Gilderfluke&Co DMX-512, Serial, and MIDI Output Smart Bricks - Manual (Page 39)

rest of the show. This is done by programming the show as normal, saving a duplicate, and
then using the ÔShow InformationÕ dialog to drop the frame rate by half.
If this feature is ever used with a Moog motion base, you will need to increase the
ÔOversamplingÕ rate to compensate for the lower frame rates.
f) Numbering System: This toggle is used to select between HEXadecimal or Decimal numbering
systems for display and entries.
g) VT-52 Compatible Display: When this toggle is enabled, the BS-DMX-Tx or BS-Serial Smart Bricks
will use special escape sequences to clear the screen (<ESC>ape 'E'), clear the current line
(<ESC>ape 'l'), or position the cursor (<ESC>ape 'Y' ROW COLUMN). When disabled, the BS-
DMX-Tx or BS-Serial Smart Bricks has to redraw the entire screen to change any value, so it can
save a good deal of screen redraw time if you have a compatible display.
h) Operating Mode: This command is used to toggle through all of the modes that are available
to you on the BS-Serial. If you are just using the BS-Serial for sending serial strings or DMX-512
data, just leave the card in MIDI mode and donÕt set up any of the MIDI-Specific commands.
As of this writing, the modes available on the BS-Serial are:
1) MIDI: Sends MIDI key on and key off commands
2) Intelix: Sends strings to control Intelix brand matrix mixers
3) Rexroth quick write: Supports serial control of Mannesmann Rexroth DCC Servo cards
4) Orpan (LSB first): One of two modes to support serial control of Orpan motion bases
5) Orpan (MSB first): One of two modes to support serial control of Orpan motion bases
6) Moog / DOF mode: One of two modes to support serial control of Moog electric
motion bases. In this mode, the P C Ê under the Motion Base translates the
ÔDegrees of FreedomÕ information from the BS-Serial to the actual Leg Lengths.
7) Moog / length mode: One of two modes to support serial control of Moog electric
motion bases. In this mode, the BS-Serial transmits the actual Leg Lengths to the
motion base.
p) Motion Base ID: This is a Moog Mode specific command. Moog Motion bases can be as-
signed an identification number of between 0 and 32,768. This command is used to set the ID
number that the BS-Serial will send its data to. This number should be set to the same ID as the
motion base you are working with. The default is Ф1Х.
i) Monitor Channel: This command is used to select a channel that is used to build up a serial
string byte-by-byte from the animation data, and then send it out at the appropriate time. It
can be used to send any ÔspecialÕ commands you might need to send to the equipment
being controlled by the BS-Serial. Any string of any length up to 256 bytes can be built up and
sent using this feature. It is typically used to send commands to the serially controlled equip-
ment that doesnÕt need to be sent regularly. Typical of these commands are initialization and
de-initialization strings.
This command asks for the address of an eight bit value in the animation data. If you enter
an address of 255/0FFh, this feature will be disabled. Once set (and configuration mode exit-
ed), the BS-Serial will begin monitoring this location for any non-zero values. Once it finds one
non-zero value, it starts buffering whatever values it finds in this location in each subsequent
frame of animation data into a buffer. If it then finds two consecutive frames of animation
data with a zero value in them, it will then immediately send out the entire string that has
been built up.
The advantage of using this mode of sending strings is that any string can be built up and
sent from the animation data. The disadvantage of this feature is that it takes as one frame of
time for each entry ion the string to be buffered in before it can be sent. A 200 character
long string will take 202 frames of data to build up and send out. This translates to almost
seven seconds at 30 FPS.
Data for these strings is typically hand entered using PC¥MACsÕ OffLine editing tools. The
target channel may be defined as either a single eight bit analog or as eight separate digital
functions within the same byte. If it is defined as an analog, you can use the ÔSet to a Value...Õ
commands to enter each frame of the string (be sure to turn off the ÔCut/PasteÕ options under
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