Cosmic Color pixel string and Super Star software.

[Ron Boyd]

I usually pride myself in figuring things out, but right now, I really feel like a big dummy.

Someone please tell me that I’m missing something simple, reading too much into it and creating problems that are not really there, or if I’m just a big knucklehead. The auto sequence, I can do, but, I don’t like the way they turn out. The lights just don’t do what I want them to.

First let me set the stage,

· Thursday, March 29^th, 2012 @ 21:03:57 EDT: LOR Grab Sale

· 3) 16 channel controllers ordered, check!

· CC Pixel string ordered, check!

Check out done:

· My reaction:…………………. “Woo Hoo I’m doing RGB this year.”

Wednesday, April 4^th, 2012 @ 9:00 PM.

· My reaction:…………………… “Goodnight Ron, you just wasted $250 (CCP & SS Software upgrade). “Man, what have I gotten myself into."

Can someone please point me to something I haven’t seen, A video, a tutorial or something that will help me out. I’ve read through the manuals, read forum after forum, gone to the Super Star website and downloaded the PP presentations and, watched Brian’s video on YouTube. Took about 20 minutes to sequence 10 seconds of a song, then when I hit play, nothing happened with the CCP on the screen. I still can’t, for the life of me, figure this program out. I figured out the basics of the Showtime software in about an hour, so I don’t consider myself computer illiterate.

Frustrated,

Ron

[jimswinder]

Have you tried these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6AKVrF8bEg

http://www.superstarlights.com/Other/PowerPointDownloads.htm

EDIT:

well..if I would have read ALL your post, I would have seen that you have...

sheesh...

[BrianBruderer]

Sorry for the difficulty in getting things to work. I am not sure why you are not seeing anything on the SuperStar screen when you hit the Play button. The easiest way to get something to play on the screen is to do the following:
1) launch the superstar program
2) Click on the Tools menu and select Morphs
3) Click on the "Add" button in the Morph dialog box
4) Click on the "Play" button
5) You should see a red morph play on the screen, it should go from top to bottom

If you are not able to get something to play on the screen let me know and we we should be able to figure out why.

-Brian Bruderer

[manscan]

Hello Guys! I am in the same boat! What did I just pay and sign up for? I have never been so confused in my life. I hope someone can help me out with my question?

I am going to use 4 CCR Circles in the show this year. I use the Superstar Software. Use the Instant Show. The program wants to use like 9 Circles in the demo. How do I choose to use only 4 CCR's and then have the Instant show progam those 4 only? Then, how do I export those sequences to the LOR sequence editor for use by the Cirlces in the show this year?

I feel dumb having to ask directions but, this program has me stumpped!
Thanks....

[BrianBruderer]

manscan wrote:

Hello Guys! I am in the same boat! What did I just pay and sign up for? I have never been so confused in my life. I hope someone can help me out with my question?

I am going to use 4 CCR Circles in the show this year. I use the Superstar Software. Use the Instant Show. The program wants to use like 9 Circles in the demo. How do I choose to use only 4 CCR's and then have the Instant show progam those 4 only? Then, how do I export those sequences to the LOR sequence editor for use by the Cirlces in the show this year?

I feel dumb having to ask directions but, this program has me stumpped!
Thanks....

I still need to do a training video on exporting and on instant sequence. Until then, you can change the number of circles by clicking on the Tools menu and selecting Layout. In the Layout dialog box set the following:
* Nbr of CCRs = 4
* Ribbon Orientation = Horizontal
* Ribbon Shape = Circle
* Ribbon Length = Full
* Location of Ribbon Controllers = your choice, I use Left

Once you change the number of Circles to 4, the Instant Sequence dialog box will know it is now 4 and will create Instant Sequences for 4 circles.

As for playing the sequence to your actuall CCRs, below I have copied the documentation from my purchased sequences. I wish it was all simpler, I have worked on making it as simple as possible, but I admit it is still a bit overwhelming when you first look at the length of the instructions, but if you patiently step through the instructions you should be able to get it to work. Feel free to post another note if you have further questions.

-Brian Bruderer

Below is from my purchased sequence documentation:

To play the sequence to your actual Cosmic Color Ribbons you must export the sequence to a file that the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor can open and play. Do the following:
1) Launch the SuperStar Sequencer Program
2) Click on the "Tools" menu and select "Configuration"
3) Leave "Color Mode" set to "Balanced"
4) Leave "Smooth Ramps" unchecked
5) This sequence does not use a star so set "Star in use" to "No"
6) Set "Unit ID of First Ribbon Controller" to the Unit ID of your first Cosmic Color Ribbon controller. Vertical displays should have the first ribbon on the left as you are facing the display. Horizontal displays should have the first ribbon on the bottom. You must have the Unit IDs in order. The first 32 Unit IDs are:
01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,0A,0B,0C,0D,0E,0F,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,1A,1B,1C,1D,1E,1F,20
Whichever Unit ID belongs to your first ribbon, the next ribbons must use the Unit IDs that follow it. Use the above list as a reference for what order the Unit IDs are in.
7) Set “Unit ID of First and Last Controller” of the standard network.
For example, if you had four 16 channel controllers and four CCR controllers you could do:
Standard Network First = 01 Last = 08 (01-04 for the 16 channel controllers, 05-08 for 4 CCRs)

If you had fourteen 16 channel controllers and four CCRs you could do:
Standard Network First = 01 Last = 12 (01-0E for the 16 channel controllers, 0F-12 for 4 CCRs)

8) When you have entered all settings, click on the "OK" button in the Configuration dialog box.




After entering the settings in the Configuration dialog box, you are ready to export the sequence.

Steps for exporting the sequence:
1) In the SuperStar Sequencer click on the "File" menu and select "Export"
2) The default name for the exported file will be %s
3) Launch the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor and open %s
4) Use the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor to play the sequence to your Cosmic Color Ribbons.

Note1: You probably want to combine the Cosmic Color Ribbon sequence with the rest of your light display. There are two ways to do this, you can play the exported file as a subsequence in your main sequence, or you can use copy/paste to copy the sequence from the exported sequence into your main sequence.

Note2: Show Director does not support playing a subsequence. If you are using Show Director you must use Copy/Paste to get the CCR sequence into your main sequence. Also realize that the data rate on Show Directory will run 1 or 2 CCRs. If you have more than 2 CCRs then the sequence will lag when run from Show Director.


How to do a Subsequence
1) Launch the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor (Be sure you are using the latest S3 version)
2) Open your main sequence (The one that you already had before you ever even heard of SuperStar)
3) Right click on the first channel button at the top of your sequence.
4) In the popup menu, select "Insert Channels", then select "Insert Channel Above"
5) Click on the "New Channel" button that you just inserted
6) The "Channel Settings" dialog box appears
7) Enter something like "CCR Sequence" for the Name
8) Set "Device Type" to "Sequence"
9) Click on the small square button on the far right end of the Sequence setting
10) Open the sequence that you just exported: %s
11) Click on the "Ok" button in the "Channel Settings" dialog box
YOU ARE NOT DONE YET! The sub-sequence will be played only while the grid boxes for this channel are "on".
12) Set the little grid boxes to "On" for the entire row all the way to the end of the sequence.
To do this, select one of the boxes on the row
Right click on the box and select "Select Row"
Right click on the selection and select "On"

Now when you play your sequence, the subsequence will be played at the same time. The main sequence and subsequence can both send commands to all of the channels, but they should not send commands to the same channel at the same time.

Note: The Sequence Editor may play the subsequence a little out of synch. On my computer I had to turn on the channel for the subsequence 1/10th of a second after the beginning of the song.


How to do Copy/Paste
1) Launch the Light-O-Rama Sequence Editor (Be sure you are using the latest S3 version)
2) In the panel that pops out from the left there is a "Clipboards" subpanel. Select "Paste by Time"
3) Open your main sequence (The one that you already had before you ever even heard of SuperStar)
4) In your main sequence, right click on where you want to insert your first CCR
5) Select "Insert Device" and then select "Insert Device Above"
6) Enter name as something like "CCR 1"
7) Leave device as "Cosmic Color Device"
8) Set the Unit ID and Network for CCR controller 1
9) Leave "Resolution" at "50 Pixels"
10) Leave "Unit ID Mode" at "Native Mode"
11) Leave "Channel Mode" at "Triples"
12) Do steps 4 through 10 for each CCR you have
13) Open the sequence that you just exported: %s
14) Select all of the channels from beginning to end of the sequence
15) Click on the "Copy" button
16) Click on the "Window" menu and select your main sequence that is listed at the bottom of the menu
17) Select the top left pixel of your CCR rows in your main sequence
18) Click on the "Paste" button
19) If the sequence has some star channels, copy/paste them in a similar manner

The CCR sequence is now in with your main sequence. If the Unit ID and Network were set properly as you inserted each CCR device the CCR sequence will play with the rest of your sequence.

[Gilrock]

I also bought 5 CCR's and planned to use 2 of them to create 4 arches and maybe use the other 3 for a triangular tree shape. I've felt overwhelmed trying to figure out a good workflow between SuperStar and Sequence Editor. I was able to search the forums and help files enough to get Instant Sequence working but like others it was cool to look at but not what I'd use in a show. I figured out how to export from SuperStar and import as a subsequence ok. Then I tried to use paint sequence but I got some strange results. I haven't tried the copy/paste method from the exported sequence you just mentioned so I'll see if I like that method better. My main issue is that a lot of my sequences from my prior work have sweeps where I want it to look like the lights are sweeping from one side of the yard to the other so trying to match up the times where I want the CCR arches on inside SuperStar to coincide with the rest of my channels in the sequence editor is very cumbersome.

But my biggest issue Brian is I can't get to you're website. I've tried for 2 days to goto www.superstarlights.com and all I get is a white page that says "Server is online".

Thanks,
Gil

[BrianBruderer]

Gilrock wrote:

I also bought 5 CCR's and planned to use 2 of them to create 4 arches and maybe use the other 3 for a triangular tree shape. I've felt overwhelmed trying to figure out a good workflow between SuperStar and Sequence Editor. I was able to search the forums and help files enough to get Instant Sequence working but like others it was cool to look at but not what I'd use in a show. I figured out how to export from SuperStar and import as a subsequence ok. Then I tried to use paint sequence but I got some strange results. I haven't tried the copy/paste method from the exported sequence you just mentioned so I'll see if I like that method better. My main issue is that a lot of my sequences from my prior work have sweeps where I want it to look like the lights are sweeping from one side of the yard to the other so trying to match up the times where I want the CCR arches on inside SuperStar to coincide with the rest of my channels in the sequence editor is very cumbersome.

But my biggest issue Brian is I can't get to you're website. I've tried for 2 days to goto www.superstarlights.com and all I get is a white page that says "Server is online".

Thanks,
Gil

My recommended way to get the sequence into your main sequence is with copy/paste.

As for my web site, yes it was been down. The web host we are using was having problems. Everyone using that web host was down. It is 9:58pm CST and they are up now, but the problem they had apparently made it so we have to copy the web site to a new location, which my web master is doing now. The main page appears now, and all the other pages should be functional within 30 minutes.

-Brian Bruderer