Merging Expression Cues; Scrollers; and Movers

Hi PJ.  In answer to your questions...

1 - Not too sure about this, but chances are you have to save / convert the show to an ascii file and import it that way.  I believe that eos / ion does not read expression showfiles (although I may be wrong).

2 - I have never used the ETC Colour Source scroller.  Can you provide some more info about these?  Are they DMX controlled?  How many addresses does each unit utilize?  What was the problem you were encountering?  Was it just a misalignment of frames?

3 - Just to clarify what the problem your friend experiencing is... are some of the parameters not being displayed?  ie - all you get is Intensity, Focus, Colour, Beam, but not the individual parameters ie- pan, tilt, edge, gobo, etc.  If this is the case, you need to expand the parameter group you are trying to view.  On Ion, press and hold [data] and the encoder page selection button for the group you wish to expand (ie, focus, beam, etc).  You can also show / hide individual parameters by using the relevant parameter key in the CIA.

 Hope that helps

cheers - BFJ 

Thanks for the speedy response

1. That is what it looked like to me too, but once I converted it to ASCII it still would not import. So I just don't know if I was doing something wrong or what.

2.They are just a one address scroller . I have attached a link to the manual that I found on this website for them. Yes, it was a misalignment of frames, we could not configure it to center frame by frame.

3- I will ask him if this solves his problem, otherwise i will repost more information.

 Thanks

PJ Veltri

color source manual

Hi PJ,

2.  As a single address scroller, you should be able to pretend that it is a Wybron Coloram and patch like that.  When patched correctly, the light's intensity will be on the main wheel, and the scroller will be on the color encoder labeled scroller.  (you are probably this far already),  If you are on an Eos, press down on the encoder to switch from course to fine mode and dial in your frames there.  If you are on an Ion, there is no fine mode.  You can dial in the frames using the keypad.  Select the fixture, click color scroller in the parameter field next to the CIA, select the level and press enter.  You do not use AT when keying in parameters.

Once you have a full frame, you can use the calibrate feature to save it as an encoder stop.  However, I have found it much more useful to save these as Color Palettes instead.  Then you can the CP labels to show up on the tombstones in the Live screen.  As it stands now, it is really cool to be able to create your own custom scroll profile, with pictures of the colors on the encoders, but it falls pretty flat if the designer isn't able to tell what frame their in from the Live screen.

Good luck,  there's lots of help here.

B

Thank You very Much, I didn't even think of using the palettes for that. This issue should be resolved anyways since we are getting some Wybron CXIs very soon, but you never know when we may have to use these again.

Again, Thank You

PJ

Colour pallets would be the way to go.  After reading the manual, I think i have found your problem

Channel Frame Standard 

level positioncolor 

0 Frame 1 Clear 

11 Frame 2 Antique Rose 

22 Frame 3 Chorus Pink 

33 Frame 4 Magenta 

44 Frame 5 Light Red 

55 Frame 6 Deep Amber 

66 Frame 7 Mellow Yellow 

77 Frame 8 Light Green 

88 Frame 9 Aztec Blue 

99 Frame 10 Light Purple 

The way the Eos / Ion works is it divides the DMX signal by the number of frames, therefore the DMX value for frame 2 is different for a scroller that has 10 frames, compared to a scroller that has 15 frames.  If there were only 5 frames, you could set the scroller to be 10 frames to make it in sync, however this would only work if each frame responded to a whole percentage number (ie 10%, 20%, 30%, etc)  Unfortunately,  the Colour Source values are 11, 22, 33, 44, etc which means it won't line up.

The calibrate command could work a treat, but I'd suggest using colour pallets, as it is also very easy to adjust the position of a frame and update should a scroller get out of alignment due to stretching, etc.

Cheers - BFJ 

Colour pallets would be the way to go.  After reading the manual, I think i have found your problem

Channel Frame Standard 

level positioncolor 

0 Frame 1 Clear 

11 Frame 2 Antique Rose 

22 Frame 3 Chorus Pink 

33 Frame 4 Magenta 

44 Frame 5 Light Red 

55 Frame 6 Deep Amber 

66 Frame 7 Mellow Yellow 

77 Frame 8 Light Green 

88 Frame 9 Aztec Blue 

99 Frame 10 Light Purple 

The way the Eos / Ion works is it divides the DMX signal by the number of frames, therefore the DMX value for frame 2 is different for a scroller that has 10 frames, compared to a scroller that has 15 frames.  If there were only 5 frames, you could set the scroller to be 10 frames to make it in sync, however this would only work if each frame responded to a whole percentage number (ie 10%, 20%, 30%, etc)  Unfortunately,  the Colour Source values are 11, 22, 33, 44, etc which means it won't line up.

The calibrate command could work a treat, but I'd suggest using colour pallets, as it is also very easy to adjust the position of a frame and update should a scroller get out of alignment due to stretching, etc.

Cheers - BFJ 

You could instead of worrying about what brand it is, just add it as a generic scroller. Then after that, make a custom color list for that scroller with the number of frames your scroller has. The console will then divide that number out for you, and when you press down on the color encoder on the Ion, it will say next, last, and home. This should be fairly accurate if you made your custom color list correctly.

 This is what I do, I have single scroll Chroma Q's with home made scrolls. 

The problem with the Colour Source is that it has set DMX values for each frame and always uses those values to reference that frame.  ie: if you only have 5 frames, frame 1 will always be 0%, frame 2 will be 11%, etc.  The scroller doesn't adjust the DMX values.

JP - I just did some maths....  if you get a chance, try patching your scroller with 10 frames (even if you are not using 10 frames).  Just tried this on the Off Line Editor, and the DMX values matched what they should be according to the manual.  This should get your frames lined up (or pretty close to) and you can then fine tune using the calibrate option

 Cheers - BFJ