ML Patching 101

Oh dear. I'm sure I have asked before but (!)

Just getting around to practically patching an ADJ Encore Ellipse 1000 and chose the 11 channel (Parameter whatever) mode. Put simple dimmers on 1 thru 10 and then pointed my "ADJ Encore Ellipse 1000" to start at 11. Excellent. In the old days I would have used faders 11 thru 22 to control the Encore's individual channels (like red, green . . . ). Now, leaving the patch screen I bring up "Live Summary" and at this point run slap bang into a concept wall!

Chans 1 thru 10 are across the top look good. Underneath is CH 11 (Grayed out) and to its right are 12 cells of info (why 12 not 11. Let's leave this for now)

The Problem; Underneath the CH 11 row is a regular table. But it starts with CH 12 at the top left !!! Oyeeee! That CH 12 can't really be pointing to DMX address 12 can it? Wouldn't that override the 2nd parameter in my Encore patch? Clearly the lamp WANTS data from CHANS 11 thru 22 but why is my table showing CHAN 12 available (presumably for other use)?

And if it doesn't GOTO DMX 12 - where the heck does it go? I know I am missing something here. Please make me happy again.

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  • Ok where you are getting misled is you are still thinking about channels as if they are DMX addresses.

    Channels are the physical objects ie the fixture you hung.

    So Channel 11 is the ADJ Encore Ellipse 1000 with all its complexities spread over whatever number of DMX addresses, no one cares about that anymore (other than when actually patching)

    In the screen shot you can now just select the attributes of the fixture by clicking in them or by typing on the command line.

    Try typing

    11 @ Full Enter it should turn on.

    Click one of the columns eg Red and type a value, it should change the red attribute.

    More usefully select the ML tab and then you can see all the things you can mess with on the fixture just pick a colour or click one of the other things (dont know what the fixture is capable of but you probably get at least strobe etc)

    You have moved from the old world of having to know what dmx did what for each of your fixture types to the world of the desk software knows all about that and you just tell it the same thing regardless of how the fixture works.

    (For info The Channel 12 fixture is the next thing you patched and probably has a DMX address of 22 if you let it assign the next free DMX address)
  • Excellent Mike. And it makes sense, though for us new to ML's not necessarily intuitive.
    For example; Your last line (For info The Channel 12 . . . . . probably 22) fits in exactly how I was thinking but how then do I interpret where CHAN 12 is in DMX so I can then set the correct address on my 'next' - say - simple dimmer?
    I know, I know I must 'give up' DMX channels but it would make life easier in the transition if somewhere I could see the actual DMX of number 12 here.
  • The normal place you'd look at what you've got patched where is in the patch screen

    So for example on the screen shot at the bottom, I've got a bunch of RGB cans patched.  The addresses are a little more complex that you might be used to as the 10/ is because they are all in universe 10 but the bit after the / is what they have their address set to.

    You can also see a single fixture by selecting it and then opening the About tab. On the right of that tab there are a choice of views and probably the one labelled patch will make you feel at home !!!

     

  • OK - This is exactly what I was looking for. Your Patch table shows for example a LED Par Can (as 'fixture' 44) taking up DMX addresses 10/261-264. Makes absolute sense and I'm OK with the universe bit. It all now comes down to the fact that my Patch screen does not show any 'address' let alone something like the expected 11-21. But, as I write there is a horrible feeling permeating the old gray matter that perhaps I should not have started my new show with the 1 to 1 patch. Hmm! I'm going to start a new show - not with 1 to 1 to test this. Thanks for hanging in there. We will get to the bottom of this and my future with ML's be much brighter (!)
  • To my own reply? Honestly! Based on Mike's original there I started a new show NOT Patched 1 t01 - Patched 1 thru 10 as dimmers and then 11 as the Encore (11CH) AT 11 and voila! I think the guys who really paint the stage just don't think of starting a show patched 1to1 any more. Any way. Brain is happy. I am happy. Thanks Mike
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  • The best way to do it is to first patch all your dimmers 1:1 and then patch your multi-parameter channels using the channel numbers that are easiest to remember.
  • Now that is very interesting! What was hanging me up was that I was in a show patched 1 to 1 and then went to spot 11 and patched in a 11 channel device. However looking a the patch panel I did not see what Mike's picture showed. Everything was 1 to 1 except channel 11 which had nothing in the address column! So I had this epiphany and went back, started new show without 1 to 1. I hung 10 simple dimmers. The added the Encore 11 channel device and up came the patch panel with the 11-21 address as expected. Over on the "Live Table" I saw the 11 simple - single channels, the muticell 1 with Intense, Red, Green etc. It all looked very good.

    So, as to patching ML's in a new 1 to 1 show - obviously needs revisiting by me. Still - things are much better now so thank you for the input
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