How to Sequence Aether 2

[sebjsan]

I have built my Aether, confirmed it talks through DMX output using LSP. How does one add it to a show/ sequence? Do i have it under my 1-512 DMX channels? Ive read of using 4 channels, but if thats the case how is that done. Does some one have a screen shot ? Thanks in advance.

[Steve Gase]

when you set up your aether2 you have 2 common choices:

1) set up only the first 3 channels for R-G-B (red green blue) and ignore the 4th channel.  When you want red, use the first channel assigned to your aether, when green use the second channel, and blue use the third channel.  if you want white -- combine the 3 colors together.  this is just like the procedure you'd use for other RGB devces.

2) set up all 4 channels in your software.  do the same for R, G, and B.  but when you want white, instead of mixing the first three channels together, you use the fourth channel to get your white.  any of the channels can be dimmed 0% to 100% (or levels 0-255).  If you set the W (white) channel to anything but 0, then the white takes over and the other R-G-B colors are unavailable.  If you set the W to 0, then the other 3 colors can be successfully mixed.

[zwiller]

Aether's are 1 logical channel RGB type with e1.31 protocol for etd.  LSP controls color...  It really is that simple. 

I made all of my aethers one controller. 

[sebjsan]

Sorry guys. I still don't understand how to set it up in LSP.

[zwiller]

Open your sequence.  From the controllers menu drag the "1.31 controller" into your sequence.  Click yes to add.   Add your starting number (what you programmed aether), hit ok.  From the controller settings screen change logical channels to 1 and controller type to RGB light controller.  That's it.  Forget about the 4th channel being white business, does not matter in LSP.

Attached is my screen shot for 4 aethers on 1 controller.  Hope this helps. 

[tbone321]

Perhaps I'm missing something but the 5th channel DOES matter.  It is a 4 channel device and unless you only hve on or all of them are set to the same channels AND at the end of your sequence numbers, you will need to skip that channel in your sequencing or the Aether will respond to it.

Another clarification is that the with the Aether II, it actually is a 4 channel controller and the white is a real channel with a WHITE LED.  The origional Aether used a logical channel that would turn on the RGB colors to create white.  The Aether II uses a different LED unit that actually has white LED in it.  Now how LSP handles this ...  I don't know.

[zwiller]

I am not exactly sure how it actually works, (and I am not gonna put on welders goggles and find out ) but it works perfectly setup the way I describe.   Tested mine quite extensively.

I assumed the aether's firmware kicked on the white led if RGB were all 100% which I bet LSP is sending to the aether.  That's what I kinda extrapolated from your post Tbone where chrispatsu wanted to figure out a super white You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

[tbone321]

I assumed the aether's firmware kicked on the white led if RGB were all 100% which I bet LSP is sending to the aether.  That's what I kinda extrapolated from your post Tbone where chrispatsu wanted to figure out a super white You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

The original Aether did pretty much what you told it to do as long as the white channel was set to zero.  If the white channel was set to anything else, the RGB inputs were ignored and the Aether would set them to whatever it needed to give white at the intensity desired.  If you wanted to change the color temp, then you could not use the white channel, you would have to ue the RGB settings and "mix your own".  As for the Aether II, I'm not sure if RJ cuts off the RGB channels when the white channel has a value or not.  I would hope that he doesn't so that we can use the RGB nodes to adjust the color temp for white to suite our needs.

[zwiller]

Good point about color correction. 

[Steve Gase]

the white channel WILL cut out the other 3 if that channel is set to anything but level 0.

[Steve Gase]

With all due respect to zwiller, his configuration is not correct.
You need to reserve 4 channels for a Aether2... and you need to avoid running the channels over the channels of another controller.
To do this and still get the benefits of the RGB software, you should device 2 controllers for EACH Aether2 -- one controller defined as an RGB device, and a second controller that ONLY deals with the white channel.  With an RGB device you'll have the advantage of color mixing, transitions, and other effects that use the Aether2 to its full advantage.  You don't need to define the white channel -- unless you plan to use it at times INSTEAD of the R+G+B channels.  If you don't define the W controller/channel -- at least reserve the space for it in your channel definitions.

zwiller stated that he had 4 Aethers, and then he defined all 4 to be assigned to contiguous 12 channels from 64 through 75.  He failed to insert a white channel between each.

In my definition below, I place a 3-channel RGB controller, interspersed with a 1-channel W controller... for a total of 16 channels from 64 to 79.

To create a controller definition, you can take a LE (Lynx Express) and change the number of channels to 1.  Change the Controller type to the right value.  For Controller Protocol, you can use the USB dongle, or the EtherDongle... whatever your hardware setup requires.

The last picture shows how I packed them -- with their channel assignments.



     

[urthegman]

I took the easy way out and put 4 of my channels that were designated for red bushes, green bushes, blue bushes and white bushes in a row and gave my aether the same starting channel as the red bushes, so whatever the bushes are doing, so too are the aether 2's.

[Steve Gase]

the cool thing about LSP transitions is that it can take all of your single-color controllers, and your RGB controllers together to automatically sequence transitions and video.

I can have an RGB mega pixel tree, with controllers defined as "RED" with red lights, and controllers defined as "BLUE", "YELLOW", "GREEN", "PINK", etc.  and LSP can perform Holdman-like effects with washes of various colors.  You don't separate the RGB pixels out as separate colors -- the software knows how to do this automatically.   ...so, when a wash of red goes over the yard, the RGB devices will turn on red, and the single-color RED strings will also light.  When the wash of green goes over the yard, the RGBs turn to green and the green strings also light.

LSP is very powerful and can do much of the work for you.

[zwiller]

I owe tbone and Steve a beer.  After this discussion I realized the testing I did was on the show pc and the screenshot was from the sequencing machine.  I just took a peek and I didn't setup the aethers correctly on the sequencing pc. 

Anyway, the way I did it was I skipped the white channel in LSP channel count (aether channel 4).  To do this right click on the channel and you get the configure channel screen.  Change the channels accordingly.   I corrected mine and shot of it is attached.  Notice the channels missing in the aether controller. (Channels 67, 71, 75, [and 79 if it were in the aether controller])  Not my idea, thank Mickpat.  Once done correctly it is extremely simple to use.  Just select color and go, no need to remember the 4th channel.  So easy I forgot about it!

Sorry for the confusion.