Strand 430 Questions

[goochr96]

Hello all,

Okay, At our theatre we currently have a Strand 430. We have recently bought ourselves 2 Mac 500's, so have now started to explore the desk more fully, as in we have stared to use groups for position, colour, gobo etc. Question, if I set up a group with a Mac in it to spot somebody, that I want to keep coming back to, so numerous ques all refer to this group. If once we run a technical find that I was way out and have to re position the spot, once I update the group should this then not update all of my ques that I have used that group in? Also does the 430 support (or can it support) Auto move while dark, I have read somewhere, possibly the help files or the manual, that it is not supported by this series of desk.

Many Thanks

 

( hope that all made sense? )

[gareth]

AMWD is in Show Setup (access via the Report display button).

 

As long as you use group numbers between 1 and 750 for your preset focus group, it should do what you want it to do. If it isn't doing it, look at whether you knocked the trackball between referencing the group and recording the cue (set the display to Tracker Preset and see whether the pan & tilt values are showing group names or 'raw' values).

 

Oh, and use the search function - this has been covered before.

[Stu]

What software is your desk running? Depending on the internals of the desk you can install the later software which includes Auto Move While Dark (the 430 we had this week (for one day of it anyway) certainly could do AMWD), I think it requires a certain amount of RAM and a Pentium processor anyway. No expert on that bit tho.

 

When plotting the movers, make sure you use the groups for the positions needed as then if you update a group it'll update all the cues, as opposed to if you set the position each time then you'd need to edit each cue seperately! Plus if when you plotting the groups you make use of the @ATT key you can record groups with just the pan/tilt information in, something which makes life easier... So for instance if you had patched the Macs onto channels 1 and 2 on the desk you could do 1 + 2 [RECORD] [GROUP] 1 [@ATT] F1 [*] (for Command Line entry) and that'd record just the pan/tilt into group 1.

 

You can edit these choices to allow you to select whatever you want to 'filter' into the groups, but a look round the forum or the manual will help on this one.

 

HTH

Stu

 

Beaten to it!

[goochr96]

Okay, after having a good tutorial session on the desk by a very nice gentleman named Mr Glyn! we discovered that, I am right in thinking that if you use groups to plot stuff, the go and update the groups it should automatically update all the cues where it refers to that cue. However, when I say Mac 1 to group 1 * I get a red text line at the bottom which roughly says "Links to groups are not supported by Non Pentium consoles, copied instead" or something similar. So for this reason it wont be able to support groups to there full potential. Hmm, how easy is it to upgrade to a Pentium processor!!! ? :)

 

BTW I did do a search before posting.

[Nick S]

As far as I know, it's impossible. Even if you could obtain a Pentium 75 chip, the socket architecture (the number of pins the processor has) is different for the 486DX (what's in your Strand 430 now) and the Pentium 75 (what was in the later models) - sorry!

[gareth]

I think Nick's correct. I've never had to do a processor upgrade in a 430 before, but as I understand it the process involves swapping out various bits of the console's internal hardware at the same time. My suggestion would be to contact one of the technical sales people at Strand, and see what advice they can give.

[Liam FitzG]

Afternoon,

Sorry the PC arcitecture of a 400 series can not be upgraded. (With the possible exception of memory - but that is a big possible)

 

Liam

[goochr96]

Another question to do with the same desk, but also in general.

How do you upgrade the intensity and attribute channel capacity of the desks, is it a floppy that Strand send out, and then that updates a special chip on the board, or is it a long password that Strand give you that will give the same results. We currently only have 200 ch 200 att, so quite limited when we get a big show in, as we have now. So I was wondering if we maybe able to have it upgraded, although with what has happened to Strand lately, I don't know. Does anybody know how much this may cost too?

Thank you all.

[JMC]

You can upgrade channel count/applications through a password. List price for 50 channels is £775.00, 200 channels is POA.

 

I believe it may be possible to upgrade a 430, if you could get hold of a a "new electronics" CS card. However, in doing this you would change your console security number, and consequently be at square 1* with channel count and applications.

 

Channels/Atts/Applications are still available from Strand in the states. For hardware you may be struggling...

 

EDIT: *square 1 - I believe would be 50 chans, 50 atts, COMPRO, TRACKER and REPORTER applications.

[gareth]

You can help yourself out a little bit - in the patch screen, delete any channels that you're not using (don't just unpatch them - actually delete them) - they then become available for use as extra attributes if you're running short.