Errors

As FreeStyler is a live program continuously developing there may from time to time come errors that looks like a dead end.

The only way to track these errors down is to figure out what functionality creates this error.

This is easy to say but can be difficult to track.

It may be something where all external controls are to be disabled, the location are deleted and created with new fixtures that are not the same as when the error occurred.

New installation of Freestyler.

And the error is still there.

There are a few more things to try.

FreeStyler has as many other programs a way to reset all parameters.
In the freestyler.ini file in the “FreeStyler” folder there is a [ResetAll] parameter.
reset = false. Try change this to reset = true.

Restart FreeStyler.

And finally try to delete freestyler in the registration data base.
“\HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\VB and VBA Program settings \Freestyler”

Be careful when you are in the registration data base. You may destroy things you don’t want to destroy and then have to reinstall the whole PC again.

When Freestyler crash.

When FreeStyler crash and it is due to user action like opening a panel, entering a parameter or so, it is quit easy to detect, replicate and raise a bug report.
If it is a crash that just appears by itself without any action from the user it is a bit more difficult to detect.

Here are a small test that may help detecting if it is the program or the driver that fails.
Set the interface to “Virtual Interface” startup FreeStyler again.
When FreeStyler runs with” Virtual Interface” all functionality is the same and it is communicating with a software interface. If it doesn’t fail then it is related to the USB-DMX driver.
It will then be a good idea to check that it is the latest driver that are installed or to reinstall the driver.
If it is a dongle based on the FTDI chipset then “Enttec” have a FTClean program that remove the driver.
http://www.enttec.com/dmx_usb/FTClean.zip
And the latest driver can be found on FTDIchips web site.
http://www.ftdichip.com/Drivers/D2XX.htm

NOTE: At the writing moment I am not aware of other drivers so if you have any knowledge’s of these then please edit this note.

USB Selective suspend

There have been some issues where FreeStyler has stopped sending DMX output.
It has been appearing in various shapes where also FreeStyler has crashed. Sometimes it has been sufficient just to close the program and but the error comes again. Other times it has been impossible to close the program so it had to be ended via the job list. And other times it has even been necessary to force a power down of the PC to end the program.
One thing that we have detected is that disabling “USB selective suspend” removes this error.

This option will cut all communication to USB devices after some time to save power and are therefore to be disabled.
USB Selective suspend

Forgotten password.
If the password has been forgotten then there is only one way to fix that and this is in the registration data base.

It can be found in windows under Start → Run → “RegEdit”
“\HKEY_CURRENT_USERS\Software\VB and VBA Program settings \Freestyler \Settings”
There is a “Password” label and you can see what the Password is.

Some Fixures doesn't Blackout.
- This can happen because the Shutter CH isnt' set correct, so to solve this you have to set the Shutter CH correct with the Fixture Creator.
Fixture Creator - Lamp Configuration

No “OFF” button for Strobe.
The strobe are stoped by using the Shutter “Open” or “Closed” Button.
Lamp Panel description

Red X icons in the fixture control panels.
This indicates that no imgae is attached to this DMX value in the DMX tables.
See: Gobo Configuration. The description of Gobo wheel 3

The Blue Ball don’t move in the movement panel.
When running Shape the Blue ball don’t move. However monitoring the DMX output for Pan and Tilt it can be seen that these values changes with the shape.
The update of the blue balls position was removed because of some error issues.

“Flip” don't bring the beam to the correct position
Flip should flip the fixture but keep the beam at the same point.
If the “Range” value is not defined or wrong then the beam will be moved after a flip.
See: Fixture Creator - Movement configuration

Color wheel / Color Palette only have a few color icons.
If “Use global colors”, under “Setup”, are checked on then the color palette is reduced to a few icons instead of a full color selection field.

Lamp Panel is not present
See Fixture Creator section on this page.

Cues turn each other of.
When more cues are to run at the same time “Cue Multiselect always enable” are to be set on.
Link to multi cue.missing please enter when topic is made
Note “Cue Go to previous value always enable” this restore the values when a cue is stopped.
Additional note that the sequences are to be made as Transparent (Transparent Mode).
Link to Seq .missing please enter when topic is made

Override button Don’t override.
Manual override on the fixtures has highest priority. This means that the override buttons don’t work if there is a manual override on the channel.
It is possible to change this by setting the overriding buttons to highest priority.
See Override buttons, Blue triangle

Shape movement stops when cue are turned on.
It is important to notice that the shape movement is not a stand alone movement generator.
Shape has to be added in a sequence and then into the cue like everything else.
If the shape is not in a cue the it will be turned off when the is started.
Link Add Shape on Sequence. Bezier Shape tutorial.

Number of scenes.
The max no of scenes / steps in the sequencer was in the version before V3.4 = 15.
From version 3.4 it is 45.
The number can be changed in the file “freestyler.ini” which is in the freestyler folder.

[NumberOfScenes]
Number=45

See eventually: Editing the freestyler.ini file

You can also download “FS configuration tool” Click here to Download the FS configuration tool

Disadvantages (Pleas fill in if you know any)
The FreeStyler statup time will be longe

Color display on the screen don’t change for the fixture.
When running with time shorter than 400 the small color display on each fixture don’t change.
This is made so due to graphic handling on slow PCs.

Sequence / Cue override everything.
Check that the Sequence is made in “Transparent Mode” with not use faders in “Off” mode.

No Fixture control when creating a sequence.
If the “Cue” and “Sub Master” window are open then there is no direct control over the fixture when you try to create a sequence.
The “Sequence Editor” will show “Offline” and all fixture control will only be visible in the 3D Easy view.
The reason for this is than it will then be possible to edit sequences during a show without disturbing the light running.



If the direct fixture control is wanted then close the “Sub Master” and “Cue” window.

Path not found

Trying to ”run” a cue in the submaster window this messages pops up.
The fcf file that are loaded into Submaster selection window, contains path to the cue that are selected. If the cue filename or path is renamed, moved or in any way manipulated then this messages popup.


The fcf file has to be re-created or edit in a text editor to match the cue file.
Here the “TB_Scan\Sine.chb” has to be correct.

My fixtures are blacked out using Submasters - In the sequence editor everything works fine

On the right of each sm is a slider. This is the sm intensity. For the most part you wont need it but any attribute like the 'lamp' that is set to use intensity will need this to be on. It works like a dimmer so the higher it is the brighter the beam. To use it place the mouse cursor over it and hold the left mouse button. Now you can drag the intensity up and down. You will notice that it turns blue.

See Using Cues and Submasters

The light are doing some strange things when I adjust the SM fader to 0%.

The SM fade has a option “Fader Start / Stop Control” found under the cog wheel in the Sub master panel.
This option switch off the sequence that are active on this Sub master fader when the fader is set to 0%.

If “Restore values” in the cue option is checked on and saved with the cue then when the Sub master fader is set to 0% the previous value for the channel are restored and this may give some unwanted effects.

The fixture don’t react on DMX400.
The fixture must have a intensity channel or a RGB control to react on DMX400.
If a dimmer pack is used as fixture then check that the fixture has been created with an intensity channel and if not then create a new fixture with intensity control.

Color, Gobo, Beam, Pan/tilt, lamp Window window have disappeared
This can happin if you have draged one of the windows to the second screen

you can Reset all the windows, Go to Setup→Freestyler setup→Preferences→Extra options and Press “Reset Window postions”
Or under “Windows” select “Reset Window postions”

Midi controll / Freestyler is getting slow
-This can happin if the Drivers a not Intalled, So Go an install the Drivers from the Midi controller.
-it can also be caused by the Midi output, This means you'r using USB1.0. so to solve this get USB2.0 or Turn off the Midi ouput.

My midi device sends a velocity lower then 127
For FreeStyler to recognize a button press it is important that the velocity from the midi device and Freestyler match each other.
This can normally be alternated in the midi device what velocity to send but it is also possible to change the trigger value in FreeStyler. In general it is preferable to do the velocity change in the midi device because if it is done in FreeStyler then it is a general change that affect all connected midi devices.

Go to the Freestyler directory, now open Freestyler.ini with a note pad.
search for:

[Midi]
Triggervalue=127

here you can change the Trigger value

Unable to connect
It can be a bit difficult to figure out what goes wrong if FreeStyler and the wireless device fail to connect.
Mattotone has developed a small test tool which can help to figure out what is going wrong if they fail to connect.

This tool is named “FreeStyler_Remote_Connection_Test” FreeStyler Remote Connection Test

Unable to reconnect / connect
Occasionally Freestyler will block incoming connections, due to a previous connection not disconnecting cleanly.
I.e Wifi Dropout, To Resolve right click on the connection icon and press disconnect All

Light doesn't react to the dmx out from freestyler.
1)Be sure you selected the right fixture in Magic 3d.
2)did you selected “Virtual interface” as your Interface.

Magic 3D view runs Very Slow
this can be caused by the resolution 3dView work on to change this, go to the Option then press on “Resolution” and set it lower.

The light don’t react as expected.

The fixture in 3D Easy View are as in FreeStyler user created and may have errors.
FreeStyler fixtures and 3D Easy view fixtures are not the same.
Try examine the fixture with “Scanlibrary Editor”

Lamp Panel is not present in FreeStyler

If only strobe is present in the Lamp panel then the panel will not be present in FreeStyler
There has to be either intensity or Shutter “Open” / “Closed” defined to.
It can be necessary to add a dummy function on one of the channels.

Please fill in all Gobo values
This error messages comes when one or more DMX values are missing in the gobo tab.
If example “n’ gobos 1” is set to 3 then there are 3 gobos on the “Gobo 1” tab. These 3 gobos must have a value.
If they don’t have a DMX value then it is not possible to save the fixture.
If Gobo wheel 2 or 3 is defined then it is the same for them.
Check that all values are entered on the Gobo wheel tabs.
Fixture Creator - Gobo configuration

Animation image don't shift
From time to time this issue pops up.
One problem could be that the program does not support Unicode.

Go to “Control Panel” → “Region and Language” → tab “Administrative” →

In section “Language for non-Unicode programs” click “Change the system locale” and set “English (United Kingdom)” or US.

When you know that FreeStyler does the right thing and the fixtures behaves strange then it is time to isolate the problem make some systematic fault finding.
DMX Fault finding

DMX addresses: How to set them can be found here. DMX How to set the addresses on the fixtures
If a fixture react wrong on the fixture control fader then ther may be an address overlab. DMX Addresses.

In some Rare Cases you have Your Unicode Diffent then US.
Like Asia languages use 2 bytes to represent a character, English just only one. Sending data to the com port will give problems when value gets higher than 127.
Maby this can help you out: http://markcz.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/multiple-language-for-non-unicode-programs-settings-on-one-computer/