Support Forum

Hello you all,

I'm new at this forum, and also new to the Freestyler program.
What i'm not new to is lighting, I have a few years experience on the GrandMA Consoles.

In 2 weeks I'll start working for a medium sized nightclub. (http://www.eindelijkweer.nl)
Here they're using 'Martin LJ' now.
I can't do anything with this, the owner is not (yet) willing to purchase a GrandMA Micro or at least a 2port, so i had to think of something else.

Then I came across Freestyler, it seems to do exactly what i want.

I downloaded it, bought a brand new BCF2000 and got started.

The only thing i want to do with the BCF is use the faders for intensity's of some fixture groups.

FYI:

1: Moving heads group 1 int. (4 ps.)
2: Moving heads group 2 int. (14 ps.)
3: Laser int.(2 ps.)
4: spare for weekly changing fixtures

5: Blue Pars int. (whole bunch)
6: Magenta Pars int. (whole bunch)
7: Blinder int. (whole bunch)
8: Strobo int. (2 ps.)

What i got so far (using the manual on this forum)

-Made a sequence for a group of pars (1 step).
-Stored it in a Cue.
-Assigned the Cue to one of the submasters.

I can controll the submaster with the BCF, i see it goes up and down.
Further nothing happens.
When i create a 2-step sequense, it starts when i slide the fader up, and it stops when i slide it down, but this is not what i need.

I just need to controll the intensity of the pars with the fader on the BCF.

Can someone please help me get started, or point me to a tutorial?

Thanks,

Matthijs

The MIDI to DMX option is also not a sollution, becouse i need one fader for a whole bunch of dmx channels...

Yes you can do this with the sub masters.

Create the sequencies you want for each group of lights and set them up into sm's

Then assign the each sm to a fader on your BCF.

Have a look through the FS wiki for more info. Also somewhere on here is my PDF guide to using SMs and cues.

First I want to thank you for your quick reply!

Yes, it was your tutorial i mentioned in my first post.
I'm probably doing something wrong, cause i can't get it to work like this.
But it's good to know that it's possible.

I will fiddle with this later, becouse in the meantime I have managed to do this in Martin LJ.

For the interested:

I've used the beta of LJFaderS 2.0 to get DMX-In signals into LJ, and used 'Global Patch' to assign DMX-In channels to the DMX-Out channels.
It's possible to use one DMX-In channel for more DMX-Out channel!

I will try to get this to work in FreeStyler, because i like your sollution better.
What i did here works but is a little bit rough



Credits to Markus Neubauer for making the program LJFaderS

Its possible that the fixture profile you are using is wrong.

The dimmer channel(s) must be set up in the fixture profile to indicate that it is to be controlled as an intensity channel. That way the sm intensity will work as a dimmerble fader. Your chase or scene will play back as expected but will be fully dimmerable.

I do this exact thing with a load of LED pars and strips etc. Even works perfectly for moving heads or any other fixture with an intensity channel. In fact if you have an LED (RGB) type fixture with no master dimmer you will find that FS has a 'virual' master dimmer to allow over dimming control via master intensity of submaster intensity.

I think you mentioned that whern you pull the sm intensity up it starts the chosen sequence in the sm. This is an option that you can turn on / off by right clicking the relevant sm. Control over each sm is then via the buttons under each sm, all of which can be assigned to buttons on the BCF.
This is acually how I do it myself...

The rotary controll at the top of each channel controls the intensity and by pushing it down toggles that sm on or off. I then use the 2 buttons below the rotary to navigate up and down each sm. The big fader is assigned to control the speed of playback within each sm.

I did spend a fair amount of time remapping the midi channel numbers on my BCF to get things just how I wanted them but I think out of the box you should be able to do the same or a similar thing.

Hope this of some help.