Direct Select Groups on the Eos

[Syphilis]

Salutations Controlbooth!

I'm using Direct Selects on an Eos for the first time on a rather complicated rig, and am having trouble condensing my groups onto a single page. Essentially, they're spaced as far apart on my Direct Select as they are numbers apart. An example: Group 101 and 104, instead of appearing next to each other, populate on buttons 101 and 104, leaving 102 and 103 empty and pushing the two relevant buttons farther apart. This is okay for groups so close together, but when my groups jump from 600 to 800 I'm having to jump through two pages of blank numbers just to hit both buttons. My heart tells me there must be a way to cut out all of the unused buttons and condense all my groups down so that they're next to each other, but the eos manual has offered no clues.

Any thoughts? Thanks so much.

 

[xander]

Unfortunately, there is not. All direct selects populate in numerical order, no matter what category or usage. I find this to be a pain sometimes as well, but I think you just have to go into programming with a set philosophy in mind. Either keypad or direct selects. If you want to keep using the old keypad way of pulling up groups, then keep naming them how they make sense to you so you can remember them. But, if you want to use direct selects, then record your groups in the order that you want them to be displayed. The only way I can think to have your cake and eat it too (have the flexibility to use keypad and direct selects), is to record your groups as you would if you were using the keypad, but then create macros in the order that you want the direct selects to display and have groups in the macros. Label the macro with the group number so you know what it is or an actual label and then use macro direct selects instead of groups and you have both! That's a whole lot of work though...


-Tim

 

[Syphilis]

That's so frustrating! I'll give Macros a try, since I've got a whole four hours til tech starts up. Thanks so much, Tim.

 

[sk8rsdad]

The other option is to open an ML control. There are a few direct selects on that panel that populate without empty entries. They have other quirks though, especially with long label names centered and truncated.

 

[rochem]

I often get around this with Macros. I am a huge fan of Macros (see my other posts here on CB about macros on the Eos), and I often make macros for commonly-used groups that I can put up next to all the other macro commands I want to have easy access to. That said, I almost never go to the groups direct select, because if the designer is feeding me group numbers, it's much quicker to just type them in, and if not, I can throw those groups onto my macros bank.

 

[SteveB]

You cannot condense the DS buttons, yet. In theory, this, or something like it is in the works for v2 or there abouts.

Till then the easy answer is to use consecutive numbering.

If you are using the touch screens for access, then the maybe the numbering doesn't matter, if you label the groups. Then you are looking for and recalling the group name instead of numbering.

As well and if possible, open up an additional Direct Select tab and configure for the 2nd page of 50 Groups. Then save the layout as a Snapshot.

@ Rochem

I spent 40+ hours last month programming our Ion using 2 touch screens for a straight play theatrical piece. The LD had written about 30 or so groups. He called them either by number or sometimes by name and I can state categorically that is is much faster to touch a touch screen direct select button then having to key it all in. Pressing the DS button for Group 1, plus Group 4 and Group 11 and Group 14 as 4 button pushes is much faster then typing "Group, 1, +, Group, 4, +, Group, 1, 1, +, Group, 1, 4, Enter". Or the LD (knowing it was labeled as a Group) might ask for "Dowsers Out", and I didn't have to recall the channel number. We seemingly have seen this discussion here on CB about the value of touch screens and it baffles me, to be honest.

 

[Syphilis]

Update:

I had some time earlier this morning, so I cleaned up all my macros, and I must say using direct selects for groups is indeed faster (only marginally, but it's still so much less stressful and finger-tiring than the endless button punches). After a while I discovered it was confusing me to hit the group on the DS and then jump to the keypad for intensity, so I've programmed macros for intensity commands 10 through 80 plus Full, Out, Sneak, + 05%, and - 05%. I'm still getting used to the interface, so things can sometimes get hairy when the designer switches to channel numbers, but I'm sure this'll get easier with time.

Thanks for the suggestions, everybody.

 

[SteveB]

Remember that one of the Direct Select page selections is Macro's.

 

[Syphilis]

All of my Direct Selects are now open to macros. One page is of links to Groups that put them consecutively, another to common functions like striking and killing my movers, programming palettes for the cyc, and preheating my altmans, another for intensities, and the final (starred into the CIA) are my VL shutter commands. Thanks for all the help!