NEW IN SOFTWARE VERSION "MASTERPIECE MAIN No.2.1" - 28-10-98
108 Masterpiece PMX Output Channel to 256 DMX Slot, Patching System.
This vastly expands the capability of the Masterpiece 108 by allowing it to drive 256 DMX Slots.
Why the name "Slot"?
It is expected, in the next revision of the DMX Standard, that the term "Dimmer Levels" will
be renamed "Slots", since DMX is now used to control many parameters besides dimmer levels. Slots refer to the
bytes that flow one after the other in the DMX serial data stream - each having its own time slot. It aids our
explanation of the Patching System to refer to Masterpiece Output Channels or PMX Channels (Patch input) as
opposed to DMX Slots (Patch output).
Patching Concepts:
Please see the Masterpiece Hierarchy diagram to see how the Patch fits into the scheme of things.
The Patch is particularly useful when controlling large numbers of intelligent lighting fixtures. For example, a
Masterpiece 108 can control just 6 Clay Paky StageScans but with the Patch it can now control 16 of them!
Often when intelligent lights are programmed, certain parameters are grouped together into Scenes. For example,
you might have a Scene which controls the colour discs of the odd number projectors and another scene for the even
one's colour discs. A scene for odd Gobo Selects and another for even Gobo Selects. Two scenes for odd and even
Gobo Rotation speeds. Two scenes for the front group and the back group's Zoom Lenses. One scene for all the
lamp control channels, etc.
This grouping can now be done by the Patch
, for example, this allows just one Masterpiece Channel to control all
the Lamp Control Slots. With 16 projectors this saves 15 Masterpiece Channels. Two Masterpiece Channels to
control the odd and even colour discs - 14 channels saved. Two Channels to control the odd and even Gobo Select
discs - another 14 channels saved, and so on. It is likely, however, that you will want to control the Pans, Tilts and
Stoppers, for example, individually, but with these huge channel savings this presents no problem.
Logical layout
- another function of the Patch is to allow you to lay out the Masterpiece in an efficient and logical
way. All the Irises could be patched to adjacent channels on the Masterpiece. Similarly the Stoppers. The Pans
and Tilts could be put side by side on the same Output Select Page, etc.
If you have some spare DMX Slots, you could address your projectors 10 or 20 apart for simplicity, leaving some
unused Slots between projector base addresses.
The Patch Key has three modes: Patch Off, Patch On and Program / View.
Patch Off
- the Masterpiece works as before - the DMX Slots are identical to the PMX Channels.
Patch On
- the Masterpiece's 108 PMX Output Channels are patched to 256 DMX Slots.
The PMX output is always unpatched and therefore exactly as it was before, as are the 36 0-10V
analogue outputs.
Programming or Viewing the Patch
One Masterpiece Channel can drive many DMX Slots but a DMX Slot can only be driven by one
Masterpiece Channel. Therefore the programming process is to select a particular DMX Slot and then
attach a Masterpiece Channel to drive it.
1. Press the Patch key to select Prog/View and enter the (new) Security Code.
2. Press the Forward or Reverse Manual Step keys to work your way through the 256 DMX Slots. These keys are
repeat keys and quickly count through the slots if held pressed. The display shows "S.###" (meaning Slot
Number) while the Forward or Reverse key is pressed and "C.###" (meaning output Channel Number) when the
key is not pressed. When not pressed, after two seconds, the display toggles between "S.###" and "C.###".
3. Having selected a particular Slot, use the Output Select keys O1-O6 and the Keyboard keys 1-18 to
select the
Masterpiece Channel to drive that slot.
"C.###" appears in the display.
Masterpiece
Software
Upgrades
Paul F. Mardon, Technical Director, 28-10-98
File: MPN.Sam
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