Removing parameters from a fixture

[Transalp]

Hi to all!

 

Actually I noticed something curious when creating a special fixture file:

I had reworked some old Amptown PosiSpots to listen via a D/A-changer to the commands of my LeapFrog, therefore I needed a special fixture file. I took the ACC PosiSpot from the library and deleted the colour parameter, because my PosiSpots have only Pan, Tilt and Dimmer. The new file displayed correctly "3 Parameters". But as I loaded it into the Frog, assigned it to the fixture buttons and made the DMX-patching, all PosiSpots got four DMX-adresses and not three as required!

Then I created my own fixture file with the help of the wizard and everything is correct.

Can you tell me what happened?

I already had some trouble with a Robe fixture file of the library, was that a similar problem?

[K-Nine]

It would appear that when you delete a parameter or parameters from an existing fixture type, the utility is not recalculating the DMX allocation for the fixture (ie the number of DMX channels it requires)

 

I have just tried this with the editor on the fixture you mentioned and the DMX allocate value remains at 4 rather than being reduced to 3.

 

To see what the DMX Allocate value for a fixture is ... click on the 'Parameters' tab to display the fixture parameters and then right click on the symbol above the parameters and select Properties.

 

You should be able to correct this manually, if required.

[Transalp]

Thanks, K-Nine, for your hint to correct the DMX allocate value manualy.

Will the non-automatic recalculation be changed in an upgrade of the UFTE in the future?

[Wol]

I have just made a fixture profile for a 6 channel fixture, and used in in programming on the phantom frog so far. I then wanted to make a reduced version of the fixture, with just half of the channels, so copied the fixture, removed the three parameters I didn't need, leaving it with 3 overall. However, although the fixture editor said that only three channels were being used, when I transferred the file across to the frog, when patching, it still seemed to think that I had 6 DMX channels for the 3 channel fixture.

 

Is this a bug or has anyone else found this.

 

Ive managed to get around this by just making a new fixture file / fixture from scratch, rather than copying an old one, but it is like the total number of channels required isn't being updated when a parameter is deleted.

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Wol

 

If you double click on the little picture of a fixture at the top of the Parameters tab in the fixture tool, you get up the SubFixture Properties window. In here you can change the number of channels the fixture requires. By default it goes to the highest DMX value in the fixture, however if you then subsequently delete channels, the DMX Allocate stays high.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

 

Peter

[kgallen]

Hi,

 

I have been using the v2.0.0.1 Fixture Editor. In this case, just to develop a simple fixture description for a 3-channel DMX Relay for a FatFrog v10.9.1. (The relay has duty cycle controlled by the parameter value rather than just on/off).

 

I originally developed my fixture for a 3 relay (=3 channel) "fixture", by defining each relay as a colour attribute, hence 3 colour parameters for 3 relays at consecutive DMX addresses.

 

I loaded this into my FatFrog and all was fine. I assigned the fixture from the ift on the floppy and used auto assign to give me DMX addresses 49,50,51 for the fixture.

 

I then decided that it would be better to have the relays assigned one-by-one as single channel fixtures so I could have individual tag control as what the relays control are independent rather than linked as would be pan/tilt/colour on a mover. So I edited my fixture file by deleting two parameters to have a single relay as one colour parameter (I also did one having the single parameter as the brightness parameter with the same problem as follows). The fixture had a different name and was saved as a different file on the floppy.

 

When I loaded this into the desk and assigned fixtures, even though the Fixture Editor says there is only one parameter, the DMX address assignment still wants to allocate 3 addresses for one single-parameter fixture (so it wanted to assign a total of 9 addresses for my 3 relays instead of 3 addresses as one for each of 3 assigned fixtures). So it appears the desk did not update the number of required parameters (to 1 was 3) for the fixture even though it had changed from 3 down to 1. I presume the fixture definition on disk is correct as the Fixture Editor says there is only one parameter (at the point it was saved to floppy).

 

I created a new fixture from scratch on the Fixture Editor (instead of editing my 3 parameter fixture definition down to 1 parameter) and this worked as expected - only requiring one DMX address - when I assigned fixtures and DMX addresses.

 

This appears to be a bug in either the fixture definition import from floppy on the FatFrog or in the file contents written out from the Fixture Editor on the PC. Tonight I'll read the floppy file back into the Fixture Editor to exclude the latter!

 

I was creating a fixture definition for one of these in case you're interested: http://www.dmxprojects.com/projects_dmx_relay.html

 

Regards,

Kevin

[Kirkup_xp]

Hi Kevin

 

This is actually a bug in the fixture you've created - if you double click on the little fixture icon in the Parameters tab of the fixture editor, you'll see a popup detailing the "DMX Allocate" - this is the number of DMX channels the fixture will take up. If you've edited from your 3 channel fixture to a 1 channel fixture, this will still be 3 channels. Change this to 1 and reload it onto the desk and you'll see it'll take just one channel.

 

Hope this helps,

 

 

 

Peter

 

Moderation: topics merged

[kgallen]

Hi Peter,

 

Interesting. You were right (obviously!); DMX Allocate was set to 3. I've corrected this and will try in the desk the next time I setup.

 

Thanks,

Kevin

 

Edit: This fixed the problem. Thanks, Peter.