Lxsparks

It seems most of my problems have started since last Summer when I upgraded our lighting system and art-net'd practically everying so I am now controlling: U1> 96 dimmers U2> Theatre's intelligent fixtures (2 x Mac 500s, 2 x Mac 600s, 12 x Scrollers, 4 x Ultrascans, 4 x Relays, 1 x Hazer) U3> Hired in equipment (anything from nothing(!) to 18 additional moving/effect fixtures) U4> House lighting (50 flourscent fixtures using the Dali protocol interfaced using Artistic Licence's DMX - Dali interface) So it is getting pretty busy on the amount of data it is now controlling from what I used to have running on it. I was toying with the idea of getting one of the Enttec playback wings to give me additional Submasters..although I do have a Frog desk in a studio facility I could nab from time to time... But then I start looking at the Orb desks and get very misty eyed.. As for screens freezing up - I haven't spotted a specific one which causes the desk to slow down to treacle like response it can happen at any time, once last Christmas the desk had been pefectly fine from the time of switching it, checking lamps etc; show opens and then the desk practically stops - each 'Go' seemed to take an age to happen and I couldn't reset the desk as that would have trigged 50 houselights to come on and that's not something you can hide from the audience (or the Director!) very easily. Eventully waited for a long enough break in the cues to be able to go into setup and remove the houselights (which by this time had decided they were programmed into every cue at 5% and so they had to go) and then come the interval switched it off and back on again. To this day I still haven't worked out what the duck was going on but I think it was the most stomach churning two hours lighting a show I have ever done!

Hi Jon, Any ideas on what is causing the desk to slow down/freeze? I have a large event comming up very soon where we want to run all the lighting live and I can't risk the desk misbehaving during it. Matthew

Hi Jon, Both keyboard and mouse are non-branded items bought from CPC. Keyboard: Standard Keyboard, Model: KB-1807 Mouse: 3D Ball Mouse, Model: UM-1018 Not very helpful I'm afraid. Matthew

Hi Jon, Surely whether Smart Tag is on or not it shouldn't copy what is being output on the Live side of the desk, the whole point of Blind Mode (or so I thought) was that the opertions carried out editing/previewing Memories/Subs/etc is ring-fenced from the current output and vice-versa. You should be able to trust that what you're seeing on the screen when editing a cue is what is going to play back and not have the entire contents replaced after updating the cue - WYSIWYSG (what you see is what you should get!). I don't have Smart Tag showing on the Special menu anyway which I assume is because I've set the desk up in basic mode. Matthew

Hi Jon, I am running version:- 6.1 Yes - I always have a USB keyboard and mouse attached. Noted (Events Monitor) - if it happens again I will check with that. Matthew

Hi, This week I have had the desk during two different shows become slow and sluggish to respond on the monitor - Fader controls were unaffected. The first time it happened was just before a show so I was able to power down and reboot the desk and all was fine, the second night it slowed down ten minutes into a dance show and I couldn't do anything about it. It also tried to do an auto save and failed, I can't remember the exact error but I am sure it was to do with a 'bad fixture file....'? It kept failing to save until I found the right key to cancel out of it. I experienced sluggish desk behaviour before Christmas when the desk spectacular failed and worried it is heading for another crash during a show sometime soon. I have also been having these problems which might be down to operator error or something else:- For three days consecutively one channel fader stopped responding and it could only be controlled via the command line. Then on the fourth day (desk hasn't moved, nothing changed) it works again. I did first think it's a hardware issue - dirty track, loose wire maybe, but not to respond at all and then to work again is odd. When programming fixtures I keep getting odd dimmer channels becoming 'attached' to the intensity control wheel - even though I haven't used them recently so they shouldn't have been manually tagged and they are difficult to un-attach (normally it's a reboot to sort them out). I have two Mac 600s and this week the desk keeps insisting that the Colour Wheel 1 on both is on a certain value other then the default home setting. Everything on the desk is down except GM - Home fixtures (ok) - press clear and the colour changes every time. The output screen doesn't indicate the value is sourced from a Palette or anywhere else. I am sure this is something I have done but cannot work how to fix it. Today I switched on the desk and although all the faders were down apart from the GM & Preset A - I had one Submaster on at full (house-lights)which consists of around 40 fixtures. I didn't see this as the house-lights were already up (from their main controller) and I was using the Submasters page on the screen. It wasn't until I happened to look at the Output window and saw all of them were on and they were being controlled by a Sub that had not been on today. The desk was a joy to use up until last summer and since then every show seems to throw up issues, although this is when we went from using 40 channels to the full 96 and from DMX output to Artnet (all four universes) so there is lot more to control now! Matthew

Hi, Last night before a show I wanted to edit some Memories - easy I thought using the Blind function, turned out not so well! I had up on the desk: Memory 1 (Preset) and Sub 1 (Houselights). Switched on BLIND Loaded a Memory Cue (which displayed on screen correctly as programmed) and using the command line I edited the Cues (again the window was showing exactly what I wanted) and then pressed UPDATE. Repeated this for several Cues. Exited BLIND mode and returned back to the show. When it come to playing back the edited cues, instead of getting the original or edited Cue states the desk had recorded what the desk had been been outputting at the time (Cue 1 and Sub1) - so stage goes virtually dark and all the houselights come on... Re-reading the notes on the BLIND function it is meant to do exactly what I was expecting, to be able to program/update cues completely separately from what is being output live. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Matthew.

Hi Jon, Have you been able to look at the file I emailed you yet? Matthew

Hi Jon, I have emailed you the file and as you can see from my email my problems tonight during the show took another turn for the worse! What I forgot to mention that during the show, from MEM Q1 onwards the desk just became unresponsive and that's before I had to try and delete off all the house light fixtures. I am running both the keyboard and mouse off a USB 2/4 Port hub plugged into the USB port on the front of the desk, could this be responsible for the sluggish behaviour? After unplugging and re-plugging the HUB the controls became more responsive. Matthew

Hi Jon, Thanks, I will try that workaround! Matthew

Hi, After programming about 130 cues I've ended up with one dimmer channel flashing on/off in about the last 3 or 4 cues (including a black out). Selecting the dimmer fader and taking it up/down has no affect, it seems to be controlled somewhere else. All other cues are not affected and that particular dimmer channel works normally normally at all other times. I've also had several problems recording submasters. Clear the desk. Nothing selected (or highlighted on the PGM Window). Select fixtures and record onto a submaster. Then on playback the odd dimmer channel gets affected and starts to fade up/down with the sub. I recorded a sub several weeks ago to control the house lights. Then last week I added a number of fixtures (way after setting up this sub). On playback of the sub though, all the new fixtures which have since been added decide to home themselves. In the end I re-recorded it (and now get the above issue where a couple of minor dimmers get recorded) but I don't understand how fixtures which were never in the desk can get programmed into a sub/cue? Regards, Matthew

Hi, Is it now possible to park channels so they are not affected by Master/Grand Master faders or the Blackout button, nor are they tagged when recording Memories? I am looking at using a couple of the Wahlberg DMX controlled winches which require an 'out dead' which is set via one of the channels (they use 7 in total). A colleague who recently used them had ETC's Ion desk where he could Park their channels/level and then not worry about them suddenly moving during the show. I have also just interfaced our house lights (which use the DALI control system)to our desk via Artistic Licence's converter and wondering the best way to set them up on the desk (programmed into subs) so that they don't affected by the Grand Master or Blackout controls. I have searched the forums but couldn't find anything on parking channels within the last two years/recent software updates. Regards, Matthew

Hi, I have come across a bug in the recent software update. When changing the "Move on Dark Delay" time the desk crashes when pressing enter on a keyboard. Error file attached. debug.dat Matthew

After installing the latest version of the software (which so far has been an excellent update - thank you) the main LCD screen on our Leapfrog 96 started flickering before giving up altogether during the show. I suspect this was just coincidental that it happened so soon after the update but could it be the software? Matthew

Hi, After reading through the software v.3 release notes and seeing that the PDA software is now out *hooray*, the one thing the manual does not really explain is how to connect the desk to router. Is it a simple matter of connecting the desk via the Ethernet port into a WiFi router which has been set up to automatically manage DCHP addressing. So apart form using say a laptop to configure the router the system does not have to have any other terminal attached to the network (apart from the PDA)? Matthew

Ahhhhhhhh... I had missed there was another update out. I have been going through the release notes and love the new features listed and I am looking forward to trying them out. For my current production though I don't think I will risk upgrading the desk. Thanks for your swift and excellent responses Peter (as always)! Matthew

Hi Peter, There isn't any move macros on the macro page and I'm not sure how you load a macro up under the comments box on the memories screen..? Matthew

Hi, I have been programming a show which includes a number of Mac 500/600's and Highend X-Spots. I have a number of memories where the movers use the built in effects chases (Square, Circle, etc), however far in advance of getting to the programmed memories containing the effects the movers are already moving (sans-light). I assume that they are readying themselves but to have them bouncing around for 10 pointless minutes is distracting and (considering their age) noisy! Now I know I've missed something simple and can't literally put my finger on it on how to stop this. I have gone back and programmed cues where they are not on by loading the memory, changing the movers effects 'size' to 0 (which stops the pattern sequence) and updated and saved the edit. However as soon as I press clear they are back off again. This doesn't happen if they are edited to have their lamp intensity up, they behave as I would expect. I am sure there is a very simple solution and I'm missing the obvious, but it's been a long week and I can't think any more... Matt

Hi Peter, Thanks - I have sent you the show files and the debug file. The desk OS is version 4.08, I thought I had the latest but obviously I haven't! I'll hold out for the next big release which is due out any day soon... *fingers crossed* Matthew

Hi, I had an interesting fault last night while programming a show. Having to re-do a chase from scratch I deleted the existing memory which contained the chase and programme the first step. When I came to record the second step and select the "Turn current memory into a chase" button the system crashed. After rebooting the desk I found that the memory I was working on did contain the first programmed step and nothing seemed to have been affected. So I repeated the procedure - deleted the memory and reprogrammed it and again when it came to "Turn memory into a chase" it crashed! I decided second time third time round to delete that particular memory again but this time add in a point cue and saved my chase there. Very odd. Matthew