Chauvet Intimidator Spot Duo lazy macro

[alotofbradshaw]

Hey guys,

 

I'm new to this forum so hope I'm behaving correctly!

 

We've recently added a pair of intimidator spot duo's to our setup. Although they're awesome, the macro's are pretty sluggish to kick in (about 3 painful seconds).

 

This isn't the end of the world but definitely slows the feel of the show down and looks a little silly at times.

 

If anyone's had a similar problem and been able to remedy it some advice would be more than welcome!!

 

We're running show buddy/DMXIS with 2 Eurolite LED bar, 2 ADJ Jellydomes and 2 ADJ LED par.

 

Many thanks,

Chris

[Alec97]

Welcome :)

Sounds like your a dj ? Maybe try asking in mobile dj fourms because other dj's might have experienced this problem and found a solution + people on here don't really deal with that sort of "cheap" kit

 

Alec,

[alotofbradshaw]

Hi Alec, thanks for the response.

 

I 'm in a functions band and act as the tech guy, so a similar portable setup type vibe.

 

I'm definitely not going to show my bandmates the 'cheap' comment. Its almost impossible to get them to part with any sort of fundage haha!

 

I'll have a look on some dj forums

 

Thanks again for the advice,

Chris

 

 

 

[pscandrett]

Hiya - I don't think that brand snobbery is helpful (although it clearly exists in our industry); I've used Chauvet stuff quite happily in gigs and although it's cheaper than many other options, their units can be quite reasonable and appropriate in the right circumstances.

 

Anyway - Chris... I can't really help you with your question other than to ask if you're able to replicate the problem with another method of control - perhaps borrow another desk/dongle to try to replicate the problem with another control system. If you can, it narrows down the issue to the lighting units; if not, then it might be the system that you're controlling them with.

 

One wonders if the lights have an inbuilt delay before the movement macros kick in to try to minimise problems when selecting your macro - if you're 'scrolling through the DMX values' on that channel slowly before getting to the macro you want then it'd manifest itself as a bit of a judder on the light before you settled on it. There'd be a logic to that, certainly, if so.

 

Without knowing the specifics of your setup I can't really help, but I hope this helps diagnose the problem at least.

[musht]

Obvious question would be , why run inbuilt macros?

 

Quick look at the Chauvet spec shows several modes from 9 - 20 channels wide, DMXIS isn`t limited in number of channels available, so would seem to make sense to program them in full control mode using the timeline in Showbuddy?

[Tomo]

Probably because the Intimidator Spot Duo is a two-headed fixture where the DMX parameters for each head are arranged by "type" rather than "head".

- Pan1/Tilt1/Pan2/Tilt2/Color1/Color2/Gobo1/Gobo2...

It's crazy, Chauvet could so easily have made this a great club fixture, yet snatched defeat from the very jaws of victory via this DMX parameter layout!

 

So you need something with complete multi-part fixture support (eg Cobalt) to use it properly.

 

On almost every console out there you're stuck either smashing it into a stack of sub-fixture parts, or losing your nice Pan/Tilt controls.

[alotofbradshaw]

Thanks for the replies. Some useful info there!

 

The gear we have obviously isn't the best gear in the world, but for what we do and the price, its great (especially when comparing it to similar bands on the scenes setup)

 

Whilst I totally understand brand snobbery (guitars for me), theres no point in us spending thousands and thousands, although I'd like to, to play weddings and functions. So this sort of gear is fine with us.... if it works.

 

I think you might be right, Tomo. I've tried pretty much everything, as theres actually little you can do, to get it behaving properly so I think I'll need to try a different controller and then give up.

 

I don't know much about DMX layout but I'm guessing its something to do with signal chain? The Fixture would receive the DMX messages more rapidly if the parameters were arranged by type?

 

Thanks again,

Chris

[pscandrett]

I don't know much about DMX layout but I'm guessing its something to do with signal chain? The Fixture would receive the DMX messages more rapidly if the parameters were arranged by type?

 

Not quite; we were really bemoaning the fact that Chauvet missed a trick when creating the control modes for it when running it from a desk; they could have written a mode that, instead of being 'one fixture' with two heads and all the parameters lumped together, pretended to be two moving heads next to each other, control wise. That would have made it easier to control with most of the desks on the market.

 

A normal moving light might, for example, have various parameters:

 

Pan

Tilt

Dimmer

Colour

Gobo

 

So if your duo had a mode that responded to the control in that order, like

 

Pan1

Tilt1

Dimmer1

Colour1

Gobo1

Pan2

Tilt2

Dimmer2

Colour2

Gobo2

 

then you could 'pretend' it was two normal movers on your desk and control it all independently.

 

Unfortunately their modes appear to be

 

Pan1

Pan2

Tilt1

Tilt2

Dimmer1

Dimmer2

Colour1

Colour2

Gobo1

Gobo2

 

By reordering it like this, it's more difficult to use as it's a non standard way of doing things, really.

 

We're not really solving your problem with the delayed macros. Have you tried asking Chauvet directly (or a distributor)? They're not quite as faceless as many cheap mover manufacturers, so you might be able to find someone somewhere that can help. Let us know how you get on!