CCR chase effect programming help

[DLTSLC]

Anyone have tips on creating a good chase to the beat effect for the CCRs? These are new to me, and I can't find any relevant posts explaining how to's for CCR or rgb led strip programming. Thx every1.

[WilliamS]

There are a few ways that I have found, the easiest is with SuperStar. As Superstar was originally designed around the CCR.

Second would be the beat wizard to lay out the actual timings you want, or the tapper wizard to manually lay out where you want the beat to start. Remember the CCR in Sequencer looks like a 150 RGB so you can create a chase like you can on any set of channels. Create your color, then use the chase tool to where you want it to stop or a new color to blend. Also do not forget to use the read me file on these as there are macros that you can trigger for a full strip chase at your beat timings by placing the start of the macro on the proper macro channel.

Best advice on any LOR equipment is Read the Manual, not being mean but there may be a lot of things the CCR can do that you did not realize! They are very in depth and if you have questions the support team are spot on!

[Guest guest]

GoofyGuy wrote:

Best advice on any LOR equipment is Read the Manual,

Many of us were chastised for that advice a few months ago....

[George Simmons]

DLTSLC wrote:

Anyone have tips on creating a good chase to the beat effect for the CCRs? These are new to me, and I can't find any relevant posts explaining how to's for CCR or rgb led strip programming. Thx every1.

PM me your email address.

[ItsMeBobO]

Not really sure what you are looking for but I will take a stab at it.
Know your tool options and what they can do. Experimenting is much more fun than reading, so do it first and then consult the manual and you may find it clicks for you.

As usual you should have your beats and timings down. For the CCR I suggest just the first few beats of the 4 or 5. Its a blur if you try to use too many. This results in plenty of off pixels so its clear what part of the ribbon the eye should follow. Lead strong and trail down to off. Color changes are great for background and non-beat matched, but if you want the ribbons to be the focus for a moment, I suggest solid instead of rainbow.

Don't get stuck on starting your chases at the ends. Divide your ribbon into sections and do the same chase on all of them in opposite directions. Like a kaleidoscope. To me it seems more powerful to from inner to outer. Outer to center makes your eye wonder where its going, while center out keeps your eye on the center and you naturally presume it goes forever instead of seeing the end as a focal point.

When your ribbon is not the focal point I like to use the macro chase or a rainbow chase at a lower intensity. The chase does not need to line up with anything and it is part of the background.

[DLTSLC]

Thanks for the comments...My biggest problem, I think, is I haven't purchased the 9 CCRs yet, but am trying to program them. I'm waiting til they go on sale, because obviously the $$$ savings compounds with the # I'm buying.

I didn't buy the SuperStar, because I think I can do all what I want in S3? Maybe I'm wrong.

Basically, I want a chase effect to start from the beginning of the CCR to the end of the home that moves to the beat of the song continuously, like this - - - - - - - - - etc. and they move either away or towards the middle to the beat of the song in certain spots.

I'm a planner so I can't resist trying to program before I have the hardware

[ItsMeBobO]

Maybe there is a video you like which you are trying to replicate that you could point us to. Since moving chasing to the music is kinda vague. Share your layout or a picture of it and the first song you have in mind.

S3 can do a LOT without SS which is great for ribbons in a matrix. Nothing wrong with planning ahead to prove your concept. I have CCB props built getting dusty waiting for bulbs and a lot of programming and visualizer too.

Like Crackers famous stuff? At one minute in,
http://www.creativelightingdisplays.com/html/videos_2011_LMFAO_RPA.html

[LightORamaDan]

DonFL wrote:

GoofyGuy wrote:

Best advice on any LOR equipment is Read the Manual,

Many of us were chastised for that advice a few months ago....

Don et al.,

Sorry to go off topic on this thread but I want to clear up this comment to the thread in that it is apparently a misunderstanding of what was going on in other threads.

The reply by goofy... was an excellent one. It provided suggestions and politely reminded the OP that it is always best to read the manual. In the past we have complained when the OP is impolitely chastised for not reading the manual with no other input. With those posts, it was the attitude and the unwarranted harsh wording that was at fault.

On Topic... If you are looking to make chases on the CCRs then the latest S3 Sequence Editor will do a good job for you. With the addition of groups and the use of the chase and fill tools you "compress" your 9 CCRs so that the fit on a single screen and can then draw chases and fades and colors on them rather easily and quickly.

We are just finishing up some tutorials for S3 that are long over due and should have them available online in a couple weeks.


Dan

[DLTSLC]

LightORamaDan wrote:


We are just finishing up some tutorials for S3 that are long over due and should have them available online in a couple weeks.


Dan

Those tutorials will be a welcome site...I'm totally a visual learner. I'm messing around with the program trying to figure it out, but clearly wasn't meant to be a programmer

[amcdonald307]

Not meaning to hijack yet another thread, but this at least seems on topic, and I'm hoping BobO will have some input...
I run 4 CCRs along with my 7 or 8 controllers. I'm worried about getting close to maxing out my network, especially if I expand. My assumption is, if I do a 1/2 second simple chase in white on all 4 CCRs, I am sending 1800 commands over the network in that 1/2 second? I could do the same effect using macros with only a dozen or so commands are being sent?
That being the case, I think it would behoove us to use the under-utilized macros anywhere we can, especially reading about some of the latency issues that seem to be cropping up in the larger CCR universes. Or am I wrong in how that works?

[LightORamaDan]

Using macros is certainly a good way to go. As far as the number of commands, that is extremely difficult to calculate.

Up to 16 channels can be addressed in a single command but in some cases only one channel is addressed. So to set the intensity on all 150 channel CCR it can take anywhere from 10 to 150 commands.

Dan

[jimswinder]

amcdonald307 wrote:

Not meaning to hijack yet another thread, but this at least seems on topic, and I'm hoping BobO will have some input...
I run 4 CCRs along with my 7 or 8 controllers. I'm worried about getting close to maxing out my network

so why not use another network?

Basically just the cost of another USB-RS48.

I ran 35 controllers and 12 CCR's on three networks...not one problem.

35 Controllers - Regular Network
6 CCR's - Network A
6 CCR's - Network B

[ItsMeBobO]

Using another network takes a little getting used to as well. All doable, but there are a few gotchas which I wish would be fixed. It is very manual and error prone. Requires changing all your sequences and the visualizer. Not as easy to use the HWU and it will mess up your settings if you dont answer the annoying Comm port question correctly. SE doesn't fix your names when you change them either so adding networks could be a lot easier and hopefully will be in the future.


Will address the macro programming in a new thread I will start for you.

[LightORamaDan]

ItsMeBobO wrote:

Using another network takes a little getting used to as well. All doable, but there are a few gotchas which I wish would be fixed. It is very manual and error prone. Requires changing all your sequences and the visualizer. Not as easy to use the HWU and it will mess up your settings if you dont answer the annoying Comm port question correctly. SE doesn't fix your names when you change them either so adding networks could be a lot easier and hopefully will be in the future.


Will address the macro programming in a new thread I will start for you.

If you have not done so please send suggestions for improvements to wishlist@lightorama.com.

[ItsMeBobO]

LightORamaDan wrote:

If you have not done so please send suggestions for improvements to wishlist@lightorama.com.

Thanks Dan. Since you are reading this thread, I want to post it in here and link my wishlist email to it.
Dropping a load here. Sorry,
I am a bit sleep deprived with a kid that threw up on me last night and tonight, so my apologies if this sounds rambling incorrect.


All this pertains to using Multiple networks and ability to manage them.


This is Network preferences from SE. And the registry settings it creates.





Below is snap of the HWU. It is aware of Registry settings but is not fully up to date with Multi-network user friendliness.

HWU comes up with the REGULAR network as the default. (9 in my example) The list presented has ALL Comm ports. There is no way to limit to the KNOWN list of ports which is just two in the registry. R9 7A No visual clue which are in the setup.
If you select any other then the known regular 9 you are asked, "Is this the port that will be used for shows". This is badly worded since both 9 and 7 are used for shows. Its easy to mistakenly answer yes. The question is intended to identify the regular network. (Help is clearer then popup message) If you do answer yes, HWU incorrectly changes the REGULAR network to 7, You get a conflict message AFTER the change. This leaves the registry set to 7 and NONE and it can not be set back from HWU. You must go back to SE to fix it. IMO This changing should not be done at all from HWU just because you want to connect to a network, especially for multi-network setups. It may have been a help in the old mostly one network days.

Next the MAX unit id could be a range which is remembered by Comm port. People add controllers year by year until they have too many for a single network. In my usage anyway, the units do not overlap. If they did I could not move them between networks without renumbering them, that is running out and switching the dial. All I want to do is switch the cable to the new Network. So Comm 9 units are in a low range and Comm 7 units are a much higher range. I dont want to wait for this slow search when I know there is nothing in the lower range.

Sometimes HWU is used to find something unknown and you want a complete search. But I usually go there to resolve a specific problem without the need for broad search ability. Still want the HWU to search and verify unit is found in a narrower range.
Can HWU do an all unit search without losing my set MAX? Which is stored and has to be set back?
Can HWU access known values and make it easier to find a specific set of units on a selected Network?






Now moving to SE channel / Network configuring.



Sorry so much on one picture. Please notice the following.
The Network preferences panel has check box to "List Networks in Channel Configuration". This only controls the Channel config network being grayed out. Networks can still be changed on all of The Add contoller, Add device, and Change controller panels which are not honoring this setting (not grey).
There are several issues. All panels are unaware of the networks which are set up in network settings. All four should note which are set up or limit list to those setup. All panels allow duplicate definitions. This is possibly a disaster. Creating a new unit 01 device thinking you can change it later wont work. When you try to change the new unit 01 with the change controller panel, both the old and new are changed. Must change each of 16/157 individually to recover. Cant delete because one of the combined units will have events on it which will be lost.
The add device checkbox "Include base unit ID in channel names" also includes the Network before unit if its other than Reg. Should read "Include Network and Unit in channel name". (A30)
Note the top channel name CCB matrix A30 p1, with the Network column listed as Aux C. The Change controller panel does not reset the name in the same fashion it was built by Add Device.


This is in the help file.

Note: The Change Controller dialog will not change the names of your channels, even if the names are based upon the existing channel settings. For example, if you change LOR unit 03 to LOR unit 07, and the channels for LOR unit 03 had been named "Unit 03.1", "Unit 03.2", and so on, they will keep those same names, even though their actual unit IDs change from 03 to 07.

This is not a Network adding / changing friendly option.
Names generated by Add Device can be optionally replaced when unit or Network are changed with the same kinds of options as Add device.






Summary

HWU
Port list could state the known associated Network letter Comm 9 Reg, Comm 7 A, Comm 8 none, OR have a Check Box filter to list all ports or just ports known to setup.
Selecting should ahead warn or not change the Regular port (in registry) if there is any other in addition to regular. Should be able to fix the change from HWU.
Ignore Max Unit with a check box for when the unit searched for is not known. So it doesn't have to be set back.
Max Unit could be a range (since it is so slow) that is remembered for the selected Comm port / Network. (Maybe unit id range or specific list can be found from a supplied config file)

SE
Network settings panel could be accessible from HWU. Maybe a stand alone program which can be launched from SE, HWU, or Control panel.
List Networks Check box only restricts one of three places a Network can be set to other than Regular.
Add device does not honor the network settings checkbox intended to note this is a single network set up.
Add device check box to include channel in generated name also includes Network.
Add device network options show all possible. Could be limited to just those set up.
Add device lets you create a duplicate which you can not recover from with change controller.
Add controller does not honor the network settings checkbox intended to note this is a single network set up.
Add controller network options show all possible. Could be limited to just those set up.
Change controller does not honor the network settings checkbox intended to note this is a single network set up.
Change controller network options show all possible. Could be limited to just those set up.
Change controller lets you create a duplicate which you can not recover from with additional changes. It does ask are you sure but why allow a destructive change.
Change controller does not fix the channel names to match the new Network and Unit you are changing to.

Can there be an option to enforce unique UNIT ID on both add and change panel disregarding the Network id? This uniqueness will allow the Network to change without causing the Unit IDs to overlap. This will be a Network adding / changing / recombining friendly option. Unit Id is not usually changed on the controller when you just want to move a unit between Networks and retain ability to switch back. I am not over 255 units on a network .. yet.



Thank you for your consideration.

[DLTSLC]

ItsMeBobO wrote:

Maybe there is a video you like which you are trying to replicate that you could point us to. Since moving chasing to the music is kinda vague. Share your layout or a picture of it and the first song you have in mind.

Like Crackers famous stuff? At one minute in,
http://www.creativelightingdisplays.com/html/videos_2011_LMFAO_RPA.html

Sorry Bob, I didn't get pinged with your reply. In Cracker's video at 1 minute 25 seconds is what I'm looking to do and cannot for the life of me figure out how to do it on the sequence editor.

Any ideas ?