Original LXSeries Forum

Im going abroad next week to a venue (where they dont speak my language) that im not at all familiar with, to do a lightdesign based on a plot made in LXfree and then to run the same onLX Console.

I´m concerned abot it today because of two reasons:

1 Surely I trust LX Console to work live on stage (Ivé tested that properly) but I dont know if I will have time enough in site to make the timing of cues work!
It might take me 5 minutes - or it might take me forever!

LXConsole has a really awkward way of handling crossfading times and I don´t know what consequenses that might have.

2' I will be working wirh people who are professionals in all labours but mine. I will have no one to talk to and ask for help or suggestions. I´ll be the boss and my No1 tool will be LXConsole...

I wish I could say it´s not so scary but it is.

Not too happy so far. Its awkward and very timeconsuming with all the jumping back and forth in the sequence.

Is there any way I can make it really live -so that when I change the value on a channel in the active preset, it changes also on stage.

Ive spent most of my day skipping back to previous preset and then back again Every time ive made the slightest adjustment.

And since I cant overide the in/out times this can be a very slow process.

Out of only todays experiences I´d say it seems wiser to do the programming on another lightconsole and then import it to LXConsole.

The problem with that is that I have never got it to work.

I tested a few months ago and the result was -nothing imported.
I clicked a button in the preferences called "set widget to receive DMX" but that didn´t help.

Is there more to this than meets the eye?

I found under the file menu and external a function named:
"run script on cue update."

That sounds like it might make LXConsole do what I would have expected as default.

Hopefully it does! Ill see in two days when I´m back in the theatre.

I found this while I was making a clickable applescript to put on the screen next to my main window. My plan was to get away from all that pointless skipping back and forth with a "send to DMX command", and there it was...

Now I´ve seen it´s also in the Helptext

If that works it will save me a lot of troubles.

Some skipping back and forth will continue though since I find editable fields for in and out times
(in LxConsole. up and down-times) only after the crossfade has been executed, not before.

Enabling "Run Script on Cue Update", command-control-L, with the "Send to DMX Interface" script selected allows you to edit a cue "live", sending the changes to the interface. This even works when you click on channels and use the scroll wheel or two finger gesture to "wheel" a level.

With LXConsole 1.2, Run Script on Cue Update also executes with cues played back using the "Live" window. This allows LXBeams to render a cue as it fades.

BUT, if the selected script is "Send to DMX Interface", then the script runs as well as the direct output--effectively sending the same information twice. I haven't found this to cause problems. The Mac seems fast enough to handle the double work... However, it is probably a good idea to disable "Run Script on Cue Update" if it is set to "Send to DMX Interface" before playing cues using the live window.

Input from the USB Pro requires that you set the interface to receive mode using the button in the DMX Info tab of the External preferences. When you send a cue or any other message out to the interface, it stops receiving DMX.

However, there is another step:

You have to choose "DMX" from the File->Import menu. This captures a picture of the current DMX input. If "Monitor DMX" is selected in the DMX In tab of the Preferences, then input is continuously read from the interface until Import->DMX is turned off OR the interface is reset by changing a setting or in the case of the USB Pro, sending it a message.

Also, if the input is an ethernet protocol, ArtNet or ACN, "Enable Ethernet" must also be selected in the File->External menu prior to turning on Import->DMX.

I´m sitting at my hotel with just the DMX USB Pro and no DMX-equipment trying to test the new version...

Enabling "Run Script on Cue Update", command-control-L, with the "Send to DMX Interface" script selected allows you to edit a cue "live", sending the changes to the interface. This even works when you click on channels and use the scroll wheel or two finger gesture to "wheel" a level.

I get no comfirmation on the screen saying any values change when I try this two finger gesture. Is that correct?
Does the info go straight out to the DMX interface only and thus I can´t see it?

The cursor has to be over the channel/level display part of the main window when you us the scroll wheel or two finger scroll gesture. This allows you to "wheel" the selected channels. You can select channels by clicking on them or with the command line.

Using the scroll wheel to change the levels of selected channels is reflected immediately in the channel/level display.

This use of the scroll wheel overrides scrolling of the channel display part of the main window. So, if you have more channels than fit for the size of the window, you have to use the scroll bar and not the scroll wheel to scroll the display.

Tried that but nothing happens.

At least on the screen nothing happens....

The scrolling with two fingers works fine in every application, including LXConsole to move within windows etc.

It just doesnt work to change a channelvalue

Are you sure that you are using v1.2.2? This is part of the LXSeries Pro "latest build" download. Earlier versions of LXConsole install as part of LXSeries and do not have the scroll wheel feature. (It is possible to have two different versions of LXConsole installed, one with LXSeries Pro and one from the LXConsole download...)

I´m using version 1.1.10

On your webpage I think it said 1.2 was a beta, and I don´t feel god about running Betaversions on a live stage so I thought you meant the other one...

But I guess that means the 1.2 is quite trustworthy then?

Today we had a bad start we- installed version 1.2 and for three hours tried to get it to connect to the Enttec USB DMX Pro.
Finally, and without anyone really understanding how, it suddenly did and has done since!

The scrolling-ability is absolutely wonderful! Wish I had had that a few days ago it would have saved me hours of silly work...

However the patch still doesn´t work, which is becoming quite a problem since we have added some more lights in our partially defect dimmer...

In a few days we have the opening night and after that there will be a tour. For the tour the patch will be a very important function.

So is there any magic you can do with that?

I noted a funny thing with the patch today.
We had ch 29 missing a number in the patchcolumn, it was empty...
When I ran a cue with the ch 29 supposed to fade up together with some other lights it didn´t. It turned on immediately at 0 sec when all the other lights had finished fading up and the cue was done.

So the patch column does have some effect, however not the intended one.

The behavior with the unpatched channel is because LXConsole essentially reads its dmx output as a cue is fading. So, channel 29 disappears while a cue is running because it is not patched. However, when the cue is finished, te recorded levels are displayed. If channel 29 is in the cue, it re-appears although because it is unpatched, it actually does nothing. This is not pretty, even if it has no effect on the DMX output. But, because LXConsole currently fades by DMX address rather than by channel, it will need to have its fade mechanism re-designed so that channel 29 will appear to fade even thought it is unpatched--which is the expected behavior.

There may be another undiscovered problem with the send/receive channels preferences. For now, to use the patch, set BOTH the send and receive channels checkboxes to unchecked.

What you see on the display while a cue is fading will be determined by the receive DMX checkbox...probably not the correct behavior. So for right now, the way for things to function correctly is to match the send and receive channels settings--Use both on or both off, not mixed.

For now, an unpatched channel will not appear in a fading cue but will show its recorded level when the cue is viewed statically.

Because LXConsole fades dmx addresses rather than channels, this will be true for all versions. It will get re-designed but needs logged testing to determine if there are any performance hits due to patching for each incremental step in a fade. (Right now because the output DMX is incrementally changed, it is possible to refresh the fade as fast as the max dmx speed.)

It is funny (!?) that I wrote a long post about the reliability of v1.2 and how it is a good idea to back up your work and hedge your bets because even a word processor can trip you up... Well, the browser failed to send the post so that long reply is now so much electron dust.

Anytime time is an issue, keep multiple copies of files as a backup. That way you only lose as much as your last save. This is true of all software, not just LXConsole.

I am personally very conservative when it comes to backing up. I keep multiple floppy copies of a show as I'm writing cues with a regular Strand or ETC console simply as a backup against a mistake. I often do the same with files I'm working on including plots, word processing, spreadsheets, etc. I also back up my hard drive regularly. Unfortunately computers--hardware and software--not to mention human error--will fail at some point. It is not a question of "if" as much as "when". I went for years without a harddrive crash. But, that was as much luck as anything. When a drive crashes, you lose stuff that is not backed up. You have to decide how much risk vs effort of backup that you are willing to accept.

Along the same lines, software cannot be tested for every possible sequence of events. The only way to discover some problems is for the software to be used. A good example of a problem found by use occurred with LXConsole where follow times would not save because they were in European format instead of the hh:mm:ss format required by the USITT ASCII standard.

LXConsole 1.1.10 is the end of a series of well used versions. LXConsole 1.2.x has a re-write of the fade/output interface so that there can be a different DMX In and Out connection. It is very new and could not possibly have as much use as the older version.

Version 1.2.x is stable as far as editing. You could use it to take advantage of the scroll wheel level setting, for example. But when it comes to playback live during a show, I'd use the older more tested version. Unless you have time to be sure that the new version does what you need it to do.