ETC Ion Programming Funky-ness

C

CavezziMagnum

Member
Hey CB,

I am programming on an ETC Ion, and something interesting started happening. This is now our 5th show using this console, and our 3rd day of tech. For some reason, today, we've started noticing that a rather large and inconsistent range of channels are being given a value of 1. Now, I don't see exactly what my programmer is typing as we go, but we do have a client so I am able to see his command line. And I haven't seen anything crazy. I know its nothing within groups, because I double check those in an offline editor every night, in addition to the patch.

Final note, we are running the latest software, no further updates available on both the board's software and the client software.

Has anyone ever experienced this? If so, what is the solution?
 
Are you using any fader wings? If so, one or more of them could be quite down. This happens a lot on our express just because we keep our binder on the faders.

And if I were to have to explain a solution, just go through and make sure the faders are all the way down. :)
 
Hi Michael,

It does indeed, as chausman has suggested, sound like there could be faders up on the wing. Other possible sources of a 1% value could be from a stray wheel bump, or something from a stray Intensity Palette or Preset. Keep in mind that Groups do not store intensity data.

What color are the channels? Are they patched? Are they cued in the show?

Also, what exact version of software are you running?
 
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We do have a separate fader wing, but there is nothing stored on there ever. We do have a few subs recorded, but they are only the channels that control house lights. We have over 350 units in the air, and the weirdest part is that it only affects the intensity. Even our Moving Lights! I believe the newest version is 1.9.6, which is what we have. We just updated a few weeks ago. It only affects channels that are patched, and yes they are cued, but are not brought up in any cues before or after. We don't use Intensity Palettes, but we certainly do use presets. However, we never record any conventional units in them, only ML attributes. We record them -Color and -Intensity.

The fader wing does sound like the most logical answer.
 
CavezziMagnum said:
We do have a separate fader wing, but there is nothing stored on there ever. We do have a few subs recorded, but they are only the channels that control house lights. We have over 350 units in the air, and the weirdest part is that it only affects the intensity. Even our Moving Lights! I believe the newest version is 1.9.6, which is what we have. We just updated a few weeks ago. It only affects channels that are patched, and yes they are cued, but are not brought up in any cues before or after. We don't use Intensity Palettes, but we certainly do use presets. However, we never record any conventional units in them, only ML attributes. We record them -Color and -Intensity.

The fader wing does sound like the most logical answer.
Click to expand...

Since your not using the fader wing, Try disconnecting it(if its not attached to the main). It would tell you really quickly when you record new cues if its coming from the wing or something else. Does it happen to a group in series or is it random numbers?
 
I guess if nothing else, is there something weird with the DMX? Something not terminated that is giving some weird information?

My bet, however, is still on something like an intensity palette not out all the way, or an encoder that got bumped.

Is there an issue with an intensity of 1 anyway? (At least for the conventionals) 1% isn't enough to even make them glow, let alone put light onstage.
 
@CHausman,

The 1% in theory does not do anything, yet I was able to see a glow onstage, oddly enough. I guess our space is just special. And as far as the network goes, apparently there was a renovation where Cat5 and all that jazz was run. I wasn't here when it happened, and for some reason, our Head Electrician is not very helpful. So, it could totally be user error, which has not been ruled out...le sigh...

Thanks all for your help!
 
chausman said:
I guess if nothing else, is there something weird with the DMX? Something not terminated that is giving some weird information?

My bet, however, is still on something like an intensity palette not out all the way, or an encoder that got bumped.

Is there an issue with an intensity of 1 anyway? (At least for the conventionals) 1% isn't enough to even make them glow, let alone put light onstage.
Click to expand...

This shouldn't be an issue with the DMX issue since the Dimmers don't tell the console what they are at, the console tells the Dimmers what they should be at. So bad termination should be ruled out in that case.
 
Post this over on the ETC users forum Forums - Electronic Theatre Controls, you might get a quicker response, though if I had ruled out operator error, I'd be calling tech support. Some thoughts from using an Ion for 18 mos.

- What color are the 1% values ?, Magenta is a tracking level from a previous cue. Green is a level that came down in the cue. Blue is levels coming up in a cue. Along the same line, what cue does the 1% levels appear ?, first cue, or later ?.

- It almost sounds like a typo of some sort with a Group getting called up. Press Group, Group and see if you can correlate a recorded group (if any) with the channels going to 1%. Possibly a typo then a brush on the wheel, ?.

- Possibly a default value of 1% for the Level function ?. The Setup section allows you to configure Level - which on the Ion is a double push of the Full button

- Is the fader wing physically attached ?, as I believe ETC was recommending at one point doing the USB route for attaching the wings, not sure if that got cleared up or might cause the error.
 
DuckJordan said:
This shouldn't be an issue with the DMX issue since the Dimmers don't tell the console what they are at, the console tells the Dimmers what they should be at. So bad termination should be ruled out in that case.
Click to expand...

That makes sense. I forget when I was typing that, that the console was showing up at 1%. I was thinking just about the affect on stage.
 
The only thing I can think of, besides what's already been suggested, is that the 1% is tracking from a previous cue. It's unlikely, I know, but do you use Block? If not, that might be an explanation.
 
I'm not familiar with this particular desk, (we use Palette), but it's also possible that a virtual submaster is up. Even more likely, Chausman was correct and you bumped a fader a tiny bit, but it has since been recorded into a cue. Put yourself in cue only mode, find the culprit, fix it, and put yourself back into tracking mode. Save first because, as I said, I'm not super familiar with that desk and wouldn't want to hurt your programming.
 
I'm glad somebody else is reporting this problem. It happened about 2 months ago on a show I designed. I assumed it was my error at the time but I believe it to be some sort of bug in the board.
 
I cannot say how many times I've accidentally put a chunk of channels at something between 1 and 4% by accidentally hitting the level wheel while programming...
 
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