Just got our new CS20 - Underwhelmed thus far

Our church has ancient incandescent stage lighting and an old Chauvet Obey controller. Horrible. It's all dying and we are upgrading.

I've been purchasing RDM equipped LED lights in advance of our upgrade. When I try to patch an Elation Seven Par 7IP fixture, I cannot get it to work correctly. I've read the manual, I've watched the videos where it's click, click, click and light is working. Not so for me. 

I've got 2.5.0.11 on the board. Most recent fixture library is loaded. 

When I try to patch by RDM, it detects is as 'Unknown Device'. It will correctly see whatever the Mode setting is (7, 14, 15, etc). It will not populate any of the universe info like R, G, B, Intensity, etc.  

When I patch it by selecting it from the fixture library via 'Add Device', I get same thing. 

Occasionally, I can raise a fader and produce colored light. Occasionally, I can go into color setting on the CS20, and it will allow me to change colors. Other times, it won't even display the color selector option. It's acting crazy. Reboot is no help. This is with me using one fixturen and a new perfect 5 pin DMX cable. 

I'm a computer guy. I'm an Adobe CC user. Pretty good with electronics. But this makes no sense. Very frustrating. We we're excited about the CS20. I like the training videos but I have not gotten anything to work like it does on the video ;-)

In 10 days, I'm taking down old lights and putting our new rig up and I need this to work or I'll move on to Chamsys QuickQ and see if it's any better. 

And on the remote chance no one has told you (ETC), the way you have your resources (manuals, software, etc) organized on your site is a nightmare. Terrible. They don't sort right, hard to figure out if you've actually sorted to identify the most recent version. Fix that, please. 

And point me to some answers before I ship this back next week and move on to another brand. 

  • From what I understand, I have the impression that the definition of your devices is not correct. By learning that it is cleared, I propose you to download the "CS personnlity editor", and to build yourself the definition of the device. With a little knowledge, we can also get it (via USB key) from the console, and check what does not stick. There, it must work.
    On the other hand attention, with this version of "CS personnlity editor", it will have problems of mixture of colors especially on the blue ones. It is not yet compatible with version 2.5 of the console. But that does not stop to try, then to ask a modification of the definition by ETC.

  • Hi,
    I can understand your disappointment with the system not working as expected. Could you tell me which DMX mode you would like to use on the Elation Seven Par 7IP ?
    - Matthias
  • Hi again,

    after some testing and consulting, we believe the fixture profile is not correct and needs to be updated (as PBo67 is also saying). Richard is suggesting trying the "Seven Batten 72" template until we have an updated version for the Seven Par 7IP.

    He also had some more information:

    The problem you are seeing with RDM not understanding which fixture type it is seeing is also related with incomplete information given from the manufacturor. You could actually help us correcting this (since you have the console AND the fixture) by following these steps:

    - Disconnect the console from the rig so it’s clear which fixture they mean.

    - Plug in a Seven Par 7IP fixture

    - Open Patch

    - Wait for the fixture to appear in the list (probably as “unknown”)

    - Export the console log files to USB, and email them to us

    We can then add the RDM model number information to the fixture library database.

    (You can email this to me and/or Richard: matthias.strobel@etcconnect.com , richard.thompson@etcconnect.com)

    Regards,

    Matthias

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