Ion Xe brightness (lack of) controls

[Jay Ashworth]

We just got in (and set up, and it went very nicely) our Ion Xe and 6 sACN nodes, to replace our old Ion.

Three problems, all related to brightness:

1) The slant of the board face is really shallow by comparison; the wing displays are actually clipped at the bottom when you're sitting in the usual position; I had to prop it up on a 2x4 in the back.

2) There are lots of dimmers in the desk settings, but there doesn't appear to be one for the wing bump lights.

3) Vide supra; we went to digital (Dell) monitors, and they don't let us adjust a bunch of stuff, including the brightness (the monitors were too bright on the tech table). They have an adjustment unlocked that *says* it's brightness, but it's not, really.

Anyone got any comments or thoughts on these things? No, I haven't talked to ETC as yet.

 

[MRW Lights]

1) sounds like you found a solution for this so we'll skip it.
2) I don't believe there is an adjustment for the bump button levels themselves, but if they're abnormally low you could have a loose ribbon cable or dirty power. Do the buttons and faders respond appropriately? Have you run a button test?
3) If all else fails and you need them darker grab a sheet of R397/8 to knock down the brightness, but remember to lift it if you're using the color picker.

 

[sk8rsdad]

According to the Ion Xe Supplement the backlight level for keys is controlled in Setup>Desk Settings>Brightness Settings>Backlight. The manual suggests it controls only certain desk features so might not include the fader bump buttons.

This screen on Ion Xe allows you to adjust the brightness and contrast settings for the fader wing LCDs, the light level for desk lamps, backlit keyboard, and direct select brightness.

For attached wings, you can adjust the brightness and contrast of the wing's LCD displays. The level range is from 0 through 100%, with 55% being the default level.

I don't know of any way to change the backlight level on a Dell monitor. The specific model number would be helpful for a search.

 

[FMEng]

Computer monitors often seem to confuse contrast and brightness, and look for a backlight control. If the monitor can't be dimmed, trade it with another monitor. Someone will enjoy a new monitor at their desk.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

According to the Ion Xe Supplement the backlight level for keys is controlled in Setup>Desk Settings>Brightness Settings>Backlight. The manual suggests it controls only certain desk features so might not include the fader bump buttons.

I don't know of any way to change the backlight level on a Dell monitor. The specific model number would be helpful for a search.

It doesn't include the bump buttons, and neither do any of the other 37 brightness faders.

They're *way* too bright. So bright that in a booth of usual dimness, they stop your eyes down so far you can't see anything else on the board.

As for the monitor, backlight is actually a separate control from Brightness (really black level) and contrast (really white level), and most things you see it on are TVs, not monitors.

It's not the Ion's fault that the Dell monitors won't give me contrast on a digital input; this was more of a notification that this might end up being a problem on desks with only digital outputs...

And the rest of it was "is this just me? So many things are just me" before bug reporting commences.

 

[DavidJones]

ANY decent computer monitor should have adjustments for brightness, contrast, and R, G, B.

 

[Jay Ashworth]

And the Dell Precisions do... but when the source is digital, rather than analog, they apparently grey out some of those controls. It's actually the first time I've run across this.