Channel Assignments

[Dglass4321]

My brother decided to bite the bullet and bought controllers at the last sale.  I gave him all my sequences and he has started to edit them to suit his configuration.  The problem is that I have twice the number of channels that he has.  He has been patiently cutting and pasting.  Last night he called me and asked me if he couldn't just assign the same channel twice in a sequence.  I honestly didn't know of any reason why this couldn't be done but before I give him bad information, I thought I'd better ask.  Is this possible or does it lead to problems?

[k6ccc]

I'm not sure what he is asking.  If he wants to have two lines in SE that both are the same channel, that will end up with conflicting data - bad.  For example if ID 01 channel 01 is supposed to be on from one line, but off on the other, how does it know what to do.  The answer is that whatever line with that channel that has the latest command will be acted upon.  For example, if one line commands a channel on at 0:00.10 and the other line commands that same channel off at 0:00.20, the result is that the channel will, go on at 0:00.10 and off again at 0:00.20 - in other words, it will flash on for 100mSec.  Likely now what was planned.

Not recommended.

 

[TheDucks]

You will get some really strange, Hair pulling results. 😮 (I messed up adding some smart nodes to an existing string. The good news, the LOR developer included a validation tool, that informed me of the conflicts. All I had to do was learn to understand what I was reading, then find the place I had counted RGB channels wrong. 3's, always get the correct starting point for your 3's count)

In Showtime 4.x, there are alternate ways than cut and paste, to reassign ID's and channels (Still discovering stuff in LOR, probably always will)

[dibblejr]

He can copy/ paste / assign the same channel to a different controller (unit ID).

However why? He could just connect the lights to the same controller instead and use the channels he would have used for another prop.

You don’t mention what controllers he purchased so assuming they are AC channels.

JR

[Dglass4321]

5 hours ago, k6ccc said:

I'm not sure what he is asking.  If he wants to have two lines in SE that both are the same channel, that will end up with conflicting data - bad.  For example if ID 01 channel 01 is supposed to be on from one line, but off on the other, how does it know what to do.  The answer is that whatever line with that channel that has the latest command will be acted upon.  For example, if one line commands a channel on at 0:00.10 and the other line commands that same channel off at 0:00.20, the result is that the channel will, go on at 0:00.10 and off again at 0:00.20 - in other words, it will flash on for 100mSec.  Likely now what was planned.

Not recommended.

 

Yes, once you put it that way I do understand it isn't feasible.  Basically what he had in mind is below.  What he has been doing is cutting and pasting my 1-2, 1-3 & 1-4 up to his 1-1.  He is just going to have to be patient.

 

[dibblejr]

9 minutes ago, Dglass4321 said:

Yes, once you put it that way I do understand it isn't feasible.  Basically what he had in mind is below.  What he has been doing is cutting and pasting my 1-2, 1-3 & 1-4 up to his 1-1.  He is just going to have to be patient.

 

If using S4 a good vis will help him out.

Doesnt take long I make props in vis and will allow him to see what it will look like as he goes.

JR

[Dglass4321]

On ‎5‎/‎28‎/‎2019 at 2:05 PM, dibblejr said:

If using S4 a good vis will help him out.

Doesnt take long I make props in vis and will allow him to see what it will look like as he goes.

JR

No, we are just doing LED lights that LOR is now calling "Classic Lights"!  Thanks to everyone for your input.

 

[dibblejr]

13 minutes ago, Dglass4321 said:

No, we are just doing LED lights that LOR is now calling "Classic Lights"!  Thanks to everyone for your input.

 

S4 is the version of LOR software you are using, not a light type.

Look up vis or have your brother look up visualization, create that and that will be his key to happiness when cutting from one sequence for his own.

JR

[Orville]

Me personally, I'd leave the extra controllers as they are from your original sequence, since he only has 1 controller and you have 4 from what I'm seeing, this way all he has to do is copy to his controller 1 from the other 3 {4} and put them in his controller #1 spot.  This way if he ever adds any additional controllers in the future, they are already there and in place.  I started with 1 controller, ended up with a 2nd, but by the time I was done for my first year I had 5 AC {CTB16PC} controllers.  Even though I only had one controller, I added in the additional 4 in advance of my purchasing the additional units.   It won't hurt a thing if there are non-existent controllers in the sequence.  And I even sequenced my non-existent controllers, 3 of them at the time for my first show as I waited for them to come in.   Won't hurt a thing if they are sequenced or left completely off on their channel assignments.

The only issue that may come up is when you run a verify on a sequence, it'll show either some type of error about those controllers having their channels off or possibly something else, but you can disregard any errors that show up for controllers 2,3 and 4 and just look at the controller 1 when verifying if that's all he has.

You definitely DO NOT want the 4 units to all have the same ID #  not unless every channel on each unit with the same ID has the EXACT same sequence info for each channel number for each controller, otherwise, as others have stated, you'll get some really odd and unwanted lights turning on or off at the incorrect times.   And it'll do just as my tag line says below to you, because it'll drive you crazy trying to find out what is causing the lights to not perform the way you want them too!

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by Orville
Ne that started the comment needed to be changed to "Me"