FEATURE REQUEST

[The_Cowboy]

After having used the WM1 for the first time over the weekend and I’m impressed on the whole; however I have found 2 features that would add great functionality to the unit: It’s taken me hours of Googling to find out how to add Focus and Prism effects to my heads and it seems to be a big thing to other users too that this functionality is addressed, but nowhere near in a good enough manner:

1. WM has nothing that really touches on the subject at length and it was a 3rd party video that gave me the answer. In this video the user suggests adding prism and focus to 2 of the 3 empty dials that appear when pressing Gobo. This would be much better than having to create live edits and keep going back to refer to them.

2. Also could ask you - what colour are most strobes? Yes white!
Out of the box my heads strobed in white but only until I had set a preset that used a colour then I found out the dedicated global strobe just strobed using whatever colour they were set to at the time - blue is especially not a good strobe colour! What I need is blinder plus strobe on one key ( do they both work by pressing both keys at the same time I wonder?).

So on the dedicated strobe next to speed could we have the dial to select strobe colour please?

Like I said just my thoughts to add to a great little unit. Thankyou.

[axell]

Great ideas, although you probably know that you are not the first one who is asking for direct Prism access, as you can image a lot of folks here have the same issue for quite some time.

The "Gobo workaround" I do use myself lot of times when other "missing" controllers are important to have, like Rotation. However, for a GENERAL solution you have to weigh carefully if you want to apply it or not as a general parameter installment. For example you can NOT do if the fixtures also have active Gobo functions, so then either only Gobo selection or Prism would be the result. I personally "accepted" 2 or 3 (add-on or "overlay" ) Live Presets with Prism/Rotation, so I don't think it is worth to cannibalize other important functions like Gobo for that. It is still open for you to create a profile where Gobo can be used as a Prism or Rotation controller, if you have the requirement and the fixture allow this to do so.

I think there is a constant misunderstanding of how Strobe really is working! Most people imply that activating the Strobe command, this channel then switches lights fast ON and OFF (strobing). That is not how Strobe is working. Strobe NEVER EVER(!!) switches ANY(!) lights ON by itself. Strobe can only be applied to "light" (color/Dimmer channels) which are already somehow activated or switched ON by any of the RGBWAU channels or on a ColorWheel. The Strobe then - when is activated, is ""throwing in"" very short, very quick DMX values of 000 (= channel dimmer off by the selected strobe frequency) to any Color/Dimmer Channel, whether it is a full on 255 or half 127 or even (when already) 000. That is the reason why a) you can have any strobe on any Color you like because you have activated the Color but also, b) strobe NEEDS an activated dimmer/Color channel to "insert" his 000 breaks into an activated (255) dimmer/color channel).
On Color Wheels fixtures this is identical with Open/Closed function. The point I want to make is: If nothing is activated BEFORE, it will not strobe. If you have RGB all OFF (000) and you apply Strobe then inserting another 000 from the strobe channel does not make it light up! It stays dark. On Color wheels, If Shutter is CLOSED (off) already and you apply a strobe (with more CLOSED interruptions -strobe- to it) you still won't see anything.

That is also the reason why it is a bit tricky to create ONLY Strobe fixtures (mostly 2 Ch - 1= LED/Dimmer, 2 = Strobe) on Wolfmix, which can be challenging, because in order to Strobe you first need to have the LEDs ON. Mostly this is either a "white Color dimmer" or simply "Master Dimmer". When it is a Color you have to set to ON before you can Strobe it. Master Dimmer are always on default 255 - so they are On, but when Strobe stops, the LEDs will not go out (why should they? you switched it on). -they stay ON (as a blinder...). Oh, you can make Master Dimmer default 000, so they are off, correct. But now applying Strobe, what is switching the Master Dimmer (LEDs) to ON (255) now? And if they are on 000 already, will a Strobe-000 be visible? No! So you have to manually enable a "light" with a positive dimmer value, before you can apply Strobe to it.

There are - of course - workarounds to deal with 2-Ch Strobes within the DMX specifications but they are not defined as Standards (think of double or triple Strobe channels in a profile redirecting to LEDs and keep one for Strobe command - all via "multiple beam" assignments)

Or ...you still have- again- the option to create "white only" strobes by using the Live Edit Presets

[The_Cowboy]

Many thanks and I do appreciate your reply and taking the time to answer.

But I’m not asking about gobos or cannibalising this feature, I’m merely stating that this page only deals with gobos on one dial - there are 3 others free on this page. Why not assign the dials to focus/prism/zoom?

And I can isolate the group on strobe to just strobe my heads - I can change the speed - but whatever colour effect is already running so I get coloured strobes - another dial to select colour would be amazing to override other colours. Also my heads use shutters for strobe.

I think your answer may be over complicating the simple thing I need to happen? But Thankyou

[axell]

Probably the 3 remaining encoders are "reserved" for the fixtures on the other Groups (B, C, & D) you don't want to take away THEIR control.

But I get your point. However, to use additional encoders uses up Groups just for one additional control functionality. And we only have 8 in total. So this is a bit of luxury. However ...
Example: I have already created a profile for a single fixture where I want to control 2 functions independently from each other, but needed 2 encoders for. I configured multiple beams and assigned the relevant functions to Group A and Group B. So what you suggested can be achieved already today. You can easily configure Prism to be controlled by the encoder in Group B of the same fixture and still keep Gobos and everything else in Group A. You only have to split the fixture and assign the "Prism" part then to Group B. But then B is blocked pretty much just for Prism control.

[leesinthemix]

I honestly think the way around this would be to be able to choose what the encoders control on the home screen.

If a user already has a small DMX board to control dimming (let's be honest most of us do), then it makes sense to open up possibility the encoders to control other parameters.
Prism or Gobo rotation speed for that group OR maybe the speed for Beam/Movement FX. The latter of which would be incredible!

[MPGTechnikTeam]

I agree. Could very useful and I think just being able to set what DMX channel the knob controls would be powerful too.

[Justsash]

I’ve searched this forum for an update, but can’t find any. I’d like to be able to have access to prism and rotation, and focus/zoom, but be able to save them to presets. Then I could combine with color, move, and beam fx.

[leesinthemix]

I’ve searched this forum for an update, but can’t find any. I’d like to be able to have access to prism and rotation, and focus/zoom, but be able to save them to presets. Then I could combine with color, move, and beam fx.

You need to create a LIVE EDIT to control these parameters.

You can then create multiple combinations of different Gobos, rotation, prism and zoom/iris etc.
Click the lock symbol when editing a live edit, so make sure this overrides any other settings currently live on the W1.

I agree this isn't an ideal workflow, but it's fine for small setups IMO.

We just need to ability to map these LIVE EDIT command to individual DMX channels, the same as we can using the group dimmers in the master settings.

[Justsash]

I’ve searched this forum for an update, but can’t find any. I’d like to be able to have access to prism and rotation, and focus/zoom, but be able to save them to presets. Then I could combine with color, move, and beam fx.

You need to create a LIVE EDIT to control these parameters.

You can then create multiple combinations of different Gobos, rotation, prism and zoom/iris etc.
Click the lock symbol when editing a live edit, so make sure this overrides any other settings currently live on the W1.

I agree this isn't an ideal workflow, but it's fine for small setups IMO.

We just need to ability to map these LIVE EDIT command to individual DMX channels, the same as we can using the group dimmers in the master settings.

I’m using the wolfmix for medium to large nightclub gigs. I’m already doing it the way you described, but it’s very inefficient to press a saved preset, then press a live edit button. This basically layers live edits over the presets, so when I press another preset, I have to make sure I disable the active live edit.

I actually own a Light Rider LR512 box and iPad. The light rider app has gobos and prisms built in to the UI, which you can save to presets, so I’m confused why this wasn’t implemented on the wolfmix on release.

I’d prefer to use my wolfmix over my Light Rider LR512/iPad set up (way more work to set up/break down), but at this rate I might have switch back.

If any developers read this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE enable the ability to save live edits to presets. Combining live edits with the ability to use color/move/beam FX then save them to presets will give your user base even more combinations and make lighting “dance” in ways you wouldn’t even imagine!

[leesinthemix]

You can already save Gobo and Gobo Rotation settings into a preset.

1) Press the Preset you want to save these settings to.
2) Hit the Gobo section, and choose the Gobo you'd like, plus dial in the rotation amount.
3) Overwrite/Save that same Preset.
4) When you next press that Preset, the Gobo settings will be recalled.

I do however agree we need the option to save prism/iris/zoom settings from the Live Edit section into a preset.
There are currently two modes for Live Edits - Unlocked mode and Locked mode. Another mode for saving to presets would be very handy and welcome!

As a workaround, if you have an external DMX board with buttons, you can always map the DMX channel of the fixture's prism setting to this board using the learn function. Set the default value to the DMX value of your desired prism setting.
This way you can select the Preset and Prism setting at the same time, using two fingers and without the faff of using two different sections of the W1 UI.

Linking Wolfmix with DMX boards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6aZ5yG3EMw&t=1s

Make sense?