Simonkbike

I'm putting this here as it probably applies to a number of legacy desks. There are a few posts re desks crashing or failing to boot where the recommended action is to "reseat the compact flash". I'm working on a Solution desk which failed to boot 1st time last winter (usually fine on 2nd attempt). It self-resolved before I could do anything then behaved normally ever since ... until this week. I've opened up & found the compact flash card; question how to remove. I've only ever slid cards into cameras etc, but it looks like this is a different kind of mount. Do I prise the card up out of the holder with a sharp implement or what? I was intending to hoik it out for a clean but is a good push sufficient? Simon

Thanks guys, saving a group with intensity is a great help. Confirmed it doesn't link the group level into the cue, so unlike a palette, changes to the Group levels don't affect existing cues. I also found the trick to turn off Smart Tag so I can save lights into the Group with zero intensity. Allowed me to clean up existing cues that were a bit randomly balanced so they're all identical. S

@scottydog75 Yes, we're just a small village hall with an enthusiastic amdram group and a history of generous benefactors, hence the kit. My main issue is the lighting bars are only 10ft/3m above the stage so getting even lighting is all but impossible. Numbering isn't a problem. Back & front FOH bars with 8 each, over stage with 6 & upstage with 6c ycs. Heading down to try groups with intensity today/tomorrow. Will update. S

What? No! I only just discovered Edward had gone. Pantos will never be the same again. Many thanks for your above-and-beyond support for a little minnow. Simon in Wargrave.

Ah, if I can save intensity in groups that might do it. Many thanks. S

My rig has 6 Lanta rgb pars and I use palettes for colours, fairy pink & baddie green etc, as they may change shade between shows. The rest are 28 incadescents, mainly Selecon Acclaims with a mixture of various old Strand lights. With these, I have trouble balancing the different output, particularly from the old lights where some are brighter than others. Could I use palettes to save the balance? I think you can save intensity in a palette (? a while since I looked), but I thought palettes are independent of fixture. I'd really like a portfolio of settings for DSL, DSC, DSR, USL, USC, USR, which would cover our small stage maybe 24ft / 7m square. Then I could pick the settings for a scene: full stage, 1/2 blacks, front roller etc. I’ve also tried position palettes on a few cheap Chinese moving heads, but they drift between cues so aren’t reliable enough. Good enough for movement in dance sequences. S.

Anyone have good ways to put together a show cue stack quickly? I'm using a Solution desk for our annual pantomime and I usually end up with 100 or more cues in the show file. There's a lot of similarities between each year's show but each production also has a number of specials that repeat during the show, a spotlight on an object, a colour effect for a character. I usually take last year's show file then tweak individual cues, reordering & removing last year's specials, then adding this year's as appropriate. It a bit slow & painful. I think it should be quicker to have a base file of component scenes then add some special components & build each cue from these. Question is, what components? I can see a few ways to do this by * using groups * using cue stacks (my "subs') to update & build each cue * calling cue stacks with macros Anyone have their own method or preferences, or can point me to previous discussions here (had a search but couldn't spot anything relevant). Cheers, Simon

Many thanks for the confirmation@Edward Z88. As I feared but half-expected I was probably mis- remembering some other operation. S.

Thanks kg (if I may be so familiar - been reading your helpful replies for a while). Don't seem to work on my Solution. If I press [Del] then G on the keyboard, I just have "Delete" on the syntax line. I've tried pressing [Group] on desk and on remote but... nothing. There's a short list of keyboard shortcuts in the final Solution manual (> = thru; @; etc) which work but the FLX ones don't seem to carry across. S.

I'm having a tidy up of my groups & effects libraries, trying to delete old ones & re-arrange the ones to keep. The zeros manual uses syntax to effect these changes but I can't get my Solution to do the same. Having pressed copy-to, how do I get it into Group mode to pick source & target. (I'm sure I've done this before, but I see the last Solution manual says the Copy button is just for Cues). Similarly, I want to delete multiple groups in one operation but same problem arises. I know some keyboard shortcut work on Solution - is there a list of which ones? Simon

Hey, Apologies, I followed this up with Ed offline & never came back to update the thread, so... My last production started rehearsals in midwinter (near freezing overnight temps) with venue unheated. Shortly after my first post it warmed up a bit and I filmed the desk boot up through our production with no more freeze-ups. Battery was new. IIRC we decided it may have been CF card but left it until we had consistent issues to resolve. Colleague is lighting current production so will check how it's behaving. Simon.

Hey Ed. Ain'cha got anything better to do on a Sunday afternoon?? This is my leisure activity so I'm allowed. S.

For clarity, if you patch a new fixture. non dim profile is in the Generic list as expected. When I was re-patching my existing fader, the Generic list is filtered, hence "non dim" is hidden even to a Search. Once I'd pressed Clear Filter, all was revealed. S.

Anyone else find their desk freezes on powering up? I get the old blue splash screen but it never progresses onto the black screen, then new black logo and so on. If I power off/on it goes through fine. Happens about 40-50% of starts. Anything I need to worry about? Simon.

Yeah, it's there today. Yesterday I searched "non" & got nothing, but I must have mis-typed. Sorry. S.

Hmm, I installed 7.14.2 this week but when I try to re-patch I can't find a non-dim profile. When I search, I still have a video 1ch profile available. Any suggestions? Re fuses: It'll be on the lighting bar so we'll out of reach, but good to check. S.

Hi Edward, Thanks for this, I'll look at non-dim fixtures tomorrow; sounds exactly what I was looking for if I can patch to mfks. Couple of questions: What dmx value does this output? What's the difference between video1ch and non-dim profiles? I recall we used video as it wasn't affected by the Master fader, but can be set in the cue stack when needed. That means I can power down the LEDs on a lighting bar & kill the fan noise if I'm only using my incandescents. FYI: The relay control unit is limited to 10amp max overall load and has 10amp fuse in the mains plug (not shown in photo) that provides power. When I have time I'll label with max load for each socket. We're using it to switch small effects devices & on-stage table lamps so not envisaging overload issues. Cheers, S.

For clarification, do you mean a log of when the zeros version was loaded? Simon.

Venue is community theatre group using Solution desk. I've built this 4 channel DMX relay pack to switch on/off ancillary on-stage lights & effects which may be damaged by a dimmer output. The unit activates with a DMX signal of 128-255. What's the best way to patch this on my desk? Background: My installation uses a rack of Chilli dimmers for the 15a lighting bar channels plus some Chilli relays (controlling a 13a socket at the end of each bar). As novices the relays channels were patched with "dimmer" profile to faders, but later, on advice, the same faders were re-patched using "video 1ch" profile which is switched via the Beam On/Off. The fader is therefore redundant. Inspecting the Dmx output, the Beam On outputs a DMX value 127, ie not enough to activate the new relays (although apparently sufficient to activate the Chilli relays). When I tried patching the new relays: a) The desk wouldn't let me patch to a fixture channel above 48 so the pack will fill 4 more faders which they don't really need. b) When I patched as "video 1ch", the Dmx output value at Beam On was 11. (Further, if I select a mix of Chilli relay channels and the new relays the output value is 11; it's only 127 when activating Chillis alone). I'd really like to move all the relays off the faders and patch as fixtures so I can switch with Beam On/Off. I'd also need to set the Dmx output value above 127 when activated. Thanks Simon.

Many thanks (as ever) Edward. I'll have a try out with this next rehearsal. Cheers, Simon.

Hi, I have stored a fire effect in a cue, having reduced the intensity from the default 50 and changed the colour. Director says it's still to bright. Bring up the cue and select the fixture but as soon as I touch the intensity scroll wheel, the effect stops. The only way to proceed is to reset the effect, reset the colour, then set my intensity. Seems a bit of a pain. What am I doing wrong? Supplementary: when I select the fixture so it appears below the fixture grid, I sometimes get the Effect label on the entry but often not, even when the effect is running. Why? Is there any way to check if a fixture has an effect running (or which effect is saved to a cue)? S.

What was the outcome of this query, please? I'm having similar niggles (will post separately) and it may be related. S.

Addendum: Jon's technique works fine and would be required if you need to adjust fade time during the show, but it blocks a Playback fader. I went back to the Solution manual (Yes, I know. RTFM first!) and found we have a Time key above the display screen which does the same thing. Set the fade time on the Specials MFK page, then hold the Time key when you press the palette (colour, effect, position) and it will fade in over the set time.

Thanks Jon. Yes, I see now. Apologies to Ed, I misunderstood the switch on/off yesterday. S

I'm playing a live music show for first time; I usually run a fully programmed cue stack for theatrical productions. Following Ed's advice in video training for "Limited programming time", I have recorded an intensity-only playback and intend to switch colours & position using palettes. At 24:15 in video (using an FLX desk), Ed puts "Programmer time" on a spare playback to adjust the fade time between palettes. I've recorded this option to a playback on my Solution but it has no effect when I select a new colour or position palette. Can this fade time be adjusted on Solution desk? Even setting it to a single, longer value would help. NB. emailed this to support as didn't know forum was back working but think they must be busy. Cheers, Simon