I'm using a HOGIII and when i grab the motion and go CONTROL --> Lamp Strike it seems finicky on how long i need to hold it down to get the units to strike.
You shouldn't need to hold it down. Simply touch or click the "Lamp Strike" option once.
If you look at the DMX protocol in the manual it shows that the unit must receive that particular command 80 times before it will respond. So in a typical DMX refresh situation that would be about 3-4 seconds (I think).
The time needed to strike may also depend on conditions in and at the unit (such as when the last time the lamp was lit, how hot it is, etc).
By default the units should strike their lamps upon receiving DMX or ArtNet, unless someone has changed the option in the fixture menu.
One thing to note is that the "Lamp Strike" button on the Whole Hog console is not an On-Off switch. Once you press the "Lamp Strike" button, the value of the control channel is changed to the lamp strike value and it remains there until another option is chosen (like "Fixture Idle") or the programmer is cleared. The value does not clear when you simply lift your finger off the "Lamp Strike" button.
Another thing to note is that many of the Control channel functions (lamp striking/dousing and fixture homing to name a few) are "gated" by the iris. This means that any time the intensity channel of the DL motion component is above 0, these functions are ignored. So, in order for the lamp to strike/douse or to home the fixture, the iris must be closed.
My normal routine for striking the lamps is as follows:
1) Open the iris (Motion intensity @ full) 2) Select "Lamp Strike" from Control slot toolbar 3) Close the iris (Motion intensity @ 0) 4) Watch for the white LED on the front panel to illuminate 5) Clear the programmer.
This works every time.
Some other things of note:
1) The lamps will not strike if they are in the process of cooling down. There is a predefined 2 minute cool down any time a lamp is doused or the fixture is put into shutdown. Any attempt to strike the lamp during this time will be ignored
2) The fixture will not receive commands successfully until the server is fully booted. If you try to send any commands before the server is booted, they will be ignored as well. A good way to check if the server is fully booted is to move pan/tilt. If you have pan/tilt control, the server is booted.
3) By default, the lamps will automatically strike once the unit sees that it is receiving DMX. Again, this goes along with point number 2, in that it will not know it is receiving DMX until the server has completely booted. The functionality of striking the lamp when it detects DMX is also not a rule, as the setting can be changed in the Menu/CMA.
If you are still having issues, please let us know the circumstances surrounding the problem. Have the fixture just been powered up? Were they put into shutdown (either through data loss or a console initiated command) and now you are trying to strike them? Were the lamps simply doused and you are now trying to re-strike them?
In my first post I meant to say how long before clearing the programmer, not literally holding the soft key. Late night when posted. And I was thinking it may be like some fixtures that need to see the command for a window of time.
The fixtures are set to wait for the lamp strike command.
I'll bet my problem was not waiting until the server was booted. Now I know.
Is that in the manual? I did give it a pretty good read, but only for my initial areas of concern.
