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    dave @ lsss
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Nomad puck use with ETC Express board??

Hello all.  I'll start by saying that I have very little background with this equipment.  I am a high school chemistry teacher who ended up as the tech guy in our Auditorium.  We currently use a Nomad puck to run our lighting.  It is attached to 2 monitors and has a mouse/keyboard as well as a Fader Wing for input   Recently I found an Express board that is apparently the previous iteration of the lighting system (it has a 3.5" floppy drive!).  Anyway, I'm wondering if there is a way to use the Express Board as input for the Nomad puck?  It would be nice to have the use of the physical keys for control rather than the QWERTY keyboard shortcuts or having to go to the virtual keyboard to make changes.  

If it's relevant, we have a few movable lights, but most are static.  Any help would be greatly appreciated and if you need any additional information, let me know and I will answer to the best of my ability.  

Thanks in advance, 

Dave

  • 0

    Hi Dave, thanks for being a high school teacher! As far as I'm aware you cannot directly interface between the two. There are some "hackish" ways to get the faders to be reused on a Nomad setup, but not when you're talking about the face panel controls. It is going to be one or the other, not both. 

    If you're looking for a way to get into physical programming keys have a look at https://xkeys.com/xk60.html and ETC even makes a custom label stickers you can purchase to overlay on them. https://shop.etcconnect.com/eos-x-key-button-overlay/

  • 0

    I've spent way too many hours on Express boards and they won't connect to Nomad. 

    I purchased a Cherry G86-63400, which is a 144 key POS keyboard.  They seem to be about $150 now. I no longer use this keyboard because I've learned the keyboard shortcuts.  When I need a key I don't remember, I drop down the virtual keyboard and the shortcut is printed on the virtual key.  It's a lot quicker for me than this keyboard.

    However, if you're interested, here are the labels (some keys are doubled; you can buy the double-size keycaps).  Following is the programming of each key.  I print the labels and cut them, install them on the keycaps.  I program the keys and the keyboard works the same as typing the keyboard shortcuts.  I put macros down the right edge for things I might find useful.  Several keys are left blank to help separate them, particularly around the GO-BACK buttons.

    Good luck!

    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
    A   ctl-alt-P ctl-alt-L   alt-1 alt-2 alt-3 alt-4 alt-5 alt-6 alt-7 ctl-alt-M ctl-alt-\ F1 F2 F9   ctl-alt-1 A
    B alt-S ctl-P alt-M M alt-L L Y C E alt-K PgUp alt-F1 ctrl-O F4 F5 ctl-D   ctl-alt-2 B
    C ;; alt-A alt-X [delete] Alt / alt-E ctl-G B clt-X ctrl-alt-P PgDn alt-F2 ctl-alt-O tab F3 F6 ctl-N ctl-alt-3 C
    D     J P Q R + T - / N K clt-alt-S esc up Arrow ctl-enter ' ctl-alt-4 D
    E ctrl-space   ctl-W alt-I alt-F ctl-R 7 8 9 H home ctl-alt-= F7 lt Arrow dn Arrow rt Arrow ctl-I ctl-alt-5 E
    F   ctl-alt-T alt-C alt-B U 4 5 6 O ctrl-L ctl-alt-- ctrl-A ctl-alt-F clt-alt-E   ctl-F ctl-alt-6 F
    G ctrl-alt-space   ctl-alt-R alt-P S G 1 2 3 F X V ctrl-M ctl-alt-, ctl-alt-[ alt-. ctl-C ctl-alt-7 G
    H   ctl-alt-D Z D I bksp 0 . A Enter ctrl-S ctl-alt-; ctl-alt-J alt-, ctl-B ctl-alt-8 H
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
  • 0 in reply to Rick36616

    I agree, the cherry are another great option. And I think like Rick, I have found that simply using the keyboard shortcuts while on nomad are faster than many of these third-party interfaces. That being said, using a programming wing with Nomad is definitely faster for a few reasons. 

  • 0 in reply to jolson

    Thanks to you both for the help.  Maybe I'll just work on familiarizing myself with the keyboard shortcuts.  If I could have gotten the board working it would have been great, but I wouldn't want to add extra expense to the school.  

  • 0

    Hi Dave,

    If you have the screen real estate then open a virtual keyboard on a touch screen (if you have one) and you have all the keys you need.

    It does take some time to learn the QWERTY shortcuts but not too long and before you know it you will be quite quick at it. I work with someone who learnt the shortcuts and when he got to the actual console he would reach for the QWERTY keyboard over the face panel because he knew where all the keys were and was quite quick.

    Have fun learning

    Regards

    Geoff

  • 0 in reply to Geoff Crisp

    Thanks for the suggestion.  I hadn't thought about the touchscreen option.  I have a Microsoft Surface and wonder if I could attach it as a third monitor as the 2 we currently use are not touchscreen.  That might be the middle ground I'm looking for.  

    I appreciate the advice, 

    Dave

  • 0 in reply to dave @ lsss

    A surface is a computer on its own, i don't think it can be hooked up as a touchscreen to another computer. You could network both and make the surface a client to the nomad, but that would need another ETCnomad dongle.

  • 0 in reply to eos moderator

    I knew it felt too easy.  We have a few computer-savvy folks in the school so maybe I can just look into replacing one of the current monitors with a touch screen.

    Thanks for the insight,

    Dave

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