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    Robert452
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Fixture or Channels

I'm wrapping 6 x White LED tapes around a 5' plastic pole to make a Young Frankenstein "Electrode". The idea is to "run" the lights up and down the pole sequentially to emulate a spark going up a Van Der Graff generator.

For the prototype 6 channels were patched 1 to 1, to 6 DMX addresses . These were placed into new 'step' FX and it all worked very well indeed. For the Show I'm constructing two identical poles.

Question: Should I do as I did for the prototype and patch 1 to 1 and so on, or is there a way can make a new fixture ("Electrode") with 6 INTENS parameters patched to a single channel?

I had brief try with such a fixture (6 x INT Params) but when selected the ML display showed only 1 INT fader! And if I did manage this I've forgotten how to make a step FX that fires each of the INT params in turn (I'm just used to plugging in Chans)

  • Regarding the fixture, you probably made each of the 6 parameters an INT type. You need to make them INTENS, INTENS 1, INTENS 2, etc. That’ll allow each of the 6 intensities to show up seperately.

    Regarding the effect, with a step effect, you select the channel, and the parameter in that channel, for each step. So, if you want to make a effect that brings each intensity up in turn, you’d build a six step effect. All 6 steps will have the same fixture channel. Each step will then have the next intensity parameter in order.

    Hope this helps.

  • in reply to JTBettis

    Or you create a multicell fixture with 6 cells. 
    to avoid all the typing for a step based, in this case use an absolute effect. Two actions. Action one 100% action two 0 %. Apply to the cells only. 
    experiment with grouping and trail (most likely you want solo). 
    of course the absolute effect also works with channels. 

  • in reply to johannes

    Sorry should be a reply to the OP. I misclicked. 

  • To get the effect you're after, you have two options:

    1. Patch them all as individual Channels, same as you did for the test.

    2. Create a Multi-Cell fixture with six "cells", then apply the FX to the cells.
      This also gives you a 'master' channel (.0) for each electrode, which could be useful.

    A personality with 6 "Intens" parameters will drive them all together, it's effectively the same as patching them all as extra Dimmer Parts, which is not what you want.
    "Intens", "Intens 2" etc would give individual control. This is a "legacy" approach as it's much harder to use and so definitely not recommended.

    Personally I'd probably patch as six dimmers, but the 'master' Intensity of the celléd approach is a useful thing so might swing it.

  • in reply to Richard

    To all three: thank you.

    While the 1 to 1 chan to DMX is easy and something I have done before I was very intrigued with Multi-Cell fixture idea. I have never used one of these and with a couple of months to the show I have the time to experiment and expand my own knowledge.  We use a lot of LED tape things in some shows so whether the Multi-Cell idea works for this one or not, it may prove very useful for the future. Onward and upward.  I love it!

    Thank you for the input.

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