough 'whole number's available for that section, the software could insert point cues using the logic above - .5 first, then .3 and .7, then fill in the gaps, until it fits all the cues. Worst case scenario would be if you had filled all of the point cues in that entire range, in which case, no change would be made. Sometimes its not our fault that the director decides actually they want 20 more cues before lights up on Scene 3. Do you want us to program every 10th cue, just incase? I have done this, in the past, with a certain director who was very unsure of what they wanted.

Just to add, Ice, you can enter any number in the 'no' column. Say for example you currently have cue 20 selected, you can type in 14.7 enter and that cue will be inserted and made as the currently selected cue.

To insert point cues, there are two ways of doing it. The first is to select the cue you wish to insert a point cue after, and then press Insert. The LCD prompts you to select the point cue number .1 to .9 and a press of Enter inserts the cue. The simpler way, if you have a keyboard attached, is to hit Memories (to move to the 'no' column), then type the number of the point cue in on the external keyboard, and hit ENTER. This inserts the point cue, ready for programming. Both of these methods will insert the point cue, but only temporarily. If you move away from the point cue (up or down) in the Memories screen, it disappears.

Still saying Lowest Takes Presidence. Also, the table set on the homepage looks really strange in firefox.

Have you tried playing with the LTP fade time on the cue? I haven't tried this out, but it would seem that something there is delaying the start. It would certainly explain the slow movement into Position A. Do you have any need for a slow intensity fade up either? If so, have you considered making it a two stage cue - stage one is a scene memory which moves the head into Position A in xx seconds, and stage two is your chase memory which triggers automatically when stage one is complete? That could help you get around it.

Frog is much more useful if you use the Frog screen to set limits. If you limit colour between 0 and 255, on a CMY fixture, and "detag" one of the three channels, you can create a random chase between two colours, which is (IMHO) much more useful than totally random colours. Something for a future update would possibly be a way of setting limits on a per-attribute basis.

Fixture Random Output Generator - a feature which was new to the desk and made it stand out from the other desks of its size.

To save a show to the floppy drive: First, set the floppy drive as the "Floppy Path" in the Phantom Frog options window (the one that loads when you start the program). For most PCs, this will be A: Now, click Run and activate the front pannel and / or the monitor, as required. When you wish to save the show, enter Super User. To do this, right click on +, right click on - and Left click on Enter. Now release the + and - with furthur right clicks. Use the ^v arrows to select Floppy Disk, then press Enter Use the ^v arrows to select Save Show, the press Enter Select the show number Press Enter Use the ^v arrows to move to Exit, and press Enter, then exit super user in the same way. Your show file will now be on the floppy disk. Hope the above helps. Peter

Proof? Think logically, working backwards from the desired solution through the necessary steps to create the original pattern, and you'll be half way there

Q1: Yes, I believe Stage Electrics have some in their hire stock here in the UK. Q2: Sorry, no idea, but Betapack2s accept +10 and -10v control. I believe the circuitry would be more complicated than just swapping pins around.

In which case, an untagged fixture in a pallet would act as an untagged fixture when programming - ie its outputs wouldn't change with that memory (etc). Surely?

Merry Christmas to you too Sp, and everyone else

The easiest way is to import an existing CAD plan in AutoCAD format, and then 'extrude' the walls to become surfaces. These surfaces can then be grouped to become the venue. You won't get all the detail, but at least you'll have a workable 3D plan.

RDM - Remote Device Management. Means you can assign the DMX address, change fixture settings, etc, all remotely. This report (on the Wybron website) explains RDM well. ACN - Advanced Control Network. An alternative to DMX, which can run over ethernet cabling. Multiple universes down one cable. It works by assigning each fixture an IP address instead of a DMX address, and thus much larger systems can be built from one output on the desk. This report (from ALIA) lays out ACN quite well.

Assuming you've created your chase as a memory (press and hold on the Scene/Chase button till it lights up on Chase, then record each step as if it were a seperate memory, move out of the [step] field, and play with the modifiers, then press Finish), the next step is quite simple... Select the chase you want to appear on a submaster (in the Memories screen), then press either "Transfer With Time" or "Transfer No Time" - the first will allow the submaster to inherit the timings associated with the memory, the second will give the submaster timings of 0,0. Make sure you've got the correct memory and submaster selected in the LCD, and press Enter. Job done.

When programming, ensure you have Playback X (above the blue Go button) down, otherwise you'll be adding to the previous state each time you program. Peter

My suggestion is for the ability to home an individual wheelgroup page, instead of having to home a whole attribute group. This could be implimented by holding Wheel Group and pressing Home. What may need to change is that currently its a 'down' press which activates a wheelgroup change, instead it should be an 'up' press, leaving 'down' press for activating the Home WheelGroup function. I have a project coming up using a media server and a Fat Frog, which could make use of this function. Let me explain my reasons a little furthur... Media servers such as High Ends Catalyst system use a lot of DMX Channels. Catalyst uses 40 for each 'profile' you have to patch - upto 8 on some of the larger systems, so you're talking a lot of wheelgroup pages on the FF. What is on one wheelgroup may be totally irellevant to what is in another - the current Catalyst profile has 9 wheel groups defined in beamshape alone. I'd like to be able to reset (ie Home) the size and shape, without having to re-select the video clip i'm playing. Does that make sense? Its not really partial 'programming' as this would only affect the live outputs, memories would stay with the whole 'beamshape' group tagged or untagged. Infact, the fact that beamshape has to be tagged as one entity works in your favor when programming a media server as you're much more likely to program it in 'full' mode. Its not life or death, I just thought it would be a nice feature and fairly easy to implement. Peter

My latest show (at first design at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama): After Mrs Rochester - RWCMD Caird Studio - 23rd to 30th October 2004 Photographs thanks to John Bishop. Programmed on an Illusion 500. Entirely generic rig, consisting of 26 fresnels, 6 cyc floods, 17 profiles and 8 Source4 Pars. Jane Eyre Jean Rhys - Preset Ella Ella again

You can switch between % and DMX values on the outputs screen, using the "+" and "-" keys. This only works in the outputs screen, as all the other screens have functions for + and - already. LTP attributes should always display in DMX values, HTP in %.

Could you edit the fixture file so that the home values are all 0, then select the fixtures and hit 'Home' when they get triggered otherwise? Although that wouldn't produce a fade down, but it sounds like that might not be a problem.

Depending on what else you have patched to the Mambo, can you not just put each generic patched to a different fixture button?

With Fat Frogs, no. You could however link the 'remote go' buttons so that when you press 'go' on one, it runs the cue on both. Leap Frogs upwards could be fitted with the MIDI input card, allowing you to trigger one desk from the other. Another thought is if you have access to a demux, you could wire a lead to take the +10v from one desk (via the demux) and put it back down the 'remote go' on the other one. You'd have to program something clever into your cues though, in order to trigger the other desk, and you'd also have to ensure the demux was set to switch law.

I think sp is referring to the fade modifier for chases, which can be set to ^, /|, | and |-|.

Try looking on the back of the desk, near to the power connector +44 (0)1633 838088 - talk to Keith

Cat5 is extremely cheap compared to 'proper' DMX cabling. Another reason is that many new buildings have Cat5 prewired around the building. If you had a 4 universe console, you could (I assume*) use the 4 pairs in Cat5 to provide the 4 signals? That could certainly be cheaper than 4 runs of 110ohm! *I haven't checked out the practicalities of this, so don't take my word as gospel.