I have ten led fixtures patched to dmx addresses 1 thru 30. In live and selecting [address 1 full enter], will bring up Red on my first fixture as expected. If there is a fixture patched next to the address I currently have selected, Pushing [Next] will jump to the first dmx address of the next fixture, thus turning the next LED fixture Red. I would have expected that it would just sequentially jump to the next numeric dmx address turning up Green on the first fixture instead. This doesn't seem right to me. Feature or Bug?
The address check function is written to only access intensity parameters (we think of it like a dimmer check). If the channel has no intensity parameters, it accesses the first parameter of that channel. We need to make a special case for RGB fixtures to access each of the three outputs.
Not to be difficult, but why? I think far more often than not, if I'm nexting through addresses, it's troubleshooting either the console's mapping, or a fixture's address setting, not doing a dimmer check. Its current function seems absolutely wrong to me, but I'd be interested to hear if anyone in the field sees use for the current function.
Hey Victor.... we've argued it every way from Sunday (and back several times). Like you, we'd be interested to hear input about the feature. We were trying to come as close as possible to the model of being able to next through your rig to find an unpatched fixture as well. So, it seems that there are three functions here:
Dimmer Check
Nexting through a saturated rig to find a specific fixture that might not be patched
Troubleshooting a fixture
Perhaps we are overburdening one feature with all of these requirements?
It was driving me a bit crazy though because I had LED's that were mispatched, so instead of being able to hone in on their first channels, it was stepping (incorrectly) to the first channel of where it was wrongly patched. I ended up just unpatching everything and then using channel check.
I'd prefer it to be as simple as possible, and not jump around. I would expect Next/Last to go to the next address, not the next intensity. I used to think it was a bug as well.
The multiplexing question is an interesting one, though! I have no opinion whatsoever on that.
Jason, yes. We will treat RGB fixtures as multiple intensity parameters for the purposes of Address next/last. Probably won't make it into 1.4 (already close to code freeze), but we are planning a "fix it" build 1.4.1. Will try to get it into that release.
Al (hey! How are things? Nice to see you - metaphorically speaking). Dimmer doubling. Yep, that'd mess with your head. Is there any time that you wouldn't want the "B" channel to follow the "A" channel in next/last?
Luke and Victor... Why do you use address next/last right now and how might that change? Right now, we don't expose the DMX map to you on multi parameter fixtures. So, you might need to next/last for that purpose. In 1.4, About shows you that information. Address next/last is most commonly used for dimmer checks, is it not? We also see Address next/last used a lot in a some of our favorite television studios that have a saturated hang. They use it to quickly identify an unpatched unit needs to be added. It seems that we might want to optimize Address Next/Last for those behaviors.
If next/last need to access NIPs for palette or preset checks, maybe we would be better served having a different tool specifically for that purpose? Or is there something else in play? Victor and Luke (and anyone else who wants to chime in) ... thoughts?
When I see addresses brought up and bounced through, it tends to be for either a very simple check of a dimmer rack (or device) or to troubleshoot. But I think central to both of these is bypassing all of the console's time saving features, because often, one thing I may need to be checking is the console itself, it's mapping, patch, so forth. Once I have a patch, I have a variety of ways to organize channels.
I'm slightly baffled by the "next through to find an unpatched fixture" idea. Unless I'm misunderstanding, it sounds like a bit of a leisurely way to fix a problem. Has someone hidden fixtures in my rig with random addresses? Perhaps this could be a separate feature, and we could call it "Where's Waldo"?
Al, I'm slightly surprised that it isn't already nexting A to B, I'd certain expect it to behave the way you suggest.
