Are you considering Moving Heads for your Light Display.

[David_AVD]

I would always ask for a reference to the specific rule / law that that is supposedly being broken. They should be able to provide one. You can also ask to speak to their supervisor (or get their details) if you feel that you're being pressured into something with no reason.

 

[Cranzy]

I posted this yesterday on the xLights forum....Yes its back!!!

If you haven't heard I'm working on a new model for moving heads. I had to come up with a new model name so I believe I have it as "DMX Moving Head Adv". To take advantage of the new model I'm also creating a new effect called "Moving Head Effect". I've wanted to do this for at least 2-3 years. The goal is to abstract the head's pointing position away from the actual command values being sent to the head. That should allow folks to start sharing sequences that won't need to be tweaked due to heads being mounted different and other factors.

So the moving head effect will command a position relative to a "Home" position I've defined to be pointing straight up and forward. In the model setup you will define parameters that teach xLights how to get to that Home position. There will also be parameters for moving the head model in layout so that its pointing the correct way based on your heads "Zero" position. That is the position your head moves to when commanded to 0,0. If for instance your head points east when powered up with a command of 0,0 then you would set the parameters for the Home position to tell xLights to pan 90 degrees (or 270) to face forward and tilt 90 degrees to face up. When a Moving Head effect commands the head to pan position 45 degrees it will add 90 degrees to the command to account for your heads home position. Another user may have a head that points backwards for the zero position so when he renders the same effect it will add 180 degrees to the 45 degree command assuming the Home position is setup correctly. This allows sequences to be shared and when the effect commands a real world position everyone's head should point the same direction.

The Moving Head Effect is being designed to support 8 heads. For the few users that are crazy and have more than 8 sorry. You can still use the effect but you will need to split the heads into 2 groups and use 2 effects or you can keep programming them the way you do now. Or if you are willing to have heads mimic each other you can have a larger group of heads and assign some of them to the same position. There are checkboxes in the dialog to activate which heads in the group are included for each effect. So you can control just one head, 4 heads, or all 8 in the effect. The model parameters require you to define a head position of 1 through 8. So when you drop an effect on a model group of moving heads the effect will inspect that parameter to figure out where that head is positioned so in theory you could assign all the heads to position 1 and they would all copy each other. The position is required because the effect allows you to create scenes like spreading the heads in a Fan shape. There will be a tab where you can define a path just like you do for the Shape effect and the heads will follow the shape of that path. So you could draw a Circle shape and then there are parameters that let you expand/contract the size of the circle. All the heads assigned to that effect will follow the circle shape. You can also apply an offset to stagger each heads moving so they could all be moving in a circle but each head would be delayed and at a different point in the circle making it look like a wave motion. There will be a color panel so that colors can be assigned to the heads. You still have the option of using other effects on other layers to apply the colors.

One of the final things I'm trying to finish is being able to support all the additional channels a head might have. I'm trying to create something that is flexible. Based on looking at moving head spec sheets I've come up with the idea to let you dynamically define extra "Features". You open a Config dialog in the model parameters and click "Add Feature". Lets say you name it "Gobo". Then you hit a config button for that feature and get another dialog that allows you to add channels to that feature. Lets say you define a channel named "Gobo Wheel". You assign channel 5 to it. But this channel in the spec might have tons of channel ranges that do different things. So to define those you click an "Add Function" button beside on the channel row and define the name and channel range for that function. Lets add 25-30 for "Gobo Wheel Position 1" and 31-35 for "Gobo Wheel Position 2" and so on. Yes it will be time consuming to define all the possible channel positions and ranges but they should only need to be defined once and then shared. We will start building up a library in the model Download dialog. When you create a new "Feature" it will automatically create a new tab that allows you to control the commands for that feature. This is the one snag I ran into when I realized what if someone has a model group with a mixture of heads and some of them have features that others don't....what should I show on the dialog. I'm still trying to sort that out. I'm thinking either I only show the feature if all heads support it or I try to show all features available from all heads and only send the command to the ones that support it.

I probably would have been done in August if I hadn't run into this snag. I was close to being done when I realized this and it got too close to showtime and I had to bail and start working on all the new stuff I had planned to add to my own show. I also did not want to release such a big new feature too close to everyone's show time without adequate time to sort out any issues. I am actively working this again.

One final thing I need to get done is to try to have xLights automatically upgrade any existing "DMX Moving Head 3D" models to use the new model type. I've tested and the new model will work just fine with all the existing effects so it can be used even if you don't use the new Moving Head effect. You just won't get the offsets that correct for the Home position.

If you have questions I'll try to reply when I can.

Thanks,
Gil

Awesome stuff.
So it is a new model but with an option on existing ones to be upgradable to the new model?

 

[Skymaster]

Sounds like flexing to me. Moving heads are are nothing like lasers when it comes to distance and light penetration. That excuse for lasers would be totally justified.
Neighbour probably put in an unjustified complaint and they used this as an excuse.

As David said, they'd need to give you the exact federal offence, as it's not a state based thing.

 

[Gilrock]

Awesome stuff.
So it is a new model but with an option on existing ones to be upgradable to the new model?

Well the goal is the old 3D moving head model gets deleted and replaced with this one. I originally was going to just add this new one but Scott thought it would be confusing to add yet another moving head variation. The new model should look and act exactly like the old one just with added capabilities. We don't want to break existing stuff. Another feature of the model is you can change the 3D mesh object used to draw each piece so theoretically you could draw an OBJ file that exactly matches the model head you use.

 

[Wayne1]

Seems like Jayden just had a normal over-reaching thick as mud QLD cop enforcing laws that don't exist. Just another day in the sunshine state.

 

[Gilrock]

So I was thinking about the Moving Head effect design today and I'm still stuck on how to handle it if the moving heads in a group have different features. For instance I have one panel I designed for controlling normal RGB(W) heads and another panel for heads with color wheels. The color wheel tab draws dynamically based on how many colors are defined for the wheel. So worst case what do I do if a user has 8 different model moving heads that all have different sized color wheels? I know that's extreme but its kinda what you gotta deal with cause it shows up in many places like the heads can have different types of Gobo wheels and maybe the dimmer channels operate differently. I can make it work great for single heads but for groups I gotta figure out what to show them.

 

[Skymaster]

normal RGB(W) heads and another panel for heads with color wheels.

Can I throw the CMY spanner in the works for subtractive heads, rather than RGB additive heads?

So worst case what do I do if a user has 8 different model moving heads that all have different sized color wheels?

I think maybe a * or something to show that "not all heads support this feature" and only push it to the heads that do support it. What to do if not supported (i.e. default value) is another consideration.

Maybe a way to marry up colour X on Head Type 1 to colour Y on Head Type 2, which is RGB/CMYvalue 00FF3D on a mixer head as part of colours.
And same for Gobos - Gobo X on on Head Type 1 = Gobo 2 on Head Type 2 = "No Gobo on Head Type 3"

 

[Gilrock]

Currently I'm utilizing the ColorAbility classes that already exist for moving heads so there's a RGB, CMY, and Wheel class already. More could be added later. I just made a different way to select the colors.

 

[Johnno]

Screenshot of the Moving Head Effect - Position tab. You can see the presets I've saved at the bottom so just click the preset for instant recall.


View attachment 25266

This looks amazing mate, thankyou for all your hard work

 

[djgra79]

Even with those units that have colour wheels, is the order of the colours going to be the same? At a guess I'd say not (particularly with cheaper non "professional" models.) How would this effect handle this?
Eg you want to sweep from R > G > B but it ends up being G > R > B in reality?

 

[Gilrock]

You define the color wheel settings for each head in the settings. You can assign different color commands to every head in the group using one effect. You just click the checkbox for the head and set the color, check the box for the next head set the color. Not how you normally want to operate but the option is available.

 

[MikeKrebs]

I don't do facebook so I can't go look at the article. What was the end result? Did Jayden take them down? Talk to the police again?

 

[Gilrock]

I thought I had a plan. Last night I was coding up how to handle RGBW and ColorWheel heads together. I thought I'll just figure out which head it is to capture the command. Then I realized the effect doesn't really work that way. The Moving Head Effect is storing what the settings are for each head location (1 through 8). So technically you could have multiple heads assigned to MH1 (Head location 1) and those heads don't necessarily have the same features. And then you share the sequence with someone and it's going to apply the setting for MH1 to whatever heads that person has assigned to location 1. I want a design that works well for individuals that want to be able to easily control all the special features of their head but also be something that is shareable.

 

[LawrenceDriveLights]

Gil, thanks for the detailed updates with the improved “moving head adaptation” within xLights.

 

[bpratt]

Even with those units that have colour wheels, is the order of the colours going to be the same? At a guess I'd say not (particularly with cheaper non "professional" models.) How would this effect handle this?
Eg you want to sweep from R > G > B but it ends up being G > R > B in reality?

I had a 350w MH from the year before, which colour wheel is in a different order to the colour wheel in the 350w MH's I bought in the Qld group buy.