MagicQ Help

[KidRay]

I'm just trying to learn MagicQ with my cheap and cheerful band rig, (Stairville Stage Tri LED par bars, ADJ Mega tri-bars, and a few old Constella Astrascans)

 

I have patched the Stairville lights as Eurolite KLS-800, which appears to be exactly the same unit, with the same channels(Macro, Dimmer, Strobe, RGBRGBRGBRGB) etc.

 

So I started recording washes with all the LEDs, a blue and a red initially which seemed to work fine, fading properly etc., but I noticed that the grid output view showed the parbar as being still full blue when it was at 0% on the fader, presumably the rgb channels were still on, but the dimmer channel was at 0%.

The red wash worked the same, but if I brought up the red wash with the blue wash already on the output jumped straight to full red (no blue) on the parbars, while the ADJ bars colour faded as expected.

 

Is this an issue with the personality of the Eurolite which can be changed? I did notice that the personality has 2 parts, it seems to patch as 1 head with three channels (Macro, Dimmer, Strobe) plus four generic LED heads with 3 channels (RGB). All except the dimmer channel are LTP.

When I selected auto groups it came up with the Eurolites as 2 heads in one group and the generic LEDs as 8 heads in another, so both need to be selected in the programmer to have the dimmer channel and the rgb channels controlled.

 

I think I need to edit the personality, but I'm not exactly sure what to change! Any ideas?

[LX-Dave]

Are you connected to the actual units or just using the output window?

 

I had a strange problem for a while yesterday (possibly windows update related) where the output window would snap to levels without fades, but the fixtures themselves responded correctly...

 

not sure if this helps :L

 

Dave

[KidRay]

It's happening on the actual units too, although as I said if just one playback fader is raised then lowered, the output window shows the par bar as being 100% blue (or red) but the fixture is dark (presumably the dimmer channel is at 0%)

 

I'm thinking there could be a work around whereby the dimmer channels for these units are globally on and the rgb channels are patched to ordinary dimmer channels. Would this work? If so how do I go about it? Is there a better solution?

[mumbles]

Is the LTP fade set to 0? If so the dimmer channel will be fading as you bring up the second fader - but already at full so you don't notice it fading, but the LTP values will snap as you push the fader above 20% (I think it's 20% for magicq software that activates the LTP values.

 

M

[KidRay]

Where do I check what the LTP fade is set to?

 

Looking at the DMX outputs (with blue wash fader full up and bringing up red wash fader), the dimmer channel stays at 255, the blue rgb channel starts at 255, the red at 0, but the instant I move the red fader up, the DMX outputs snap to 0 on blue and 255 on red and stay there while the fader is pushed to full. The outputs for the ADJ led bar behave as expected with the DMX output changing smoothly from 0 to 255

[mumbles]

Will have a look when I get home to my laptop, but I suspect the ADJ units don't have a dimmer channel, and the colours are HTP, albeit maybe with a virtual dimmer on the desk. If this is the case then as you push the red fader up I would expect the red on the ADJs to fade up to create magenta, and the blues to only fade out when you pull out the blue fader - is this what happens?

 

And I can't remember without the desk in front of me how to change the LTP fade time, but will let you know how to do it later on whn I get back home, unless someone comes along first.

 

M

[KidRay]

as you push the red fader up I would expect the red on the ADJs to fade up to create magenta, and the blues to only fade out when you pull out the blue fader - is this what happens?

 

 

Yep, you got it!

[mumbles]

Right, apologies for not getting back with an answer last night, was somewhat too befuddled to think about it.

 

If you go into cue stack > select the cue > view options > fader > and set "fader controls LTP" chans to yes, then as you fade the fader up it will (should) increase the LTP channels with the fader travel. If you've record all RGB data into the fader it will set all 3 values to the new colour, if you've only record certain channels it will only change those. So if you record magenta from a palette on one, and green from a palette, and if the magenta playback is up, and you fade the green fader up the colour output will change from 255, 000, 255 to 000, 255, 000. If however you record them by just entering the colour values directly, and leaving the unused colours for each playback as --- instead of 000, then with the magenta fader up, and raising the green fader the output will change from 255, 000, 255 to 255, 255, 255. It's best to have a play around with each method and see which works better for you.

 

Hope all the above makes sense.

 

M

[KidRay]

Yep, that all makes sense, you'll have to steer me through the second bit, the bit I don't know is how to get the rgb values into the programmer. They don't appear in the patch window, the Eurolite KLS800 is there, but just has Macro Dimmer and Strobe channels, to get that in the programmer I have been hitting "Locate" then going to the colour palette and selecting a colour which then brings the LED3Ch into the programmer, but with RGB channels already set.

[themadhippy]

I tend to program an "out" in the colour pallete, select the fixtures you want it to apply to,hit col,wheel down the individual r g b values to 000 ,hit record and press an empty location in the colour window.

[KidRay]

I tend to program an "out" in the colour pallete, select the fixtures you want it to apply to,hit col,wheel down the individual r g b values to 000 ,hit record and press an empty location in the colour window.

Yeah I did that, which is fine at setting the values to zero. The problem still seems to be recording to, say, just the red without affecting the blue.

 

Following mumbles advice above, I can get a sort of fade between the two, but there is unusual behaviour on the rgb channels as raising blue lowers red and vice versa.

[mumbles]

If raising the red fader is fading out the blue LEDs, while the blue fader is still up then the red fader includes information for the blue channel @ 000, as would be there when programming from palettes to ensure that you get the colour you selected, rather than a mishmash of all the previous colours.

 

I haven't had a play with that personality as we open tonight so have been busy, but you should be able to select the fixture/group, then hit the colour button and r, g and b will appear by the encoder wheels on the left of the screen, if you don't touch the colours you don't want they will remain at ---. You should then be able to tab through to the next set of rgb values, but will have a look later on to confirm this for you.

[KidRay]

Ah yes, that's it! Thanks mumbles! I can now carry on to the next hurdle...