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DonkiDonki

By DonkiDonki
in Lighting

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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I currently use Chamsys MagicQ with a PC wing, a 15" laptop and a 10" touch-screen.

 

I am looking to change this to a dedicated desktop PC with 2x15" touch-screen, and am toying with the idea of making a custom enclosure for the lot instead of using a PC case and trying to end up with something along the lines of Whole Hog3 Full boar... (if my metal/woodwork skills fail me this could end up in a rather shameful mess)

 

I am interested to hear/see what rigs other MagicQ PC users have put together, anyone want to share details or even pics?

 

 

(I am also interested in changing to a Maxi wing, is anyone with a one interested in trading down to a PC wing with a bit of a cash incentive?)

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Wol Mentor

Wol

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I am interested to hear/see what rigs other MagicQ PC users have put together, anyone want to share details or even pics?

 

If you have a look at our fan pages on facebook there are some pictures of the setups people have come up with for their ChamSys MagicQ systems which I have to say are quite good! Might give some inspiration.

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Grum Chief

Grum

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I've got my PC wing just sitting on the desk in my office at home usually covered in paperwork.

 

A Maxi wing in a Peli case (1600) along with an Asus EeeTop PC as this was the cheapest touchscreen PC I could find. It's not exactly a tidy solution as you have to un-pack everything to use it but it is great for the odd gig I have to fly to as I can check it in and know that it's reasonably safe. It also works great as a back-up desk because it hardly takes up any space so can be tucked away somewhere until it's needed (like when some idiot throws a pint over my main desk).

 

Also got a MQ100Pro for normal gigs.

 

Anyone got any reccommendations for a cheap touchscreen laptop that's got a big enough screen to run MagicQ please let me know, I'd love to ditch the EeeTop.

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fireball40k Journeyman

fireball40k

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Anyone got any reccommendations for a cheap touchscreen laptop that's got a big enough screen to run MagicQ please let me know, I'd love to ditch the EeeTop.

 

I recently got a touchscreen tablet made by a company called Paceblade (no, I'd never heard of them either) from a company in Cambridge that specialise in touchscreen computers for various industries. I just phoned around loads of such companies and asked if they had any old loan/demo stock that they wanted to be rid of. This machine won't break any records for processing power but the point is that it reliably runs Windows XP (and not that awful Vista - don't go there), has a nice responsive 12.2" touchscreen and has a USB port. This is more than enough horsepower and screen size to run MagicQ. PM me if you want the contact details for the company, but I think that I had their last old machine - it was £200 + VAT. With Windows 7 just coming out, I reckon there will be lots of old kit like this coming up for replacement and there seem to be quite a few companies specialising in these things for use in supermarkets, factories, etc.

 

Tip: I found that touchscreen computers fall into two distinct camps: Those that have 'active' touch screens which only respond to a special stylus and those that have 'passive' or 'resistive' screens which you can control with your fingers (or with a simplified stylus for selecting small things). I certainly wanted the latter as it would be a pain during a gig to keep picking up a stylus to launch a cue.

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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I like very much :D

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs514.snc3/26971_1343955849392_1546118516_30897422_923930_n.jpg

 

 

Very nice, just along the lines of what I'd like to end up with, just with two touch-screens. Any idea if they managed to squeeze a PC in that enclosure too?

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avdavesound Deputy Chief

avdavesound

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I currently use a pc wing with hp tx2z multitouch tablet running windows 7. Pc wing is flightcased with wifi router usb lead and desk light. pc is just in a seperate case along with a cheap ebay tablet for remote along with a DMX splitter, another case holds a showtec artnet node 8 and another wifi router set up to bridge the main router.

I think its better when its all seperate alot easier to carry and you can fit in the tighest of control rooms!

I also use iphone as remote when hi up in a rig!

the main think with using magic q is to have a good touchscreen you dont need the maxi wing just a pc wing.

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themadhippy Production Manager

themadhippy

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I'd love to ditch the EeeTop

May I ask why? is it a reliabilaty problem or something else as I find mine very stable,and ideal for this particular application. For the record I use a 4u rack case.pc wing,eee top and all the odds and sods fit in rather nicely

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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I like very much :D

 

 

Of course there are several other lighting systems which use various combinations of PC & wings, any of you Vista, Lightfactory or anything else users got a rig you want to show off here?

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csg Chief

csg

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I'd love to ditch the EeeTop

May I ask why? is it a reliabilaty problem or something else as I find mine very stable,and ideal for this particular application. For the record I use a 4u rack case.pc wing,eee top and all the odds and sods fit in rather nicely

 

+1 - I run an asus EeeTOP 15" touch screen pc on XP with a maxiwing ( or pc wing depending on whats where) and have no issues with it at all. I particularly like the response of the screen, with the 15" being big enough not to need a stylus for my thick fingers...

 

I used to use a HP tablet / laptop with a 12" screen. Horrible thing that was very insensitive to the touch, and seemed to run very hot.

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Forgive me, but isn't a PC + PC wing + screens in an enclosure getting to the realms of lighting desks...?

 

Of course, but for the effort you put in and with the help of a bit of Blue Peter ingenuity you get something close to a £10K desk for closer to £2-3K.

 

£10-20K may be viable for lighting companies, but way out of my league as freelancer. That doesn't stop me from trying to make the most of the budget I can scrape together though, I'm guessing I am not alone in this quest?

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Hopefully someone here may be able to help me, I would like to build a UPS into the design but am struggling to find anything small enough.

 

Does anyone know of any that are compact & lightweight? It would be good if it could power a Atom CPU PC (about 80W), a 15" touch-screen (not got that yet so not sure of rating) and a Chamsys PC Wing for about 10 minutes.

 

I could live with a shorter life as it's just to make the desk stable during brown outs & enable desk to be shut down if the loss of power is long term.

 

Failing that I guess a traditional UPS could live external to the main system.

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