Technobeam help?

[poolman78]

I have just rented 4 technobeams for use in an upcomming musical. I have never used them before, though i am aware of what they are capable of doing. I just am not sure how, once i have them daisy chained together and hooked up to my board, how to get them to function, and then get looks to store in my cues. If anyone has help, that would be grand, tech is next saturday so i have a week to master..lol. I have an ETC express 250 board.

[soundman1024]

What steps have you taken? Do you have DMX running to them?

Have you addressed the technobeams? That is something rather important.

[Footer]

first you need to give them a unique address... i think the technos are 18 channels... so address them 1, 20, 40, 60,.... then attach the cable that feeds them to the second universe of your DMX string (though you can loop them off the dimmers, but most people like to keep them seperate)... go into you patch and you will see a softkey for fixture patch (you can also get to it through setup)... and path the fixtures there... its pretty self explanitory to patch... if you dont have the right profile on your board you can get it from etc here: http://www.etcconnect.com/service/service_xprn_pers.asp... after you have done that go to your setup screen and select moving light functions (15 i think) and then go do encoder setup... do autoload encoders, though all you will have encoder wise in the trackpad... that should cover the setup portion for the most part... read your book first.... and after you get them moving post again and we'll tell you how to functionaly program them... i would read the section of the book about focus points first...;

[kingfisher1]

unfourtunatel never got to us mls myself but i've spent plenty of time reading the manual. its a really good manual so start there. also don't for get you need to set up teh board to work off its second univerese, its 2 under setup.

don't forget there is the offline editor which is useful for when your not at the board

[poolman78]

Thank you so much. I was sent the lights without the 3 pin
dmx i need, i ordered 5 pin, i assumed the lights were 5. They go up in the air, hopefully tomorrow. When you say second universe, does that mean, the 513-1024 input? Is it better that way? Can i assign the virtual channels for control (all 18) to 18 submasters and play with all the settings until i get something i like? I just want to take full advantage of these lights. I will post again once i have control of them from my board, then help on getting them into cues would be much appreciated. Thanks again.

[alexman444]

The 513-1024 input would be your second universe. Be careful when you do your fixture patch to assign the fixtures to the second universe. (i believe it goes universe#/starting channel# so you would use 2/whatever your start channel is) I'd assign the most used control channels to submasters (intensity, strobe, gobos, colors, iris, etc.) The pan and tilt channels are covered by your trackpad, and you can write a macro for striking the fixtures. Goodl luck with your show; I'm a fan of Technobeams myself.

[soundman1024]

For addressing the fixtures the Technobeams will only know DMX channels 1-512 on the fixture since they only hook up to one universe. Since they are on the second universe the board has though the board will see them as DMX channels 513-1024. With that the case we'll say that fixture one occupies 18 channels as you said. One the board it will be channels 1-18 on universe two correct. To find the DMX channel the board wants for the second fixture (19-36 on universe 2) simply add 512 to the starting channel for that fixture. 512+19=531 The addresses for your Technobeams on the board should be..
513
531
549
567
and on the fixtures you should have
1
19
37
55
assuming 18 is the correct number for channels.

In terms of control via submasters I would suggest having the pan, fine pan, tilt, and fine tilt not on the submasters. If one were to do so all fixtures would be aimed identically. The focus also can change from fixture to fixture. Probably the best way to use submasters would be to position the lights like you need them, then turn the dimmer channel down all the way. Use one more submaster for all the dimmer channels so you have something like this with the submasters..

1) Blue in place
2) Yellow in place
3) Rotating triangle in place
...
16) Dimmers

For operation you would turn up the needed submaster so that the light goes into place then turn up the dimmer so it fades up in place. If the dimmer were with the submasters the light would fade up as it moved into place with the color wheel spinning and what not.


If you have never used moving lights before there are some things that can be difficult to figure out. When you first start running them it is good to figure out the bulb is in fact on before you start getting annoyed because you don't see light and can't quite figure it out. Make sure the bulb is on. I'm not to familiar with running Technobeams on an Express, heck I'm not too familiar with an Express even but I think playing with the dimmer and shutter is the approach to take about getting light first.
Getting gobos to rotate can be a trick. I believe with the Technobeam the way to do it is to change the rotate channel so it has some value then use the gobo function channel to start it rotating then the rotation channel controls speed, the gobo function channel controls direction. I know there is a way to get the gobo, and the color wheels to roll continiously, but I don't recall what that is. Also the Technobeam has a pretty good effects wheel in my opinion so you may want to look at that.

Good luck and feel free to come back here with questions!

[kingfisher1]

the express's track pad is pretty niftty, and you can assign channels to submasters but if your using them in a cued show its not hard to make stuff happen w/o "encoders"

you've played with the FIXTURE soft key? S8. you hit it, it asks for a fixture nuber which you assigned in patch, and then you scrollt hrough atributes with either the +/- or the arrows.

Focus points are also pretty nifty.

[koncept]

i've never done mls on a etc but on a hog is amazing. the strand 300's arent bad but not the best for mls. i would be currious how it goes on the etc. i know its a common board so it cannot be too bad....lol

[jumpjet]

You need to find out what KIND of technobeams these are, as that has a fairly large impact on how they need to be addressed. Are they technobeam-i's?

I have set up technobeams on an express before, and to be honest, it isn't a walk in the park. What I think is the easiest is the following:

Dedicate a page of subs to tb programming
Set up positions for the lights, open, white, and focus at 100%. Program a bunch of different positions in the top row of sliders.

Then on the bottom row, program subs for Dimmer, Gobo, color, efx, strobe, iris, etc. Program them with the channel for the characteristic at full, and make it an inhibition slider. Then, with all of the faders up, they will control your lights, having an independent slider for each trait. This is an easy work around to get most basic looks down, then you can tweak as neccesary.

Express boards do not have a mark function, so remember to record your look, then record a cue before it with everything the same but the dimmer at zero if you want a clean fade up.