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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  • Robert452 said:
    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)

    If a light doesn't have a DMX slot for intensity, Eos adds a virtual intensity parameter.

    In the picture above, if you want the light to be at 50% intensity, you could do "red 50 green 50 blue 50 white 50 enter" OR just type [At] 50 [enter] and that would use the channel's virtual intensity to dim all the colors in the light. The red, green, blue, and white values in the table stay the same but they are multiplied by 50% to produce the actual DMX output.

  • Oh, OK. I've pasted this in my "toDo" list. There are quite a lot of ML techniques I need to get too. I call anything that takes up more than one DMX512 channel a "ML" - though some people call them MH (Moving Head) even if they're not!
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  • It's called a Moving Light control because Moving Lights pre-date modern LED colour mixing.
    So even though the feature is mostly used for colour mixing now, the name has stuck.

    Also... You're still speaking about a single light source with multiple parameters. That's not what "Multi-Cell" means.
  • Oh right - was referring to multi cell line in the display. My Bad! I think I was told a Multicell fixture is one that has more then one DMX address by virtue of a optional add on. e.g. a single channel ellipsoid might have an optional motorized GoBo - thus the 'put together' package has two DMX addresses and is referred to as multicell? Right?

    Back to the patching a ML. An odd thing has happened. On my first try I patched a single 11 channel device at 11 and saw the Chan numbers and their Address to the right. The ML at 11 gave an address of '11-21' which was good. But, when trying again the ML address showed up empty. All the rest are as expected. I want to get back to Mike's original display and see the 11-21 in the address column.
  • For info multicell is where you have several individually controllable RGB Leds in a fixture, sometimes you want to command the whole fixture to an intensity or colour but sometimes you want to command a single LED in the fixture. (Explicit multicell support only came in in 2.7 before that you had to patch them as separate fixtures which was a bit untidy especially if there was a common pan/tilt as they were cells in a single moving head)

    Your "single channel ellipsoid might have an optional motorized GoBo - thus the 'put together' package" is a multi part, where as you say two separate DMX ranges are pulled together into a single composite fixture.

    Not sure what you are doing with the patching but if you just in patch screen type 11 @ nn where nn is the address you want it will patch it or tell you you've overlapped addresses. The only other thing I can think you might have done is toggled the display into address rather than fxture display by pressing the format button.
  • Thank you for going over the multicell v multi part. Yep, the patching thing is more difficult to describe then it appears . However, your advice to try [Format] did bring things back and I just found the [Attributes] button! I really need to practice, practice, practice. Still waiting the new board and director wants it running for Mary Poppins in 4 weeks! (may end up an unhappy director - the Element has a heavy back order out of ETC)
  • Not sure what context you found the attributes button in but it’s extremely unlikely you will need it.

    Just patch the fixtures in the simplest possible way ie channel number type xxxx @ next

    Set the physical fixture to the address the desk selected and you are done

    Then in live pick your channels set them as you want using the ML control for the complex ones and just typing @ and the level for the others

    Then just record cue next to save it

    Change what needs to change for the next cue and do the same.

    And you’ll be under way

    Use Goto and a cue number to jump out of sequence and Go to move to next cue when playing it back.

    If a cue is wrong adjust the look and hit update

    That’s probably all you need to know to get started and probably get a lot better result than you’d get from and old style desk.
  • Yeh, somehow I was just cruising around trying to see actual DMX addresses when I hit the Attribute button and a little panel appeared where the CIA normally is. And, it had a lot of info on a ML I'd highlighted. I think your "Format" button is doing the trick. The problems is I don't have the board yet and of course - no one to guide me, though this forum is terrific. The manual covers all the Eos family so a bit verbose in places. It has everything in linear order which means that info down one end - like [Format] aren't too well remembered by the time one gets to patching. I'm OK on the Expression II - it was just the ideas the Eos uses to map the ML patches. But - practice makes perfect and when the board does get here I will be able to handle 90%. We're not using any ML's on the next show in the main theatre. Actually - I use a lot of ML over in our smaller theatre but also use a very different board hence a different philosophy.
  • I've said this before and I'll say it again.

    The BEST thing about ETC is their video learning series on Youtube.

    I highly recommend clicking on one of the EOS learning series playlists and kicking back and let it play through.

    Not only will you learn what you need to know, you'll learn things you never knew to ask about.

    Eos Family v2.5 Level 1 Essentials Video Learning Series (50 videos)

    Eos Family v2.5 Level 2 Enhanced Skills Video Learning Series (41 videos)

    Eos Family v2.5 Level 3 Advanced Programming Video Learning Series (28 videos)

  • I've said it before and I'll say it again too. Yes, they are great. But they can clack by awfully fast and require a lot of pauses for note taking and (strange in this world) one is snot always able to connect to the internet. I spend a lot of time flying across the pond and back, and a well written book is appreciated. But point taken especially the bit about 'learning what you didn't know to ask' - is quite enthralling.
  • Well, for reading while flying, try the Eos Family v2.2 Tea Break Tutorials Series.

    "The Tea Break Tutorial series helps you to learn the basics of Eos/Ion or Element console programming. Take 15 minutes a day and learn your console the Tea Break Way!"

    www.etcconnect.com/.../Eos-Family-v2-2-Tea-Break-Tutorials-Series.aspx
  • Salazar - That Teabreak PDF if going onto my tablet 1st thing. A brief look and it looks like its weight in gold.
    I have student version of Capture and will work out if I can run any of the other stuff from that download on the Lenova tablet. Thanks again.
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