Elation 1.15 - Manual

iv address or output. To turn auto patch on or off, place the cursor under the words “ON” or “OFF” below “Autopatch”, then use the + or - switch or use data wheel 4 to make the change. You must press “enter” for the change to take effect. If you are turning auto patch on, a warning will appear telli...

vi SELECT HOME SCENE This menu selects a home scene that will be called automatically whenever you use the “clear all” function. A “clear all” is done by holding down the blackout switch for 2 seconds. This resets all of the channels and empties the scene record buffer. After the clear all is finish...

vii than 0. You may also want to blackout all channels to a value other than 0 as this is sometimes used as a reset by some fixtures. For some fixtures the value 1 will achieve the same result as 0. Dimmer Channel is the channel used by the fixture for dimming. This will only work for a fixture that...

viii Magenta Channel is used to create color chase effects. Yellow Channel is used to create color chase effects. MULTI FIXTURE The Show Designer 3 supports fixtures that use up to 32 DMX channels. Since many fixtures use fewer than 32 channels, this feature will allow you to configure a group of sm...

ix LOAD MEMORY FILE FROM CF This loads a memory file from a compact flash card. Insert the card with the memory backup file then press “enter” to display the message “Select memory file, then press enter”. The name of the first SD3 memory file found on the card will appear on the bottom line of the ...

x CONTROLLING LIGHT FIXTURES The SD3 allows you to take direct control of moving light fixture channels at any time. There is no edit mode as with some lighting controllers. You are essentially always in edit mode and can instantly save the current stage settings as a scene. This is one reason the S...

xi save it. To erase an existing fixture group, press the erase switch at any time during the record process and then select the fixture group that you want to erase. If the Solo LED is lit when selecting a group, any moving light fixtures in the group will move to center (pan and tilt at 128) with ...

xii FINE The fine button affects the way the joystick and the data wheels operate. With fine mode on, they will increment or decrement by the smallest possible amount. With fine mode off, they will increment or decrement by larger amounts. If a fixture profile is installed for a selected fixture, se...

xiii CONTROLLING CONVENTIONAL DIMMERS The Show Designer 3 can control up to 128 conventional dimmers. They can be programmed from the flex faders or by entering percentage values using an external keyboard. Dimmers must first be patched using the “Patch Conventional Dimmers” menu as explained in the...

xiv WORKING WITH MEMORIES The SD3 provides four types of memories: presets, chases, scenes and shows. Presets and chases are used as building blocks along with static channel levels to create scenes. Shows are simply scene lists. All four memory types can be assigned to playback faders or called up ...

xv If at any time you wish to exit record mode without recording anything, press the record switch and its LED will stop flashing. RECALLING SCENES To play a scene, press the scene switch and turn on its LED. Select the scene page if necessary and then press the number switch for that scene. When a ...

xvi or “no”. If you press “yes” the scene will be erased. You can then select additional scenes to be erased or you can press “record” to exit record mode. PRESETS A preset is a simple collection of channel settings for a single light fixture or group of fixtures. Presets are used as building blocks...

xvii To save the preset, select the page and number where you want to store it. If you select a number that is already lit, a message will appear asking if you want to write over the existing preset. Press “yes” or “no”. You can use the page switches to select pages 1 to 24 allowing you to store up ...

xviii COMBINING PRESETS You can add existing presets to any preset you are currently working on. While in preset record mode press the add switch followed by any preset number that has something recorded on it. The channel settings will be added to the preset you are currently recording. You can com...

xix The first thing to do when creating a shape chase is to select the fixtures to be included. When you select “shape chase” the fixture select LED is lit so that you can begin selecting fixtures right away. The current pan and tilt location of each fixture will be used as the center of the shape. ...

xx want to use the beat control for some chases but not for others. You can enter a name for the chase on the second page of the chase record display. Turn off the fixture LED in order to view the available memory locations then press the number switch where you want to save the chase. After you hav...

xxi record up to 256 steps. You can enter empty steps by pressing “enter” before changing any channels. These empty steps can be used to lengthen the time between steps or you can record something into these empty steps later. As you are recording steps you can at any time move from step to step by ...

xxii while you are adjusting these settings to see the result. If you are using a mixture of fixtures that don’t match, make sure the range is within the limits of all fixtures. If you set the end beyond the range of a fixture it will simply pause while the unused steps are being called. Use wheel 4...

xxiii “no”. If you press “yes” the chase will be erased. You can abort chase erase at any time by either pressing “no” or by exiting record mode by pressing the record switch. RECALLING CHASES To run a chase, press the chase switch, and then press the desired page and number switch. The chase will b...

xxiv SHOWS A show is a list of scenes that can run on a timer or play manually using the “go”, “stop” and “back” buttons. This is sometimes referred to as a stack or cue list by other controllers. Show Designer 3 lets you record up to 24 pages of 48 shows for a total of 1152. Shows are good for runn...

xxv + or - switch or data wheel 1 to change the character. You can also use an external keyboard to enter the name characters. If you want another show to automatically be called when this one ends, set the link to “on” and select the page and show number for the linked show. If you enable a link, l...

xxvii PERFORMANCE CONTROLS To the left of the four wheels are eight buttons that are mostly used for live performance. The following describes the functions for each of these. PREVIEW The preview switch is used along with the go switch to preview memories before calling them. With the preview LED li...

xxviii BEAT The beat switch lets you override the step time or beat of a chase by tapping on the switch in time to music that is playing. The LED will flash in time to the beat that is tapped in. Any chases that are running will sync to this beat unless the speed has been locked for the chase. Read ...

xxix PLAYBACK MASTERS Scenes, presets, chases and shows can all be assigned to playback faders. There are 32 pages of 8 faders giving you a total of 256 playbacks. In addition you can configure the flex faders as playbacks giving you 256 more. Each playback fader has a flash button just above it tha...

xxx back to where they were in case you have started a playback in error. Any chases will begin when the playback starts and then stop when the playback fader is pulled back to 0. Pressing a flash button is the same as moving a fader to its highest level. Channels that are set to “snap before fade” ...

xxxii MIDI Show Designer 3 allows you to call scenes and blackouts from the MIDI input. The scene page and number can be encoded in a MIDI continuous controller message sent to the MIDI input by a computer or MIDI sequencer. You will have to use the tools provided with the MIDI program you are worki...

xxxiii USING THE COMPACT FLASH The Compact flash uses CF cards that are formatted using the Windows FAT16 file system. Cards formatted using FAT32 will not work. You will get the error message “format error” if you try to use the wrong type. When reformatting a card with your PC select “FAT” rather ...

xxxiv setup menu “update software”, and press “enter”. The Show Designer 3 will begin reading the file. The message “receiving new program” will appear in the display. After the software is successfully updated the Show Designer 3 will reboot with the new version installed. If there are any errors, ...

xxxv USING THE COM PORT (RS-232) The RS-232 port can be used to connect the SD3 to a personal computer to do memory backups, software updates and to load fixture profiles. You will need to get a 9 pin null modem cable. Use this cable to connect the RS-232 port on the Show Designer 3 to the COM port ...

xxxvii FIXTURE LIBRARY The following is a list of fixtures in the internal library. The internal library is only used when you don’t have a profile installed for a fixture. Whenever possible, use a fixture profile when choosing fixtures.

xl FIRMWARE REVISION HISTORY There are two types of firmware on the SD3, micro and flash. The micro is located on the microprocessor and contains the basic functions needed for startup plus some essential operating system routines. This is programmed into the microprocessor at the factory and can on...

xli When updating to software revision 1.13 from earlier versions, certain features need to be reset to work properly. If you can erase the entire memory, this will reset everything for you as long as you are able to give up everything that is in the memory. If you need to keep what is in the memory...