Creating CCT presets and general advice...

[SMSweep]

Hello, I wonder if you might be able to advise. I'm refitting a small television / video studio with LED lamp-heads, (the LEDs are additional (at present) to tungsten lamp-heads already fitted and hardwired to a remote panel).  

After an initial wobble, down to not having the correct settings for the fresnel lamp-heads in the fixture library, I put it to one side for a while then after some digging and a new zerOS and the latest library, I can now 'talk' to 50% of the lights! 

Currently we have: 4 x Fresnel lamp-heads operating in their mode 11 White &RGBW C/F (apologies I don't know if this is a standard DMX mode thing or not?) and 4 x LED flat panels (each 2 channel: intensity and colour temp' and at present these don't want to play nicely!).

 

First question:

I'm after a bit of advice on how to set-up the desk for studio use.

Is it possible to set some presets for the RGB capable lamp-heads, maybe 2800K, 3200K, 5600K, 6500K & 10000K. The idea being to set all the fresnels at once to one of the presets?

I have the formula supplied by the lamp manufacturer and it appears to work on paper if you assume that DMX values 0 & 65535 are 0% and 100% respectively:

DMX% = CCT(required) - CCTmin  x 100

                CCTmax - CCTmin

0% = (2800 - 2800 / 10,000 - 2800) x 100

100% = (10,000 - 2800 / 10,000 - 2800) x 100 

I should be able to workout a selection of common values. I did notice that the non RGB panels actually show a CCT value and not DMX value on the desk on the temp tab (the wrong value mind, but there we are!) I didn't really want to hobble the RGB capable lights by setting a them to  a 'tungsten' mode  that might offer a different read-out... any thoughts?) 

 

Second question:

I turned the flx off yesterday and back on to today, to find it had added new channels and generally had had a good shuffle; any idea what that might be all about? Is there something that needs to be disabled? Does the desk auto detect the attached lights in some way? I'd saved the complete show previously, and tried to reload that... it showed the correct set-up briefly on screen and then reverted to the today's 'switch on' state. I then went through and deleted the extra channels it'd allocated, by tapping on the address for each of the extras in the 'all patched fixtures' screen of the set-up menu. The lamp-heads then seemed to operate as they did before... right light working with the fader channels i'd allocated. Tried the on / off sequence after that, and it was the same odd behaviour again.

 

Sorry there's a lot here...  any advice would be greatly appreciated and thanks for reading this far!

[Edward Z88]

Hello,

Firstly, welcome to the Zero 88 Forum.

3 hours ago, SMSweep said:

I'm after a bit of advice on how to set-up the desk for studio use.

Is it possible to set some presets for the RGB capable lamp-heads, maybe 2800K, 3200K, 5600K, 6500K & 10000K. The idea being to set all the fresnels at once to one of the presets?

Yes you can store colour presets, referred to by ZerOS as Colour Palettes. To do this, select either all fixtures of this type, or just one of them, and use the colour parameter encoder wheels to create the colour temperature you would like to store. Then tap RECORD, and in the Colour window tap an empty colour palette, marked with an asterisk. You will then be able to use this palette to quickly recall the colour temperature. Hold SETUP and tap the palette to give it a name.

3 hours ago, SMSweep said:

I did notice that the non RGB panels actually show a CCT value and not DMX value on the desk on the temp tab (the wrong value mind, but there we are!) I didn't really want to hobble the RGB capable lights by setting a them to  a 'tungsten' mode  that might offer a different read-out... any thoughts?) 

Could you elaborate a little? Are you referring to the number displayed above each encoder wheel? This is the raw DMX value the console is sending to that parameter.

3 hours ago, SMSweep said:

Second question:

I turned the flx off yesterday and back on to today, to find it had added new channels and generally had had a good shuffle; any idea what that might be all about? Is there something that needs to be disabled? Does the desk auto detect the attached lights in some way? I'd saved the complete show previously, and tried to reload that... it showed the correct set-up briefly on screen and then reverted to the today's 'switch on' state. I then went through and deleted the extra channels it'd allocated, by tapping on the address for each of the extras in the 'all patched fixtures' screen of the set-up menu. The lamp-heads then seemed to operate as they did before... right light working with the fader channels i'd allocated. Tried the on / off sequence after that, and it was the same odd behaviour again.

FLX S consoles are able to automatically discover and patch RDM enabled fixtures on the DMX line. This is due to a feature called RigSync. For more information, see the article below...

http://support.zero88.com/995963301

If you don't want the console to discover and keep RDM enabled fixtures synchronised with the console, you can disable RigSync, by tapping SETUP -> Universes -> RDM -> RigSync -> Disabled.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions let us know.

Edward

[SMSweep]

2 hours ago, Edward- Z88 said:

Hello,

Firstly, welcome to the Zero 88 Forum.

Yes you can store colour presets, referred to by ZerOS as Colour Palettes. To do this, select either all fixtures of this type, or just one of them, and use the colour parameter encoder wheels to create the colour temperature you would like to store. Then tap RECORD, and in the Colour window tap an empty colour palette, marked with an asterisk. You will then be able to use this palette to quickly recall the colour temperature. Hold SETUP and tap the palette to give it a name.

Could you elaborate a little? Are you referring to the number displayed above each encoder wheel? This is the raw DMX value the console is sending to that parameter.

FLX S consoles are able to automatically discover and patch RDM enabled fixtures on the DMX line. This is due to a feature called RigSync. For more information, see the article below...

http://support.zero88.com/995963301

If you don't want the console to discover and keep RDM enabled fixtures synchronised with the console, you can disable RigSync, by tapping SETUP -> Universes -> RDM -> RigSync -> Disabled.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions let us know.

Edward

Hi Edward, thanks for the welcome and for all the information. After your advice I've already tried turning off 'RigSync' , and everything's now  stable after cycling the power (there's another menu under there too, under desk Universe, and  i've also disabled Output 1 and Output 2 (I assume that's for when you're using both the 5 pin and 3 pin o/p on the back of the desk for 2 universes?) ).                                                    

Quote

 

Could you elaborate a little? Are you referring to the number displayed above each encoder wheel? This is the raw DMX value the console is sending to that parameter.

 

.... yes think so...  it's the tab the appears on the screen directly above the encoder wheel. Since I've disabled RigSync the flat panels (Velvet1's and Velvet2's) have also begun to behave themselves, and even more impressively, if I press the centre encoder button I get a 15 panel on-screen matrix of selectable CCT values (i'm really impressed... I've uploaded an image) I know they use a shed load of these at ITV in Leeds so didn't think a chap had to keep running up and down a ladder to change the CCT. If I can do the same (or something similar) for the fresnels, I think I'm home and dry! 

That's a job for tomorrow... thanks so much for your help.

PS. One last question... if a lamp-head / fixture, doesn't appear in your library what's the best way of getting one, contacting Eaton's or the lamp-head manufacturer?

 

 

[kgallen]

14 hours ago, SMSweep said:

PS. One last question... if a lamp-head / fixture, doesn't appear in your library what's the best way of getting one, contacting Eaton's or the lamp-head manufacturer?

The quickest way is to write it yourself using the Fixture Tools:

http://support.zero88.com/Fixture-Library/975405071/Fixture-Tools.htm

The second way is to email Zero88 with a link to the pdf for the manual - and if the fixture has many DMX modes, if there is a particular one you need urgently:

To requests new fixtures, please email us, ensuring you supply full details of the fixture (Make, Model, Mode) and a download link to the Operating Manual.

FixtureSupport@Zero88.com

Contacting the fixture manufacturer is likely to result in a deafening silence...

 

Kevin

[Edward Z88]

Hello,

14 hours ago, SMSweep said:

under desk Universe, and  i've also disabled Output 1 and Output 2 (I assume that's for when you're using both the 5 pin and 3 pin o/p on the back of the desk for 2 universes?)

When RigSync is disabled under "Remote Device Management", it is disabled globally. However when this is set to enable, to RigSync options per Desk Output, allow you to configure whether the 3 pin or 5 pin XLR output has RDM enabled from the console.

14 hours ago, SMSweep said:

even more impressively, if I press the centre encoder button I get a 15 panel on-screen matrix of selectable CCT values (i'm really impressed... I've uploaded an image) I know they use a shed load of these at ITV in Leeds so didn't think a chap had to keep running up and down a ladder to change the CCT. If I can do the same (or something similar) for the fresnels, I think I'm home and dry! 

That's great, really glad to hear it. When pressing the middle button of a parameter's encoder, this opens the parameters details. An indication to whether a parameter has details, is if the parameter has a function name below the parameter name, rather than simply a DMX level value.

As Kevin says, if you need a fixture file feel free to send us an email to FixtureSupport@zero88.com, and we'll be able to create this for you.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions let us know.

Edward

[SMSweep]

Hi Kevin, Edward, thanks for all the advice. I was at a bit of a loss initially, so it’s all very much appreciated. 

I’ll report back on any success with setting some global CCT’s for the other lamp-heads / fixtures.