RigSync/fixture patch issues?

[ADCtech1855]

Hello, 

I am the technical manager at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge, I oversee both the main house and a smaller "fringe" style space.

I have an FLX S48 as the house desk in the smaller space. It controls a rig of: one 12 channel chilli dimmer pack, 4x ETC ColorSource Spot Jr.s (deep blue), 2x ETC ColorSource PARs (deep blue), and a single channel dimmer for house lights. The Chilli dimmer and ColorSources all support RDM, the single channel dimmer does not. All DMX lines are terminated and there are no passive splits anywhere. I have just updated to ZerOS 7.14 from 7.13, although this has not resolved the issue I'm having.

Recently, the desk has started re-patching and re-addressing all connected fixtures when loading a showfile, leaving the existing channels unpatched. For example, the patch should be DMX 1 - 12 dimmers, then LED units on 51, 57, 63, 69, 75 and 80, then the single channel dimmer on 86. When loading a showfile with an existing patch, or creating a new showfile, it's re-patching the dimmers to DMX 13, then randomly assigning addresses to the LED units and assigning them to a new set of desk channels. The FLX has worked just fine for over a year with RigSync enabled and kept the patch between shows loading in. The only thing that has recently changed was I added a second ColorSouce PAR to the rig in August.

Since Rig Sync on/off is stored per-showfile, I can't solve this by disabling rig sync and setting the patch manually, because as soon as someone loads a showfile with rig sync enabled the patch gets messed up again. Is this a known bug, or is there a fix for this?

Thanks,

Alex

[Edward Z88]

Hi @ADCtech1855

Welcome to the Zero 88 Forum. Good to hear you have a FLX S48.

5 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

Recently, the desk has started re-patching and re-addressing all connected fixtures when loading a showfile, leaving the existing channels unpatched.

Sorry to hear this. When you save a show file, ZerOS will include the unique RDM IDs of all of the RDM fixtures in the show file. Upon loading the show file, ZerOS will then compare the RDM IDs in the show file with the RDM IDs of currently connected fixtures. If there is a match, they will "link", meaning the show file will work with the fixture that's already discovered and patched. Duplicate fixtures therefore won't be added. If the RDM fixtures currently patched in the console have different RDM IDs to those already patched, the fixtures from the show file will be added.

The behaviour you are seeing therefore suggests ZerOS is seeing different RDM IDs compared to when the show file was originally saved, which is unusual. 

Would you be able to email us a couple of show files to investigate? If so, please email us the original show file you wish to load. Please then load this show file, and then save a new show file which includes the fixtures that have been duplicated rather than linked. We will then be able to compare the RDM fixtures in the two show files.

11 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

Since Rig Sync on/off is stored per-showfile, I can't solve this by disabling rig sync and setting the patch manually, because as soon as someone loads a showfile with rig sync enabled the patch gets messed up again. Is this a known bug, or is there a fix for this?

To avoid this issue, I would recommend unplugging the DMX line from the console, and then load in your show file. Then disable RigSync on the console, and then reconnect the DMX line. The console will then simply output DMX on the currently patched addresses. You can then save an updated version of the show file, this time with RigSync disabled.

11 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

The FLX has worked just fine for over a year with RigSync enabled and kept the patch between shows loading in. The only thing that has recently changed was I added a second ColorSouce PAR to the rig in August.

To confirm, was this working correctly in ZerOS 7.13 software, until that second ColorSource PAR was added?

If you have any questions, please let us know.

[ADCtech1855]

Hi, 

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll try and get over to the venue and grab some show files to send over at some point this week.

20 minutes ago, Edward Z88 said:

To confirm, was this working correctly in ZerOS 7.13 software, until that second ColorSource PAR was added?

Yes, this is correct. The desk was installed to replace a Jester, along with the 4 LED spots and a single PAR in June 2022, and worked perfectly fine up until last month.

 

[Edward Z88]

12 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll try and get over to the venue and grab some show files to send over at some point this week.

That would be great - thank you.

13 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

Yes, this is correct. The desk was installed to replace a Jester, along with the 4 LED spots and a single PAR in June 2022, and worked perfectly fine up until last month.

Thanks for confirming. 

[ADCtech1855]

Just a quick update on this issue. It seems to have resolved itself.

I'm not sure how, but when I went to collect some showfiles to email over the other day everything now seems to be loading correctly without duplicate fixtures.

If it re-occurs I will try and grab the affected showfiles to send over. 

[Edward Z88]

Hi @ADCtech1855

49 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

Just a quick update on this issue. It seems to have resolved itself.

I'm not sure how, but when I went to collect some showfiles to email over the other day everything now seems to be loading correctly without duplicate fixtures.

Thanks very much for the update. This is both good and also frustrating at the same time, as we don't know the root cause!

49 minutes ago, ADCtech1855 said:

If it re-occurs I will try and grab the affected showfiles to send over. 

That would be great - thanks very much.