The Avolites Discussion Forum

Hi I’m Marc and new on the forum here. About half a year ago I bought a used Pearl 2004.

As it is very difficult to find the right personality file for Showtec fixtures because there are way to many of them and people don’t keep to the name format I decided to build the files myself. How hard can it be??? Well I found out.

I just can’t get the personality builder (version 2.2) to work for me. I already spend a full day making a file for the Showtec Pixelbar MKII which has 48 channels. I do everything explained in the pretty good video’s from the bright pixel exactly the same but I just can’t get the program to work for me.

Generic, dimmer colour, 8 bit, Raw DMX, Standard, Basic, whatever I do, Everytime the same error And of course after the errors I threw away the file and started new.

Error messages:

The channels assigned to wheels in this mode only utilise part of the DMX range. Note Visualizer will require complete range to work correctly. Ajust limit to match (yes/no)

(Error white 12) Unable to assign White 12 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Blue 12) Unable to assign Blue 12 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Green 12) Unable to assign Green 12 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error red 11) Unable to assign red 12 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
Error white 11) Unable to assign White 11 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Blue 11) Unable to assign Blue 11 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Green 11) Unable to assign Green 11 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error red 10) Unable to assign red 10 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
Error white 10) Unable to assign White 10 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Blue 10) Unable to assign Blue 10 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Green 10) Unable to assign Green 10 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error red 10) Unable to assign red 10 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
Error white 9) Unable to assign White 9 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Blue 9) Unable to assign Blue 9 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error Green 9) Unable to assign Green 9 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank
(Error red 9) Unable to assign red 9 to an attribute bank. Assigned to 0 bank

Unfortunately I don't have any possibility to link pictures, But all the dmx channels were assigned on the Channels Page. I'm at a total loss what is happening here. I was thinking maybe the maximum capacity was reached, but I also have a file of the Shotec pixelbar 12 MK1 (36DMX) and this file loads without any problems.

I hope somebody can shine a light on this.

I can't find any Showtec product named Showtec Pixelbar MKII but assuming you are referring to the Pixel Bar 12 MKII as far as I can see it is an RGB fixture and according to the manual the mode channel counts are 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 18 and 36. I cannot see any 48 channel mode or any white controls. That aside:

My instincts are that some of the controls are not assigned to wheels or that there is more than one control assigned to the same slot. If you haven't already done so, select the wheel mapping tab at the bottom, then the Classic Pearl tab at the top and check if there are any controls marked in red. If there are drag/drop them until they are all assigned to unique wheel slots.

While you are on this page it is also a good idea to make sure each attribute is assigned to a unique type or uncategorised. For example if you have 12x RGBW controls, the first red can be Red, the first green can be Green and the first blue can be Blue. The remaining 45 controls should all be set to uncategorised (the Classic software does not have a White attribute and there cannot be multiple controls set to the same type).

Lastly it is important that there are no range conflics in a particular control. If there is just one function, for example the attribute Red would typically just have one function called Red, start DMX 0, end DMX 255, display type percentage 1dp, start range 0, end range 100 (0->255 = 0.0%->100.0% in the display). This would be fine. But if you have more complex attributes with multiple functions, for example shutter with closed, open, strobe %, random strobe etc. then it is important that the start and end DMX values for each function don't overlap. Typically this can happen if the functions of an attribute can change depending on the value of another channel. For example a 'macro' channel might have some automatic effect functions followed by some sound activated functions. There might be another channel that sets the speed of the automatic effect functions or the sensitivity of the sound activation, depending on which is selected. Titan supports this but Classic does not. In this case Classic would see two functions with overlapping DMX and not be happy. These duplicates should be removed one way or another.

Note that the R20 files are just text files. You can view and edit them in a text editor such as Windows Notepad after generating them. Sometimes this is quicker and easier. If you still have any problems you can just copy/paste the text and post it here.

Hi Nic,

Thank you so much for your answer.

The Showtec Pixelbar I'm refering to:
Showtec pixelbar

It seems they removed MKII because this is the followup of the 36 channel which is now discontinued. I rather would have had that one as there indeed was a good personality file for that.

After a night’s sleep my head is a little clearer again and tried to find a way to add pictures to the forum. But I can’t show them live because when i use the image link they appear as a broken link so I add them as html links.

Step 1:
Adding atributes 1
Adding atributes 2

Step 2 Adding modes
Adding modes

Wheel mapping
Wheel mapping page 1 diamond & titan
Wheel mapping page 2 diamond & titan
Wheel mapping page 3 diamond & titan
Wheel mapping pearl

And how it looks after saving: wheel mapping after save

Now what's even stranger was that I did load one of the files into the Pearl2004 to see what it does and everything seems to work fine. Only the files the Personality builder claims to be corrupted are not there.
Pearl 2004 screenshot 1
Pearl 2004 screenshot 2

As said, I just can't understand what is going wrong here. When someone is willing to see what they can make of it, here is the map with the last personality files created.
Personality files

I can see the problem.

The Classic console/software only have two pages of attributes. Personality Builder is misleading where it allows you to assign to other pages but they won't be written to the file when saved.

Note page 1 dimmer bank wheel 2 cannot be used either meaning there is a limit of 39 attributes per personality so a 48 channel mode will need to be split into two parts. In a simple 12x RGBW the most obvious solution would probably be to create a 6x RGBW 24 channel mode and patch two for every fixture. However, if you have sufficient handles available, patching as 12x RGBW fixtures will make control much easier.

This was exactly the answer I was dreading, and I was getting too as well.

But thank you again for the solution. I didn't think of that one. I was on the path of storing the bars under the faders, but as I want 8 of them....

My background with intelligent lighting is nightlife, so the Pulsar Masterpiece. I could read and write with that desk. I would still love to have it but it just does not have enough DMX channels anymore to cope with today's demand of DMX channels. (even the Pearl isn't anymore as we see now).

I tried DMX software, but I just don't like to work with touchscreens. I'm old school and want faders and buttons

So I managed to make a personality file for the Showtec pixelbar12 48dmx. This by doing as Nic suggested, and "cut" the Pixelbar in half. So it are actually 2 files dividing the bar in 2X6 pixels, but at least you are able to run them in the Pearl2004. Of course it gives you new challenges with programming as the Pearl will see one Pixelbar 12 as 2X Pixelbar 6. Keep this in mind.

With Nic’s explanations, it became more clear how the personality builder works. The biggest step to take with this software is understanding it, and there doesn't seem to be much more explanation then the Quick start personality builder from Avolites itself.

The files work fine in the Pearl2004 and everything works as expected. However, as soon as you want to change or check something, the personality builder will mess up the wheel alignment for the Pearl. Something to keep in mind when you are opening up the files in the personality builder again. The Titan set up will probably be fine (it was for me).
I also would like to advise you to leave the settings alone and pay attention where you write your custom names so you don’t mess up the settings unless you really know what you are doing.

Anyway, for the people who want the personality files:
1: Showtec Pixelbar 12 48 DMX ch01-06
2: Showtec Pixelbar 12 48 DMX ch07-12