Lions, Tigers, I-Cues, oh my!

[gafftaper]

Set DMX line #2 to 1-512. Set your I-cue to a number higher than the number of dimmers you have. Done.

Wait hold on...Somebody help me... I'm not a Strand 300 user... Does the 300 eat dimmers like an Express and require that the I-cue be set up on an actual dimmer channel? Seems like someone told me that they fixed that with the 300. For example say Charcoal's got 96 dimmers. Set up the i-cue on dimmers 95 and 96 and don't plug anything into them... or can he just set the I-cue to run on DMX channels 400 and 401?

 

[beltsvillecrucib]

Since I am not familiar with the 300/GeniusPro series I won't comment on the patching of the I-Cue, however, I would redirect you to the patching section of the user manual.

Go to DMX2, Change it from "OFF" to "DMX Out"

Set the start value to 513 and end to 1024

Run that DMX line to the I-Cue PSU. Channel 1 on the I-Cue will correspond to dimmer 513, channel 2 to dimmer 514 etc. etc.

 

[Charc]

I'm going to refer to an earlier post, and test this out. It seems pretty easy to just get an unused line of DMX ( or audio cable; come on we are talking 3 feet here!), and test this thing our right next to the board. I hope I can test this tomorrow, but in all likely hood it won't be for several days. I'll bring any issues back here. Thanks.

 

[soundlight]

Remember that this REQUIRES an external power supply designed to power I-cues, scrollers, DMX rotators, and the likes. If you have a power supply, go for it! If not, you need one before moving forward.

 

[icewolf08]

charcoaldabs- The definition of a universe of DMX is 512 channels of control. This is the maximum number of control channels one DMX line can carry. So, many people associate the DMX1-4 outs on the console as a universe (though they could be set to overlap). Each universe requires the devices on it to be addressed 1-512, the console then interprets the devices on universe 2 for example as 513-1024 where universe 1 would be plain old 1-512.

So, like beltsvillecrucib said above, if you have the Icue set to channel 1 and connected to the DMX2 out with the setup mentioned above then you can patch it with it's starting channel as 513 on the console. The Icue will have either 2 or 4 channels for control depending on if you have it in 8 or 16 bit mode. If in 8 bit mode you would patch the fixture the Icue is in to a channel, let's say 1. Then patch the first control channel of the Icue to channel 1.3 and the second to 1.4. Then, if you have a mouse plugged into the console, as i mentioned in a previous post you will be able to pan and tilt with the mouse.

 

[Kelite]

<In reference to testing the I Cue near the 5 pin DMX line before running the needed cabling over the river and through the woods... so to speak)

Not a bad idea, but with the I Cue take a small 24V PSU that will be plugged into a NON-DIMMED circuit, as most PSU's don't care for the modified sine wave. (I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but it sounds as though your budget might not want to incur adding yet another PSU to your lighting inventory.)

 

[gafftaper]

<In reference to testing the I Cue near the 5 pin DMX line before running the needed cabling over the river and through the woods... so to speak)
Not a bad idea, but with the I Cue take a small 24V PSU that will be plugged into a NON-DIMMED circuit, as most PSU's don't care for the modified sine wave. (I'm sure there are exceptions to this rule, but it sounds as though your budget might not want to incur adding yet another PSU to your lighting inventory.)

OH! Good call Kelite, we forgot that important point. Just plug the psu into the wall Charcoal

 

[Charc]

I figured the PSU has an Edison connector, so I'd planned on on sticking it in a standard outlet up in the catwalks. But this is a valuable tip, thank you.

 

[gafftaper]

Yeah, A PSU for color scrollers, i-cue, or gobo rotators, as well as foggers, hazers, intelligent lighting gear, and even LED's shouldn't be plugged into a dimmed circuit or even a dimmed circuit that has a "non-dim" setting. The electronics don't like the way the dimmer screws with the power. You can get a true non-dim dimmer unit to slide in most new racks which will be safe. But other than that, always assume it's a bad idea to run anything electronic through a dimmed circuit unless the manufacturer says otherwise.

 

[Charc]

So I was just about to try out the I-Cue today, as I had a free period in the theater. Then I stopped when I realized I have absolutely no idea how to patch this thing in! I believe we have everything (I never checked on 4 pin scroller cable though! ), except I don't have any brains, or I'd have figured this one out before. I read the tutorial from Strand, and it only covered moving lights and scrollers. It didn't seem to care about scrollers, but my understanding was I have to pick moving lights out of a list of 100. I am under the impression it won't be on the list, though I haven't been able to confirm this. I think once I get it patched in, I patch Circuit (513) to a channel (let's say 76). Then I'd grab 76 (76 *) or (76.3* or 76.4 *) to grab he pan / tilt, and use the mouse. I just have to figure out how to get this set-up as a moving light.

 

[icewolf08]

Patching the iCue should be easy. You patch the intensity channel (the light that you are putting the iCue on) to a whole number channel, i.e. Chan 76. Then patch the first dimmer for the iCue (513 by your example) to Chan 76.3 and you patch the second dimmer for the icue (514) to Chan 76.4. Then when you grab chan 76, the wheel will control intensity and the mouse will control movement.

 

[Charc]

Patching the iCue should be easy. You patch the intensity channel (the light that you are putting the iCue on) to a whole number channel, i.e. Chan 76. Then patch the first dimmer for the iCue (513 by your example) to Chan 76.3 and you patch the second dimmer for the icue (514) to Chan 76.4. Then when you grab chan 76, the wheel will control intensity and the mouse will control movement.

Thanks, that made sense. You patch attributes to intensities of the channels they are on so everything is organized and attributes are paired with their respect luminaries, it's intuitive, good call.

 

[icewolf08]

That is the point. IMO it is one the big things that Strand got right in their software (on the 300/500 series) compared to Obsession II. But that is neither here nor there. Just for your edification, here is the list of what attributes correspond to which sub channels (the number after the decimal point):

# Attribute List (hAtt):
# 1 Intensity 2 Colour
# 3 Pan 4 Tilt
# 5 Iris 6 Focus 7 Prism
# 8 Gobo 9 RGobo 10 Frost
# 11 Cyan 12 Magenta 13 Yellow
# 14 Red 15 Green 16 Blue
# 17 Speed 18 ColSpeed 19 BeamSpeed
# 20 Reset 21 Reset2 22 Duration
# 23 Index 24 Index2 25 Index3
# 26 Gobo2 27 Gobo2Index 28 Gobo2Function
# 29 Gobo3 30 Gobo3Index 31 Gobo3Function
# 32 Prism2 33 PrismIndex 34 PrismFunction
# 35 FX 36 GoboIndex 37 GoboFunction
# 38 Frost2 39 Fan 40 Fan2
# 41 Strobe 42 Strobe2 43 Strobe3
# 44 Colour2 45 ColMixFunc 46 ColourFunction
# 47 Iris2 48 Power 49 Power2
# 50 Focus2 51 Focus3 52 FocusControl
# 53 Zoom 54 Zoom2 55 Zoom3
# 56 Reserved Was PanCoarse now use 3 Pan
# 57 Reserved Was PanFine now use x3 Pan extended
# 58 Reserved Was TiltCoarse now use 4 Tilt
# 59 Reserved Was TiltFine now use x4 Tilt extended
# 60 X 61 Y 62 Z 63 Theta
# 64 Smoke 65 Smoke2 66 Slide 67 Slide2
# 68 Shutter 69 Shutter2 70 Shutter3 71 Shutter4
# 72 Shutter1A 73 Shutter1B 74 Shutter2A 75 Shutter2B
# 76 Shutter3A 77 Shutter3B 78 Shutter4A 79 Shutter4B
# 80 AutoPilot 81 Att81 82 FXIndex 83 FXFunc
# 84 CheckSum 85 Checksum2
# 86 ShutterRotate 87 Macro
# 88 ColourTemperatureOrange 89 ColourTemperatureBlue
# 90 AspectRatio
# 91 PProfile 92 TProfile 93 PSize 94 TSize
# 95 PSpeed 96 TSpeed 97 PPhase 98 TPhase
# 99 PTRotate 100 Att100
# 101 Library 102 File 103 InFrame 104 OutFrame
# 105 PlayMode 106 PlaySpeed
# 107 Key:X1 108 Key:Y1 109 Key:X2 110 Key:Y2
# 111 Key:X3 112 Key:Y3 113 Key:X4 114 Key:Y4
# 115 Trails 116 VisualFunc 117 FX2 118 FX2Index
# 119 FX2Function 120 FX3 121 FX3Index 122 FX3Func
# 123 Att123 124 Att124 125 Att125 126 Att126

Also, if you go into setup, and set the Smart Channel Display to Tracker, you will get a more intuitive view of your intelligent equipment.

EDIT: That list totally didn't format right, but you should be able to make it out.