First time programmer with a few questions - VENDOR - Animated Lighting Odds and Ends Read Only. No more posting. - PlanetChristmas! Forums. Read Only. We've moved to http://talk.planetchristmas.com - The Forums of PlanetChristmas have moved to http://talk.PlanetChristmas.com
Sequencing my first show. Believe I checked all the right boxes in the startup, but my show plays and won't play again. Assume I've forgot something. Also, I compiled and loaded multiple show. To see what the effects look like on a test tree I had built. I noticed the shows are still listed on 5, 6, 7, etc. Check marked and did an erase, but when I went back to the load window the previously loaded shows are still listed and didn't clear. I'm not sure if that causes problems trying to load another show on the same number or not. I did go into the sd card via my reader and cleared the card. Nothing seemed to clear data from the load window. Last, but not least is there a list out there somewhere (other then the basic what's it do list) that details the settings and effects that are created when (rate) changes are made to ramp, pop fade, shimmer, etc. So say you change a fade rate for ramp what can you expect to see on the other end.
ps. Can anyone give me a quick rundown on sequencing arches. Playing with them and can't get them to flow correctly? Wasn't sure whether visualizer shows them correctly. Thanks
Believe I checked all the right boxes in the startup, but my show plays and won't play again. Make sure that you have a row of blank columns at the end of the programming file (if you have a fade, it may need to be long enough for the fade to complete). 4.029 can sometimes hold up at the end of the song because the programming goes all the way to the last column. In this situtation, even if you have checked for the song to loop it will not start over. Play with the end columns until it restarts and this should solve the issue.Also, I compiled and loaded multiple show. To see what the effects look like on a test tree I had built. I noticed the shows are still listed on 5, 6, 7, etc. Check marked and did an erase, but when I went back to the load window the previously loaded shows are still listed and didn't clear. When you load a show, I think the software pulls up remembering where it last loaded a show file. So I think this is more like a default setting. For each check it will load the new show (if there are three checks and you click load, it will load the show three times). Just unclick and select the new position. Also, even though the checks are there I bet the memory size is zero if you erased them before.I did go into the sd card via my reader and cleared the card. Nothing seemed to clear data from the load window. It is recommended that you not put the SD card that you use with the MB (versus the mp3 player) into a card reader. I do not know the technical terms, but it usually corrupts the show file.Last, but not least is there a list out there somewhere (other then the basic what's it do list) that details the settings and effects that are created when (rate) changes are made to ramp, pop fade, shimmer, etc. So say you change a fade rate for ramp what can you expect to see on the other end. I do not that there is a list other than the basic one (it is available at http://www.ChristmasAtTheGoods.com/training (other resouces page I think). Just play with the rates to see what they look like. A good rule of thumb is that if you want to have a ghost tail effect, use pop fade and a fade rate (length depending on how long a tail you want). For shimmer, the key is to remember that the effect shifts back and forth from full to whatever you set the power rate. So if you have the default set to 255 and use shimmer it is really just a ramp because it shifts back and forth from full to full.
ps. Can anyone give me a quick rundown on sequencing arches. Playing with them and can't get them to flow correctly? Wasn't sure whether visualizer shows them correctly. Thanks Sequencing arches can be very challenging at first, but once you master the basics it can be really easy. First, you need to start with setting a chase track. The intervals should be .10 or .09 for a fast chase. I can be even faster, but not less than .05 or .06. Now you can chase back and forth using just these columns. Then to do the rest of the programming you can switch tracks and use the audio wizard to insert the columns. SAVE OFTEN. Next, hide the tracks which are not in Track 2, do your programming, then when you tell the computer to show all tracks, the computer will magically run the programming across the other tracks. This is a big time saver.
I hope this has been helpful.
Ken, I tried a few chase programs and had some problems. I watched your advanced class a couple times. The long and short of it is I want to take some of my stock shows from last year (which I have the files for) and add a few archs and probably a mega tree. I tried mike's animated moving company just to see what I would see. It did add columns, but wasn't sure how I know the right length of time to set my columns to, and can you adjust them after your show has been changed. Whew! I guess I just need to know what's the best way to take a stock show and add tracks so I can add a few new items to each show. Sorry for the bother, I seem to be a little slow on the draw when it comes to the software. Anyway, thanks for all your help.
Wow! Talk about going to the advanced features. Using Mike's Animated Moving Company is the right move, but I am a little rusty using it myself. Generally, what it does is it takes all the programming on the "All Tracks" line and moves it to whatever track that you specify and then inserts a new track on the "all tracks" line. The new track line will be at whatever time interval you specify.
The issue that I have seen is that sometimes the hide not in track feature does not work when you do this. But if you go to another track, you will see some tracks in bold and some not and you can figure out which ones are in the track for programming purposes.
Another thing you might try is to run Mike's Animated Moving Co. twice. Once to set up the new track and then to move it to another track such as Track 6. I have only tried this one and I believe that it created some stability issues. But give it try, play around with it and let us know how it worked.
