Control/Dimming DMX neophyte with an ION console

[rogorm]

I've been lighting shows with community theatre groups for 35 years, but all of my experience has been with intensity only fixtures. I'm now working with Chauvet Colorstrips connected to the ETCNet2 system via an ETC 2 Port DMX Node. I successfully patched the fixture to the channel, and I can get colors to come out. So far, so good.

Using the control wheels on the ION, I turn red on full, and green and blue off. I copy that setting to sub 31. when I bring up sub 31, I get full red. When I slide the sub back down, I get RGB at full. I used the same process to record green and blue, as well as a sub for (what I thought was) intensity. The fixture uses 4 channels, so my thinking was the first is intensity, then Red, then Green, and Blue. It sort of works, but not really. The "intensity" sub turns everything off in the full position.

ALSO, from reading the manual that came with the fixture, there are functions I'm not taking advantage of. I should be able to send various DMX values to the fixture to cause it to do some pre-programmed effects.

I know these are cheap fixtures, but I think I'm missing something obvious and I don't want to waste the tech support people's phone time. Any thoughts?

 

[techno89]

I'm not sure but I thought that intensity is supposed to fade the colors out not be a general on/off which sounds like what you're describing. The manual looks to me like channel 1 is the pre programmed modes and channel 2,3, and 4 control the R G B leds.

 

[LXPlot]

I've been lighting shows with community theatre groups for 35 years, but all of my experience has been with intensity only fixtures. I'm now working with Chauvet Colorstrips connected to the ETCNet2 system via an ETC 2 Port DMX Node. I successfully patched the fixture to the channel, and I can get colors to come out. So far, so good.

Using the control wheels on the ION, I turn red on full, and green and blue off. I copy that setting to sub 31. when I bring up sub 31, I get full red. When I slide the sub back down, I get RGB at full. I used the same process to record green and blue, as well as a sub for (what I thought was) intensity. The fixture uses 4 channels, so my thinking was the first is intensity, then Red, then Green, and Blue. It sort of works, but not really. The "intensity" sub turns everything off in the full position.

ALSO, from reading the manual that came with the fixture, there are functions I'm not taking advantage of. I should be able to send various DMX values to the fixture to cause it to do some pre-programmed effects.

I know these are cheap fixtures, but I think I'm missing something obvious and I don't want to waste the tech support people's phone time. Any thoughts?

http://theatre.uwinnipeg.ca/download/lx/ionman.pdf

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/products/manuals/COLORstrip_Mini_Rev02_UM.pdf

My best advice is to try and flip the channel with the intensity, as you would if you were using a fixture with Pan and Tilt. At least from my knowledge, you should be able to do this because the Colorstrips have their own internal dimmers.


Edit: After some looking at the manual, you should not need to be putting them on submasters. Secondly, as Techno89 has stated above, the first channel is not intensity but mode setting. You want RGB mode, so you should set this channel to RGB mode using the Ion's encoders or about 83 using command line. Now, rather than setting the colors individually to submasters, you should control them using command line or using encoders, bringing the channel level of each color up or down until you reach how you want it. Then, you can record it to a submaster and use that color for the show.

Even better, if you've patched your fixtures correctly into the board, you can use the color picker to more quickly get an approximate (as you may need to adjust a bit from there) visual of the color. A full description of how to use this tool can be found on page# 118 of the Ion manual which I've provided above. Make sure that the board is set to control them in RGB mode rather than HS (l/B/V) or CMY. Then, simply by clicking the color on the display the board should do it's best to match this color. I'm not sure about Ion, but I know that the PaletteVL we have back at my venue can do this with specific gel colors (IE Rosco3) or by selecting a color from a picture that you uploaded. This probably won't be the way you'll want to do this after you have tons of experience practicing with this, but if you're just starting out it works nicely.

Hope I was able to help.

 

[mrubin15]

http://theatre.uwinnipeg.ca/download/lx/ionman.pdf

http://www.chauvetlighting.com/products/manuals/COLORstrip_Mini_Rev02_UM.pdf

My best advice is to try and flip the channel with the intensity, as you would if you were using a fixture with Pan and Tilt. At least from my knowledge, you should be able to do this because the Colorstrips have their own internal dimmers.

After some looking at the manual, you should not need to be putting them on submasters. Secondly, as @techno89 has stated above, the first channel is not intensity but mode setting. You want RGB mode, so you should set this channel to RGB mode using the Ion's encoders or about 83 using command line. Now, rather than setting the colors individually to submasters, you should control them using command line or using encoders, bringing the channel level of each color up or down until you reach how you want it. Then, you can record it to a submaster and use that color for the show.

Even better, if you've patched your fixtures correctly into the board, you can use the color picker to more quickly get an approximate (as you may need to adjust a bit from there) visual of the color. A full description of how to use this tool can be found on page# 118 of the Ion manual which I've provided above. Make sure that the board is set to control them in RGB mode rather than HS (l/B/V) or CMY. Then, simply by clicking the color on the display the board should do it's best to match this color. I'm not sure about Ion, but I know that the PaletteVL we have back at my venue can do this with specific gel colors (IE Rosco3) or by selecting a color from a picture that you uploaded. This probably won't be the way you'll want to do this after you have tons of experience practicing with this, but if you're just starting out it works nicely.

Hope I was able to help.

Did you use the stock fixture type that comes loaded on the console? If so, it will input a "virtual master" for the intensity. That should act as any other intensity attribute would act. In addition to that there should be a "color mix" attribute which is where you should set your mode (83% as mentioned above!)


Also, on most LED fixtures, the console will default the color mix attributes to FULL if they are homed. You probably want to change their home value to 0 so that your submasters will actually do what you are wanting them to. If you used the stock profile for the Colorstrips, you'll need to copy it so that you have editing permission. Once you're in there, you can adjust the home value for each attribute. I can walk you through that process if you need some help!

Hope that helps.

 

[SteveB]

Off the top of my head, use the selective "Record Only" function to grab just those manual values you set via the wheels and channel level.

So set to Intensity Full, encode to Red, then Record Only, Sub XX, Enter.

If you find it a process to have to use the encoders every time to find colors, you can choose gel numbers. If you have the correct fixture profile in the patch, you can bring up the Color Picker for future use (besides pressing Color Picker on the Softkeys) and set it to open in a tab. Press Display, scroll down in the CIA to Virtual Controls, Select Color Picker to open as a Tab. Then when opened as a Tab, record this screen config as a Snapshot. So "Record, More Softkeys, Softkey for Snapshot, choose Monitors and Enter. Once you have the Color Picker open, among the options are to select colors from assorted gel manufacturers. Roscolux is option 5, which brings up the screen full of available Rosco colors.

Another trick is to choose a known Rosco color from Live by doing "Channel, XX, Full, Color, 5/26, Enter" the 5/26 syntax calls up the Roscolux (5) selection, with 26 being the Red R26 color. This syntax works with all the gel manufacturers and is dependent on the profile ETC uses for that particular LED to match accurately.

Another method would be to save assorted colors for the fixtures in the Color Palette section, which can be recalled on a Direct Select screen.

 

[jglodeklights]

LED units can be misleading, especially if not using a profile and just patching into channels. RGB units often do not have an "intensity" channel.

Channel 1, if we are talking about the same units, is the channel that determines operational mode. If you are sending to this channel the signal for full, it goes into a program mode that will put it into an auto run mode that is sound activated. Thus why you may be getting NOTHING.

Your intensity is solely dependent upon the RGB mix (keep in mind the Red channel is less bright; about 40% less visually by my observations with the units).

As a note: other Chauvet LED units such as the 200B PAR have a dimmer channel that doesn't operate as most people would think based on our normal operating methods. It Dims the intensity backwards from a DMX value of 255, meaning full is blackout and 0 is full intensity.

 

[rogorm]

OK, thanks everybody for the responses. Based on your information, I am closer to the solution than before. As a matter of fact, I am now able to use the Color Picker to select my colors. Also experimented a bit with the various "gel selections" and that seemed to work.

The primary channel is still adjusting intensity, not selecting modes. I tried all the selections for Interface, and the only one that seems to work is EDMX (that's what makes it work with colorpicker). That's really what I need, but I'm still missing something, since I can't use the LED manufacturer's preprogrammed features.

According to the manual, I should be able to select various colors and features by selecting different DMX levels on the primary channel. As I said, when I select the various levels (200@30<enter>) I just get intensity variations. How do I send DMX information on this channel?

 

[mrubin15]

Are you using the stock fixture type for the "Colorstrip" that came with the console? If so, that first address that you are talking about is going to be the "ColorMix" parameter. The "Intensity" parameter doesn't have anything to do with the unit, and is a total virtual control in the console. So, "ColorMix" is your first controllable address, then "Red", then "Green", then "Blue".

If for some reason you can't see the "ColorMix" parameter, hold down the [data] key and under your color parameters you will need to select it. It should then be filled in with a grey color and be visible on your screen.

 

[Sayen]

Unless they changed it in the last software update, Colorstrips and the ION don't get along. I was losing my mind until I finally figured out the problem wasn't with me or my patching of the device. I have fixture profile from ETC that solved the problem - I just have to merge it into my show. Updating the fixture profile might help you.

http://www.controlbooth.com/forums/...-eos-family-software-chauvet-colorstrips.html

Halfway down or so is a posted file from ETC that should help. I'm assuming it's still downloadable - if not shoot me a PM and I can email you the file from work.

 

[jglodeklights]

Not uncommon for ETC profiles to be incorrect. The Element, as far as I know, still doesn't play nice with Apollo MXR 7.25 inch scrollers, usually requiring a custom profile. Either route doesn't seem to allow use of the color picker.

 

[HansH]

The Element, as far as I know, still doesn't play nice with Apollo MXR 7.25 inch scrollers, usually requiring a custom profile.

Version 1.9.6 of software (released a few months ago) does address some issues that were seen with dual-scroll CMY mixers (CXI, MXR, etc...). We've seen much better performance with these, and it allows use of the color picker. Note that if you open a show in 1.9.6 that was from a previous version, you'll want to tell the console to update the MXR's fixture profile to the new version -- a process that is fairly quick and easy. Among the improvements, we expose the string as a value from 0-100%, rather than individual frames, so manual control becomes easier as well when using the manufacturer's matching table.

As a general note -- if profiles are incorrect, please let us know! We'd be glad to get that kind of feedback so that we can fix it and get it into a future software release. Getting that changed on the library level will help out all users.

 

[jglodeklights]

Glad to hear that. The scrollers being rented by the company I am currently working with are not dual string color mixers, but when I get back to Philly several of the companies I work with use them.