Advice on building a new Fixture

[CBMatt]

I know there are many ways to go about this so I'm looking for suggestions on how to write this fixture personality.

 

I have 12 LED bars. You can control all the RGB levels as one or you can split them up into 3 separate sections. I like that functionality because most of my programming is going to be within the 3 separate sections. I'm wondering how to go about writing dimming control and using color pallettes.

 

Here is the DMX Chart...

1 - Strobe

2 - Full Bar Red

3 - Full Bar Green

4 - Full Bar Blue

5 - Section 1 Red

6 - Section 1 Green

7 - Section 1 Blue

8 - Section 2 Red

9 - Section 2 Green

10 - Section 2 Blue

11 - Section 3 Red

12 - Section 3 Green

13 - Section 3 Blue

 

My main question is, is there a way to put a virtual dimmer on each section so when programming I can just choose one section and have better control with intensity chases? The other half of that would be, when I write my color pallettes if I program them in channel mode it will then be possible to divide the sections, right?

 

Any advice on how others would do this would be great. Thanks

[Jon Hole]

Hi Matt,

 

Which console are you using to control these?

 

I would suggest patching the bar as 4 separate RGB fixtures (these are available inside 'standard fixtures' and have a virtual intensity channel). This would mean you can put colour / intensity effects across the bar, and control each section using the colour pickers etc (if using a ZerOS console). I would then create a group of the four fixtures for each of the bars, so I also had the choice to control the bar as one fixture if I wished.

 

For the strobe channel, you could either use a basic dimming channel, or create a single channel beamshape fixture.

 

I hope this makes sense?

[CBMatt]

Hi Jon

Thanks for getting back to me.

This all makes perfect sense but how do you stop the editor software from allocating channels? If I try to assign dmx channels 5-7 to say what would be section 1 RGB it automatically makes a "7 channel" fixture even though I'm only using 3 channels. And then the board won't let me overlay the channels.

 

I'm using a Leap Frog 48...BTW

[Jon Hole]

Hi Matt,

 

All the fixtures that you make in the fixture library should start at one. Then use the desk to address them.

 

So for example, if your fixture is addressed to dmx 100, do the following:

 

1 channel 'strobe' fixture addressed to DMX 100.

3 channel RGB dimmer addressed to DMX 101 (this will do the full bar)

3 channel RGB dimmer addressed to DMX 104 (this will do the first section)

3 channel RGB dimmer addressed to DMX 107 (this will do the second section)

3 channel RGB dimmer addressed to DMX 110 (this will do the third section)

 

Those last 4 fixtures can be exactly the same fixture, just tell the desk that you have 4 of them. In fact, on the Leap Frog, you just need to give the first DMX address (101), and then press four of the Multi Function Keys when patching, and the console will automatically address the other 3 fixtures sequentially, knowing they each take up 3 channels.

 

I hope this makes sense?

[CBMatt]

Perfect sense!! Thanks very much!! I will try it this week.

[CBMatt]

Hi Jon,

 

So everything went well with patching. The functionality is great except after I loaded the auto palletes I dont get a choice of intensity effects. Any reason for this?

 

Matt

[Jon Hole]

Hi Matt,

 

The effects that are generated by Auto Palettes are the same every time, no matter which fixtures you have patched, so you should have intensity effects available.

 

If you would like to send me a show file, I can have a look for you and try and find them!

 

Cheers