ETC Ion and LED Cyc Units.

[Shawncfer]

One of my friends is a PAC Manager and has a show next Saturday but can't make it, so asked me to help out, just to run and program the light board. I'm familiar with the Ion and LED units amongst the other things at their facility so I figured it would be no problem. However, the other day I was playing around with their rig and noticed something that kept bugging me. They have LED Cyc fixtures, (never heard of them, but according to the board it says they're called "SS Cyc 100 16B"). My friend has set up on the fader wing 5 faders: 1 for intensity, another for Red, another Blue, Green, and Amber. So great, no problem, I can run them from there. However, I prefer to run them from the Encoders, and as long as they're set to those faders, I can't adjust the different colors from the Encoders. Is there a way to change this? Or would I just have to Delete those subs? Or just go to the Settings and turn that fader off or what?

Another thing I didn't try, but wondering if anyone else knows: Can I change the color with the color wheel? Or selecting one of the Gels to match the color too without deleting those subs?

 

[tyler.martin]

So are the LED's patched as LED's or just channels? Are they assigned to a submaster or a channel fader? either way you should be able to control them with the encoders, are there multiple pages for any of the attributes? The Profile does have channels for RGBA + Intensity, Hue, Saturation and Brightness, try bringing up those attributes on the encoders.

If they are setup as subs, double tap the subs button and it will bring up the list with what channels are recorded in the sub list.

If you can control them from the encoders then yes you would be able to control them from the color picker or the gel color chooser.

Those are the Altman LED Cyc's BTW

 

[Shawncfer]

They are Patched as LEDs not individual channels. So I don't know how they're set to the faders. But I do know that there are other LED fixtures that are also patched in as LEDs but aren't assigned to faders and they look and work normally as I want. But with these Cyc fixtures, in the Red, Blue, Green, and Amber collums, there is a little "I" in the top right corner of that collum. I can adjust the intensity of the fixtures with the wheel when I type in 201 Thru 206 (there are 6 fixtures) and scroll the wheel up. But as far as adjusting the actual colors I can't change anything? Can I maybe adjust it with the encoders if I have the faders up? And then just turn it down with the encoders?

 

[rochem]

I'm having a bit of trouble understanding what the problem is. So in the Patch menu, next to channel 201, you should have eight different addresses (four colors each at 16B) attached in the same Part, is this correct? If so, then that's patched as a fixture, and you should be able to change the color using the encoders or the color picker. When you say the "little I" in the top right corner, where are you looking? On the submaster display? In the Patch menu? That I can mean many different things depending on where it is on the console.

After I started writing this and opened the Eos offline, I think I may see what the problem is. From what I can tell, the default value of the LEDs is to have each color at Full. Therefore, having an additive sub won't actually modify the colors at all. Really, the easiest way to run colors off a sub like you've described would be to make them Inhibitive subs. Is the little "I" you described in the actual tombstone for that channel (in Channel view), or in each color's value (in Table view)? Is the little "I" yellow? If so, then these are each controlled by Inhibitive Submasters - meaning that when they're down at zero, they won't allow you to output any color. Try this - put the faders for the four colors up at Full and leave them there. Now try to use the Color Picker and the encoders to set the color. As long as you leave the Inhibitive Subs at full, you should be able to set the color however you want, with the use of the color picker or the encoders.

I'm really just guessing here, and this may not make any sense at all. If you still can't get this to work, shoot me a PM and I'll take a look at the show file to see what they have going on.

Hope that helps,

 

[Shawncfer]

Rochem, I think exactly what you said is correct. I know for a fact that they're patched as fixtures into the channel and not one address per channel. On the fader wing, the intensity fader has a green bump button while the four colors are red. If I can when I get home I'll upload a picture I took of the screen and the little I. The theatre is about an hour away from me so I can't send you the show file. But if my friend hasnt left yet I'll try to get a copy.

Also another problem I've noticed. On their VL1000's the profile on the boar doesn't have an option to rotate the gobo. On the image page there's an encoder for "Gobo Select" and and Encoder for "Gobo Speed/Index" but that's it. Can I not make them rotate?

 

[rochem]

Rochem, I think exactly what you said is correct. I know for a fact that they're patched as fixtures into the channel and not one address per channel. On the fader wing, the intensity fader has a green bump button while the four colors are red. If I can when I get home I'll upload a picture I took of the screen and the little I. The theatre is about an hour away from me so I can't send you the show file. But if my friend hasnt left yet I'll try to get a copy.

Also another problem I've noticed. On their VL1000's the profile on the boar doesn't have an option to rotate the gobo. On the image page there's an encoder for "Gobo Select" and and Encoder for "Gobo Speed/Index" but that's it. Can I not make them rotate?

Yup, those sound like inhibitive subs. You can also tell by going into the Submaster list (<sub>) and looking under the "Mode" column - it will likely either say Additive or Inhibitive.

As for the VL1K, understanding how gobos work in moving lights is kind of tricky. Remember that the only way the console can talk to the fixture is by setting a specific control channel at a specific level. Because of this, you need to tell the console what mode you want the gobo wheel to be in at any given time - Indexing or Rotating. And the way the console tells the gobo wheel what mode to be in is by having two different DMX values that correspond to the same gobo. So if you have Gobo 4 in Indexing mode, the console will automatically set the Gobo Wheel channel to DMX value 63, but if you then switch to Rotating mode, the console will set the Gobo Wheel channel to DMX value 191, even though you won't notice a change visually.

Fortunately, since you're using a console designed for moving lights, you don't need to worry about any of this. All you need to know is that, when in Index mode, the Gobo Speed/Index value will [-]set the speed of the actual wheel spinning[/-] not do a dang thing . When you're in Rotate mode, that same Gobo Speed/Index value will now set the speed that each individual gobo rotates. Clear as mud?</sub>

 

[Shawncfer]

As for the VL1K, understanding how gobos work in moving lights is kind of tricky. Remember that the only way the console can talk to the fixture is by setting a specific control channel at a specific level. Because of this, you need to tell the console what mode you want the gobo wheel to be in at any given time - Indexing or Rotating. And the way the console tells the gobo wheel what mode to be in is by having two different DMX values that correspond to the same gobo. So if you have Gobo 4 in Indexing mode, the console will automatically set the Gobo Wheel channel to DMX value 63, but if you then switch to Rotating mode, the console will set the Gobo Wheel channel to DMX value 191, even though you won't notice a change visually.

Fortunately, since you're using a console designed for moving lights, you don't need to worry about any of this. All you need to know is that, when in Index mode, the Gobo Speed/Index value will [-]set the speed of the actual wheel spinning[/-] not do a dang thing . When you're in Rotate mode, that same Gobo Speed/Index value will now set the speed that each individual gobo rotates. Clear as mud?

Ha, I understand all that! But what I was saying is that I can't find a button to switch to rotating mode instead of indexing mode! On the Eos at another theatre I work at, theres an Encoder that lets me set which mode I want. But I'm just asking how to set that on the Ion.

 

[sk8rsdad]

Open the ML control. It will likely be there. Also, pressing and holding the encoders may post additional options to the softkeys and it might be there.

 

[tyler.martin]

you should just have to push the encoder down like a button to change the gobo mode. I cant remember if you have to hold it and change the mode with a softkey, or if just pushing it will change it.