Colorsource par: Don´t respond linearly to sub fader

Hi!

We have twelve COLORSOURCE par since two months and a ETC ELEMENT desk with the las software (2.3.1)

I have a problem with the fade of them: When I program a fade with time for example with a cue or doing a sanke, the fixtures fade in or fade out good, it doesn´t matter if I the time is one second or thirty second, they fade good. But when I move the fixtures one by one with channel fader or I record them in a submaster fader, when I fade out manually ( I get dow the fader from 100 to 0) the fixtures don´t fade out  always linearly or in the same velocity of the fader. The fixtures have a delay about a fader movement.  It doesn´t always happen, it´s more frecuently when you get down fast the fader.

Someone know what´s happen?

I would like to apologise for my poor english. 

  • Can you please provide a bit more information about your use case please. When you fade the fixtures on the Element by fader, how are you doing that? Do you have the Element in channel fader mode, where your faders each control a channel rather than a sub? When you fade the fixture, are you fader only the intensity or are you fading the colors as well?

    Is the problem that there appears to be a delay in the fixture from the fader handle is moved?
  • Thanks for your answer!
    I try to get more information about the problem.
    For example: I have only one sub with twelve fixtures. The sub is in proportional mode.
    The problem is that when I move down the fader with different speed the fixtures answer with different speed about the fader speed...
    I´m sorry, I´ve difficult for explain it because my english level is not good...
    I want to explain is that if I have twelve tugsten fixtures like twelve S4 750w ( 12 dimmer channels)in one sub fader and I have twelve Colorsource in another sub fader, the S4 answer with the same speed like the sub father, and the Color souerce, sometimes yes and sometimes not... Ah! I´m explainig it with twelve fixtures, but with only one, is the same. The same answer if I use for example the ch101 fader handle( I have the first Color source patched in 101) to fade in or fade out the fixture.
    Thanks a lot.
  • I'm going to ask for one more piece of clarification. Is the problem you are seeing that the ColorSource fixtures are not responding the same as each other? Or is the problem that when you use a sub you see a difference in responsiveness between ColorSource and tungsten fixtures?
    Thanks.
  • i think what he seeing is that while each of his fixtures behaves the same as each other, neither of them is reacting the way to the fader as expected. sound like the colorsource pars would react dealyed. do the fixtures have an internal dimmer curve?

  • The problem is not that the colorsource don´t respons exactly than one S4 750w, no, I know that the response is very like, but isn´t the same. The problem is that our colorsource fixtures dont´t response equal to the fader movements but they response equal when I do a fade in or fade out with time. With fader sometimes they have a delay... With the bumps, the fixtures light on and off very fast but when I move the fader fastly sometimes, and I don´t know why, they have a delay and the light off and on isn´t so fast, sometimes are fast and sometimes they have a little dalay. With another fixtures, profiles, parcans, pc etc... the response os the movement of fader is always the same in the fixtures, never change, they haven´t delay.

    Thanks a lot!
  • Yes, this is the problem. When I work with fade times, the response is always equal, but when I work with subs, isn´t equal.
    The fixtures haven´t internal dimmer curve, we don´t see it when we acces by RDM in the fixtures. When I red the ETC Led config tool document, I thought that there was the solution, but when we acces by RDM, we saw that the coloursource pars haven´t curve option.
    I´m going to connect our old Express to news colorsource and see what happers.

    Thank a lot!
  • The fixture performs smoothing of the incoming DMX levels to provide smooth fades. When running the fixture from timed fades, the DMX level changes are more consistent which is why multiple fades are repeatable. When running the fixture on a manual fader, the DMX level changes can be inconsistent between different fades. This can lead to the differences in fades that you experience when running manual fades.
  • Thanks for your answer.
    It´s possible that the issue come from the fader acceleration, when the fader has a big speed change, the fixture can´t response smooth. But, my question is, why the dimmers response smoothly or linearly in any speed? Do you think that a fixtures firmware upgrade can to get better the fixture´s response?
    Thanks a lot.
  • Hello,
    As Dave said, the difference is in how the fixture is reacting to the different 'styles' of incoming data. The fixture is programmed with an internal curve that is meant to mimic a tungsten source. To do this, which is not simple, there is a lot a math going on to slew the low end of the fade the way a tungsten lamp would. When you bump the fixture on and off, it receives a signal, for example, to go from 100 to 0% all at once and handles the math accordingly. When you fade it, even quickly, it is getting DMX levels of, again for example, 100 then 87 then 73 then 61... etc. This type of signal causes the math to be different as it is handled in smaller segments.

    Numerous updates have happened already to help with this process and we continue to work on making our fixtures work better.

    I hope this is helpful.
  • Thanks!
    I will wait that new upgrade.
    In another hand... Am I the only persone who is not satisfied with the response of Colorsurce par with manual fader movement?
    Thanks a lot!
  • Thanks for this thread, Jokin you are not the only one dissatisfied with faderesponse of the Colorsource.
    We just placed 20 CSPars in our venue. My problem with them is the same as yours, when a CS gets a bumpsignal from 0 to 100 it wil cut in immediately, unlike a tungsten. When i fade in from 0 to FF really really fast, it will follow my manual movement. When i fade in just a little slower from 0 the CS Par will mimic a tungsten, sometimes with a little predelay even.
    My problem starts when i have the CSPar in a cue, say at 15% and i want to bump it to FF, it wont happen. I will get a fade out of the CSPar that is way to slow, slower than my tungsten ETC multiPars. This fadecurve is not usefull for me at all, with is a shame because the light is really nice.
    @jruphoff, i hope there will be an option made available for the user to eliminate this fadecurve at will, because i have a little doubt that the calculation of the fade will ever cover all possible startingvalue's to all possible endvalues?

    Thank you guys for all the good work put in this fixture!
  • Hi!
    What lighting console are you using with the CSP?
    I´ve tasted with two diferent consoles and the result is the same.
    Thanks a lot.
  • This is something we are looking at. There are many improvements to the CS system that we are hoping to make and fade performance is one of them.
  • Hi Jokin,
    i'm using the Etc EOS- ION with the latest update: 2.3.2.9.0.45.
    I'm not surprised using different consoles return the same result, it's the calculation inside de Colorsource Par that creates the fade/ delay as Jim Ruphoff explained before.

    Good luck!
  • I was thinking the same...
    Thanks a lot.
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