Chroma Zone/Panel/Heart

[b1nuzz]

Hi,

 

I have found a topic on this, but its very much HOg orientated, so im going to start another one.

 

I have a show cominmg up, which involves 6 chroma pars with the hearts in them, and 2 panels, all controlled with the 12 way chromna zone.

 

I have had a look at the pulsar website and couldnt really get my head around it.

 

Im controlling them on DMX with a 520i.

 

Will I need to patch the control box and the fixtures, or just the control box. Does it need a fixture library for it, so just work off the channels.

 

I will probably work in 10 channel mode, as I dont need much more than just the RGB select.

 

What I need to know is how do you select what fixture.

 

EG: If I set the chromazone to DMX 101, then will the first chroma flex adaptor be channels 1-9, then the next being 10-19, and so on, so that if I wanted Red in the first chroma heart and the second I could just put up:

 

101 +120 @ FULL.

 

Is this correct or have I got it well wrong?

 

Thanks

[five_pin_xlr]

ok, with chroma pars its 3 channels RGB.

so for each par its 3 channels same with panels

 

Set the zone in 6channel mode.

this takes 6 channels up.

 

I would patch the chromas at 901 +3 etc (cos of the 3channels per fixture)

and for the zone patch it as 101 @ 1 and set DMX address on the zone as 001.

 

 

the addresses should look like this:

 

address fixture fixture ID

1 zone 101

7 can 901

10 can 902

 

etc...

 

 

as its an rgb fixture usually it will put it to white. if it doesnt theres some dodgey conenctions somewhere between the fixture and the zone. Terminator is not required in the zone either. I have installed 48 + at a youth club for control off Hog PC and it works fine.

 

hope this helps.

[gareth]

If you want separate control of the RGB on each of the hearts (and if you're running separate fixtures as in your example, you do!), then you need to be in either 42-channel or 46-channel mode. The only difference between these is that the 46-chan mode gives you an extra chase generator and a grand master channel for all the outputs. All the info you need is available on the Pulsar website - I haven't got the precise URL to hand right now, but it's easy to find.

 

You'll need to patch the Zone and each of the fixtures separately. There aren't fixture definitions for Chroma kit in the fixture.lib on a Strand desk, so you'll either need to find someone who's already written some definitions or write them yourself. I've never used a Strand desk to run LED stuff before (only Hogs), but I don't think you'll find it too difficult to find the right attribute names to match the control channel functions - red/green/blue (for both the Zone and the Hearts) are easy (14/15/16), and for the chase select/speed/level channels you could use, say, 35, 17 and ... well, I don't really know what you'd choose for the chase level control channel! Patching it as an intensity doesn't seem quite right, somehow. Anyway, modify your atcpage.lib file so that all six appear in a sensible way on the encoders and on the screen, and away you go!

[b1nuzz]

Ah OK,

 

Let me make sure ive got that right then;

 

So I need to patch the individual units so that I have them on the wheels etc. EG RGB on the lil rotarys!

 

How do I know what channel each fixture is though, as you only address the zone, and not the individual outs of chroma flex?

 

Would my life be made easier if I just had a global control of all the red and a global of the green and so on? Is that a lot more simplier to control?

 

Or not really?

[gareth]

Well, you could run it with simple global control of all the RGB attributes together - but it would seriously restrict your programming ability!

 

To get one Heart as an individual fixture, just patch the relevant 3 channels of the 42-channel 'block' that the Zone is listening to. Example - if your Chromazone is addressed at 1, channels 1 to 6 will be patched to your "Chromazone" fixture, channels 7 to 9 to your first "Par" or "Panel" fixture, channels 10 to 12 as your second, etc.

[LeeStoddart]

I had the challenge of handling 30 Chroma Panels on a Zero88 desk a while back. These were arranged into 3 ChromaZones.

 

For the desk I had to create two new personalities - one for the ChromaZone which I used for the first six control channels and then a simple RGB which I used for each panel. So in my set up I had three occurrences of the ChromaZone fixture and 30 occurrences of the Panel fixture.

 

The address you set on the ChromaZone indicates the start address. It would be the address for the ChromaZone fixture. Then each panel fixture uses three control channels starting at the 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 22nd, 25th, 28th, 31st, 34th, 37th and 40th.

 

I would certainly define the 12 individual fixtures as well as the ChromaZone. This allows you to control the colour of each unit individually.

[b1nuzz]

OK thats mking more sense now!

 

So I can run it in 42 channel mode, or 46 channel mode, and that would give me some extra chase options. Ill probably just stick to the 42 channel mode.

 

So I could not patch at all, and just use individual channel levels for the red green blue etc.

 

if addressed at 1; blue on the first heart would be channel 9.

[LeeStoddart]

So I could not patch at all, and just use individual channel levels for the red green blue etc.

 

if addressed at 1; blue on the first heart would be channel 9.

 

Well you'd have to do some patching even if it's a simple default 1 to 1. But yes you could drive the individual colour components on individual channels. And yes in 42 channel mode the 9th channel is the Blue for the first output.

 

The Pulsar manual/instruction book is here

[b1nuzz]

yeah, cool. Thats what I meant. :D Thanks Guys