Multi cell moving light fixture personality.

[DaveH]

I just got several Halo 5's from mega lite. I am having a few issues trying to write personalities for them.

The Avolites library only has a 32 channel mode when in fact the fixtures have 3 different modes, 15 ch, 20 ch and 29 ch.

I was able to create a personality for both the 15 and 20 ch modes. Its a beam fixture with a LED ring around the nose. the personality on the fixture does not provide a seperate channel for dimming the led ring. I set the personality to virtually dim the ring, but now the dimmer wheel controls the dimming of the fixture (ch 6) and the the dimming of the LED ring (virtual).

Is there any way to seperate the dimming of the fixture and the virtual dimming and assign the virtual dim to another wheel?

I was also unable to figure out how to create a 29 channel personallity, which seperates the fixtures led ring into 4 seperate rgb cells. Id love to be able to use the shape generator.
How do you create a fixture with mulitple cells and not duplicate every attribute of the entire fixture into each cell? As far as led control goes I have 12 channels of rgb, 1 for strobe, and 1 for macro.

Its a starndard moving head fixture with regular attributes. Pan, tilt, gobo, focus, etc. I can write the first 15 channels with no problem, but then I don't understand the process of creating a color master and then 4 seperate cells. How do you assign dmx to the individual cells but allow the master to control them all together for color selection?

[DaveH]

if it helps heres the link to the personality http://www.mega-lite.com/download/halo5r/dmxprofile.pdf

[icke_siegen]

The Avolites library only has a 32 channel mode when in fact the fixtures have 3 different modes, 15 ch, 20 ch and 29 ch.

Yeah, when comparing to the manual, there are several thing to improve, not only channel layout, but also ranges. I could do this preliminary if it helps, but will leave the main thing to Peter or Nick since I am not so experienced with that sub fixture thing when creating personalities.

I was able to create a personality for both the 15 and 20 ch modes. Its a beam fixture with a LED ring around the nose. the personality on the fixture does not provide a seperate channel for dimming the led ring. I set the personality to virtually dim the ring, but now the dimmer wheel controls the dimming of the fixture (ch 6) and the the dimming of the LED ring (virtual).

This might depend from settings you made in the personality (I guess some not-unique IDs, or some duplicate 'Update' values).

Is there any way to seperate the dimming of the fixture and the virtual dimming and assign the virtual dim to another wheel?

Essentially yes, but I am not sure whether all will be HTP, though.

I was also unable to figure out how to create a 29 channel personallity, which seperates the fixtures led ring into 4 seperate rgb cells. Id love to be able to use the shape generator.
How do you create a fixture with mulitple cells and not duplicate every attribute of the entire fixture into each cell? As far as led control goes I have 12 channels of rgb, 1 for strobe, and 1 for macro.

I'd suggest to use the already existing personality, and just alter it a little bit. I hope some better documentation for the Personality Builder and subfixtures will be released soon (it's really tweaky...)

[niclights]

I think the solution to the 20ch mode is also to use sub fixtures where there is just the one cell.

Cells are created from other modes. So in this case we need one extra mode that is R,G,B,(virtual)Dimmer. You can set this mode to be hidden so it does not appear in the patch menu.

When creating the 20 and 29ch modes after you have entered all the master attributes you can add the cells by clicking on the cells tab, selecting the extra mode we created and choosing a quantity. For 20ch we need one and for 29ch we need four. Note that as soon as you add a mode all the existing attributes will become master attributes automatically. You can create master attributes before adding cells if you wish by holding down alt when double-clicking.

By default attributes in cells are automatically linked to master attributes and at the same time any missing attributes are also added to the master to facilitate this.

In this situation we don't want the link between the dimmers. To remove simply expand the cell(s) and delete the links. Note that links can be created manually by right-clicking on the cell, selecting 'add attribute link' and then select source and target attributes from the drop-down menu (usually they would be the same).

It is up to you whether you retain the RGB links. Personally I would remove them because for the 20ch mode there's not really any point and for both modes you still have to control the dimmers separately. If you do remove the links then you should also remove them from the master attributes as they have become redundant.


Finally, check and adjust channel offsets and wheel mapping. You may also want to adjust the cell layout for pixel mapping by dragging the cells into a 2x2 arrangement.


I have deliberately avoided complicating this procedure with regards to channel offsets but when adding attributes and cells offsets are incremented automatically by default. You can therefore simplify the creation process by ensuring you add attributes in the correct order. In the case of the 20ch mode this would mean adding everything up to 15 as master attributes by holding alt, then add one of the cells (putting it at 16 (red) ,17 (green) ,18 (blue)) then the remaining two master attributes. The 29ch is easier as all the cells come at the end.

[DaveH]

I think the solution to the 20ch mode is also to use sub fixtures where there is just the one cell.


By default attributes in cells are automatically linked to master attributes and at the same time any missing attributes are also added to the master to facilitate this.

In this situation we don't want the link between the dimmers. To remove simply expand the cell(s) and delete the links. Note that links can be created manually by right-clicking on the cell, selecting 'add attribute link' and then select source and target attributes from the drop-down menu (usually they would be the same).

It is up to you whether you retain the RGB links. Personally I would remove them because for the 20ch mode there's not really any point and for both modes you still have to control the dimmers separately. If you do remove the links then you should also remove them from the master attributes as they have become redundant..

Im not sure that I understand completley what you mean by links, and how they apply to dimmer channels.

Could you explain links in a bit more detail?

Is that how I have linked the dimmer to also control the virtual dimmer of the led ring?

Also could you guys be a bit more specific with how I would split dimmer control so I could control just the fixture with the handle(normal dim ch) and the virtual dimmer on another of the encoder wheels.

Thanks

[DaveH]

Also, I dont understand what the compatibility attributes section is all about. It seems to just replicate the cells that are already listed. Help!:)

[icke_siegen]

Compatibility section is for Titan software prior to version 5: the older versions have no idea of the subfixture thing, that's why the compatibility section is the only way they can handle those fixtures.

[niclights]

Is that how I have linked the dimmer to also control the virtual dimmer of the led ring?

No, although the end result is much the same. In your example you had a dimmer that was assigned to a channel and also set to virtually master the red, green and blue attributes. So when you adjusted the dimmer it would directly control the physical dimmer on the fixture as well as proportionally master the RGB levels.

When master attributes are linked to sub-fixture attributes, adjusting the master adjusts the sub-fixture at the same time. Typically this is used in multi-cell fixtures where there are no physical masters. Where red is linked to the red channel in every cell it gives you a quick way to affect the whole fixture. You can use this for the 29ch version to control all four RGB cells as one from the master fixture if you want. It's important to understand this is not the same as a virtual controller which proportionally masters other channels.

Also could you guys be a bit more specific with how I would split dimmer control so I could control just the fixture with the handle(normal dim ch) and the virtual dimmer on another of the encoder wheels.

If you use the master/sub fixture method then you are using the same attribute and it will be assigned to the same wheel. When folded the dimmer on the handle will control the main lamp, when unfolded you can access a handle to control the LED section.

If you don't use sub-fixtures then the only way to separate control is by creating another attribute for the LED dimming. This is simple enough to do - just create another attribute with an 8-bit dimmer function, assign it to an empty wheel slot, include it in your mode with no channel offset and set RGB to be virtually controlled by this by choosing it from the drop-down options (note that the virtual controller is referred to by its attribute ID).

However, unfortunately Titan currently only supports one HTP attribute per fixture. This is defined by the attribute ID 'Dimmer'. The attribute ID is also used by the shape generator. Because each attribute must have a unique ID the extra dimmer (by default 'Dimmer1') will be LTP and not work with factory dimmer shapes. Or, putting it another way, you won't be able to fade the LED part in/out using a playback fader or set the intensity to zero by pressing clear (at least not without causing other problems). This is why I recommend the sub-fixture solution as it allows you to use the same attribute (ID) to control both but individually. Essentially two separate fixtures in one.

[DaveH]

Thanks guys I think I've got it now. I've created the profile and I'll test it on my fixtures in the next day or so.

I did hit one other bump in the road. I can't seem to make the appropriate visualiser file. I opened the personality in personality builder, and then saved it as both a r20 file and a .vis file in the appropriate folders within visualiser(extensions and personalities).

I started a new show and patched several Halo 5's in 20 ch mode (the mode I made the vis file from), as well as some other fixtures that I know have the correct visualiser files. The Halos never auto updated in visualiser but my other fixtures worked just as expected. I also created a theater from scratch and was able to find the Halo fixture from the drop down menu. I manually added them, ensured that the dmx was correct and then opened that theateer in visualiser. Again I left auto update on and my other fixtures worked fine. I could see the Halo fixtures on the visualiser but they they wouldnt respond in any way.

How does the desk (im using titan 5.0 and the most up to date visualiser) connect the patched fixture to its appropriate r20 and .vis file to allow for auto update?

I created the entire personality from scratch and could have easily missed something small.

[niclights]

Sounds like you have problems both with auto update and the vis file itself.

Auto update relies on matching the device name set in the 'Classic Pearl Reference' field of each mode with the device name in the r20 and .vis extension file. Make sure something (unique) is entered here, although IIRC it should have complained when you tried to export the r20?

As for the vis file not working more often than not they do need tweaking. It's really beyond the scope of a post here to explain and you're better off loading into a text editor and having a look. However, as a starting point it is very important that all the attributes are set to the correct type and, crucially, there are no duplicates (except for 'unknown'). You set these in the Classic wheel mapping section.

Also note that there is no support in vis for multi-cell fixtures so it will not be possible to visualise the LED part. Certainly not from a single patch/auto-update situation.