Mounting Moving Heads.

[Goochie]

Hi Guys.

I have various moving heads (robe's + ADJ inno spot LED's) I am programming them using freestyler DMX software and coming across a problem in that software with Pan/Tilt alignment within that software window.

So first off, is there a correct direction to mount moving heads?

I always mount mine with LED display to front and cables from rear, by the way I am mobile DJ and they are mounted on truss above me, usually against back wall of venue, Now when I come to program them in freestyler they never align with the movement window cross hairs.

I found that if I rotate the fixtures on the truss by 90 degrees they then align on the software with the cross hairs, which I need to find dead central position of beams into audience. I only use beams front and sides, never behind.

Now I know you guys will have a pop at me for using a free software, but it works great for what I need, and am pretty sure the Pan/Tilt window is pretty much the same on all software.

 

So my question is, is there any way around this other than rotating Fixtures 90 degrees on truss, as this puts all cables on display and I really don't want that if I can avoid it.

Is there a standard way (direction) to mount Moving heads? and have I been doing it wrong all this time? or is there any adjustments in lights or software I can do?

I have made two pics of software window that I hope helps you understand what my problem is.

I just want to be able to make some programs offline without having to set up lights every time to find that central beam position by eye.

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Links below to two pics that should explain what I mean about software..

 

Many thanks in advance.

Goochie

 

http://i1122.photobu...zpss9sd1rez.jpg

 

http://i1122.photobu...zpslemanvtm.jpg

[peza2010]

A lot of moving heads have the ability to have pan and tilt inverted, and a lot of consoles and lighting software allow you to do it from within the patch menu.

 

you could try and pan/tilt inverting - but it sounds as though your fixture orientation is correct on the truss.

[timsabre]

I think what you're asking is do moving heads go to a standard position when you set pan/tilt to 50/50. The answer unfortunately is no, every device is different. Nightmare for people who design 3d visualisers.

 

Most lighting desks have "palettes" which allow you to store preset beam positions (central, crossed etc) which you then use to make programs, you don't need to set the positions every time. Does freestyler do this?

[Goochie]

I think what you're asking is do moving heads go to a standard position when you set pan/tilt to 50/50. The answer unfortunately is no, every device is different. Nightmare for people who design 3d visualisers.

 

Most lighting desks have "palettes" which allow you to store preset beam positions (central, crossed etc) which you then use to make programs, you don't need to set the positions every time. Does freestyler do this?

 

 

Yes Freestyler allows to set presets which is what I have been doing mostly.

It was the oriantaition of the unit itsself and where on the pan/tilt window it reacts that is frustrating.

 

A lot of moving heads have the ability to have pan and tilt inverted, and a lot of consoles and lighting software allow you to do it from within the patch menu.

 

you could try and pan/tilt inverting - but it sounds as though your fixture orientation is correct on the truss.

 

Yes I can invert on either, unit or software but neither align beam position on the cross hairs on the software pan/tilt window which is the frustrating bit. But if I rotate the unit by 90 degrees on the truss it aligns perfectly? But thats not really what I want to do.

[timsabre]

The x/y window is not the best way to control position as it has to cover the whole movement area of the fixture - on a moving head this is large and you're often only using a little bit of it.

 

A lot of software and most physical desks use rotary encoders to control position, this allows you to just "nudge" the position around.

[Don Allen]

I usually rig my down stage LED movers with the screen facing onto the stage, facing away from the audience. With my LED backlight movers, they displays still face upstage, facing away from the audience. This is so the audience does not get distracted by the displays. The displays are better now, with timeouts so they go dark, so are not as distracting.

 

I mainly use light factory for my shows and invert pan or tilt in light factory, as it is easier than doing it in the mover menu.

 

You may find it easier to rig your movers with the display facing along the truss, just mark the orientation with a piece of tape to make it easier to rig them all in the same orientation.

 

Rigging with an offset restricts the range of pan, but in your case you only use a small range. As Tim suggests, use position palettes so the fixture is facing into the crowd as a home position.

[Goochie]

Thanks Don,

trouble is if I invert pan or tilt or both, in the mover box the lights just react in another offset square and still not central?

I do get what you mean about re mounting heads on truss, but as a Mobile DJ I only use small truss system and really dont want all the cables on display.

[themadhippy]

cant you just turn the heads around on the visuliser?

[Goochie]

[/url][/img] Yes I can and have done that on the visuliser, but its the Movement pan/Tilt window that I want to reposition the heads so that they operate along the central cross hairs. (see pics on original post)

At the moment the only way I can ensure they move in dead straight up/down movements is to physically set up the rig and do all programming sitting directly behind the heads and judging it all by eye.

which is so damn frustrating... ** laughs out loud **

[gyro_gearloose]

Something I've always done when using moving lights in our rig is to set them up so that when I start from the home position (50% pan/tilt, pointing straight down at the stage) increasing tilt moves the beam towards centre stage, and increasing pan moves the beam upstage. With only a little practice it becomes very easy to quickly position the beams where I want them. I use an ETC Element, so I can invert the pan/tilt in the patch but as others have mentioned you should be able to invert pan/tilt on your fixtures if your software won't allow you to.

 

Edit: I think I'm beginning to understand the problem here. The images you linked to show a typical pan/tilt grid used to control the position of your movers. I think you are assuming that the grid is the beam position on the floor, and that moving the dot around within the grid will make the beam move around in the same manner? This is not the case. All that grid represents is the percentage of pan and tilt of your movers, not the position of your beams on the wall/floor/ceiling. For example, set the tilt of one of your movers to 50%. You can move pan wherever you like but the beam will not move much, if at all.