Simonkbike

My thanks gents & @Archie, I echo David's appreciation of your comprehensive response. I set Ch1 to Beam as a "Mode" channel on the thumb wheel & it's working as you suggest with values 9-135 controlling intensity but with all colours firing, overriding any colour parameter. Panto opens next week and I don't need a strobe so I'll leave it as I described in the OP for now. If I need a strobe I can come back here to confirm the sub-parameters setup. Many thanks Simon.

Thanks Archie, I'll check out the legacy files. I watched the YouTube tutorial for creating the fixture profile but I couldn't find quite what I need. The fixture has 6 channels. 2, 3, 4, 5 are standard RGBW. Ch1 & ch6 both seem to be mode adjustments. So far I have a profile with ch1 as a beam type with default 255 & with RGBW plus a virtual intensity channel it seems to be working. I've ignored ch6. I'm not exactly sure how ch1 works across all values: 135-239 is a strobe control so is 8-134 an intensity control? I can't see how to set these using the desk fixture setup. Do I remember these as sub-parameters in the old fixture editor.

Hi, I'm using a Solution desk so I'm now on the legacy Zeros v7.14 and I'd like to run the Phantom version equivalent to my desk. The website has legacy operation system but not Phantom emulator. Anyone know if it's available? Cheers, Simon. (NB: It's Panto season in UK so I'm prepping for our village show and hence the questions. Next job is creating a profile for some cheap chinese pin spots & I haven't used the editor for years. Wish me luck & don't be surprised if I'm back again later !) Simon

They are kinda small - it would be nice if they were labelled too! S.

Hi Archie, Thanks for the reply. That's very sneaky - I like it ! Next rehearsal is Sunday although I may be in the Hall tomorrow so I'll give this a try. Simon

I'm sure it's buried somewhere but can't find how to do simultaneous button presses on Monitor for iPad. I'm on a Solution desk (but it's not desk specific so I've put the question here) and I want to swap between Playback cue lists on my remote Monitor. On the Solution desk I press-and-hold Memories then press the Go button on the chosen cue stack. The Phantom manuals mention a right-click to hold but that's not an option on iPad, so how do I do this? Simon

As I was about to post, I realised I'd not checked the patching. I found the Lantas have an updated patch profile so re-patched but the error remains. I've re-posted above. S.

I have some Lanta Fireball par64 quad rgbw parcans on my rig which, when set to the same colour palette are receiving different dmx values. Our Panto baddie always has his own colour but it changes from year to year. I saved a new palette "Baddie Green", then a few options to choose from (nos 31-34) , using Lee filters, see photos. If I use palettes 31-34 I get consistent colour on all lights, but I'd have to update each cue if I want to change it. If I <update> Baddie_green with the selected colour, then apply it to my lights, I get different dmx values output to different lights. On the photo 1, the six lights start at dmx 151 and the 1st intensity values are set to 10, 20, 30 etc. In that test the 3rd light gets different values. I can reproduce this when I use any of the renamed colour palettes e.g Undersea_blue. In that case in photo2, lights 1-3 get 120-255-0-43 and lights 4-6 get 120-212-0-43. I noticed this as I've been programming the show, where one light was wrong. When I corrected it, all seemed fine for a while then it reverted to the error. Any ideas anyone? Simon

I'm putting this here as it probably applies to a number of legacy desks. There are a few posts re desks crashing or failing to boot where the recommended action is to "reseat the compact flash". I'm working on a Solution desk which failed to boot 1st time last winter (usually fine on 2nd attempt). It self-resolved before I could do anything then behaved normally ever since ... until this week. I've opened up & found the compact flash card; question how to remove. I've only ever slid cards into cameras etc, but it looks like this is a different kind of mount. Do I prise the card up out of the holder with a sharp implement or what? I was intending to hoik it out for a clean but is a good push sufficient? Simon

Thanks guys, saving a group with intensity is a great help. Confirmed it doesn't link the group level into the cue, so unlike a palette, changes to the Group levels don't affect existing cues. I also found the trick to turn off Smart Tag so I can save lights into the Group with zero intensity. Allowed me to clean up existing cues that were a bit randomly balanced so they're all identical. S

@scottydog75 Yes, we're just a small village hall with an enthusiastic amdram group and a history of generous benefactors, hence the kit. My main issue is the lighting bars are only 10ft/3m above the stage so getting even lighting is all but impossible. Numbering isn't a problem. Back & front FOH bars with 8 each, over stage with 6 & upstage with 6c ycs. Heading down to try groups with intensity today/tomorrow. Will update. S

What? No! I only just discovered Edward had gone. Pantos will never be the same again. Many thanks for your above-and-beyond support for a little minnow. Simon in Wargrave.

Ah, if I can save intensity in groups that might do it. Many thanks. S

My rig has 6 Lanta rgb pars and I use palettes for colours, fairy pink & baddie green etc, as they may change shade between shows. The rest are 28 incadescents, mainly Selecon Acclaims with a mixture of various old Strand lights. With these, I have trouble balancing the different output, particularly from the old lights where some are brighter than others. Could I use palettes to save the balance? I think you can save intensity in a palette (? a while since I looked), but I thought palettes are independent of fixture. I'd really like a portfolio of settings for DSL, DSC, DSR, USL, USC, USR, which would cover our small stage maybe 24ft / 7m square. Then I could pick the settings for a scene: full stage, 1/2 blacks, front roller etc. I’ve also tried position palettes on a few cheap Chinese moving heads, but they drift between cues so aren’t reliable enough. Good enough for movement in dance sequences. S.

Anyone have good ways to put together a show cue stack quickly? I'm using a Solution desk for our annual pantomime and I usually end up with 100 or more cues in the show file. There's a lot of similarities between each year's show but each production also has a number of specials that repeat during the show, a spotlight on an object, a colour effect for a character. I usually take last year's show file then tweak individual cues, reordering & removing last year's specials, then adding this year's as appropriate. It a bit slow & painful. I think it should be quicker to have a base file of component scenes then add some special components & build each cue from these. Question is, what components? I can see a few ways to do this by * using groups * using cue stacks (my "subs') to update & build each cue * calling cue stacks with macros Anyone have their own method or preferences, or can point me to previous discussions here (had a search but couldn't spot anything relevant). Cheers, Simon

Many thanks for the confirmation@Edward Z88. As I feared but half-expected I was probably mis- remembering some other operation. S.

Thanks kg (if I may be so familiar - been reading your helpful replies for a while). Don't seem to work on my Solution. If I press [Del] then G on the keyboard, I just have "Delete" on the syntax line. I've tried pressing [Group] on desk and on remote but... nothing. There's a short list of keyboard shortcuts in the final Solution manual (> = thru; @; etc) which work but the FLX ones don't seem to carry across. S.

I'm having a tidy up of my groups & effects libraries, trying to delete old ones & re-arrange the ones to keep. The zeros manual uses syntax to effect these changes but I can't get my Solution to do the same. Having pressed copy-to, how do I get it into Group mode to pick source & target. (I'm sure I've done this before, but I see the last Solution manual says the Copy button is just for Cues). Similarly, I want to delete multiple groups in one operation but same problem arises. I know some keyboard shortcut work on Solution - is there a list of which ones? Simon

Hey, Apologies, I followed this up with Ed offline & never came back to update the thread, so... My last production started rehearsals in midwinter (near freezing overnight temps) with venue unheated. Shortly after my first post it warmed up a bit and I filmed the desk boot up through our production with no more freeze-ups. Battery was new. IIRC we decided it may have been CF card but left it until we had consistent issues to resolve. Colleague is lighting current production so will check how it's behaving. Simon.

Hey Ed. Ain'cha got anything better to do on a Sunday afternoon?? This is my leisure activity so I'm allowed. S.

For clarity, if you patch a new fixture. non dim profile is in the Generic list as expected. When I was re-patching my existing fader, the Generic list is filtered, hence "non dim" is hidden even to a Search. Once I'd pressed Clear Filter, all was revealed. S.

Anyone else find their desk freezes on powering up? I get the old blue splash screen but it never progresses onto the black screen, then new black logo and so on. If I power off/on it goes through fine. Happens about 40-50% of starts. Anything I need to worry about? Simon.

Yeah, it's there today. Yesterday I searched "non" & got nothing, but I must have mis-typed. Sorry. S.

Hmm, I installed 7.14.2 this week but when I try to re-patch I can't find a non-dim profile. When I search, I still have a video 1ch profile available. Any suggestions? Re fuses: It'll be on the lighting bar so we'll out of reach, but good to check. S.

Hi Edward, Thanks for this, I'll look at non-dim fixtures tomorrow; sounds exactly what I was looking for if I can patch to mfks. Couple of questions: What dmx value does this output? What's the difference between video1ch and non-dim profiles? I recall we used video as it wasn't affected by the Master fader, but can be set in the cue stack when needed. That means I can power down the LEDs on a lighting bar & kill the fan noise if I'm only using my incandescents. FYI: The relay control unit is limited to 10amp max overall load and has 10amp fuse in the mains plug (not shown in photo) that provides power. When I have time I'll label with max load for each socket. We're using it to switch small effects devices & on-stage table lamps so not envisaging overload issues. Cheers, S.