ETC Express Patch Problems...?

[btfilms]

Hello everyone I am having this weird problem with my patch on this board. we have 2 boards and one boards patch is really weird. When i hit patch the patch screen comes up and there are a whole bunch of numbers like Ch.1/Dim.1/96/123/65/233 and so on. and i have gone to set up done a system to defaults, I have done a repatch, i have have done clear patch, i have done patch 1-1. and now i am out of ideas. i am lost. i don't no how to get rid of all these numbers. its kind of annoying me. its a very cluttered screen. can anyone help?

Thanks
BT

[Footer]

So you have gone into clear properties and set the patch 1 to 1 and thats not doing anything? AH! I got it (brain process). What express(ion) consoles do is take the number of channels that the console is set to, then takes the number of dimmers the console is set to, divides them by the number of channels, and then patches them down a list. So... say you have 400 channels, and you have the board set to 1024 dimmers, dimmer 1, 401, 801, and 1201 will be patched into channel one with a 1 to 1 patch. What you need to do is tell the board exactly how many dimmers you have out there. To do this go into system settings, then set the number of dimmers you actually have hooked up, then go into patch and repatch one to one. This is also the reason that whenever you patch a show its very important to clear the patch 1st (dimmer 1-1024 Softkey 6). That should do it!

[btfilms]

oh man your right y didn't i think of that. haha thanks ill try that tomorrow.

[btfilms]

i also am not sure how many dimmers we have but i know we have the ETC Sensor+ SineWave Racks which can hold up to 100 dimmers but i didn't hard patch it so i do not know how its all patched up there. and everything is closed off and i am afraid to mess with it. i have counted each dinner and it seems like there are like 43 or so. do you think its worth opening it up and repatching so it makes sense. because right now everything is mixed up. like dimmer 43,13,56 are all front lighting I don't think it has any specific means to it. so what do you think i should do?

[Footer]

how about you do this.... go through channel by channel and write down what each channel does (ie DSL front cool, USR front warm), then patch them in a logical order. The way my channel layouts work is I start DSR with area one, go across (usually 5 to 7 areas) then go upstage and then put 5-7 more areas. This is all depending on the space. With those area number I attach channel numbers. i.e. DSR warm front is channel 1, DSR cool front is 21, DSR bax is 41, etc.... That way, if you want to bring up front light its channels 1-15, back light 41-45. These are personally how I lay out my systems. Others will put channel one DSL (that way when they are on stage channel one and area one is to their left). After you figure out what you have in each channel/dimmer then you can then patch the dimmer logically. Another trick with the express is the dimmer check mode, to get into it press dimm@full then enter. You can then hit +- to page through dimmers. Unlike strand (fanboy moment) you can only capture one dimmer at a time. Make sure to clear you patch before you repatch.

[disc2slick]

Figuring out how many dimmers you have should not be terribly difficult, if you have a sensor rack you can easily count the number of cards you have (open the front of the rack, no need to touch anything) and count the number of little blue switch/breaker things you see. As a sensor rack it should be 12,24,48,96,128 etc.. I imagine the other type of rack in your system can be counted in much the same way.

The fact that your dimmers do not really make sense (meaning dim's 43, 13 and 56 are the same purpose) is not that odd. That is what the soft patch (channel assignments) is for, so you can configure them in any way that makes sense to you