I-Cue's

recently decided to pull out our Rosco I-cue's that have NEVER been used,
Yet, they are atleast 4 years old
One problem, I cannot figure out for the life of me how they are controlled
The manual I found online is NO help at all, and is only about 10 pages
Is there any other manuals anyone has or input that will help me at all?
Maybe even a link to another discussion or website that could help?
Thanks, Oobleck1441
 
What kind of lighting console do you have? They are controlled via DMX, how you control the DMX that feeds them is the big question. Let us know what console you have and we can help you get them working.
 
Well, to get your i-Cue's working, you need to have a power supply for them. Rosco, Apollo, DFD, or any Chroma-Q type 4-pin power supplies will work (DO NOT USE Wybron Coloram PSUs!!). Hopefully whenever your i-Cues were purchased, they were purchased with a PSU. To set up the system you would run DMX from your console to the PSU. From the PSU to the i-Cues you would run 4-pin "scroller" cable. General practice is to run "scroller" cable in a loop, so you go out from the PSU, into the i-Cue and then back to the PSU. You can daisy chain i-Cues, just make sure that you don't exceed the max output of your PSU.

To patch and control your i-Cues you first have to set the DMX address of the i-Cue. This is done using the rotary switches. The i-Cue can operate in either 8-bit or 16-bit mode. In 8-bit you have one control channel for pan, and one for tilt. In 16-bit mode you have a pan coarse, pan fine, tilt coarse, and tilt fine. This mode is set via dip switches next to the address selectors. So, for simplicity let's assume that you are in 8-bit mode and you set the address of the i-Cue to 100. On your console you would need to patch "dimmer" (or output on some consoles) 100 to a channel and that would control the pan, then patch "dimmer" 101 to a channel and that would control tilt.
 
What he said...

Going back to the power supply. It's a box that has a power cord and what looks like XLR mic cable jacks except the input has 5 pins and the output has 4 pins. You need 5 pin DMX cable to take the signal from the console to the PSU and then 4 pin "scroller cable" to daisy chain from the PSU to each I-cue.

The power supply takes a spare pin on the DMX line and provides 24v DC power down that line. This is used to power the motors and brain of the I-cue.

One thing Alex missed is that you want to assign each I-cue a different starting DMX address number (unless you want them to all do exactly the same thing... which you probably don't). So if you are in 8 bit mode you need to assign them 2 channels apart. In 16 bit mode it's 4 channels apart. Start with 8 bit mode and if you find you want finer control switch to 16 bit. I'm assuming you have the older dip switch version. Switch one tells it if you want 8 or 16 bit mode. Switch two and three tell it to reverse pan and tilt or not. If you have two I-cues on opposite sides of the stage you can assign them to the same channel then by using the reverse dip switch modes you can have them mirror image each other. In my experience I find it easier to leave them separate and have individual control.

That's it. Welcome to the world of DMX controlled intelligent lighting. It's definitely worth the hassle to get them working. In a theater with a limited lighting inventory, the I-cues allow you to do all kinds of things you never dreamed of before. I'm sure you'll have more questions. Keep asking.
 
What he said...
Going back to the power supply. It's a box that has a power cord and what looks like XLR mic cable jacks except the input has 5 pins and the output has 4 pins. You need 5 pin DMX cable to take the signal from the console to the PSU and then 4 pin "scroller cable" to daisy chain from the PSU to each I-cue.
The power supply takes a spare pin on the DMX line and provides 24v DC power down that line. This is used to power the motors and brain of the I-cue.
One thing Alex missed is that you want to assign each I-cue a different starting DMX address number (unless you want them to all do exactly the same thing... which you probably don't). So if you are in 8 bit mode you need to assign them 2 channels apart. In 16 bit mode it's 4 channels apart. Start with 8 bit mode and if you find you want finer control switch to 16 bit. I'm assuming you have the older dip switch version. Switch one tells it if you want 8 or 16 bit mode. Switch two and three tell it to reverse pan and tilt or not. If you have two I-cues on opposite sides of the stage you can assign them to the same channel then by using the reverse dip switch modes you can have them mirror image each other. In my experience I find it easier to leave them separate and have individual control.
That's it. Welcome to the world of DMX controlled intelligent lighting. It's definitely worth the hassle to get them working. In a theater with a limited lighting inventory, the I-cues allow you to do all kinds of things you never dreamed of before. I'm sure you'll have more questions. Keep asking.

Alright. Yes I do have a PSU and i have had it hooked up and just running through a pre-programed program.
The problem I have found is that in manuals it says the switched to change the cahnnel you use rotate switched, I have found this is not true on mine, that they use and LED display with three control buttons.

Alright so I go in , power up the psu which is hooked into the mirror, 4 pin-ed into in the mirror.

Where I am lost is how do I hook the Mirrors into my console.

Is this correct?All the mirrors are hooked together but there are multiple channels what you can assin the mirrors to, I would patch the channel on the mirror into two channels on my board if I were using the 8 bit?

I know how to power up the mirror, my problem is running data into the mirror and what i shoud patch and where.

Everyone has been a HUGE help! thanks so much
 
Alright. Yes I do have a PSU and i have had it hooked up and just running through a pre-programed program.
The problem I have found is that in manuals it says the switched to change the cahnnel you use rotate switched, I have found this is not true on mine, that they use and LED display with three control buttons.
Alright so I go in , power up the psu which is hooked into the mirror, 4 pin-ed into in the mirror.
Where I am lost is how do I hook the Mirrors into my console.
Is this correct?All the mirrors are hooked together but there are multiple channels what you can assin the mirrors to, I would patch the channel on the mirror into two channels on my board if I were using the 8 bit?
I know how to power up the mirror, my problem is running data into the mirror and what i shoud patch and where.
Everyone has been a HUGE help! thanks so much

There are two I-Cue versions, you (like I) have the LCD version, much better IMHO. It should come with a manual, if not, the manual is available for download online. You have enough 4pin to daisy chain all of your I-Cues, especially how far apart the units will be placed? Can your PSU handlde all of your I-cues, or is it just enough to run some? While I know it's obvious, it's better to think it out now or it might make trouble-shooting and planning a pain.

So you will need to put the I-Cues into DMX mode, and set the starting address, and resolution (8 or 16 bit). Personally, I only use the course pan/tilt, it's fine for my applications, but because I have an entire universe to burn, I have it set to 16 bit, it's there if I want it. 8 bit has two control channels, 16 bit has 4. You will need to space out the starting addresses accordingly, or you will get overlap.

Data? You should have a 5pin output from your control board. If you only have one output you will need to either A. Daisy chain data with your dimmers; or; B. Buy a legit splitter. The data will go to your PSU.

(I think that's right, someone wanna fact check me?)

~Charlie
 
There are two I-Cue versions, you (like I) have the LCD version, much better IMHO. It should come with a manual, if not, the manual is available for download online. You have enough 4pin to daisy chain all of your I-Cues, especially how far apart the units will be placed? Can your PSU handlde all of your I-cues, or is it just enough to run some? While I know it's obvious, it's better to think it out now or it might make trouble-shooting and planning a pain.
So you will need to put the I-Cues into DMX mode, and set the starting address, and resolution (8 or 16 bit). Personally, I only use the course pan/tilt, it's fine for my applications, but because I have an entire universe to burn, I have it set to 16 bit, it's there if I want it. 8 bit has two control channels, 16 bit has 4. You will need to space out the starting addresses accordingly, or you will get overlap.
Data? You should have a 5pin output from your control board. If you only have one output you will need to either A. Daisy chain data with your dimmers; or; B. Buy a legit splitter. The data will go to your PSU.
(I think that's right, someone wanna fact check me?)
~Charlie
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Maybe if I found a manual that was for mine, i wouldn't askign all these quesitns and would have them hooked up lol

To start, we only have two mirrors

Does anyone or can anyone find the manual for the Icue online? The only one I can find is only 10 pages and helps none

So if anyone has or an fidn teh Icue manual that is longer than 10 pages long, it would be perfect thankss
 
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Maybe if I found a manual that was for mine, i wouldn't askign all these quesitns and would have them hooked up lol
To start, we only have two mirrors
Does anyone or can anyone find the manual for the Icue online? The only one I can find is only 10 pages and helps none
So if anyone has or an fidn teh Icue manual that is longer than 10 pages long, it would be perfect thankss

How is sixteen?

It was found on Rosco's website, under Lighting Equipment... how did you miss it when you went there?
 
Alright, Got teh PSu hooked up and dmx from my baord to the mirror
The mirror is set on channel 101
How would I patch this into my board?
Ik this is different from everyone, just i have no clue
 
patch 101 to 101, 102, to 102, 103 to 103, 104 to 104.

Grab channel 101, it should move the mirrors pan, grab 102, you can tilt it

Do some reading in your manual to see if that board even has any type of automated lighting capability. It could and it should, but I have a feeling it will be about or less then useful.
 
Did that help Oobleck?

I don't know anything about your console but I'm going to guess it's an older one and it requires an actual live dimmer for every DMX channel you assign. For example if you have 96 dimmers you must assign the I-cues to Channels 1-96 only. New boards let you assign them to any channel in the universe. This get's a little tricky because it means you have to mess around with the patch on your board. Start by identifying four channels that you won't be using for lighting... be sure they aren't channels that power your house lights. Set up the I-cues to match those four channels. Set for 8 bit mode. You are ready to rock. When I ran I-cues on my old ETC Express I liked to repatch the console so that I had a slider that was assigned to pan and tilt for each I-cue. That will take you on an exercise in better understanding you bijou's patch functions.
 

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