2 scrollers, 1 dimmer

It's possible to make a fixture with 2 scrollers. I've done this before. I'll have a look back in a show file to see if I can get hold of the exact details for you.

Just had a quick look at this. I'm not sure if there is a scroller 2 personality pre made in the desk, but I could not find one. You can make a new fixture and set the parameter to "Scroller 2" (under the colour category). Then as normal, patch part 1 to a dimmer, part 2 to a normal scroller and part 3 to your new scroller personality. When I just did this, it did not add a scroll (under the attributes header) so you will need to do this, if you don't already!

When you do that, you get a second encoder for the other scroller. You will be able to calibrate each unit, but for ease when programming, colour pallets will really speed up applying the same colour to both units.

Hope that helps!

One option could be using the Apollo's MXR Scroller as your fixture. The fixture essentially has 2 scrollers in it and CMY mixes using various colours together.

Addressing your first Scroller to the first address and your second to +1 of your first.

The only problem with this option will be if you try and use ETCs Colour Picker it will try and mix using both scrollers.

But if you record each frame of each Scroller as a colour palette and use your scrollers that way I don't think there would be much problems. It should all Mark fine.

Molly,

i would patch it as:

Part 1 - Dimmer

Part 2 - Scroller 1

Part 3 - Scroller 2

You should then be able to adjust either scroller independently of each other by moving through the various color pages with the encoders. I have done this with rotators and i-cues, but not with a scroller. I don't see why this wouldn't work, but let me know if it hiccups.

James Shield

Or...

Go into [Patch] select your channel and add the fixture 'Scroller' found in 'Generic'

Press [Patch] then [Fixtures] and [Copy] 'Scroller' and then [Edit] it.

All you should need to do is hit [New] and change the parameter to Scroller 2, then set all of the range settings to exactly the same as the 'Scroller' parameter.

Now apply your new fixture hit [Fixture] and apply your two scrollers to your fixture.

The only problem with this method is both Scrollers will be changed when using the colour picker (hue/Saturation) if both are the same. If there not the same the colour picker seems not to work at all, but you will have individual control on the encoders and they'll mark just fine.

The problem is James if both parts are the same fixture then there will only be one encoder controlling both of the Scrolls at the same time. Not giving individual control.

sammy,

you are of course correct. my mistake, the example i used would only work in a situtation where both scrollers were of different personalities/manufacterur.

-james

I have had this problem too. And to over come it I have built a custom fixture as you guys have said with the scroller 2 attribute. This works a treat but you have to ensure you have consecutively addressed the scrollers on the units. 

At first i had tried to just make a fixture using the Scroller 2 attribute instead of scroller. The only problem was using "scroller" gives you the Hue and Sat Virtual channels and "scroller2" does not. Hence building both into one fixture so i can use the colour picker and reference my custom scrolls by colour manufacture and number. If that make sense 

Dear ETC:- Why does the attribute scroller when added to a fixture give virtual Hue and sat channels to a fixture, when "scroller 2" does not?

I guess the answer will be that the attribute scroller 2 is really for adding a second scroller to a fixture already containing a scroller, and not for building a fixture called scroller 2 

Happy new year all.

olly b

The problem Olly would be trying to distinguish which scroller you want to be controlling with the colour picker. 

If you had hue and saturation for both scrollers how would you determine which one you are controlling. 

*Stops before his brain throws multiple ideas of how it could be displayed and goes into hypothetical world.* 

ollyboustead said:

Dear ETC:- Why does the attribute scroller when added to a fixture give virtual Hue and sat channels to a fixture, when "scroller 2" does not?

I guess the answer will be that the attribute scroller 2 is really for adding a second scroller to a fixture already containing a scroller, and not for building a fixture called scroller 2 

Anne put this much more eloquently in a post a while back, but since I can't find that, I'll attempt to write something that makes sense. As I understand it, this is based on the "single channel for multiple parameters" structure of the Eos family. For each individual channel, the console assumes that every parameter you adjust is affecting the same "beam of light" (for lack of a better term). For the most part, this makes complete sense. If you put a gobo into one of your MLs, then also put in a shutter, these are obviously both affecting the same beam. The only time this falls apart is when you have more than one device on a single channel, such as two scrollers. In the console's eyes, even though you might have multiple devices on one channel, the console will always assume that they affect the same beam of light and will not allow you to manipulate them individually without awkward workarounds like you've discovered. While this makes sense, I do wish that ETC would add some ability to calibrate scrollers by address instead of by channel, so that if one scroller is slightly off from another on the same channel, you can fix it.

Why do you need to have two different scroller frames on two instruments that are on the same dimmer? By putting units on the same channel, the LD is essentially saying "I accept that I won't need to control these individually, and anything that I want to happen to one should also happen to the other." But if for whatever reason you do need to control two scrollers individually being lit by one dimmer, I'd probably just patch a phantom dimmer to the second scroller and group them for easy access. For example, if your intensity/scroller 1 channel is 549, then record that and the phantom channel as Group 549 and just remember to type Group whenever the LD calls Channel 549. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the reply, the only reason i would what separate control is to calibrate the scrollers independently. Which is achievable using the methods described i just wondered why adding the attribute scroller to a fixture automatically added 2 virtual channels one of hue and the other of saturation. Yet if a scroller 2 is added to a fixture it does not. I imagine this is due to the assumption that adding the attribute scroller 2 would mean you have already got a scroller(1). I guess its abit fiddly to ask for the console to add the 2 virtual attributes hue and saturation if a scroller 2 is added to a fixture and a scroller(1) is not already in the fixture. 

Im not sure what my reliance on the Hue and Sat is? but i have trouble building color palletts for the fixtures with scroller 2 attributes by just calling up the colour ie colour 3/200 rather than using frame number in the fixture make up.