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Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 05 Jul 2010, 21:02
by Spav
Hi All
I feel sure this must have been asked before, but I can't find anything in the forum. I have a large number of scenes, cue lists etc. but I have a need to re-address the fixtures in my set up, I wish to keep all of the scenes and cueslists the same just using the new addresses. I have adjusted the addresses in the lixture list but the addresses do not translate through to the scenes or cues.
Any help would be appreciated.
Even the file formats would be appreciated so I can write a script to do the work for me.
Thanks in advance.
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 05 Jul 2010, 21:25
by Mavi
Hi
I had the same problem some month ago. There IS NO easy solution. You have to create you scnenes new or you can go trough all the sequence files (*.chb) and edit them. These files are hex-files. How they look like you can find in the wiki:
http://www.freestylersupport.com/wiki/s ... erstanding
I just hat about 25 short sequences. So I programmed them new. That seams to me much faster then programming a tool to translate them.
Here the topic I created:
http://www.freestylersupport.com/fsforu ... 62&start=0
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 05 Jul 2010, 21:55
by LJ_krede.dk
Spav wrote:I have a need to re-address the fixtures in my set up
I'm curious. why do you need to readdress your setup??
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 05 Jul 2010, 22:19
by Spav
More info, I have just had a fun 30 minutes with the patch in setup and it almost works, however I use artnet and while things look good on the local PC the remote is forcing zeros into the patched channels every other frame???? It was almost too easy.
I feel a script coming on!!!
We have the light show for our band and we are headlining. For the support bands we want to use the built in sound to light and our scanners support their own dmx out to make 4 scanner show, but they need a specific set of address to work. To make the changes easy for the day we want to change the address of the scanners so that we just unhook the DMX in from the start of the chain, set up the first scanner in the chain and let the scanners do their own thing, then for our show we reconnect the DMX in and turn off the local mode on the first scanner only and we are back to our original setup. It would have helped if I had spotted this addressing requirement before I started programming, but we used to use a Martin controller in blocks of 6 channels and the mapping just stuck!!!
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 05 Jul 2010, 22:59
by Spav
More more news.......
Running directly to the DMX interface (not over artnet) works. I have patched the addresses and all seems fine, tested all the cues, scenes and overrides and it looks good. There is one minor irritation in that the indicators with the fixture Icons no longer work. I guess the artnet issue and the broken fixture icon indicators are bugs.
Just incase you want to do the patch this is what I did.....
1. Re mapped the addresses for each fixture in the Setup->add/remove fixtures
2. Re mapped the addresses in the patch editor Setup->FreesStyler Setup->patch
3. Restarted FreeStyler
However for anyone else in this situation the patching hurts your head. You must not have any duplication in the matrix, a simple move from A to B is fine as long as B is not already occupied. If it is B must first be moved to C etc. Also if A moves to B then B must move to A to keep things striaght. Again if any destination is already occupied then you must chain the changes until you have remapped your fixtures and you only ever have one of each number 1-512 in your matix.
I will write the script so I can remove the patching from my setup, I am writing it as a web tool so that you can just post a .chb file and get back a translation.
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 06 Jul 2010, 20:29
by LJ_krede.dk
Spav wrote:
1. Re mapped the addresses for each fixture in the Setup->add/remove fixtures
2. Re mapped the addresses in the patch editor Setup->FreesStyler Setup->patch
isnt that double work?? I think you only need to do the patch, not readdress the fixtures. the patch will do the work... Or am I missing something?
Re: Readdressing fixtures How to?
Posted: 08 Jul 2010, 12:55
by Spav
1. Re mapped the addresses for each fixture in the Setup->add/remove fixtures
2. Re mapped the addresses in the patch editor Setup->FreesStyler Setup->patch
isnt that double work?? I think you only need to do the patch, not readdress the fixtures. the patch will do the work... Or am I missing something?
You only need to change the patch if you do not need to direclty control on-line after patching (other than the icon issues and the arcnet issues) the old scenes work. How ever to build new scenes the address does not match the mapping of the fixture, so you have to try to remember where it used to be, nor is it easy to do with the patch as the icon no longer work.
However there is an additional complication when adding new fixtures as the new fixtures have to avoid both the original and the remapped address, as I found to my cost last night. Simply remapping the fixure address remapping the scene to the new fixture, even via a button would seem quite logical.