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    Cogswell
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Several Multicell Issues

Hello all,

First, thank you for adding in multicell support into the Eos lineup.  It's made programming dynamic effects and pixel mapping so so much easier.  However, there still seems to be a couple of bugs with it (at least in 2.8.3 Build 11).  The biggest one for me is that when manually marking, color cells don't seem to obey the "Mastered Cell" concept.  For example, if I'm using ColorForce 72s in MC mode, it won't always let me mark the color since the cell intensity is listed as being "Full" even though the master cell is at 0.  However, with AutoMark it doesn't seem to have this problem, it marks just fine.

Also, the MAC Quantum Wash MC2 profile is more than a little broken.  I have used the original MC profile, but on my most recent show I tried the MC2 profile to cut down on the number of cells (MC uses 5, MC2 uses 4) since we had so many in the rig and it's a lot of information to sort through.  However, in the default MC2 profile, cells 1 through 4 are not set as "Mastered Cells" which causes the aura channel (cell 4) to just be on at full even when the fixture is at 0.  After setting all of the cells to being mastered, the issue with the aura persists but in a weird way.  On a Live Magic Sheet object set to respond to color and intensity of the aura cell, it shows it properly as being "off" when the master cell is set to 0.  However, in real life and on visualizers the aura is still very much at full.  Again, the original MC profile did not have this issue.  The only way I was able to make it work was to have the aura cell home at 01% so that I could change the color for the fixture without creating a Dark Move flag and could still use the aura when I needed it by setting cell 4 to full.  It's an annoying work-around to be sure.  If I had known the headaches involved, I would just have used the original MC profile, but I didn't discover most of these problems until I had built all of my By Type palettes and started programming the show.

The final issue Multicell issue that I came across is that when I used the syntax [Group] [#] [Recall From] [#] [Enter] on an MC fixture, only the first fixture in the selection would recall the settings of the master channel (such as intensity) with the rest staying in whatever they were in.  I saw this across a wide array of MC fixtures including ColorForce II 72s, GLP X4 Bar 20s, and MAC Quantum Washes.  So, for clarification, let's say group 1 is a set of MAC Quantum Washes channels 1 through 5.  Channel 1 is currently set to 75% in red with the rest of the group being homed and at 0.  I type [Group] [1] [Recall from] [1] [Enter] to get the rest of the group up in red.  After pushing enter, channels 2 through 5 are now set to red, but channels 3 through 5 still have their intensity set to 0.

  • 0

    Hi there,

    I'm finding that in v2.8.3 build 16 (current Eos fixture library build) the above issues are persistent and are likely due to bugs in the software. I am forwarding my findings to the Eos team, but would love to submit your show file with these issues present to the team as well. If possible, please email me the show file you found these bugs in to service@etcconnect.com and put notification number 300796256 in the subject line for reference.

    If you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact ETC Technical Support and reference notification [300796256] so that my colleagues and I may reference these notes.

    Best,

    Therese

  • 0

    I am also experiencing this marking behavior with an in-house built profile for Elation Chorus Line fixtures. 

    In considering options for a work-around of this behavior, we started writing the master and cells to fade out at the same time in the same cue which led to a fear that would basically cause us to be fading the same thing twice at the same time creating a pseudo-curve of sorts. 

    I just verified through sACN view that fading a master channel and a cell from zero to full at the same time does create a slow bottom fast top curve of the total output which makes complete sense because that is exactly what I've told the console to do. 

       

    If the cell is already at full and we only fade the master, the output is linear (as expected). 

    What this means to me is that a workaround for this marking behavior can NOT be to fade the cells and masters up and out together to let the marking work out. To fix it and do that, we'd basically need to build a zero count part in every cue where we needed to previously mark which only controls the cells and when they fade out, we'd need an extra zero count cue which is triggered by hang zero that sets the cells to zero. 

    I'd argue, that the cells should be treated like a TW1 Intensity Mechanical Dimmer which will still allow the cells to mark even if they are at full as long as the master is at zero. This seems to work correctly on a profile I was just viewing in another showfile for Colorforce 72 Mode 4 MC: The cells stay at full the entire show but as long as the master is at zero they are allowed to mark properly. 

  • 0

    There are definitely issues with this fixture in multi-cell mode. But without having physical access to the fixture, I have a couple questions about how it actually works: (or should work)

    The current "MC" fixture definition uses the intensity of the master (DMX 2 & 3) to master the RGB outputs of cells 2 thru 4 (DMX 19 thru 27) and the intensity of the Aura (DMX 29). This seems wrong.

    1. Does the fixture hardware already master the output of cells 2 thru 4 from the master intensity? I don't think the console should also master the RGB outputs based upon  master intensity.

    2. Does the fixture hardware already master the Aura cell from the master intensity? I don't think the console should also master the intensity output of the Aura cell based upon the master intensity.

    The current "MC2" fixture definition does not master the cells from the master intensity. I think this is probably proper functionality. However, the defaults for the cells look wrong.

    3. If the fixture hardware already masters the cells 1 thru 3, then does it make sense to default each cell's virtual intensity to full and their RGB outputs default to full? Then when the master intensity is brought up I would expect all the cells will come up in white.

    4. If the fixture hardware does not master the Aura cell then does it make sense to default its intensity to 0 and its RGB channels to full. Then when the Aura cell's intensity is brought up I would expect the Aura cell to come up in white.

    I'd like to understand how this fixture works better so I can begin to get this fixture working better in EOS.

    Thanks.

    Ray

  • 0 in reply to ben.eells

    I may have found a work-around for the marking issue (though there's still a couple of bugs).  I found that as long as the fixtures have had some kind of intensity data, I'm able to mark the color properly.  In the first cue, I gave all multicell fixtures an intensity value of 0 and afterward was able to properly mark the fixtures.

    HOWEVER, if you grab the MC fixtures as part of a selection with non-MC fixtures, it will mark the master channel properly but not the other cells.  If I grabbed the MC fixtures separately and gave them a mark command, it would work as intended.  It just really slows down the marking process.

    This behavior is also seen whenever making mass changes.  I use a macro for killing dark moves ([Query] [Dark Moves] [Enter] [Select Last] [@] [Enter]) as well as a similar one for live moves, and if I run it on a cue with both MC and non-MC fixtures having a dark move, the command doesn't complete.  If I run it a second and sometimes third time, it does the trick.  I have it as one of my Eos hard key macros, and I just got in the habit of hitting it a couple of times to make sure it clears the move.

  • 0 in reply to Therese

    Just received and update from the Eos team. The bugs you encountered marking cells in the ColorForce 72s and multicell group recall have been resolved in upcoming v2.9 software. 

    Best,

    Therese

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