Apologies in advance for a slightly long post.
We've noticed a strange thing with the monitors on our Ion an wondered if it's a fault of just the way it works.
We have a pair of standard Iiyama 22" monitors connected to our Ion, they are not connected as touchscreens. The monitor on the left is plugged into the DVI socket on the left as you look at the back of the Ion, the monitor on the right to the other DVI socket. The monitors are usually left in standby. When we start the Ion, usually the left monitor comes out of standby, shows the ETC logo, and the system starts with the six-button selector on the left monitor, then as the Ion launches the right hand monitor comes out of standby, and the software launches with the CIA on the left monitor, as this is our primary.
We recently had our Ion returned from ETC after being looked at, and connected it all up and fired up the desk. The left monitor was showing the CIA and cue list, but the right monitor was still in standby. So I exited and went into the setup utility, and went to monitor configuration. Sure enough, only one monitor was enabled. SO I clicked on the disable monitor, dragged it to the right position, and clicked enable. At this point it became the primary without me doing anything. Try as I might, I couldn't find any way to make the system remember that the monitor which only minutes ago had been the primary was still the primary, and going back into the EOS software showed that the CIA was now on the right hand monitor. I thought I'd try swapping the DVI plugs around, but I couldn't find any way in the setup program to get things working the way we wanted, it always reverted to the monitor in the right hand DVI being primary. So I swapped the plugs back. Now, I plugged the left hand monitor into the left hand socket first (while the EOS software was running) and the CIA, which had been on the right socket monitor, suddenly appeared on the left socket monitor (without me doing anything), and plugging in the other monitor it now all worked correctly, and going into set up to reset the resolution (which it kept forgetting) all worked and the monitor layout and primary all "stuck". Also, up until now, the mouse movement was all to pot, having to go left from the left monitor to get to the right monitor and so on. Suddenly it all worked, as if hot plugging the monitor is needed to kickstart the software in some way.
So, at the end of that long winded tale, I'm wondering if this is a known oddity, and if we should only connect the "first monitor, fire up the software, and then connect the second, or whether it should be easier than this. We've had this problem before, where the monitor layout is a real pig to get a) right and b) to stay right after moving the desk (we are a small, volunteer run theatre, and we often move the desk into the auditorium onto the production desk for plotting, then back to the control room for the show. We rarely have the luxury of having a separate programmer sitting in the control room and designer sitting with the director).
Any thoughts?
