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    clswenson
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Roboscans and Scrollers

I am very new to the ION console after many years of programming and operating an Express 48/96.  Our theater actually bought the ION a few months ago, but after hooking it up and trying to get started, we ended up plugging the Express back in - as the task of learning the new board seemed too daunting to deal with at the time.

We have a simple show opening in a few days, and figured that now would be a good time to jump in a learn how to use it. 

The missing "Release" key had be baffled for a while, but I have that figured out now (Sneak)

My biggest questions at the moment have to do with adding fixtures that are not in the library.  We have a couple of old Martin Roboscan 518's.  There are lots of other Roboscan models in there, but the 518 is missing.  I tried creating my own fixture personality, but failed miserably.   Does anyone know where I might find a personality for the 518?  Or, what parameters to use in order to make my own?

 

The next question is about color scrollers.  Do they need to be added as fixtures?  We have two kinds of scrollers.  The first kind is an old Chroma Q.  It only takes one channel of DMX, so a 1 to 1 patch works just fine.  Would it be better to add them as a fixture?

The other scrollers that we have are fairly new.  They are Apollo MXR's.  They have two gel strings and take 3 channels of DMX. (Two for the strings and one for the fan)  I could not find this fixture in the library either, so I tried to create my own.  Every attempt ended up with CMY attributes in the encoders.  I just need control of the front string, the back string, and the fan.  So...can anyone help a poor ION newbie with some rather basic stuff? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

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    I'll take the easy question. I have Chroma Q's as well. I add them as part 2 of the channel with a fixture type of "generic scroller." Then I go and make a custom color wheel for the fixture based on how many frames I have (mine have 16), and the console will automatically divide the frames up based on how many total there are. Then when you select that channel, and use the color encoder, the colors will show up on the lcd. You can also hold down the encoder and then hit "next" "last" or "home." With Chroma Q's, since they require constant re-calibration, I go into the setup and make a manual color time of 5 seconds. That way it will fade from one frame to the next and not race the scroll. It is especially nice when you are at the last frame, and hit "home," it will fade over 5 seconds instead of killing your scroll.

    I am away from my OLE and console, so I can't help with the other stuff. I am sure someone else will chime in!

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  • 0

    I'll take the easy question. I have Chroma Q's as well. I add them as part 2 of the channel with a fixture type of "generic scroller." Then I go and make a custom color wheel for the fixture based on how many frames I have (mine have 16), and the console will automatically divide the frames up based on how many total there are. Then when you select that channel, and use the color encoder, the colors will show up on the lcd. You can also hold down the encoder and then hit "next" "last" or "home." With Chroma Q's, since they require constant re-calibration, I go into the setup and make a manual color time of 5 seconds. That way it will fade from one frame to the next and not race the scroll. It is especially nice when you are at the last frame, and hit "home," it will fade over 5 seconds instead of killing your scroll.

    I am away from my OLE and console, so I can't help with the other stuff. I am sure someone else will chime in!

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  • 0 in reply to Brian Webber

    Brian,

    Thanks for your help.  I have set up the Chroma Q's like you suggested in the first part of your post. That works great.  After that, I tried to make a custom color wheel and got a little bit lost.  What I did was copy the "scroller" profile and then went in to edit it.  From there I tried to edit the ranges.  The default was 10, so I added 6 more, (Mine also have 16 frames) but then it wouldn't let me finish it due to "overlapping ranges"  I was lost from that point on. 

    Anyway, can you tell me how to create the custom color wheel?  Most likely, I am barking up the wrong tree with what I was trying to do.  I am still so new to ION, that I don't know all the ins and outs yet.

    Appreciate your help.

    -Cody

  • 0 in reply to clswenson

    Hi Cody

    The easiest way to make a "scroll" for it.  In the patch screen, at the bottom right corner of the CIA, you will notice the softkeys that will say "replace, patch, attributes, database, offset, fixtures"  Press the attributes softkey.

    Select the channel with the scroller(s).  You will see on the right of the CIA a box that says "scroller".  Press that.  The left side of the screen will populate to the scroller editor.  Press the "new" key (bottom left of CIA) to create a new scroll.  At the top of the list it will say "new".  Click / press there and you will then have a list of all gel manufacturers and their product ranges.  go through and add each colour in the order that they appear in your scroll.  You can insert clear frames, and you can also insert frames (incase you skip over one).  You can also label your scroll.  Once you have made your scroll, you can then apply it to other channels.  Just select the chans, press the scroller thing in the attributes tab, and select the scroll you have created.

    While this is a neat feature, it doesn't really do much to aid programming.  On EOS where you have a small touch screen by the encoders, it can be a bit more useful, but I personally find colour pallets a more useful way to use scrollers as you can have the console display labels from pallets, so on your channel screen you can see what colour your channels are in (assuming you label your colour pallets by gel number / colour)

    Hope that helps :-)

    Cheers - BFJ

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