16bit values

[PSchermer]

Hello guys,

 

I was wondering if there is a way to display other values than the 16 bit values.

Even in pan and tilt, I rather see 0-100% (or real degrees preferably) than the 16 bit values. There is no way I can remember what half of 64whateveritis is!

 

If there is no way to change the displayed values, please consider this as a feature request!

 

Also, please have a look at the on screen keyboard layout, its just weird.

[kgallen]

19 minutes ago, PSchermer said:

I was wondering if there is a way to display other values than the 16 bit values.

Even in pan and tilt, I rather see 0-100% (or real degrees preferably) than the 16 bit values. There is no way I can remember what half of 64whateveritis is!

If there is no way to change the displayed values, please consider this as a feature request!

This is a fair point and I know the Zero88 team have been thinking about this for some time.

I think the main issue is you need some detailed calibration data for the fixture to be able to translate the DMX value to degrees - and often we're not working to a "nice" 360 either because pan is often 0-540 and tilt +/-130 degrees. Worse is you would really need to express that to two decimal places to get close to the resolution afforded by the DMX channel pair and the fixture - you're pretty much back to that 16 bit number in decimal. Using percentage is really not viable for pan and tilt, it's just too coarse. Remember pan and tilt have moved to 16 bit parameters because 8 bit, which gives 256 steps, is just too coarse. Percentage with no decimal places is over twice as bad!

I'll put an enhancement request in for pan and tilt to be expressed in hexadecimal instead (only kidding - although at least 0x8000 is halfway, rather than 32768 in decimal, and 0x4000 is quarter instead of 16384... maybe not such a bad idea after all!).

Being serious again, I'm not sure how much during programming, you really care the exact value for pan and tilt. We work on "is the mover pointing in the right direction" and almost certainly work with palettes. If you want to "centre" a fixture, then Home would normally get you there and we can all remember that half way is "around 30000" even if the "exact" value of 32768 isn't remembered - it's all so fixture and mounting dependent anyway.

Having said that, I've recently learned that one can type in a value for pan/tilt using Shift/Tap, which should certainly reduce the amount of frantic encoder twirling I do (and play to my OCD of wanting exact/neat numbers across my fixtures!!!).

[Edward Z88]

Hello @PSchermer

Welcome to the Zero 88 Forum.

11 hours ago, PSchermer said:

I was wondering if there is a way to display other values than the 16 bit values.

Even in pan and tilt, I rather see 0-100% (or real degrees preferably) than the 16 bit values. There is no way I can remember what half of 64whateveritis is!

 

If there is no way to change the displayed values, please consider this as a feature request!

@kgallen nicely covers all the basis here in the post above. The main reason that just raw DMX is shown, is to show you the true resolution of control you have over that parameter. In most cases, no matter what the value was you were seeing, you are probably going to need to be looking at the stage, or visualiser, to actually get the lights where you need them.

10 hours ago, kgallen said:

Having said that, I've recently learned that one can type in a value for pan/tilt using Shift/Tap, which should certainly reduce the amount of frantic encoder twirling I do (and play to my OCD of wanting exact/neat numbers across my fixtures!!!).

See this section of the online manual for more information...

https://zero88.com/manuals/zeros/controlling-fixtures/parameters

11 hours ago, PSchermer said:

Also, please have a look at the on screen keyboard layout, its just weird.

This is something that is being reviewed.

If you have any questions please let us know.

Edward

[PSchermer]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for your explanation. 

I agree with most of you comments, but disagree at the same time. Let me explain:

The actual values are good to have, it makes it possible to be precise. especially when you want to type in the numbers by hand. But then again, when I want to be precise, these numbers are very hard to work with! exactly half of 540 or 100 is a lot easier than 32768.

You also mentioned that most of the time we'll be using pallets and look at the stage to see if it looks right. That is very true. But in that case, I don't need these specific numbers anymore. 

I would really appreciate the option to choose the displayed values. in degrees, percentage or even just 0-255. That doesn't mean the steps in between should not be there, the just don't have to be displayed all the time. 

Thinking about the MA1, Hog and compulite, this is the only console that uses these values. (AFAIK)

Paul

P.s. thanks for reviewing the keyboard.

[Edward Z88]

Hi Paul,

Thanks for your explanation. 

I have logged this suggestion on our software tracking system, as reference number ZOS-10729.

If you have any questions let us know.

Edward

[kgallen]

On 3/6/2021 at 6:13 PM, PSchermer said:

Thinking about the MA1, Hog and compulite, this is the only console that uses these values. (AFAIK)

 

2 minutes ago, Edward- Z88 said:

I have logged this suggestion on our software tracking system, as reference number ZOS-10729.

 

😛😝 Cut the chatter, quote the competition - you're guaranteed to get a ZOS out of it! (Filed for future reference 🤭).

[Edward Z88]

Hi Kevin,

I'll be honest, I thought these comments were already logged on the system, so was just going to bump up the priority of the existing issue. However, couldn't find the item so had to add new!

Edward

[Oliver_74]

Hi,

I would also highly  appreciate values(degrees) instead of bit data 🙂🙏