Control parameters in palettes

Is it just my imagination, or can I not store a control parameter in a palette?

Here's my problem: I have a new installation with some VLs and Cybers. While I'm building cues, there is still some work going on with power and control wiring to the Cybers, so I'm occasionally asked to power down a fixture, or send a home command to a fixture that a tech is working on. Since sending a "home" or a "shutdown" control command alone does not work on the Cybers due to the simultaneous needs of the intensity channel, I've built a list that I run as a VM to handle home and shutdown. But, while in building cues, I don't want to run the list and have all my Cybers home or shutdown. I can work around this by capturing the control channel first, then running the list, but this is a nuisance while building cues. On a Hog 2, I would create a palette with the control channel levels (or a series of palettes for the Cyber necessities), then select the fixture and apply the palette(s). Unfortunately, I can't get a control in a palette on the Hog iPC (running version 1.4.1).

Has anybody found a cleaner way to do this?
  • You should be able to select the fixture, click control, click fixture global reset, wait 3 seconds, click control, click fixture idle. I have not tested this, but that is the theory of how the library is supposed to work.
  • First of all, I wish a pallet would cut it but sometimes not.
    What I have done with all my rigs is create cuelists to perform these functions. The reason is because I am fortunate that I can precue my shows but I have never been completely fortunate in getting gear that works as well as the "soft" rig does.

    First thing
    Create a New (Temporary if it has to be) page called "Control"
    Then Open Your Cuelist window and go down about 5 pages until you get far enough away that when you build your show you don't interrupt your programming stream. Save this as an "add" view.

    Next
    If you're like me, your group window looks like your rig (almost). So for this reason, I build my Cuelists the same. First, I grab one group of fixtures at the time and build my control functions (in blind mode for those who don't need to turn off lights we just finally got working).

    The Group Build (Cyberlight for example)
    Start on fader 2 (or fader 1 for those like me who hate wasting a fader for a grand master). Build a 4 second fade to black (cue 1). Make this fade so it is done with your dimmer and your CMY wheels. The reason is that dimmers fail and dimming with color mixing means a "less piss off the client who notices" fade. This is your "subtly remove the light from the look" cue.
    Cue 2 is when you close your shutter and bring your intensity back to full. Don't forget to put a delay on your dimmer so the shutter is completly shut before the dimmer slings open. 0.1 sec is usually good. When you record, make this cue an auto follow with 4 seconds of wait time.
    Cue 3 is the cue where you shoot the dimmer back down to zero. Give this cue a 1 second follow or so but remember that there is not fad3 time needed.
    Cue 4 is your golden "Control Cue" where you insert the control function. Give it a 1 sec delay.
    Cue 5 is the "return to idle" cue where you once again change only the control back to Idle. Depending on the light, this needs between 3 and 10 seconds of wait time.
    Cue 6 is when you do nothing but release the cuelist. I usually put a wait that exceeds the needed home time by about 10 seconds in this cue (cyberlights 1 min 15 sec).
    I usually include a 10 second release on this so that when it releases the dimmer and color, they slowly fade back into the "whatever" look they came from.

    Now you have a One Touch solution for your control of a group. Now you duplicate this procedure for all fixture group types.

    "Shutdown Cuelists"
    Open the cue lists now and add cue 4.5 which will be a "shutdown" instead of "reset" and you have your "shut off" cuelist too. Insert a link under cue 3 which points to cue 4.5 and you just saved more time. Just a copy of the list and a change to the link cue means a change to your control function.

    The magic is that after all this, you create duplicate cuelists for all the individual fixtures in your rig and make your cuelist window look similar to your fixture group window.

    Obviously this is not practical for one night shows but if you're a touring geek or got lucky enough to be the button pusher in a venue where the booth chair notices the 50 extra lbs that came this season as you eat donuts, then you'll love how lazy this is. Of course the magic t make this process fast is in using the "master" lists or fixture type list as the template for building the single fixture lists.

    Oh and the magic trick is that is you make cue 1 a "per fixture" cue and all following cues "per fixture type" cues then all you have to do is just copy the master list for however many fixtures of that type you have and just "knockout" the fixtures you're not wanting in cue 1.

    The reason I say use faders is for button presses to test your list steps. Obviously when the whole thing is said and done, you just delete the page and use the cuelist window to run the cuelists.

    This solutions has yielded me a rig I can home and kill fast. I even have macro cues setup to run the "reset" lists the night before so about 15 min before I walk in the next day, the rig is turning on.
  • Paul,
    Running the control channel alone does not work with the Cybers (that method works fine with the other fixture types in the rig). The intensity channel has to bump to full and back to 0 before the control channel change, then the appropriate control parameter value has to be set within three seconds. Possibly using the highlight key I could do the operation fast enough manually...

    Todd,
    Thanks for your idea of simply making a list per fixture. My rig is permanent, so it will be very useful for me to copy my existing global list into individual fixture lists.
  • Jim,

    Actually for a Cyberlight control channel, you only have to have an intensity value above zero then take it to zero and adjust the control parameter within 3 seconds. You are not required to bump it to full then out.
  • Brad,

    Thanks for the clarification. Since my original post, I realized I can set the intensity to zero in the programmer, use the highlight button to "cycle" the intensity quickly to full and back to zero, then call up the necessary function in the control menu within three seconds. I'm also implementing Todd's idea of having individual lists for each Cyber. I also just discovered a previous posting by Marty where he says a hard zero in the programmer seems to bypass the intensity channel manipulation prior to setting the control value, so I'll give that a try and see if that works.

    Can anybody comment on my original question... Is there a way to record control channel attributes in a palette? If not, could that be a future addition, or is there an argument against adding that functionality?

    Jim
  • Jim,

    There currently isn't a way to record control data into palettes. It can be recorded into cues, but not palettes. There are a number of improvements currently logged for the handling of control functions. Ideally, selecting a control function should perform that function (even if it involves multiple steps) and then restore the fixture to an idle state. If the control function requires setting values on other channels (like strobe or intensity, for example) then the previously set values should also be restored.
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