Still need help programming moving head lights

[EBDS]

Hi all. While I have gotten a lot of good general help with programming my moving head lights and even some examples of other people's work, I am still struggling getting my particular setup to operate well with the moving heads.

On the top I have 4 ADJ Inno Pocket Spots mounted horizontally so that they can swing in all directions. On the bottom I have 4 ADJ Inno Pocket Wash lights hung vertically upside down.

I have tried to copy examples for my lights but have not had much luck in creating anything good looking, Either it points at me blinding me or it points up and never hits my audience/dance floor.

I have attached a picture of my lighting setup as a guide. Incidentally the component in the very middle is a KVANT laser which is absolutely unbelievable (3 watt). Of course you have to be willing to drop around $4K to get one but believe me audiences go nuts when they see what it can do. This is not prosumer stuff, it's concert grade. But I digress.

If anyone owns these type of ADJ lights or just understand it all enough to give me more help I sure would appreciate it. And in fact if anyone lives in the SF Bay Area and has good knowledge and a willingness, I would be willing to pay for some onsite training.

Your help is greatly appreciated. These moving head lights are great but they are really frustrating me. All of my other lighting components are programmed well.

Thanks,
Rob

[plugz]

Hi,

On the top I have 4 ADJ Inno Pocket Spots mounted horizontally so that they can swing in all directions.

/!\ See page 5 of the manual: http://adjmedia.s3-website-eu-west-1.am ... Manual.pdf
Horizontal mounting is not good for the unit. And it will not be pretty either.

Apart from this, I can't really help you, sorry.

[EBDS]

Hi,

On the top I have 4 ADJ Inno Pocket Spots mounted horizontally so that they can swing in all directions.

/!\ See page 5 of the manual: http://adjmedia.s3-website-eu-west-1.am ... Manual.pdf
Horizontal mounting is not good for the unit. And it will not be pretty either.

Apart from this, I can't really help you, sorry.

Interesting that you would bring that up. Prior to buying all my ADJ Inno Pocket lights I watched a bunch of ADJ promotional videos. In those videos, all of the lights were always mounted horizontally. Then I received all the lights and read the same thing you did in the manual. I immediately sent an email to ADJ asking why they would demo the lights on the internet in a position not allowed in the manual.

I received a phone call from an ADJ product specialist who told me the manuals were being revised to eliminate that restriction. He even sent me an advance copy of the page being modified which shows horizontal mounting as one of three accepted positions.

[janosvitok]

Can you post your current workspace?

[EBDS]

Can you post your current workspace?

[rcourtney]

As already said, units must be vertical. Did you set the Pan Inverse and Tilt Inverse on the device's menu ?
This should allow you to act as a follow spots (Bride's dance at a wedding reception) if heads are using a XY pad.

[EBDS]

As already said, units must be vertical. Did you set the Pan Inverse and Tilt Inverse on the device's menu ?
This should allow you to act as a follow spots (Bride's dance at a wedding reception) if heads are using a XY pad.

See my response above to plugz about mounting position. ADJ has lifted that restriction.

[janosvitok]

I had a quick look at your file. I don't have enough time to play with it, so just some quick suggestions:

Some of your efx have width=127 height=127. These will go around like crazy (I suppose this is the intent...)
The rest have much smaller size and look correct size-wise. What you need to do is to adjust x (left-right) and y (up-down) offset.

I can't tell in which direction will increasing offset move the head (up or down resp. left or right).
Can you create 3 scenes for me - one all 8 heads pointing to the left (as in your picture), one pointing down and one pointing forwards (horizontally).
I hope with that information I will be able to deduce the direction and improve your efx's.

[EBDS]

I had a quick look at your file. I don't have enough time to play with it, so just some quick suggestions:

Some of your efx have width=127 height=127. These will go around like crazy (I suppose this is the intent...)
The rest have much smaller size and look correct size-wise. What you need to do is to adjust x (left-right) and y (up-down) offset.

I can't tell in which direction will increasing offset move the head (up or down resp. left or right).
Can you create 3 scenes for me - one all 8 heads pointing to the left (as in your picture), one pointing down and one pointing forwards (horizontally).
I hope with that information I will be able to deduce the direction and improve your efx's.

I didn't actually create scenes but here are some numbers that I hope will give you what you were asking for. If not please tell me what is missing and I will make sure you get it.

Inno Pocket Wash (mounted vertically upside down with display facing audience:

Pan:

0 - Forward, 45-Right, 85-Backwards, 127-Left, 170-Forward, 212-Right, 255-Backwards

Tilt:

0-Straight Ahead (towards audience)
65-45 degrees down towards audience
127-Straight down
180-45 degrees down opposite from 65 direction
255-Straight ahead opposite direction from 0 direction


Inno Pocket Spot (mounted horizontally with display facing down):

Tilt:

0-Straight down
63-45 degrees down towards audience
127-Straight forward
190-45 degrees up towards audience
255-Straight up

Pan:

Pan is kind of hard to describe in words because direction depends on tilt value:

0-default forward position
45-90 degrees left of 0
90-90 degrees left of 45
135-90 degrees left of 90
180-90 degrees left of 135
225-90 degrees left of 180
255-90 degrees (roughly) left of 225

Let me know if this helps you out with what you were asking for.

Rob

[EBDS]

My lights are not set up at home this week so I won't be able to create the scenes until next week. But I will create 4 scenes for both the pocket spots and the pocket wash lights in which the lights point left, right, up, and down. It would probably be good for me to have that anyway. Thanks for offering to help. I will get you those scenes as soon as I can.

Rob

[janosvitok]

Rob,

now I understand the washes, but for spots I still have some questions. Your numbers agree with mathematics IPW's have 540 pan range that is 6x90 degrees that means 90 degrees is 42,5 DMX steps (255/540*90=255/6)
Your numbers almost match this 42,5. For tilt, since the range is 180, 90 deg = 127 dmx steps, 45 deg is 63,5 steps.

WASHES:
I suppose you want them to light out into the audience.
According your info, that means (in the simplest case) that your pan should be between 127 and 213, where 170 is towards the audience. Your tilt should be between 0 (horizontal) and 127 (down).

Note also, that your pan range (540) is 3x tilt range (180). That means if you want to have nice circles, you need to set height = 3x width. Height and width are for some reason half the interval in which the lights moves.
Another note: Avoid using LINE2, since it's intended for fixtures that have continuous PAN (e.g. Inno Pocket Roll).

So:
IPW-Circle-EFX 1: I suppose you want the light go all over the place with this EFX, so let's set maximum values: width: 42, height: 63, x offset: 170, y offset: 63 (45 degrees down)
IPW-Circle-EFX 2: small circle with axis 45 degrees down, straight forward: width: 10, height: 30, x offset: 170, y offset: 63
IPW-Circle-EFX 3: same as above; for medium circle try width: 21, height: 63
IPW-Eight-EFX 2: similar to circles
IPW-Line1-EFX 1: horizontal PAN sweep: width: 42, height: 0, x offset: 170, y offset: 0
IPW-Line1-EFX 2: 45 degrees, smaller range: width: 21, height: 0, x offset: 170, y offset: 63
IPW-Line1-EFX 3: same as above
IPW-Line2-EFX 1: vertical TILT sweep: width: 0, height: 63, x offset: 170, y offset: 63
IPW-Line2-EFX 2: I suggest you play with reverse and start offset in General tab; e.g. here set every other head to reverse
IPW-Line2-EFX 3: here set offsets to 0, 90, 180, 270

If you want the EFXs further out to the audience, make the Y offset smaller.

SPOTS:
Tilt: documentation says the tilt range is 230 degrees, while your numbers say 180 degrees. What's the proper number?
For 180, the numbers are same as for IPW, for 230 deg. 90 degrees is 100 dmx steps (instead of 127) and 45 degrees is 50 dmx steps.
From your description I understand that the movement is the same as IPW, just the fixture is oriented differently (i.e. starts at LCD and then turns 1,5 circle clockwise).

... to be continued...

[EBDS]

Thank you so much for the help. I am beginning to understand a little but I still have a long way to go.

I have taken another set of measurements for the IPS lights in hopes it will clear up the confusion. The numbers represent pan/tilt combinations when the fixture is in the mounted position (horizontal with display facing down)

Light Direction:

Straight Down: (0,7), (170,7)
Straight Out: (anything, 135) (since fixture is mounted horizontally the pan value for pointing the light straight out doesn't matter)
Left: (43,7), (215,7), (129,252)
Right: (43,245), (215,245), (127,7)
Straight Up: (0,245), (170,245), (85,7)

Let me know if this clears up the confusion over whether the tilt range is 180 or 230. I believe it is 230 because the head can move more than in 90 degree increments at the end points.

Rob