Questions! Fixtures, output, demo etc.

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SimonB
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Jan 11, 2019 5:51 pm

Questions! Fixtures, output, demo etc.

Post by SimonB »

This is gonna be kinda long so please hear me out!

So I have a tour going out soon with a design using 37 Chauvet Epix bars. 24 of them are in
1 x 7 grids and then I have a semi circle 'arch' truss with 6 units horizontally following the curve, and 6 units vertically following the curve. I currently have a Hippotizer which for me is needlessly complicated which is why I'm looking into making the switch to Madrix 5 because I can use my existing hardware.

So questions:

1) Does the demo actually output? I have set up the demo on my Hippo machine, IP addresses appear to be correct (I can ping each device in the network successfully) and I have set up an Art-Net device, universes correct etc. but I am getting no output to my Epix bars. The Epix Drive 900 PSUs don't have a feature to show incoming DMX signal is present so I'm just wondering if the demo does actually output or am I wasting my time trying?

2) My Epix bars are the tour version with 150 LEDs in a 3 x 50 grid using 450 DMX channels. I have noticed in the Madrix 5 fixture library there is no Epix Bar Tour listed, only the strip which is 150 DMX channels. Now I guess I could somehow use 3 Epix Strip personalities of 150 channels to get my 450 channels, but this seems awkward as in the patch editor i'd have to move 3 fixtures about as 1. Any ideas if there is a reason for not having the Epix Bar Tour in the fixture library? Does it need updating?

3) I have fixtures placed at 20, 50, 70 degree angles in my rig. Can madrix place fixtures at anything other than 90 degree increments? I've seen that you can place individual pixels in 45 degree angle lines, but this isn't that useful for my design and would be way too time consuming given the number of pixels I would need to place is something like 2000 which would all need to be individually addressed. Is there any solution for this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Irwin
Posts: 13
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 9:23 am

Re: Questions! Fixtures, output, demo etc.

Post by Irwin »

Hi Simon,

I'm a Madrix user (not an employee) but I might be able to answer some of your questions.

It's my understanding that Madrix 5 does not output any data in demo mode. However, the Madrix 3 demo does output data, but momentarily blanks the output every few minutes. If you do some preliminary configuration and testing with Madrix 3, you should be able to read your setup and patch files into Madrix 5 when you're ready.

Unfortunately there is no option to place fixtures at odd angles in the patch. But consider that you may not need the physical patched layout in Madrix to match your actual physical layout, and instead program the highly-customizable geometry of the Madrix effects to achieve your goal. Just for one example, in the patch you could place your 6 vertical units completely parallel, spaced out with your 6 horizontal units on top, kind of like a "Stonehenge". Then use suitable effect shapes and vectors to get what you want. Does this make sense?

Hope this helps,
Irwin
Guertler
Support
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Posts: 880
Joined: Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:47 am

Re: Questions! Fixtures, output, demo etc.

Post by Guertler »

Hello SimonB,

When you can send us the DMX Chart or manual of the "Chauvet - ÉPIX Bar Tour" via email to info[at]madrix[dot]com, we can add this fixture to our libray and send you an updated library.

Of course it is also possible to create the fixture by your own with the MADRIX Fixture Editor. Under the following links you can learn how the Fixture Editor is working:
http://help.madrix.com/m5/html/fixtureeditor/index.html
http://help.madrix.com/tutorials/html/i ... ditor.html
http://help.madrix.com/tutorials/html/i ... xture.html
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