The Avolites Discussion Forum

Hi chaps,

I preparing for a show tonight.

I know that when I patch a fixture the desk automatically puts colours etc on the pallette buttons.

What I want to know is:

- Does the pallette button 1, 2, 3 become the same. So I am patching Mac 500s, 918s, 250s, 600s etc, will button one be OW on all, 2 be blue, 3 yellow etc for example? Or will be the order of the colour wheels.

- The same applies with the gobos.

- Will the desk be assign colours to 1-10, gobos to 11-20 etc or will it go until it has used all the colours up?

- Is there a way to only record one attribute to a preset. So I don't have to change to colour/gobo/position on the side, but when I hit the pallete say 1-10 it changes colour, 11-20 gobo etc?

Cheers

Neil

The auto-palettes are defined in each personality file under PFTable. To be sure you can check each one by looking in the online library and comparing to fixture data. The idea is 1-10 will always be colours, 11-20 gobos etc, but I advise checking if you are going to use. Personally I always create palettes manually.

You can certainly create only one attribute per palette if you wish and using the above method should also do this just because they all would be 1-10 colour etc. When creating yourself is very important to use 'record by channel'. I tend to restrict palettes not only to single attribute but also single fixture type which, when used with 'quick palettes' option, gives single button press for recall and two for timed without worring about fixture or attribute selection. This obviously comes with the compromise of limited number of palettes.

Thanks Nick, fantastic advice as always....

2 questions:

1) What happens with Mac500s, which obviously have more than 10 colours? Where do the rest go

2) how do I go about checking the defaut quick pallets on the website?

Sorry to be a pain!

Neil

http://www.avolitesdownload.com/Persona ... efault.asp

I guess just the 10 most popular are chosen. Like I say, you can define the palettes yourself either manually or by editing the personality file should you want a custom repeatable patch.

1) the 10 "default" colors will be auto-created as a pallette. The other colors won't. You can either program pallettes for them manually. Or Use the wheels to select your color while programming.

2) Download the personality files. Then you can open the files for your fixtures in notepad. i.e. martin mac 500 will be: mt500m4.r20

At least the martin mac250 and the mac600 will autocreate the colors in this order. (its: name, position for created pallette, colorwheel1, colorwheel2)

Thanks guys.

Event went well, although the Croma Banks worked weirdly...

I did the three presses of CLEAR and the Banks stayed on.

Even when I took down the GM they stayed up! The only way I could black them out was to ajust each RGB attribute to 0%.

That was interesting. I patached CHBNK_H (HTP). My guess it that both of the units or the DMX was at fault?

Also one other quick question, can I take the links of all steps in a chase without unfolding and going manually??

No matter what anyone else might have told you, only one press of [clear] is ever necessary. More have no effect!

Your description does sound like they were LTP and not HTP, but I had a look at personality and looks ok (if a bit nasty!) I am struggling to find a reason for this - maybe would occur if you changed page? I certainly don't think it is unit or DMX as you were able to control manually.

I would say that I don't like that personality. Surely there should be other versions that include the 'zone parts or do you patch that separately? Whichever, I personally would patch 12x Chromofix which would be much easier to edit (and allow use of shape gen) than trying to get your head around where all those colours are in relation to attribute. Ouch!

I'm not sure I understood your last question. You mean 'unlink'? If so, yes: [Edit Times], press relevant SWOP button and then toggle link on/off with softbutton G.

HTH

Hi nick thanks for that.

Very interesting with that personality.

I meant witht he UNLINK function so I dont have to unfold the chase and do it for each step. I UNLINK the whole chase in one go, rather than go to each step. For example a 30 step chase will take ages!

Yes, using Edit Times and toggling link on/off will unlink/link all steps in a chase.

It really sounds like you've patched an LTP version.

Pressing clear 3 times is for GrandMA desks, I believe it's as follows:
1*clear: deselect fixtures
2*clear: take all current data from programmer and set the priority of that data to normal, then clear programmer. I.e. all spots stay in blue, but blue is no longer in programmer, and another playback can override that blue to red.
3*clear: clear ALL (except playbacks ofcourse)

niclights wrote:No matter what anyone else might have told you, only one press of [clear] is ever necessary. More have no effect!

HTH

That's good to know. A helpful tid bit indeed.

So, from reading the forums I'm starting to get the hint that basic HEX programming is in my future working with my Pearl. Not afraid of that as i'm currently a basic web programmer and am also familure with the concepts being discoused here. Even so, guess i'll get back to learning the basics of my board first. Thanks Nic.