Hi .. we've owned a Congo since 05. I love this console, but as with all things leading edge occasionally there are hiccups. Let's use this post to report odd behaviours, work arounds, and feature requests to ETC and Congo development.
David Brenchley
Hope Community Church
Raleigh, NC
Interesting idea with the Lamp life calculation, it could even be working out lamp life based on levels/hours to give a more accurate reading......
except, if you have the money to do a preventative relamp of your entire rig.....(never heard of anyone doing that on conventionals, but you learn something new and all that) Why do you not just have enough lamps and dimmers that losing 1 lamp is not a critical issue? I have an (almost) fixed rig, and it goes through comparatively few lamps. (no HPL's blown in about a year!)
Now my turn.
I would like!
Access to the wheel sensitivity settings.
I have already turned off the 16/8 bit thing as it tended to make movers uncontrolable, however its still a real pain in the a** to try and do things like change gobo or colour etc using the attribute wheels. They are far too sensitive! I realise that I can access the range table by pressing the wheel button, but I want the wheel to be some use!!!!!
Also access to the trackball sensitivity settings.
Anybody actually use the trackball for pan/tilt ? I don't as I dont have a surgeons touch, I just end up with the movers shooting all over the place :(
A better dynamics engine.
Firstly fix the intensity dynamics. They are hopeless! they require you to b***er about with the level of each channel, and then when played back they dont bare any resemblance to what you actually programmed (going from 50 to 100% as opposed to 0 to 100%) and the size function doesn't do anything to them. (which all conspires to make the Fly-in/Fly-out dynamics rather pointless) And when using them to generate chases (sorry but the wizzard is pants) is very frustrating, not least of all because it insists on doubling up channels.
Why does offset not function with the wheel? I'm limited to just the (rather basic) fixed values in the desk. There is no contrast setting. I cant change the direction of the dynamic.
Any chance of the desk tracking properly? namely by DMX channel not by desk channel (or by head)
Why oh why do I have to piddle about using mask when it would be sooo much simpler to have a desk that only records what I have actually done! Mask does have a couple of usefull points, blocking whole chunks of attributes out for example (no I have no idea why thats actually useful) At least give me the option to choose!
Auto move when dark.
Sorry, 'GoInB doen't cut it, it takes more time to make it work than A) manually creating a 'mark-in' cue B)a real auto move function.
Again why do I not have the option to choose, I recognise that GoInB is potentially more powerfull than AMD, but I dont want to mess about manually setting it up, I want at least the Mark-in button that people who have Hog get.
Hurry up and give us all the extra master settings! I want a solo fuction for my blinders darn it!, same as I had on my 520, it was great! (the solo/blinder thing)
Non-tracking mode.
Simple enough. very handy when someone who doesn't understand or like tracking desks comes by. And it can still work alongside a tracking programmer/channel control.
AN UNDO BUTTON!
for petes sake! why not?
The option to change the way the freeze fuction works, so I dont have to wheel all the channels out afterwards! and who knows, maybe a function that cuts strobing off.
Better LCD display layout.
I never bother using the darn things, why? because they dont display anything that can't be better done with some tape and a sharpie. Why do cue stacks and chases not display usefull information? (like BPM or cue number, or ANYTHING!) all I get is a letter and a number. Why do the direct select tabs not show little images of the gobo's? that would be handy. And how about the direct selects looking different depending on what channels you have selected and weather or not relevant data is recorded in them. And no, I dont want to have the master page open, not least of all because its nasty to try and find information on, and is far too small to fit all 40 masters on. (unless you have magic zoom vision)
And finally (for now ;D )
Please get someone to rewrite the manual, its terrible! And quite frankly I realise that some of the things I have just been on about may well already be in the desk, but the manual has been written by the same person who thought the desk working in RPN by default would be a good idea. Quite possibly the worst manual I have ever had to read! And I read the Hog manual for fun!
Things wot are broke:
The manual (obviously)
The encoder wheels.
I don't understand why, but the encoder wheels seem to to doing a one-way acceleration thing, most noticeable on scrollers (but it may well be doing it on other things) You can push the wheel in 2 (part) revloutions and then get the scroller back to O/W in just 1 (without taking your finger off the wheel) try it yourself, push the wheel up slowly, then jerk it back. mmm its still accelerating, shouldn't be.
The main encoder wheel.
If you snap the wheel down you often get all the channels bumping to 100%, even the one starting from 0.
Intensity dynamics
The fact that the desk starts recording master presets from 800 and I can't change that.
The whole page thing.
The desk lets me record 40 masters onto 1 page (my first major screwup on the desk) it never says anything, but when you move to a different page on one bank and come back.....tada! half your presets are gone! what fun. It doesnt save the presets assigned to each master unless I actually record the page, so if someone accidentally presses C+page, you lose everything (undo button!) and have to plug through the presets page and try and restore it all.
Oh and C+channel twice scares me.
/rant
Dear AndrewR,
I'm sorry that you seem so unhappy. If you wish to continue to Vent your unhappiness please contact some of us in person as we cannot respond to your rant constructively on this forum.
Thanks for your input on such a wide range of subjects. Your points are well taken. Perhaps some of them will be addressed in the future.
I'm still in fairly regular contact with ETC UK =)
But then last time I had a big go at them they came and took my built-in UPS away =( (joke)
I was hoping to get some feedback actually, I'm resigned to the fact that I will be away with another desk long before most of these things are fixed. It would be nice though to get people going 'no, you're a donut, this is how to do what you want, you did such and such wrong' or maybe even; 'thats a good point its been bugging me too, how about we try this?'
We could work our way through the list one thing at a time and see if I'm a lone crazy person (its been said before =D ) or if I actually have a point.
We could also get some open responses along the lines of: 'yes thats very silly and will be fixed very soon, this is whats actually causing that...'
Or am I missing the point of an Issues/Feature Requests forum?
Oh and the /rant comment was a joke, and I'm a little hurt that a list of genuine issues and feature requests (not in the most diplomatic language I admit) is considered a rant.
Edit:
Just noticed (whilst trying to get the whole assigned gel string thing to work, on my first free afternoon in about a year) It would be very handy if the ML display showed 0-255 instead of 0-100 for 8 bit values, would make referencing stuff when you are writing your own range tables/gel string templates much easier.
Hi Andrew,
I am sorry you aren’t enjoying your Congo maybe the notes below will help.
Now my turn.
I would like!
Access to the wheel sensitivity settings.
I have already turned off the 16/8 bit thing as it tended to make movers un controllable, however its still a real pain in the a** to try and do things like change gobo or colour etc using the attribute wheels. They are far too sensitive! I realise that I can access the range table by pressing the wheel button, but I want the wheel to be some use!!!!!
If this is specifically to do with your scrollers? Are they still a custom fixture with up to four scrollers on one dimmer? If they are there is another way to deal with them, you can patch the scrollers to separate channels and the intensity to just one of those channels. You can then either call them as a group or as individual channels this will also give you the benefit of the calibration editor and you can set a default colour move time which should sort out this issue. If you would like me to sort it out for you please send me your default show file.
Another feature a lot of operators like is to put parameters on the direct selects permanently so you can get very fast access. You do this by selecting type Parameter and then selecting the parameter by pressing the wheel key for that parameter.
I have not had any response from anyone else about the sensitivity of the encoder wheels.
Also access to the trackball sensitivity settings.
Anybody actually use the trackball for pan/tilt ? I don't as I don’t have a surgeons touch, I just end up with the movers shooting all over the place :(
This is on the list, however it was always meant for controlling moving mirrors rather than moving heads.
A better dynamics engine.
Firstly fix the intensity dynamics. They are hopeless! they require you to b***er about with the level of each channel, and then when played back they dont bare any resemblance to what you actually programmed (going from 50 to 100% as opposed to 0 to 100%) and the size function doesn't do anything to them. (which all conspires to make the Fly-in/Fly-out dynamics rather pointless) And when using them to generate chases (sorry but the wizzard is pants) is very frustrating, not least of all because it insists on doubling up channels.
Not sure what your issues are here, we are planning on adding more control to the dynamics package but the issue you describe I can’t reproduce. The dynamics apply a wave form on the starting value. If you are making intensity effects you need to make sure the channels are not set to full to begin with. Then you can use the size wheel to change the width of the effect you can also use the delay relationship to adjust crossover. Once you have the effect as you want it you can then save the running effect as a new template so that it is there for you whenever you want to use it.
On the subject of the chase wizard I am unclear why you don’t like it? If you create a chase by inputting the channel numbers in the order you would like them to appear in the chase including any attributes that they have when you run the wizard. You can then unfold the chase by using #seq and edit the content of the steps, when you press update you will see the result. You change the speed of the effect by holding the tap key and tapping the assign key where you have the chase loaded or by typing in the BPM at the sequence list.
Why does offset not function with the wheel? I'm limited to just the (rather basic) fixed values in the desk. There is no contrast setting. I cant change the direction of the dynamic.
. We are looking at adding more offset control in a future release.
Any chance of the desk tracking properly? namely by DMX channel not by desk channel (or by head)
The attributes are LTP at DMX channel level so by default tracking. I am unclear about your question?
Why oh why do I have to piddle about using mask when it would be sooo much simpler to have a desk that only records what I have actually done! Mask does have a couple of usefull points, blocking whole chunks of attributes out for example (no I have no idea why thats actually useful) At least give me the option to choose!
Mask is used to record single attributes to a beam palette so that they can be recalled quickly for example focus at sharp -1%.
This takes the category filter down to attribute level and allows you to recall a palette with a time live.
If your asking about recording presets to masters unlike the hog Congo has free presets so you don’t have to assign a sequence to a master before you can load a preset into it. This means that the whole look is recorded attributes and intensities unless you want to mask out something i.e. exclude it from the look.
If you want to only record the intensities or even just the attributes you work in a hog manner where you load one of the 999 sequences to the playback first and then you can choose whether or not to record the whole look or just a chosen attribute without having to use mask.
Auto move when dark.
Sorry, 'GoInB doen't cut it, it takes more time to make it work than A) manually creating a 'mark-in' cue B)a real auto move function.
Again why do I not have the option to choose, I recognise that GoInB is potentially more powerfull than AMD, but I dont want to mess about manually setting it up, I want at least the Mark-in button that people who have Hog get.
Go in B is as you say very powerful for some users and can be set when you record a preset into a sequence or set as a global command we are however looking aat other ways auto marks can be created for a future release.
Hurry up and give us all the extra master settings! I want a solo fuction for my blinders darn it!, same as I had on my 520, it was great! (the solo/blinder thing)
Hold down Flash mode and select Solo for the master or hold solo on the console don’t forget you can also mute.
Non-tracking mode.
Simple enough. very handy when someone who doesn't understand or like tracking desks comes by. And it can still work alongside a tracking programmer/channel control.
Is this a question? Or are you referring to the ALL attribute mode in attribute recording?
AN UNDO BUTTON!
for petes sake! why not?
It is coming .
The option to change the way the freeze fuction works, so I dont have to wheel all the channels out afterwards! and who knows, maybe a function that cuts strobing off.
Sorry Freeze is a specific function for the A/B playback not for when using masters. Can you explain what you want to be able to do please?
Better LCD display layout.
I never bother using the darn things, why? because they dont display anything that can't be better done with some tape and a sharpie. Why do cue stacks and chases not display usefull information? (like BPM or cue number, or ANYTHING!) all I get is a letter and a number. Why do the direct select tabs not show little images of the gobo's? that would be handy. And how about the direct selects looking different depending on what channels you have selected and weather or not relevant data is recorded in them. And no, I dont want to have the master page open, not least of all because its nasty to try and find information on, and is far too small to fit all 40 masters on. (unless you have magic zoom vision)
There are more refinements planned for the master LCD’s in the master package. However have you tried formatting the master view? In the master page screen it shows the current step for the sequence loaded, the preset name if the there is a preset loaded the attribute name if there is an attribute loaded and so on.
And finally (for now ;D )
Please get someone to rewrite the manual, its terrible! And quite frankly I realise that some of the things I have just been on about may well already be in the desk, but the manual has been written by the same person who thought the desk working in RPN by default would be a good idea. Quite possibly the worst manual I have ever had to read! And I read the Hog manual for fun!
Remember you can press the text key to get a search box open for the help manual and then type a search string.
Things wot are broke:
The manual (obviously)
The encoder wheels.
I don't understand why, but the encoder wheels seem to to doing a one-way acceleration thing, most noticeable on scrollers (but it may well be doing it on other things) You can push the wheel in 2 (part) revloutions and then get the scroller back to O/W in just 1 (without taking your finger off the wheel) try it yourself, push the wheel up slowly, then jerk it back. mmm its still accelerating, shouldn't be.
Will check this out when you send me your show file.
The main encoder wheel.
If you snap the wheel down you often get all the channels bumping to 100%, even the one starting from 0.
Never seen this, again I’ll check it out when you send me your show file.
Intensity dynamics
The fact that the desk starts recording master presets from 800 and I can't change that.
If you type a number first you can record from any preset number.
The whole page thing.
The desk lets me record 40 masters onto 1 page (my first major screwup on the desk) it never says anything, but when you move to a different page on one bank and come back.....tada! half your presets are gone! what fun. It doesnt save the presets assigned to each master unless I actually record the page, so if someone accidentally presses C+page, you lose everything (undo button!) and have to plug through the presets page and try and restore it all.
There are never 40 masters on a page - a master page can only contain 20 masters-worth of assignments. Make sure you have two different pages assigned to the two banks of masters and you won't have this problem. The default state of the console is to auto-update pages with assigned content. Use the page + or - keys to assign an empty page and then start assigning content.
Oh and C+channel twice scares me.
Hi Andrew,
I am sorry you aren’t enjoying your Congo maybe the notes below will help.
Now my turn.
I would like!
Access to the wheel sensitivity settings.
I have already turned off the 16/8 bit thing as it tended to make movers un controllable, however its still a real pain in the a** to try and do things like change gobo or colour etc using the attribute wheels. They are far too sensitive! I realise that I can access the range table by pressing the wheel button, but I want the wheel to be some use!!!!!
If this is specifically to do with your scrollers? Are they still a custom fixture with up to four scrollers on one dimmer? If they are there is another way to deal with them, you can patch the scrollers to separate channels and the intensity to just one of those channels. You can then either call them as a group or as individual channels this will also give you the benefit of the calibration editor and you can set a default colour move time which should sort out this issue. If you would like me to sort it out for you please send me your default show file.
Another feature a lot of operators like is to put parameters on the direct selects permanently so you can get very fast access. You do this by selecting type Parameter and then selecting the parameter by pressing the wheel key for that parameter.
I have not had any response from anyone else about the sensitivity of the encoder wheels.
Also access to the trackball sensitivity settings.
Anybody actually use the trackball for pan/tilt ? I don't as I don’t have a surgeons touch, I just end up with the movers shooting all over the place :(
This is on the list, however it was always meant for controlling moving mirrors rather than moving heads.
A better dynamics engine.
Firstly fix the intensity dynamics. They are hopeless! they require you to b***er about with the level of each channel, and then when played back they dont bare any resemblance to what you actually programmed (going from 50 to 100% as opposed to 0 to 100%) and the size function doesn't do anything to them. (which all conspires to make the Fly-in/Fly-out dynamics rather pointless) And when using them to generate chases (sorry but the wizzard is pants) is very frustrating, not least of all because it insists on doubling up channels.
Not sure what your issues are here, we are planning on adding more control to the dynamics package but the issue you describe I can’t reproduce. The dynamics apply a wave form on the starting value. If you are making intensity effects you need to make sure the channels are not set to full to begin with. Then you can use the size wheel to change the width of the effect you can also use the delay relationship to adjust crossover. Once you have the effect as you want it you can then save the running effect as a new template so that it is there for you whenever you want to use it.
On the subject of the chase wizard I am unclear why you don’t like it? If you create a chase by inputting the channel numbers in the order you would like them to appear in the chase including any attributes that they have when you run the wizard. You can then unfold the chase by using #seq and edit the content of the steps, when you press update you will see the result. You change the speed of the effect by holding the tap key and tapping the assign key where you have the chase loaded or by typing in the BPM at the sequence list.
Why does offset not function with the wheel? I'm limited to just the (rather basic) fixed values in the desk. There is no contrast setting. I cant change the direction of the dynamic.
. We are looking at adding more offset control in a future release.
Any chance of the desk tracking properly? namely by DMX channel not by desk channel (or by head)
The attributes are LTP at DMX channel level so by default tracking. I am unclear about your question?
Why oh why do I have to piddle about using mask when it would be sooo much simpler to have a desk that only records what I have actually done! Mask does have a couple of usefull points, blocking whole chunks of attributes out for example (no I have no idea why thats actually useful) At least give me the option to choose!
Mask is used to record single attributes to a beam palette so that they can be recalled quickly for example focus at sharp -1%.
This takes the category filter down to attribute level and allows you to recall a palette with a time live.
If your asking about recording presets to masters unlike the hog Congo has free presets so you don’t have to assign a sequence to a master before you can load a preset into it. This means that the whole look is recorded attributes and intensities unless you want to mask out something i.e. exclude it from the look.
If you want to only record the intensities or even just the attributes you work in a hog manner where you load one of the 999 sequences to the playback first and then you can choose whether or not to record the whole look or just a chosen attribute without having to use mask.
Auto move when dark.
Sorry, 'GoInB doen't cut it, it takes more time to make it work than A) manually creating a 'mark-in' cue B)a real auto move function.
Again why do I not have the option to choose, I recognise that GoInB is potentially more powerfull than AMD, but I dont want to mess about manually setting it up, I want at least the Mark-in button that people who have Hog get.
Go in B is as you say very powerful for some users and can be set when you record a preset into a sequence or set as a global command we are however looking aat other ways auto marks can be created for a future release.
Hurry up and give us all the extra master settings! I want a solo fuction for my blinders darn it!, same as I had on my 520, it was great! (the solo/blinder thing)
Hold down Flash mode and select Solo for the master or hold solo on the console don’t forget you can also mute.
Non-tracking mode.
Simple enough. very handy when someone who doesn't understand or like tracking desks comes by. And it can still work alongside a tracking programmer/channel control.
Is this a question? Or are you referring to the ALL attribute mode in attribute recording?
AN UNDO BUTTON!
for petes sake! why not?
It is coming .
The option to change the way the freeze fuction works, so I dont have to wheel all the channels out afterwards! and who knows, maybe a function that cuts strobing off.
Sorry Freeze is a specific function for the A/B playback not for when using masters. Can you explain what you want to be able to do please?
Better LCD display layout.
I never bother using the darn things, why? because they dont display anything that can't be better done with some tape and a sharpie. Why do cue stacks and chases not display usefull information? (like BPM or cue number, or ANYTHING!) all I get is a letter and a number. Why do the direct select tabs not show little images of the gobo's? that would be handy. And how about the direct selects looking different depending on what channels you have selected and weather or not relevant data is recorded in them. And no, I dont want to have the master page open, not least of all because its nasty to try and find information on, and is far too small to fit all 40 masters on. (unless you have magic zoom vision)
There are more refinements planned for the master LCD’s in the master package. However have you tried formatting the master view? In the master page screen it shows the current step for the sequence loaded, the preset name if the there is a preset loaded the attribute name if there is an attribute loaded and so on.
And finally (for now ;D )
Please get someone to rewrite the manual, its terrible! And quite frankly I realise that some of the things I have just been on about may well already be in the desk, but the manual has been written by the same person who thought the desk working in RPN by default would be a good idea. Quite possibly the worst manual I have ever had to read! And I read the Hog manual for fun!
Remember you can press the text key to get a search box open for the help manual and then type a search string.
Things wot are broke:
The manual (obviously)
The encoder wheels.
I don't understand why, but the encoder wheels seem to to doing a one-way acceleration thing, most noticeable on scrollers (but it may well be doing it on other things) You can push the wheel in 2 (part) revloutions and then get the scroller back to O/W in just 1 (without taking your finger off the wheel) try it yourself, push the wheel up slowly, then jerk it back. mmm its still accelerating, shouldn't be.
Will check this out when you send me your show file.
The main encoder wheel.
If you snap the wheel down you often get all the channels bumping to 100%, even the one starting from 0.
Never seen this, again I’ll check it out when you send me your show file.
Intensity dynamics
The fact that the desk starts recording master presets from 800 and I can't change that.
If you type a number first you can record from any preset number.
The whole page thing.
The desk lets me record 40 masters onto 1 page (my first major screwup on the desk) it never says anything, but when you move to a different page on one bank and come back.....tada! half your presets are gone! what fun. It doesnt save the presets assigned to each master unless I actually record the page, so if someone accidentally presses C+page, you lose everything (undo button!) and have to plug through the presets page and try and restore it all.
There are never 40 masters on a page - a master page can only contain 20 masters-worth of assignments. Make sure you have two different pages assigned to the two banks of masters and you won't have this problem. The default state of the console is to auto-update pages with assigned content. Use the page + or - keys to assign an empty page and then start assigning content.
Oh and C+channel twice scares me.
The previous post from jroberts demonstrates why I LOVE Congo ..
it's a new platform .. development is on going .. and the development / management / and T/S teams are right there willing to help when it is/seems broke and are looking to improve the product based on our feedback .. way to go ETC/AVAB !!!
www.etcconnect.com
