High End Systems fixture library entries

Hi Tim

Sorry to hear that you are not having much fun with the Ion.  I toured one for 8 months with very little grief.
Not sure how much experience you have had with the Ion, but just a couple of things that might help you out.... (apologies if this is info you already know)

Lamp controls / control channel functions are accessed via the lamp controls page.  Firstly, select the fixture you want to control.  Then, press the [more SK] buttons.  On the LCD display above the softkeys, there should be a section that says "Lamp Ctrls". (I think it's above the [S2] button).  This will bring up the lamp control screen in the CIA.  From here you can lamp on/off, reset, and other control channel functions.

To access the gobo rotate modes on the Ion, press and hold the Gobo Mode encoder.  The LCD will repopulate and there should be a button that says "mode"  Press the softkey underneath to cycle thru the different gobo modes.  This applies for any parameter that has mode selections on any fixture (eg, Iris, Gobos, FX modes, strobe, etc)

With regards to naming of parameters, all parameters are named the same across all fixtures.  One of the main ones you have noticed is the use of "Edge" instead of "Focus".  In Eos/Ion world, Focus refers to Pan+Tilt (ie Focus Pallets).  I believe "Edge" was used to be more concise and avoid confusion.  eg If a LD says change the focus... are they talking about the position of the lamp, or the sharpness of the beam.  While this is different from other consoles, it doesn't take long to get use to.... 

If you are after a particular fixture profile, the chaps at ETC can put one together for you.  Send them an email, or try contacting Anne Valentino.  I've always found them more then happy to help out.

Hope that helps you out somewhat and your experience gets better in the near future.

Cheers
BFJ 

Hi Tim

Sorry to hear that you are not having much fun with the Ion.  I toured one for 8 months with very little grief.
Not sure how much experience you have had with the Ion, but just a couple of things that might help you out.... (apologies if this is info you already know)

Lamp controls / control channel functions are accessed via the lamp controls page.  Firstly, select the fixture you want to control.  Then, press the [more SK] buttons.  On the LCD display above the softkeys, there should be a section that says "Lamp Ctrls". (I think it's above the [S2] button).  This will bring up the lamp control screen in the CIA.  From here you can lamp on/off, reset, and other control channel functions.

To access the gobo rotate modes on the Ion, press and hold the Gobo Mode encoder.  The LCD will repopulate and there should be a button that says "mode"  Press the softkey underneath to cycle thru the different gobo modes.  This applies for any parameter that has mode selections on any fixture (eg, Iris, Gobos, FX modes, strobe, etc)

With regards to naming of parameters, all parameters are named the same across all fixtures.  One of the main ones you have noticed is the use of "Edge" instead of "Focus".  In Eos/Ion world, Focus refers to Pan+Tilt (ie Focus Pallets).  I believe "Edge" was used to be more concise and avoid confusion.  eg If a LD says change the focus... are they talking about the position of the lamp, or the sharpness of the beam.  While this is different from other consoles, it doesn't take long to get use to.... 

If you are after a particular fixture profile, the chaps at ETC can put one together for you.  Send them an email, or try contacting Anne Valentino.  I've always found them more then happy to help out.

Hope that helps you out somewhat and your experience gets better in the near future.

Cheers
BFJ 

I'll give that a try to get to rotate, but it is inconsistent . . . across the pages of "Beam" parameters, page one gives only two of the four parameters for wheel one - if you can press to select the second, well, ok . . . . silly since there are four encoders, but at least it would work . . .

Page 2 gives all four parameters on four wheels for gobo wheel two.

Page 3 gives all four parameters on four wheels for gobo wheen three.

At the very least, it's inconsistent for this fixture - all three wheels have the same parameters, yet at minimum, are presented differently.

And it appears that *STILL* nobody can tell me what the particular parameters in the fixture profile editor being greyed out and totally unalterable means, or how to get around that . . . . and ironically, those are the *EXACT* parameters that don't display for X-Spot.

Don't get me wrong - I like the console overall, but the learning curve is a bit steep, and the manual could be better.  I was the one who recommended this console to this client based on a console search at LDI 2007 . . . . and a part of my frustration is having my neural patterns semi-permanently burned in with Hog-2 operation, making anything else seem wrong . . . .

Oh, and for the lamp parameters, I found those, but as others have said, nowhere is there any information on how to implement lamp parameters for fixtures you have to create yourself . . . . if it's even possible . . . .

I guess on the focus/edge thing, it depends where you are coming from . . . to me, moving a lamp in a fixture is "tuning" or "peaking" and the term "focus" only came in on movers, where it is definitively altering sharp/soft on a gobo or other image, similar to moving the barrel on a leko.  Yeah, I can get used to it, it's just that when you own and are used to a certain brand of fixtures/movers, and they have a certain nomenclature for naming of parameters, it is nice to have your console follow what the Mfg. used.  That's one of the nice things about the Hog - you don't have to be locked into names - you can use anything and still have things place correctly, since a wheel/parameter name and it's type are separate declarations.

I think this will get better with time, but I do need to get these two profiles from ETC, or my mover rig is basically 80% useless at this point . . . .

- Tim

Hi Tim,

The parameters which are grayed out in the fixture editor cannot be altered because something, generally lamp controls, is depending on them.  We have added the ability to fully edit lamp controls in the soon-to-be-released version 1.5.  Sorry for your frustration. 

Ann -

     Thanks for the insights!  I would accept the explanation for the greyed out items, but on the HES stuff, the only things that have a requirement for control fuctions are the dimmer, the shutter, and the control channel, and what is greyed out are gobo wheel mode, and gobo mode proper, as well as the lamp control channel (which controls how the fixture dims and/or strobes - exclusive to the main control functions.

     What I would *still* like an explanation for is the inconsistency of the gobo wheels and encoder assignments that I have seen - once again, the X-Spot (and yes, I have Xtreme's - the DMX channel layout is the same for all - the XTreme was mainly an optical upgrade) has three gobo/effect wheels, and all three have the same four control parameters - gobo select, gobo wheel mode, gobo index/rotate, and gobo rotate mode.   On wheel one, it appears (thanks to the earlier poster mentioning this!) that you hold down the gobo select encoder, and get the "mode" soft key, and can vary the mode parameters, and this wheel shows on two encoders.  For wheels two and three, you get all four parameters on four encoders, and holding in any encoder does nothing.  It appears that there is some macro control code embedded in "Gobo Wheel Mode" but not in "Gobo Wheel 2 Mode" or "Gobo Wheel 3 Mode" which makes the control of these three wheels very inconsistent.  Yes, it can be worked around, but myself, I would prefer the four parameters on four encoders, and leave the macro code and pressing and holding on the floor, unused, but I can't see a way to do this, and the "Gobo Wheel Mode" tag has this irrevocably embedded in it, not to mention that due to the embedded functions, you can't copy the fixture and use a different parameter, since you can't delete "Gobo Wheel Mode"!!!

    Hardly fatal, but *VERY* *VERY* frustrating for a product that is at least 1-1/2 years old!

    The ability to have more access to control functions will be nice!  Any idea when 1.5 is expected?  If nothing else, the ability to do it "The hard way" would be nice too, and would require zero coding.    A document specific to fixture creation, both on the console, and via ASCII definitions would be huge too!

- Tim

afoster said:

...We have added the ability to fully edit lamp controls in the soon-to-be-released version 1.5....

Woohoo! Does that include performing multi-step actions? (IE: Close the shutter, then signal the reset)

-Dave