Improve SS dimming

[zwiller]

I use alot of fades and ramps in my show.  In my testing of the ss gear, I've noticed that ss don't fade as good as my trusty incans.  Seems as though the lower parts of fades
Or ramps just isn't there.

Is there is a way to improve fades etc?  Could a light curve be added for the firmware or firmware be updated to fix?  Or am I the only one who notices this?  Thanks!

[rrowan]

I guess you know that incans and led will never have the same dimming characteristics.   

Incans heat up a filament which produces a glow which nicely warms up and and cools down (ramp up and ramp down). It can also be used with a positive or negative voltage/current. Its also a slower process that leds which can be a good or bad thing.

LEDs don't heat up (which save power) but once the positive voltage/current of the led type is reach it will emitted a light depending on the type of material used (i.e.: red, green, blue, etc) to create the led.

I am guessing (just my opinion) that RJ has already down some curve adjustment in the firmware which may or may not be adjusted more.

hope that helps

Rick R.

[Jeffl]

I would think that beings the SS nodes have all the electronics on the node that you wouldn't have a lot of external control.  Nothing fades like an incandescent.  Luckily most people watching your show don't notice because they don't put them under a microscope like we do and analyze them.

[Steve Gase]

I am guessing (just my opinion) that RJ has already down some curve adjustment in the firmware which may or may not be adjusted more.

that would make sense.  i was wondering for a while the purpose behind selecting one type of strings over another in the config utility.  i thought it might be due to different chip types, but dimming curve selection seems reasonable too.

[rrowan]

I am guessing (just my opinion) that RJ has already down some curve adjustment in the firmware which may or may not be adjusted more.

that would make sense.  i was wondering for a while the purpose behind selecting one type of strings over another in the config utility.  i thought it might be due to different chip types, but dimming curve selection seems reasonable too.

I think the reason for that is the different items switch the RGB color order. So the SSC inputs the RGB values and adjusts it for the correct color order if needed.

Rick R.

[zwiller]

Honestly did not know there were limitations to LEDs.  I just thought some guys werent into fades like i was and it could be fixed.  I suppose it's like anything else, pros and cons.  I love the strobe like instant on and deep colors from LEDs over incans.  Now with rgb I will probably have more led than Incan.

Thanks for the responses!

[Jeffl]

I do a ton of fading.  In fact most of my show uses fades.  I just think that my show using incans looks the best.  Mixing LED's and incans makes it, well not as good.

Now if my show was 100% LED, all from the same manufacturer, and run year, then again it would probably look awesome as well.  I just don't think the two mix very well because they have different characteristics.

Now all I need is to win the lottery so I can convert to 100% LED's.

I waited on purchasing more LED's this year in hope that we might see more dumb RBG options this year.

[thestig]

I did the same thing Jeff, Now I am hoping for some cheap dumb strings in nodes like the dumb strips that are on ebay at the moment.


Grant

[taybrynn]

I know that David / dmoore (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login) has done some informative videos on the fading characteristics of RGB items ... and it was interesting because even the same rgb items used on different dmx controllers can have fairly drastic differences in fading behavior.

I'm trying to remember, but it seems like LSP probably allows you to alter the intensity curve ... which could be a way to adjust the fading characteristics?

Don't get me wrong, I'm totally  thrilled with my SS items this year, but like Jeff said ... incan. and LED don't mix so great ... thats a true statement.  I planned RGB LED to be the icing on the cake and not the cake ... and in that role, I felt worked pretty well.   The tough part now is making a bigger jump into RGB or dumb RGB (not worth the small cost savings, IMHO) ... and I just can't see being able to do that financially.

So for now, I'm going to try and do just a minimal upgrade in 2012 (finish stuff I didn't quite get done in 2011) and hope my incand. lights still look good.  I haven't been able to buy any mini lights on clearance the last couple years ... so the writing is on the wall for incans!!

Some of my Holdman fades (on a C9 based star) just didn't translate well on SS star items I built  .. so what might have looked pretty cool in incan. looks fairly broken on a SS item with identical programming.  Again, I didn't have time to fix the sequencing and the average viewer probably didn't know or care.  So as other said, we are the worst critics out there.

[Timon]

I'm surprised that no one has tried to program RGB strings to "fake" the filament action. Maybe Some of the guys making controllers will give it a try. BTW, this might be easiest with the 3001 and 3005 12bit pixels on the E680/681 controller.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[rm357]

The E680 is not one of the DLA devices.
Like the ether dongle, it is an E1.31 device.
It is limited to 4 e1.31 universes (2048 channels), the ether dongle can do 4 pixel net universes (as 32 e1.31 universes) and a total of 16386 channels.
The e680 can do several different types of pixels, the ether dongle does 1804 fast pixels and with the active hub it also puts out standard DMX.

The ether dongle is all 24 bit color - RGB  at 8 bits per color. The DMX is all 8 bit.

Don't know what 12 bit can do that 24 bit can't...

The e680 will control the ge35 color effects lights (12 bit). I've got some faceted c7 covers that fit the ss and look as good, just not as big.

RM

[chrisatpsu]

i think he's pointing out that the pixels used are 12bits per color (the grayscale rating).

but i've always wondered, if you can fine tune the color so well, how does that work when vixen 3 only gives you 100 levels of dimming?

[Slite]

i think he's pointing out that the pixels used are 12bits per color (the grayscale rating).

but i've always wondered, if you can fine tune the color so well, how does that work when vixen 3 only gives you 100 levels of dimming?

100 levels yes, but handled as percentage as I have understood it, so if you say goto level 75 in V3 it's the same as saying set the intensity to 75% of what this pixel can handle. And then the bitvalue on the pixel wont matter.

[RJ]

The E680 is not one of the DLA devices.

Since the topic and the forum is about SS equipment lets keep on topic.

RJ

[Zeph]

As I understand it, one of the advantages of the Lynx Express is that it has customized light curves to match LED and incans as well as can be expected; not just generically, but for specific products which RJ has calibrated.  Even if you were using a product not on the list, picking something similar (like another LED) should improve the fade linearity.

I wonder if it might be possible to get the LED light curves as an option for smart strings?  I realize that this would involve mapping 256 input levels to only 256 output levels - not as fine of output granularity as LE, but perhaps still better than the uncorrected disparity between LEDs and Incans.

It's also possible for the sequencer to do this using light curves (lookup tables).