Strand 520i programable macros

[Chiefy]

Does anyone out there know of any on line recource where I can pick up usefull macros for strand consoles? Trying to compile a database of macros for all to use..

Any suggestions would be great!

[Rob]

Moderation: moved to Lighting forum

[Stu]

Hi

 

While I don't have a list of them, here is one I can remember of the top of my head which I've used to good affect before

 

For tracking movers either side of a given cue (where is X is a given fixture)

 

[x] [THRU] [x] [-] [x.1] [THRU] [x.1] [@] {Copy From} [Cue] [x (cue)] [*]

 

Providing I've typed all of this out correctly, this would take a selection of movers, discount the intensity and copy the values from a particular cue, so you could then track the movement (or whatever) to each the previous and next cue, should you need to sort out tracking.

 

Hope I'm not teaching you to suck eggs here, not my intention at all, just a Macro I found very useful in the past.

 

Stu

[Chiefy]

Not at all, although I already use that particular one!

I know macros can be very closely guarded by some people which is very understandable! I am jus trying to get my two spaces to use the same macros for programming and opperation and the more the merrier. I will also be looking to publish my findings so others can use them.

[Stu]

Not at all, although I already use that particular one.

Doh! :** laughs out loud **: Well nice try eh!

 

I will also be looking to publish my findings so others can use them.

 

Please do, I'll certainly be interested to see them.

 

If I think of any more while in Sainsburys (things always come to you when your bored) I'll post them later.

 

Stu

[Chiefy]

I am sat in a matinee behind my 520 trying to think of some more, not being very successful :** laughs out loud **:

[gareth]

A couple of useful ones for programming with scrollers ....

 

Say your scrolls have 16 frames - set your flash buttons to Macro mode, then program macro 101 as [@ATT][0][1], macro 102 as [@ATT][0][2], etc. Then just select a channel and hit a single flash button to select the frame of that number.

 

(This one nicked from the RSC control dept. ...) Record each frame in the scroll into an attribute-only group, and name it according to its colour (e.g. L201, R068, G720 etc.). Then set up a couple of the centre softkey macros in the following way :

Macro = [@ATT][TEXT][L] ... Label = "@ Lee"

Macro = [@ATT][TEXT][R] ... Label = "@ Rosco"

Macro = [@ATT][TEXT][G] ... Label = "@ Gam"

(Of course, these labels aren't much good if you're on a 520 rather than a 530 as there's no LCD for them to appear on - but there's always PVC tape and a Sharpie ...)

So then you can scroll to the colours the LD calls for without having to cross-reference frame numbers ... e.g. if they ask for "Channel 7 in Lee 202", you'd type [7][@ Lee][2][0][2][Enter].

 

Other than that, I mainly tend to use macros to make life easier when busking with moving lights - i.e. for quick selection of parameters. If you've got a 520 (14 P-keys as opposed to the 530's 7), and you set your flash buttons to Macro mode and use all the Shift+ options too, you can create up to 82 macros which are instantly accessible with a maximum of two keypresses.

[Rob Halliday]

Hi

 

While I don't have a list of them, here is one I can remember of the top of my head which I've used to good affect before

 

For tracking movers either side of a given cue (where is X is a given fixture)

 

[x] [THRU] [x] [-] [x.1] [THRU] [x.1] [@] {Copy From} [Cue] [x (cue)] [*]

 

Providing I've typed all of this out correctly, this would take a selection of movers, discount the intensity and copy the values from a particular cue,

Hello All,

 

There's a quicker way of presetting/post-setting attributes than the macro shown above:

 

(chan/chans) @ CUE x {ATTS ONLY}

 

will set just the attribute of the light or lights specified to the values they are in the cue specified.

 

{ATTS ONLY} is a softkey that will appear in the centre LCD display on 530s/550s. If you're using a 520 or 300 you'll need to use the [REC MODE] key to access that softkey:

 

(chan/chans) @ CUE x [REC MODE] {ATTS ONLY}

 

You'll also find {INTS ONLY} there, which will do the same thing for intensities. Or you can specifiy different combinations of attributes using the function filters:

 

(chan/chans) @ CUE x @ATT position/colour/beam etc.

 

 

Another useful macro using ATTS ONLY, for those working in tracking mode, is:

 

@ ATTSONLY .

 

which, when used in preview, will 'unblock' just the attributes of a specified light or lights.

 

Also, don't forget that the numeric keypad gives you quick access to even more macros: shift 0-shift 9 will run macros 0-9 respectively.

 

Hope this is of some help.

 

Rob.

[Grahame]

After many years of having to go to [PREVIEW] {XREF}, via [sETUP] to remove channel formatting first (otherwise you can't use the {LEFT} and {RIGHT} keys to navigate in the spreadheet), I finally got bored enough to work out this pair of macros (although it did take a phone call to Rob Halliday to figure out the second one - thanks, Rob!). You might need a keyboard attached for some of this:

 

[DISPLAY SETUP] [*] [DOWN ARROW](x13 to get to down to channel formatting) [F1] [DISPLAY PREVIEW] {XREF}

 

And to get back out of that:

 

[DISPLAY SETUP] [*] [DOWN ARROW x13] [F1] [+] (x however many pluses it takes to get you back to your preferred format, max 4 for CHANS IN SHOW) [DISPLAY LIVE]

 

It's a simple thing, but it pleases me immensely! ;)

[eamon]

HI all

 

this is my first post so be kind

 

I like the idea of the original post and here is my offering. It is a bit off topic but also concerns the earlier post re scrollers and sub macro buttons. If we did the following...........

 

The idea is to assign a PROFILE to a scroller channel. To this you must be in the PATCh menu and enter the following command

 

^ = scroller DMX

 

^PROFILE 1*

 

Then goe to the PROFILE sub menu, hit MORE and then the 1st LCD soft key and create and edit the curve for PROFILE 1. Essentially we are pulling the scroll into a certain frame position. This can be a bit tricky but with a bit of patience and a body on stage to verify frame positions very time saving.

 

The idea being that you attach a PROFILE to a bank of scrolls I.e 1 to your bkwash, another to the FOH etc. Generally they are striving to achieve the same look and all seek to act the same

 

What it boils down to is by tweaking the PROFILE you minimise re-plotting scroll moves, free up possibly vital macro buttons, minimise key strokes and have generally better control over and can place the scroll frames in no time via the following command

scrolls@ATT12*

 

Which will put the scrolls in question to frame 12(say L085 etc)

 

The ATT button refers to the patched frames and the PROFILE tweaks the final frame position.

 

So if you have to update the frame position you tweak the profile and hey presto all sync along.

 

I had an opera w/50 scrolls and this feature saved us a lot of time!!

 

I hope this makes sense and sorry for getting off topic.

;)

 

eamon

[gareth]

The idea is to assign a PROFILE to a scroller channel.

 

{Big snip}

This is actually a fairly widely-used method of dealing with scrollers which aren't as well calibrated as they might be, or which contain scrolls which have, shall we say, a fairly wide tolerance when it comes to frame sizes! These days, though, with a decent digital scroller which will self-calibrate in a reliable and consistent way, along with a well-made scroll that's within the scroller manufacturer's spec and is loaded into the scroller with the correct amount of tension, the accuracy of scollers is pretty much at the point where you don't really need to do this any more.

 

The other way to deal with a rig of scrollers which doesn't rely on directly typing in the attribute value (and therefore can be used to "hide" any calibration errors/variations between scrollers) is to use preset focuses to deal with colour selection. Create a preset focus for each colour in the scroll, and select colours via preset focuses rather than attribute values. Where this method comes into its own, of course, is if you have a mix of scroller types, say 8" scrollers which might have up to 30-odd frames in them and 5k or 8-lite scrollers with only 11 or 16 frames. Lee 201, for example, might be at frame 20 in the 8" scrolls but down at frame 10 in the 5ks - record a preset focus group with all the right attributes in, and you can recall the same colour on various different types of scroller, although it might not necessarily live at the same frame number. Get a bit more adventurous and give the group a text name which is equivalent to the colour number and make yourself a couple of suitable softkey macros, of course, and you can get really flash and start pulling up the colour by its actual number! ;)

[Grahame]

A question from the moving light op on current show..... is it possible to put a wait time into a macro? He wants to link two macros together that select and then strike or douse the VLs, but there needs to be more than a three second gap between the two. So he would like to do (macro 1) [WAIT 5] (macro 2) or something similar. I haven't managed to get near the desk to have a play myself, but does anyone have any ideas? I suppose you could run it as a couple of linked dummy cues, but that's not very elegant is it? :)

[gareth]

A question from the moving light op on current show..... is it possible to put a wait time into a macro? He wants to link two macros together that select and then strike or douse the VLs, but there needs to be more than a three second gap between the two. So he would like to do (macro 1) [WAIT 5] (macro 2) or something similar. I haven't managed to get near the desk to have a play myself, but does anyone have any ideas? I suppose you could run it as a couple of linked dummy cues, but that's not very elegant is it? :)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hmm. No, you couldn't do it by adding a [WAIT][3] to the macro - that wouldn't pause for 3 seconds, it would just add the [WAIT] and [3] keystokes to the macro sequence.

 

Without having had time to give it a huge amount of thought, the best way I can think of to achieve this would be to record a macro which takes the reset channel to the strike or douse value, then immediately fires a 'reset' cue. This cue could be tucked out of the way somewhere at the top end of the show's cue list (cue 900, or whatever) - it would simply be a movefade cue which took all the VL reset channels to a hard zero, and it would be a snap cue with a delay of 3s. That way, you'd fire the macro, the reset channels would go to the required value, the 'reset' cue would immediately trigger, there'd be a delay of 3 seconds, and the channels would go back to zero again.

 

There's probably a more elegant way of doing it, but that's what springs to mind right now ....

[Stu]

Just chucking an idea into the fray - is there not a Macro wait function avaiable on a 520(etc)? I only say this because on an Expression 3 I can program a Macro, and hit the M-wait key (followed by the revelant pause I'm after) which would in effect pause the whole macro before carrying on again after the allocated time with whatever I have programmed afterwards.

 

I would have a shifty round on the 500 OLE if it worked on XP :)

 

Stu

[Grahame]

Here's another little challenge that's been taxing me for a while now...

The set-up is a 520i desk out front running ethernet to a network node with monitor at the dimmers onstage. When using the rigger's remote at the network node, if the main desk op has left the 'live' screen in tracker preset mode (i.e. expanded display showing attributes for a mover), the onstage monitor also shows this, which is a bit of a pain when you're trying to use the riggers to focus onstage and you can't see what channels are live.

Can anyone think of a way to force the display to reset to 'normal' from the riggers? I've been trying various macros that will remove channel formatting in Setup and then display the normal live screen; these will work fine on the main desk but have no effect on the node screen, whether run from the riggers or the main desk.