SL Bar 660 Cell Control

[Sam Bolenbaugh]

Hey all,

So I have an ETC Element and a whole bunch of SL Bar 660's and when they are patched in 6 group mode where I am supposed to have individual control over the 6 different groups within a single fixture I still only have control over the overarching Red, Green, Blue and White and I can't seem to control the different grouped cells in the ML controls window, even though when I look at the profile there are 56 different channels for all of the different control options. Is this a limitation of the Element, or is there something that I am doing wrong with my patch?

Thanks All!

 

[NickVon]

I'm not super familiar with your SL Bar 660's... BUT my first thought is that the settings on the LED hardware are incorrect. and maybe set for 5-6 channel mode, and not full blown 56 channel mode. Just like ICues's and such can run in 8bit or 16 bit. I presume you patched the light as a "Fixture" and selected a profile for it from the patch menue instead of just patching addresses to channels. If you have done that step double check set the fixture as the full 56 channel version and not a more condensed 4-6 channel version.

I've only used some 16 channel movers and LED's pars with my element but I don't think there is any real world limitation as far as numbers of DMX channels assigned to perimeters for Intilligent lights. Some others may pop in with some other thoughts for you.

in your paramter screen for hte 660's is therer a button "macro" or column that may enable that function via a DMX control signal. Something akin to a Lamp Fire command some movie lights have.

 

[danTt]

The Eos line is still a little behind when it comes to handling multiple part fixtures. You'll find it easier to patch it as a number of RGBW fixtures rather than one fixtures with a number of RGBW attributes.

 

[xander]

As danTt said, this is how the EOS software handles multiple intensity fixtures...it doesn't. You can easily make a fixture that has all 6 red parameters and all 6 blue parameters, etc. but that will not be of any real help when it comes to programming. It is far easier to patch and control to just think of the bar as 6 different fixtures, 1/6th the size of the original fixture and patch as 6 different channels (all being SL Bar 660s in 1 group mode). It's the same as CK ColorBlazes or ChromaQ ColorForces or ETC Seladors, etc.

-Tim

 

[Sam Bolenbaugh]

So it's a matter of building a whole bunch of different fixture profiles each one controlling one group of the fixture? Is there a plan for a future update of the EOS/Element software to be able to handle all of the new multipart fixtures that are being introduced to the market?

 

[xander]

No. But I just looked at the SL 660, and it has a bit more features than the old CK ColorBlazes so it is not quite as simple. In this case, I would make a simple RGBW fixture (or use the generic from the library) and patch as follows.

Assuming you are using RGBW 16bit mode,

Your first fixture has a starting address of 001:
Ch 1 - Fixture Type - SL Bar 660 RGBW 16B 1 Group - @ Add 001
Ch 2 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 017
Ch 3 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 025
Ch 4 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 033
Ch 5 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 041
Ch 6 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 049

Your second fixture has a starting address of 057:
Ch 7 - Fixture Type - SL Bar 660 RGBW 16B 1 Group - @ Add 057
Ch 8 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 073
Ch 9 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 081
Ch 10- Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 089
Ch 11 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 097
Ch 12 - Fixture Type - Generic RGBW 16B - @ Add 105

And so on and so forth.

This isn't ideal, mainly because you have control channels for the entire fixture (the entire fixture is really groups of 6 channels) all in the first channel of a sequence, but I think it's the best we've got. It's better, in my opinion, than making a fixture with 6 red attributes and 6 blue attributes, etc., and trying to work that way. If you want to use color presets or move speeds or strobes, you just have to think a bit more about it. You have all these options in channel 1, but they affect the whole fixture (channels 1-6) and the same with channel 7 (affecting channels 7-12) etc. You're also going to have to be proactive with By Type palettes as we are using 2 types of fixtures as far as the console knows. Not ideal, but the best way to use that fixture in segments.

-Tim