Joystick with movers?

Anonymous067

Active Member
How would I integrate a joystick controller for my Express board to control pan/tilt of a mover?
Possible?
I have no idea how else to program them moving in a circular motion.
Also, how would I program for instance, in cue...124 (or whatever) that the lights would begin over a period of say...2 minutes...make a circular pattern over the stage? I just don't get it.
I understand writing cues, and programing attributes of the movers, just not patterns like you'd see in a concert with movers.
 
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Even if you were to integrate the joystick, are you looking to use it live? Otherwise you are at the limitation of a conventional console. To make a circular pattern, you will program follow cues from point to point (the more you do, the more round your circle will be) and change your motor speeds to make it fluid. The same will have to happen if you want to create a bally-hoo, but there will be greater variables in your motor speed.
 
As ruinexplorer said, on the Express, you need to program either a sequence of follow cues or a subroutine to create motion effects like circles. As also stated, the more steps you create, the smoother the circle will be. One other thing that helps is having the next step start before the previous step completes, so the fixture never stops moving.

As for hooking up a joystick, I have never hear of that on an Express, so if you can figure it out that is great.
 
Most fixtures will have built in macros that will accomplish what you are looking for. The way it works most of the time you set pan and tilt to where you want the center of the pattern and then dial in the control channel to the right value and use another channel to set size. This will save you alot of headaches with a board that was not designed with movers in mind and will save you alot of processing power on boards that were.
 
Please elaborate as I have an Express 24/48 to attempt to program two technobeams on.

Another Q for you mover experts-- How do you fix a technobeam that the color wheel is getting stuck on purple? You can physically turn it past, but it won't turn past form the console.
 
If the color wheel won't move by command (either from the console or the self test on the unit) then you have a bad stepper motor. When you do the self test, it should give you a specific error type which will help you when you call for repairs. Not a difficult repair if you are savvy for doing it yourself.
 
You cannot add a joystick to an Express.

No port to plug to, serial, mouse or USB.

Too bad, I always thought, though I always found the trackpad very functional with a moving mirror.

Steve B.
 
Joysticks, trackballs, and mice may work acceptably with moving mirror units having a limited pan/tilt range, but are next to useless with a moving head with a tilt of 270° and (more importantly) a pan of 540°. It's just too easy to get the pan 180° out of phase and thus some units upside down. This is why almost every programmer prefers Etch-A-Sketch encoders, and ALWAYS tilts fixtures before panning them. Most desks also have a handy "flip" button to invert the fixture that sometimes wants to take the long way 'round when going somewhere new.
 
As ruinexplorer said, on the Express, you need to program either a sequence of follow cues or a subroutine to create motion effects like circles.
Please elaborate as I have an Express 24/48 to attempt to program two technobeams on.

As made uinclear by other posts in this thread, you can indeed program effects on the express line of boards. Hit these keystrokes [Blind] [Cue] (what ever cue number you want to have the effect be) [Type] [S3 (effect)]. This will allow you to create the cue as an effect and give you more flexibility in your effect. Which you will need because this is a complicated effect to write.

Make 4 focus points one for each corner then make a step for both lights to hit all 4 corners but make sure pan and tilt is set to different steps. This should take 8 steps in all.
step 1: pan fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 1 (SL)
step 2: pan fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 2 (somewhere CS)
step 3: pan fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 3 (SR)
step 4: pan fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 4 (somewhere else CS)
step 5: tilt fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 1 (somewhere CS)
step 6: tilt fixtures 1 and 2 to focus point 2 (US)
and so on.

Then just play with your timings so that step one and step 5 are immediate (taking you moving lights to the CSL of your circle. Then step 6 fires so that the movers start their trip US before they begin moving across stage but step 2 begins a little later and finishes as step 6 finishes, and so on. Mess the with timings and you should get something that looks something like a circle (although it technically still won't be one).

And using the focus point method allows you to modify the circle by only modifying the focus points, just remember that on the express the focus points take up slots of the groups. So if you have a group 10 and try to make a focus point 10 it will write over the focus point.

Just don't forget to save record your effect cue before navigating away from the effect page. That is really annoying. Also, this solution will teach you the inherent value of an effects engine.

Obviously the macro solution is better, but if this is the route you choose... good luck. It will definitely take some time.

And no, you cannot attach a joystick to an Express 24/48, it has no inputs. You might beable to export to an OLE and use one to make the cues offline, much like how you can only label things on the express using the offline editor, but that won't really help you.
 
My high school has two "I-Cues" (moving mirror fixtures that slip in the gel holder on a S4) and we were always wondering if there was a joystick to use, but I guess not. We usually just patch them to channels on our ETC Express (very annoying to control when the target is moving unexpectedly). How else can these be controlled easier?
 
very annoying to control when the target is moving unexpectedly

My opinion is, its a long way away before moving lights can replace a good followspot operator because despite how well you program the talent is always going to move just a little more out of your original focus point. and i know someone is going to suggest one of those laser guided systems well we trialed one of those with little success the talent hated the weight of the transponder and with our normal rig at 100% the light went crazy.:rolleyes:
 
My high school has two "I-Cues" (moving mirror fixtures that slip in the gel holder on a S4) and we were always wondering if there was a joystick to use, but I guess not. We usually just patch them to channels on our ETC Express (very annoying to control when the target is moving unexpectedly). How else can these be controlled easier?

On an Express (and most "conventional" consoles), the best way to control moving lights is to use the built in ML package. The ML package in the Express isn't the greatest, but it works well enough for a small number of intelligent fixtures, so your I-Cues shouldn't be a problem for it. Using the built in fixture patch will allow you to set focus points, which will make life esier instead of dialing in a position every time you need one. Also, if you edit the focus point it should update in any cue that it is used in (at least I think the Express can do this). Also, I belive that if you use the fixture patch you can then use the trackpad to control pan and tilt. I have found that using the stylus from a Wacom tablet works much better on the trackpad than just your fingers, but either works.

I can't tell you off the top of my head how to set up the fixture patch on the Express, but I am sure that there are some CBers who can.
 
On an Express (and most "conventional" consoles), the best way to control moving lights is to use the built in ML package. The ML package in the Express isn't the greatest, but it works well enough for a small number of intelligent fixtures, so your I-Cues shouldn't be a problem for it. Using the built in fixture patch will allow you to set focus points, which will make life esier instead of dialing in a position every time you need one. Also, if you edit the focus point it should update in any cue that it is used in (at least I think the Express can do this). Also, I belive that if you use the fixture patch you can then use the trackpad to control pan and tilt. I have found that using the stylus from a Wacom tablet works much better on the trackpad than just your fingers, but either works.

I can't tell you off the top of my head how to set up the fixture patch on the Express, but I am sure that there are some CBers who can.


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