Fog/Hazer Suggestions

[Hambone]

I have two feature requests:

1. Add an option (in general settings?) to allow the hazer/fogger to respond to blackout - we run FreeStyler in a mostly-standalone mode where we only use the blackout feature to "pause" the light show during set breaks. however, we also have to remember to stop our hazer in between sets then start it again when we start the next set. Having the hazer respond to blackout (either by stopping the timer or simply setting the output to 0%) would be wonderful as it would eliminate an often-forgotten step.

2. Add the ability to toggle the Timer button in the fog control via MIDI. Right now it's possible to control the Fog button, but the timer can't be started or stopped.

Thoughts?

[LJ_krede.dk]

1. Add an option (in general settings?) to allow the hazer/fogger to respond to blackout - we run FreeStyler in a mostly-standalone mode where we only use the blackout feature to "pause" the light show during set breaks. however, we also have to remember to stop our hazer in between sets then start it again when we start the next set. Having the hazer respond to blackout (either by stopping the timer or simply setting the output to 0%) would be wonderful as it would eliminate an often-forgotten step.

well, you can already do that by a alternative method:
* add a parcan fixture to the same channel as the fog / level channel.
Done

when you press the blackout button the blackout will overrule the fog / level channel and set it to zero beacuse FS will blackout the parcan

but still,,, it would be a nice feature to have anyways

2. Add the ability to toggle the Timer button in the fog control via MIDI. Right now it's possible to control the Fog button, but the timer can't be started or stopped.

I dont have DMX controlled foggers and hazers, but sounds like a nice feature and shouldn't be hard to implement in the MIDI control for FS

[remco_k]

1. Add an option (in general settings?) to allow the hazer/fogger to respond to blackout - we run FreeStyler in a mostly-standalone mode where we only use the blackout feature to "pause" the light show during set breaks. however, we also have to remember to stop our hazer in between sets then start it again when we start the next set. Having the hazer respond to blackout (either by stopping the timer or simply setting the output to 0%) would be wonderful as it would eliminate an often-forgotten step.

Blackout only blacks out shutter / intensity channels (and should only be doing that, as otherwise "blackout" would not be a good word anymore), 'many' more other things keep on going (if active) like shapes and other non-shutter/intensity channels.
And if the blackout functionality is changed, where to stop? Also add Pan/tilt channels to stop moving fixtures? It would not be a blackout anymore.
Just my opinion.

A better way for you is to create a custom blackout button, by creating a one step sequence, setting all channels (512 or just the ones that you use) to 0 or the value you prefer. Save that sequence and add it to override buttons. Name it "Sleep all" or "remco_k's blackout" and youre done.
Just pressing that button completely overrides all channels and everything comes to a stop and goes off.
That way I create custom blackout buttons for different fixture sections.

[dmxlighting]

You could make a fixture profile for the fogger that uses the shutter / intensity
atribute as the fog output channel. Then when u black out it will stop!

[LJ_krede.dk]

You could make a fixture profile for the fogger that uses the shutter / intensity
atribute as the fog output channel. Then when u black out it will stop!

if u make a fixture file with shutter /intensity channel you can't use the fog control window in FS. FS dont know it is a fogger/hazer then

[dmxlighting]

You could make a fixture profile for the fogger that uses the shutter / intensity
atribute as the fog output channel. Then when u black out it will stop!

if u make a fixture file with shutter /intensity channel you can't use the fog control window in FS. FS dont know it is a fogger/hazer then

Fair point!

If you were to use the new 'strobe timer' to contol fog, then whis would work ?

[dmxlighting]

I will explain how I achieved this in the reply post if you require me to do the hack.

Well Im interested to know how

[dmxlighting]

How cool is that!

NIce one Andre. You should finish of your fixture creator tutorial and add that bit in at the end.

BTW - What are u using to grab your screen shots?

[Hambone]

Thanks to everyone for your input on this, and especially to Andre for the fixture hack - gotta love playing with the internals The hazer I use is a Le Maitre Radiance hazer - beautiful thing, can be used as a fogger when set to 100% output and comes with a warning to discontinue use if visibility is reduced to below 50cm, which is quite easy to do even in a large room

I see the point of the "slippery slope" argument - i.e. where to stop once you add things other than intensity to the "blackout"... However that's why I suggested making it a setup option. As an alternative, maybe make it possible to define, in the fixture creation process, which channels respond to blackout and what their blackout values should be? That way, if you DID want fixtures to stop moving during blackout, it would be simple, and if not, just don't configure the pan/tilt channels to respond to blackout.

Anyway, I tested the suggestion of creating a blackout scene that explicitly sets the hazer channels to 0 and putting it on an override button. This didn't work, as apparently the output from the hazer/fogger control has higher priority than even the override buttons - output still went to 255 when the fog button was pushed even when the override button was active.

The suggestion of putting dummy par cans on the same channels as the hazer worked perfectly though, allowing the normal blackout function to indeed also stop the hazer output. The only caveat to this method would be to make sure that both the hazer and the dummy cans are set to ignore master intensity in fixture setup.

As for MIDI control, even with the workaround, it would still be nice to control all aspects of the fogger interface (levels, duration, fog, and timer) via MIDI

[dmxlighting]

it would still be nice to control all aspects of the fogger interface (levels, duration, fog, and timer) via MIDI

You can if you assign direct DMX control via midi on the channels that your fogger is on.

midi1.jpg

This is how I always tend to control haze / fog.
I dont tend to add it into scenes / sequencies. This is not without some issues but it works for me.

[Hambone]

Unfortunately the direct MIDI to DMX channel has the same problem in that the fogger control will override it. I don't program it into sequences either... normally I just set my desired settings in the fogger control, hit timer, and let it run through the set... having MIDI control of the fogger control would allow minor tweaks to the duration and interval to get the right level of haze without having to leave the stage to get to the computer