I need HELP!!

I hope my advice helped you out. Sincerely,

hey thanks a lot jingles for getting back to me so quickly. i was able to change the dmx addy of the new lights we added to the rig. i have never seen a dimmer pack like the one that was brought in, but we were eventually able to figure it out.

however, after i got it all settled, compu acted real weird, and unfortunately made me lose my faith in this program. i have put all the tiny little bugs and glitches i have encountered previously behind me as i have worked through them. But the problems i encountered on saturday night was the last straw.

first, compu would tell me it had to shut down un-expectingly about 5 times. So during those five times while compu restarted my stage went black - not cool

2nd, after just adding a new page, my other two existing pages, one for my scanners, and one for my strobe were not working properly. For the scanners - the speed function stopped working. Then the size function for different movements stopped working, again not cool. My strobe page just flat out didnt work at all, i even tried creating a new page with a different addy, and changed the addy on the strobe, still didnt work.

third - when i tried to create new swithces to try to make a quick fix to my speed and size function, the edit screen did not appear as it normally does. there were no x/y grids in either the easy step or easytime tabs nor could i even tweak the position of a light within a scene. nothing really worked right.

fourth - with the main problem i originally had, i do not understand why the program just couldnt accept an address change. as the band i have been working for is growing into larger venues through out the next few months, i will be able to use existing house lights in addition to my own, but will not be able to change the dmx addy's of say some movers that are mounted over head. so if i want to use those lights as wel as my own, it will create more problems.

I used to really like this program as i was learning everything. But now that as i know more i really wish i didn't spend all the money for this program and a brand new laptop to run it. with the 1000+ i spent on the combo of the program, dongle, laptop and a midi controller, i wish i just bought a nice console.

i will continue to work through these problems and keep uninstalling and reinstalling compu to make it work as i save another 1000+ to get a real console. but overall i am not happy with it, and can't wait to move on.

I apologize for talking so badly about this product. the support has been great(thanks again for calling jingles) If anyone can shed some light on the problem i encountered that would be great. But I am just tired of jsut having problem after problem, and i think people should know about it.

Wow. sorry you had so much trouble. ill look into these problems and let you know if any solutions arise. but tell me what version of the software are you running and the specs on your laptop? like ram procesor and OS. Thanks. Sincerely,

Also did any of these lights go from 3 pin to 5 pin DMX connectors? can you tell me the all the fixtures you used?

i have the most update compu as provided from these forums.

these are my computer specs

Processor AMD Athlon 64X2 1.9GHZ
OS MS Vista Home Prem
HD 120GB Drive DVDRW
RAM 1GB Max RAM 4GB
Screen 15.4 Bluetooth NO
Webcam YES Finger Rd NO

i would liek to re-iterate, that while i am un happy with this product right now, the support here on these forums has been awesome.

ok. im gonna send this info out to our developers and see what they can tell me. it could be a little while before i hear anything. so im just letting you know. what brand laptop was it? HP Sony? let me know. Thanks! Sincerely,

it is a Toshiba laptop, sorry for leaving that out

the additional dimmer pack that was added, which was last on the dmx daisy chain was connected via a 3 pin to 5 pin cable.

That could have been an issue. did u have any problems getting the lights that were hooked into that dimmer pack to respond?

nope the new lights added worked fine

Hey jingles- i know you said it may be a while for the developers to get back to you, but i was wondering if you had any idea of a time frame?

In about a month, i am going on four weekends in a row of festivals, one of which has the potential of 3-5k people in attendance. I am just curious as to what the outcome of this may be beforehand in case i have to look into other means of controlling my lights

Thanks again,

Evan

So i just re-installed compu hoping that some of these problems i have been having would be fixed. So far no change. I am trying to edit a pre existing scene and nothing is looking normal within the editing screen. I do not have my lights hooked up, but nothing is responsive in the 3-D visualizer(after it took about 15 minutes to load)Below is a screen shot of the editing screen. I have a big show on saturday, and i can jsut hope it will work the way it is still. I am not happy at all

tell you what email me your .ssh and your .evs files to jamesk AT elation lighting DOT COM and I'll see what's up on my end here. Sincerely,

thanks jingles, i am at a different computer at the moment, i will email them soon. thanks for your help

its no problem at all. If I have my way I WILL NOT lose you as a compu live user. sincerely,

just to make sure i send the right files, what are .ssh and .evs files?

the .ssh file is your show file. If you havent made one yet go to controller then save the show then label the file and save it in your sl2006 folder. And if you have a stage set up in the 3d save that file and name it. The .EVS file to send me will be in the easyview data folder within the sl2006 folder. Got it? Let me know if you have any confusion. Sincerely,

one last thing which dongle is it? 1024Ec 2048Fc or 2048FC+? Thanks.

its a 1024ec, but sometimes when i load compu, on the loading screen it comes up as a 2048.

I'm at the office right now, i will see how it comes up when i get home in a few hours

SO i hooked my dongle to see how it was loading. USually when the small compuware box pops up during loading, the sunlite box loaded instead and said my dongle was a 2048. once the program loaded it looked like the pic shown below

I ahvent tried downgrading yet liek you have suggested. im about to go help out at a friends show, so i will try again late tonight and report back tomorrow. thanks

ok WOW you must of got sunlites software somehow. very weird. it just keeps getting weirder and weirder on you dont it? haha. sorry. anyways DEFINELTY downgrade and see whats up. keep me posted or email me or whatever. Sincerely,

I have installed the 2004 version, and loaded my page from the other version and still no luck. Still cant edit any secen or swithces the way it is supposed to be. Also the view of th page jsut looks wierd too. Below is a screen shot of the page i loaded.

Dunn wow man im really stumped here. i was sure the downgrade would have some results. there realy isnt much left you can try. at least not to my knowledge anyways. i am gonna give my guy a cal on monday and see what he can think of to help you out. i did in fact already email this thread to the developers so hopefully they may have something soon. i told em it was a high priority so wel see what they come back at me with. Sincerely,

Jingles.. Please send me Dunns' files.

I can see where Dunn is having the majority of his issues.
When a page is created the DMX address can't be changed simply be changing the address on the page.
This is ok for par cans, but not for moving lights.
If you have a moving lights page it and you want to change the DMX address, it will always be best to use the DMX channel offset feature.

That being said, on one of your editing windows I can see that it has no information.. so I can already see where things went wrong.
Again, it may have had something to do with changing the DMX channels.

This is the software version that you should be using.
I would recommend uninstalling all versions you currently have.

Then in the C:drive delete folders SL2004 and SL2006.

However, before you do this, let me see the files you sent Jingles.
If the files Jingles has are really bad, you may have to do some re-programming.

Dunn.. Are you running any other programs simultaneously with Compu Live?

I only have compu running when i am using it. I also bought a brand new laptop to run the program and dont use the laptop for anything but compu.

I am not at my usual computer, so i will send you(elation pro) my files when i get back to m other computer.

i will also try unistalling and deleting those files.

thanks for the help

dunn me and john (elation pro)already went over and discussed your files earlier today. Email me or get ahold of me and I can help you out. Sincerely,

Jingles you can hit me up on AIM at skaman73, email me or call me if you would like. i should be around the computer for most of the night.

since i re-installed after completely removing everything, i have just started a new show from scratch. Its not taking me as long as i thought it would to get back to where i was before. Also as you could tell from the files i sent you, my stuff was set up really messy, so this good time for me to get everything clean and they way i want it to be.

i am just more concerned about these problems happening again. Mainly the problem with it shutting itself down in the middle of a show, i can't have that happen anymore, especially as the band i tour with continues to grow.

thanks - Evan

made through this past weekend with almost zero problems.

i got everything working again back to normal, except out of nowhere while i was doing some programming of switches, the color of my scanners started acting up.

when no color switch was activated, the scanners were coming out green and magenta, both in the 3-d visualizer and in real time. I was able to fix the problem by just creating a white color switch. however, this makes me worrisome of some of these problems occuring again

hmmm weird. If both the 3D and real lights were doin it sounds like a data issue. But I'm not 100% on that. Report to me any and all bugs as they occur please. Tell me do you have like a dmx branch or splitter? How many intels is you usual rig? Thanks dunn. Sincerely,

i am using 8 scanners and a dimmer pack during most shows, all connected directly from computer>dongle>lights

ahh ok. How long is the cable run usually from dongle to first light AND total cable run? I'm willing to bet you if you picked up an opto beach 4 dmx signal splitter it would help greatly. We always reccomend these for any rig. It will actually boost the dmx signal aswell. Sincerely,

i will look into one of those

fyi - this problem actually started in the 3-d visualizer while i was on the way to the gig. then upon connecting it to the rig, it continued to act the same in real time

edit: the first cable run from the first light is usually 1 25ft cable to the snake to FOH and then either the snake cable directly to the dongle or a 15ft cable to the dongle. If not running through the snake it is a 25ft to the dongle or a 2x25ft to the dongle

Hi Guys, I never recieved a new file.
Please send it my way