Support Forum

Hello All-

I've been working on creating a fixture profile for the Chauvet Intimidator (CH-605) 5-channel scanner.

This fixture is the original Initimidator and not the 1.0, 1.2, 2.0 and whatever other iterations that Chauvet has introduced in the last few years.

Anyway, the fixture profile in Freestyler was a little bit off, so I decided to fix it using FixtureCreator.

During a recent testing of my profile, I was able to correctly setup the color and gobo wheels as well as the pan and tilt channels (everything worked as programmed).

However, I'm having one problem:

Channel 2 (gobo channel) controls which gobo will be displayed, and displays the correct gobo when the DMX values is between 8 and 255.

For this particular fixture, a values of 0-7 should be 'blackout', and no light should leave the fixture.

When I was running lights for a band last weekend, I was unable to get the lights to blackout. Even with all five DMX channels set to zero, I was still getting a white 'open' gobo displayed on the stage.

I have gone as far as I can with troubleshooting (I tried editing the profile about 20 times so far with no luck) and was hoping that one of you could help spot the one minor detail in my fixture profile that causing the problem.

Thanks!

When you had all five channels set to zero, did you check the actual output of FS (EDIT>SHOW OUTPUT) to verify that was being sent to the light? Do you have another DMX controller to check the light by another means? Did this light work before or did you just get it?

The fixture file looks ok, but you can add CH2 as the Shutter Ch. and put 8=open 0=closed. You can still leave the gobo channel @ ch2. It won't effect anyting, but atleast your lamp on / off will work.

If you verify that FS is send zero to all channels and the light still doesn't go blackout, I'd say something is wrong with the fixture, but would try to test it using a board or something else other than FS.

After taking a lok to your fixture file I would say everything is fine with the gobo channel. I suggest to try Shannon D's solution. Or perhaps

But I found you set on the first colorwheel for a value from 0 to 5 "blackout", then from 6 upward "white". In the manual form 0 to 11 is white

Shannon D wrote:Do you have another DMX controller to check the light by another means? Did this light work before or did you just get it?

I've been using these particular lights for the past 6 -8 years, and ran them with various controllers and have never seen this problem before. It's very safe to say it is not a fixture issue (all 4 of the same fixtures did the same exact thing, which lead me to believe it's a data issue).

Shannon D wrote:When you had all five channels set to zero, did you check the actual output of FS (EDIT>SHOW OUTPUT) to verify that was being sent to the light?

I did not check the output levels (good tip though!). I was able to control all my other fixtures (I was running 8 color changers) without any issue (including black out), but the Intimidators still wouldn't black out.

Mavi wrote:But I found you set on the first colorwheel for a value from 0 to 5 "blackout", then from 6 upward "white". In the manual form 0 to 11 is white

Nice catch! But he colorwheel channel doesn't control the shutter, I think that I did that in frustration... LOL

Thanks for you help, and I'll try setting channel 2 as the shutter and put 8=ope, 0=closed.

I'll report back after the wekeend, after I've had a chance to trouble shoot.

You need to define the "Shutter" for blackout to work as FreeStyler needs to know what to control to blackout.

I am pretty sure if you just used an intesity (dimmer) channel it will work as well even if the shutter is not defined. I will give it a go later.

Definately pop open the DMX Outputs window, it saves a lot of aggro when trying to work out if your fixture profiles are working properly.

You need to define the "Shutter" for blackout to work as FreeStyler needs to know what to control to blackout.

I will attempt this fix later on this evening or tomorrow.

I guess if that fixed the problem, then I wouldn't be sure why. The blackout for this fixture isn't a true blackout like on higher-end fixtures, it's just a spot on the gobo wheel that is solid (i.e, no light can pass through the blank spot on the gobo wheel).

To me, if the value for the gobo wheel to project a square is between 16-24 and a circle 25-32 and so on, then why wouldn't a value of 0-8 move the gobo wheel to the spot where no light passes through? It just seems to me that there isn't a true shutter on this fixture.

At this point, I'll use whatever works to get the job done! ) LOL

sundog_rocks wrote:

You need to define the "Shutter" for blackout to work as FreeStyler needs to know what to control to blackout.

I will attempt this fix later on this evening or tomorrow.

I guess if that fixed the problem, then I wouldn't be sure why. The blackout for this fixture isn't a true blackout like on higher-end fixtures, it's just a spot on the gobo wheel that is solid (i.e, no light can pass through the blank spot on the gobo wheel).

To me, if the value for the gobo wheel to project a square is between 16-24 and a circle 25-32 and so on, then why wouldn't a value of 0-8 move the gobo wheel to the spot where no light passes through? It just seems to me that there isn't a true shutter on this fixture.

At this point, I'll use whatever works to get the job done! ) LOL

It does not matter what it is physically called or what it is attached to, I have seen them on colour wheels, gobo wheels, dimmer channels all sorts, what is important is to define what is known as defined as "blackout" into the "Shutter" fields of the Fixture creator, so FreeStyler knows what channel and what value.

I was talking about a similar problem in another post where I would like the blackout to be as it is now, i.e. define the shutter and or intensity channels and the values or be able to point to a macro that defined all the channels and values needed for a blackout. That way if you have a fixture that needs various channels defined to blackout it can be done. For example a fixture that has multiple lamps each lamp has it's own RGB and shutter channels.

sundog_rocks wrote:

You need to define the "Shutter" for blackout to work as FreeStyler needs to know what to control to blackout.

At this point, I'll use whatever works to get the job done! ) LOL

Being there is no true standard with DMX lights, we sometimes have to find work arounds. Thank our lucky stars that Freestyler is flexible to let us do work arounds.

After you have assigned shutter to ch2 and set 8=open 0=closed, you will have to delete the fixtures from your setup and then add them back in for the changes to work.

Once that is done, open the output window. Then click on the intimadator and open the lamp and gobo when. Take notice to what happens to the output for channel two of the fixture when you click on lamp on/off or the gobo wheel. You should clearly see that lamp off takes ch2 to zero and the blackout on the gobo wheel also takes it to zero.

Shannon D wrote:After you have assigned shutter to ch2 and set 8=open 0=closed, you will have to delete the fixtures from your setup and then add them back in for the changes to work.

Is this realy required? I just close FS and start it again after changing fixtrue files.

Mavi wrote:
Is this realy required? I just close FS and start it again after changing fixtrue files.

Your right Mavi. I just tried it and it does work. I'm not sure if the older versions of FS did that. It seems I always had to remove and add them back in. I must say, I haven't added new fixtures or changed my fixture files in a while. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

Shannon

I didn't get a chance to try this with a live fixture this past weekend (but I did update the fixture profile), way too much going on to sit down and try to work it out... (I know, excuses, excuses...)LOL

I HAVE to do it by this weekend though, I'm running lights for a Kiss tribute band...

We like happy endings to threads , so let us know how it goes!

I tested the updated profile with a single live fixture and everything appears to be working correctly (blackout! woooooooohoooooooooo!).

Full test will be this weekend, but everything looks A-OK at this point.

Thanks for your help on this one.

Kevin

I'm glad to hear your fixed up!

Hopefully you learned a lil more about FS to put another notch in your belt. The more notches you have, it will help in a "Live" situation when stuff isn't working like it did back at home.

Good Luck and Have Fun!