Strobe in fixtures set as snap, why?

What is the fixture(s) you are talking about?

In the meantime, to help you understand why things are the way they are, here's my attempt to explain:

Typically there is a "Shutter Strobe"-channel which is divided into sections such as Open, Strobe and Closed (and maybe a lot more).

If you click on the header of the parameter, above the snap-buttons in the ML-control-tab, a wheel will appear,
that allows you control the channel. The snap-buttons are just shortcuts to jump to specific values on the channel, they don't "block" the fader in any way.
You can record the "Shutter Strobe"-parameter onto a submaster and control it that way, from closed over slow and fast to open.

Depending on the fixture you might have a second channel that controls the "Strobe mode".
In the image below, there is a "Strobe mode"-channel that allows me to change between "Strobe", "Random", "Rnd Sync" and "Strobe 2".
The fixture shown in the image is a SolaFrame 2000. It has a designated channel for the "Strobe mode". This means, that when I select "Random",
Eos sends a specific DMX-value on the designated DMX-channel (in this case 41) to the fixture. All is well, I can just select strobe and control the speed from closed to open via the "Shutter Strobe"-parameter.

 

If we take a look at another fixture though, things can be very different:

This is the DMX-Chart of a Martin Mac III Profile.
As you can see, the Shutter/Strobe-channel is split up into a ton of sections. All the different modes are on one channel, seperated by "Shutter Open". Contrarty to the SolaSpot from above, this fixture doesn't have a designated "Strobe mode" channel, it's all on the "Shutter/Strobe" channel.
This would be a nightmare to control with the system above, as you would just jump through the different modes all the time, never really getting what you want.

The way that Eos solves this problem is by creating a virtual "Strobe mode" channel, that has a snap-range for each of the modes.
Below you can see the "Shutter/Strobe"-parameter of the Mac III Profile. It doesn't look any different from the SolaSpot, except for the number of snap-buttons.


The big difference is, that all the snapbuttons for the strobe modes, are not just shortcuts to certain DMX-values, they limit the range of the shutter strobe-channel. This means, that when I select "Strobe", the Shutter/Strobe wheel to the left will only control the DMX-values in the range of 50-64, as that is the range of the Strobe-mode according to the DMX-chart.  If I select "Pulse Open+", it will limit the range to 70 to 84 and so on.

Usually, when theres a virtual channel in your fixture, the actual DMX-channel it relates to, doesn't behave the way a normal channel would.
It is dependent on the virtual channel and might not actually have its full range of values assigned in the fixture, as those are handled by the virtual channel.

Unfortunately you cannot create, edit or delete virtual channels in Patch. The virtual channels are created by ETC and seem to require some programming that goes beyond what the fixture-editor can do. As the fixture-editor is the only way for users to edit/create fixtures, it is not possible to change the behaviour of virtual channels.

Depending on what fixtures you have and how the fixture-profile in the library is set up, the solution can be either very simple or a little complicated.

Thank you for the answer.
the MLControll would be no option, because it's for quick-action.

And the Strobemode is a snap, what i can understand.
But the Shutter/Strobe i don't.
What fixtures i have been looking closer:
showtec - compact par tri 8ch
LDDE - Spectralight T5
Robe - Robin 1200 Wash

It's the rate of the Strobe i want to controll with a physical Desk-Fader.
There for i removed, for now, the snap from the Shutter-attribut (the one with the DMX values).

And i know that Martin have a funny little other way to deal with all this.

All the fixtures you mention have a virtual "Shutter mode"-channel.
The solution to your problem is the one you found yourself:
Untick snap for the "Shutter Strobe" parameter.

Whether or not this makes sense is up to you I guess.
Some people (me included) like to have a fader to activate the strobe with a specific preset speed.
Snap does exactly that.
If you want to have the speed control on a fader, you have to change it in patch, as you already found out.
Both configurations make sense and can be a hindrance at the same time, depending on the situation.

That being said, I have to admit, that the behaviour of parameters with snap on, when recorded to a sub, seemed a little strange to me at first. I too expected the values coming from a sub to behave like values coming from the on-screen wheel in the MLcontrol.

That being said, I have to admit, that the behaviour of parameters with snap on, when recorded to a sub, seemed a little strange to me at first. I too expected the values coming from a sub to behave like values coming from the on-screen wheel in the MLcontrol.

 

Thats exactly my question. Why is it this way?

It's not a urgent issue, but it's bottering me for now ; )

Say you have two fixtures you want to use as strobes.
You set them full and set a strobe speed that seems reasonable. Then you record them to a sub.
When you fade the sub in, they strobe at the set speed (because snap is activated) and the intensity fades in.
You wouldn't want the strobe-speed to fade in as well, as this would look odd (at least to me).

I don't know if that really is what the ETC-programmers had in mind, but it makes sense to me.
Since I am not an ETC-programmer, I obviously can't give you definitive answer though ;)

Thats a good point.
But i may have made intensity master otherwise.

I thinks that's enouhg as an answer for me. Thanks.

Thats a good point.
But i may have made intensity master otherwise.

I thinks that's enouhg as an answer for me. Thanks.