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Davidmk

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Posts posted by Davidmk

  1. On 3/14/2024 at 1:52 PM, Jon Hole said:

    ZerOS 7.15 will upgrade all FLX S24 & FLX S48 consoles to 2048 channels (four universes) and 96 & 192 fixtures respectively free-of-charge. Available Playbacks, Groups and Palettes will all also be doubled.

     

    ZerOS 7.15 mettra à niveau toutes les consoles FLX S24 et FLX S48 vers 2048 canaux (quatre univers) et 96 et 192 appareils respectivement gratuitement. Les lectures, groupes et palettes disponibles seront également doublés.

    • Thanks 1
  2. @kgallen It's HTP that's the issue. As you say an inhibit taken to zero would take them out but you have to take it down to do it and I don't think the macro could replicate taking a fader to zero, besides you'd need it to go back up again on releasing the UDK.

    Am I right in thinking that PB settings include intensity as LTP? If so, would a PB with those fixtures at zero with LTP intensity and release on lower do the trick? (Not an inhibit or they'll never come on).  Leave the fader alone and use the flash button.

    Not sure this would work either and don't have time to try it out or check the manual.

  3. Well, I've just downloaded and installed the latest update to Capture 2023 (for which I am licensed) and the Quartet PC is there...

    image.png.6918a9537627736818b88b3b9938b2d3.png

    But, if you are using the student edition then I expect you have read the limitations - if not then they say...

    Capture 2023 Student Edition

    The Student Edition of Capture is a free version of Capture that may be used for any purpose, educational or not.

    Feature-wise it is based on the Solo Edition, with the following differences:

    • Unlimited number of DMX universes.
    • Reduced amount of trusses and fixtures in the library. The full list of fixtures is available here.
    • Motion (DMX movers, DMX rotators and motion constructs) and effects (CO2, fire and water jets) are not available.
    • Opens and saves Student Edition project files only.
    • Does not export Capture Presentation files.

    All console connectivity options except MA-Net3 are present and fully functional.

    and will have checked out the link to available fixtures which, sadly, does not include your specific models.

    Are you a student at an establishment which has an education licence for Capture? If so then speak to your tutor as they may be able to help. If no then, for the purposes of trying out effects and seeing roughly how your programming will look then you will need to use the closest available fixtures from the reduced set available in the student edition.

    Free editions of software will always have some limitations - nobody would pay for a licence if they didn't - and Capture student appears to have what you need to set students a design task and for them to complete the assignment.

  4. I can't check this because I have a Capture licence but I don't think you can do much without a licence except load the dockhouse file and use it as it stands. Obviously you need to load the dockhouse show file into your desk or phantom ZerOS as well.

  5. I'd be very surprised if it was a desk fault if it is patched correctly. Check the desk has the same DMX address and mode as the fixture (and the Strand desk if you want to be thorough). Check against the actual fixture, do not assume that it is the same as others of the same type.

    If it isn't that then I suspect it will be hard to find, here are some things you can try which may give you more information even if they don't fix it.

    In no particular order...

    • You should probably check that none of the pins in the XLR plug at the desk are connected to the shell. Correct the wiring if they are.
    • If you have other fixtures of the same type, try setting one of them to the same address as the errant fixture. Also try setting the errant fixture to the same address as a working one of the same type.
    • Disconnect the DMX out of the problem fixture. Then try a terminator in it's place.
    • With each fixture before the problem one in the DMX cable run, remove the DMX in and out and connect them together.
    • If you have enough DMX cable (or can de-rig the fixture) try connecting it directly to the desk.
    • If you have (or can borrow) a DMX tester with a flicker finder use that at the back of the desk and in the place of the fixture.
    • Try changing the DMX transmission from continuous to Delta (or Delta to continuous) - see manual here
    • Have a look at the desk output for the fixture (see manual here). Check what it is telling the fixture by looking in the fixture's manual.

    If all of that fails to give you a clue then obtain a manual to the dark arts of wizardry or wait for advice from others on the forum.

  6. The link provided by @Edward Z88 is the right one. The link I supplied gets you the latest library and the fixture editor but, unless I've  missed it, not the contact for getting new fixtures. Edward's takes you to the online manual and a link in that opens an email for requesting a new fixture.

    @Edward Z88: Am I mistaken in thinking the forum topic used to go direct to fixture requests? (Or does it still but I failed to find it?)

  7. I was putting my desk away this evening when I noticed a rattle inside. Took the cover off (very careful about the cables between the halves) and discovered a screw had come out. Retrieved the screw, found where it should have been (on the back of the screen assembly) and replaced it. Put the covers back on. Ran the self test (all good on faders and buttons).

    Noticed the Other Test tab, thought I'd take a look and spotted the Do NVR Test. Tried that and got Load Pattern Buffer failed. Restarted the desk normally.

    On version 7.14

    Start up text included...

    Preparing NVR Shadow Buffer

    ...

    Initialising data

    NVR retention check Ok

    Desk seems to be working OK and I get sensible looking DMX output without framing errors or flicker.

     

    Should I be worried about the NVR thing?

    • Like 1
  8. Certainly that is possible and there are several ways to do it (see manual here).

    However nothing is possible if you don't have information about the fixtures including their addresses, mode (& number of channels) and the channel usage.

    Having the correct manual usually provides everything you need.

    Patching is only the first step though, you may need to integrate them into your saved show - nothing will happen automatically. 

     

    • Like 1
  9. With practice I think you will find RGB faders a good way to work.

    There is an alternative for when you are busking (not running a cue stack with a Go button) but it has limitations.

    Record the colours you want as cues on a playback with appropriate colour fade times, make a note of the cue numbers and set button to Go. When you want a different colour, hold the Go button, type Z/Shift, enter the cue number on the touch screen and release the go button (see manual here). Tedious and limited to the colours you record but it should let you fade from one colour to another just as if you were operating a cue stack.

    Of course you can also select the fixtures you want then select a colour pallette. Set the programmer time first or set a playback to control it, see manual here. Personally I like to avoid using the programmer to busk but lots of people do it this way.

  10. 7 minutes ago, jmd said:

    example sub 1 yellow, sub 2 green

    Ah, there's the problem, I think.

    Firstly,what kind of fixtures are we talking about here? If they are ones with a white colour source and a  colour wheel then they will not mix unless you have some on one colour and some on another. If one of your playbacks sets them all to yellow and the other sets them all to green then the colour you have will be whichever playback was raised last.

    On the other hand, if the fixtures are RGB LEDs then you need to know how colour mixing works with light.

    When using paint the primary colours are red, yellow and blue and green (a mixture of blue and yellow) is a secondary colour.

    With light the primary colours are red, green and blue and yellow is a secondary colour made by mixing red and green (the other secondary colours are magenta (red + blue) and cyan (green + blue).

    The instructions in the manual tell you how to set up faders that control red, green and blue separately and, using these in various proportions, you should be able to mix over 16 million colours and shades. If you have RGBW, RGBAW or RGBAWUV fixtures and set up faders for the extra colours you could get many more.

    (Incidentally the primary colours in painting are actually wrong. Mixing blue and yellow paint only gives green because yellow pigments reflect red and green light but absorb blue, blue pigments only reflect blue light and absorb red so the only colour reflected by a mixture of yellow and blue pigments only reflects green light. Trouble is we have hundreds of years where no-one understood this and, as children, we learn painting before we learn physics and biology.)

    • Like 1
  11. The (English) online manual covers this here. I believe there is a French version maintained by @from Abbeele Eric

    One common problem is recording the "other" colours at zero (for example, the red playback has red at 255 but also has green & blue at 0) so, when you record your playbacks, make sure you de-select the other colours before recording.

     

    Le manuel en ligne (anglais) couvre cela ici. Je crois qu'il existe une version française maintenue par @from Abbeele Eric

    Un problème courant est l'enregistrement des "autres" couleurs à zéro (par exemple, la lecture rouge a du rouge à 255 mais a également du vert et du bleu à 0). Ainsi, lorsque vous enregistrez vos lectures, assurez-vous de désélectionner les autres couleurs avant enregistrement.

  12. 2 hours ago, kgallen said:

    I want the playback fader to take channel 3 (the special) up to full but also to take channels 1 and 2 down to (say) 50%

     

    1 hour ago, kgallen said:

    Setting to Inhibit didn't work at all as I expected

    Inhibit sets a top limit on intensity values - like a grandmaster that only applies to certain channels. I don't think you can use it to both reduce and increase intensities. Nearest I can suggest, using inhibit, is to record chs 1 & 2 @100% on PB3 and set that to inhibit and ch 3 on PB4 @100% put PB at full and leave it there until it is needed. When the business happens, reduce PB3 and increase PB4.

    It's either that or record a cue for the business and another to restore the state.

    • Thanks 1
  13. It was hard work but I did make something workable that I've been using live for a few months. I'm quit pleased by it.

    It was supposed to be customisable and sort of is but I've sort of forgotten what I need to do to make a 'clean' version.

    I've got a few weeks off after Friday so I guess I'll be on the laptop for most of them.

    Hints...

    If you have programming experience you may feel like putting a lot of code in the root so that you only have one copy and using messaging to execute it. Snag with that is the sending module will hang until the processing initiated by the message has completed.

    Find the Lua manual online here as well as the TouchOSC manual here. Refer to both often. There are scripting examples online - Google them yourself.

    Use label & text objects that have the visible property set to false to store values you want to share among modules.

    Get the hang of the hierarchy. Modules live in a tree structure where you can refer to them relatively (self.parent.children.object-name) or directly (root.children.object1-name.children.object2-name). You can also use array notation (root.children[pointer]) and loops to simplify code.

    (I'm not doing this with code examples in front of me, I hope I've got the notation right)

     Try out arrays. You can have arrays of anything including arrays.

    Check out the functions especially the callbacks and these.

    Finally, happy to indulge in a DM conversation as long as you accept that I cannot always get back quickly.

     

    • Like 1
  14. Windows-like  "Save" and "Save As" could be a good idea. As to versioning, I think full show files with incremental version numbers (rather than base file with deltas) is more robust.

    On the separate subject of partial loading... This would be so helpful even if it was restricted to files with the same patch - most of my work is in the same venue with very rare changes to the patch and I suspect there are a lot of users in that position. To be able to (do the equivalent of) open a second showfile and copy individual cues, pallettes and any other things you could make possible would be brilliant!

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