Visual Productions CueCore3 DMX-Interface / Software User Manual [EN]

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CUECORE3

MANUAL

Revision History

Revision Date Author(s) Description

1 29.03.2021 ME Initial version.

1 20.06.2022 ME Added Patch and Purple Cloud.

Contents

1 Introduction 7

2 Protocols 13

3 Quickstart 19

4 Installation 33

5 Network 36

6 Operating Modes 40

7 Patch 44

8 Tracks 47

9 Playbacks 54

10 Show Control 61

11 Protocol Conversion 74

12 Monitors 79

13 Settings 82

14 Purple Cloud 92

15 vManager 95

16 Kiosc 100

Appendices 102

A Trigger Types 103

B Task Types 114

C Templates 127

D API 128

No parts of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means - graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems - without the written permission of the publisher.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this document, the publisher and the author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of information contained in this document or from the use of programs and source code that may accompany it. In no event shall the publisher and the author be liable for any loss of proﬁt or any other commercial damage caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this document.

Due to the dynamic nature of product design, the information contained in this document is subject to change without notice. Revisions of this information or new editions may be issued to incorporate such changes.

Products that are referred to in this document may be either trademarks and/or registered trademarks of the respective owners. The publisher and the author make no claim to these trademarks.

EU Declaration of Conformity

We, manufacturer Visual Productions BV, herby declare under sole responsibility, that the following device:

CueCore3

Conforms to the following EC Directives, including all amendments: EMC Directive 2014/30/EU

And the following harmonized standards have been applied: NEN-EN-IEC 61000-6-1:2007 NEN-EN-IEC 61000-6-3:2007

The object of the declaration is in conformity with the relevant Union harmonisation Legislation.

Full name and identication of the person responsible for product quality and accordance with standards on behalf of the manufacturer

Date: Place: March 29th, 2021 Haarlem, The Netherlands

ing. Maarten Engels Managing Director Visual Productions BV

VISUAL PRODUCTIONS BV

IZAAK ENSCHEDEWEG 38A

NL-2031CR HAARLEM

THE NETHERLANDS

TEL +31 (0)23 551 20 30

WWW.VISUALPRODUCTIONS.NL

INFO@VISUALPRODUCTIONS.NL

ABN-AMRO BANK 53.22.22.261

BIC ABNANL2A

IBAN NL18ABNA0532222261

VAT NL851328477B01

COC 54497795

Chapter 1

Introduction

Thank you for choosing the CueCore3; a lighting controller designed for (semi)permanent installations. The CueCore3 is the most powerful controller developed so far by the engineers at Visual Productions.

We hope you will create beautiful lighting installations using the CueCore3 and enjoy commissioning your CueCore3 projects as much as we enjoyed designing this new controller.

Figure 1.1: CueCore3

At the time of writing this manual the CueCore3’s ﬁrmware was at version

1.26.20.

1.1 Design Goals

The CueCore3 builds on the success of the CueCore2 and QuadCore, using the same functionality, while at the same time expanding capacity and adding new

features. The CueCore3 will not make the CueCore2 obsolete, rather it will give the user an additional choice for a lighting controller for more demanding projects, oﬀering even more capabilities than the CueCore2.

The key extensions oﬀered by the CueCore3 are:

1.1.1 Track Capacity

Featuring a ﬂash memory 256 times the size of the memory in a CueCore2, the CueCore3 can store considerably longer DMX recordings. This makes the CueCore3 the preferred choice for channel heavy LED pixel projects.

1.1.2 Number of Playbacks

The number of playbacks has been increased from 6 to 16. The additional playbacks makes it easier to program multiple zones or create more interactivity by having various external triggers activate diﬀerent playbacks.

1.1.3 Number of Actions

The CueCore3’s larger memory also facilitates a higher number of actions and tasks to be programmed in the show control section. Taking the automation of the lighting controller to the next level.

1.1.4 RDM

The DMX ports are bi-directional and RDM capable, featuring RDM discovery and remote addressing.

1.1.5 Four Universes

The CueCore3 is has four DMX ports ﬁtted with 5-pin XLR connectors. Each port has an independent optical isolation; a surge on one DMX port is preventing from aﬀecting the other ports.

1.1.6 Patch

The previous CueCores did not contain ﬁxture information; they only have DMX channel data. The new CueCore3, however, features a patch. In this patch the user can - it is optional - enter the ﬁxture data like starting address and personality. When the patch is setup then the CueCore3 is capable of controlling the ﬁxture’s parameters. Also, the patch is used for determining the intensity channels when smartly dimming playbacks containing pre-recorded tracks. In the CueCore2 this function relied on the Intensity Map.

1.1.7 Purple Cloud

The CueCore3 is designed to be remotely monitored and controlled by the Purple Cloud. The Purple Cloud is cloud service that has been developed by Visual Productions parallel to the development of the CueCore3.

1.2 Features

The feature set of the CueCore3 includes:

• 4x DMX-512 (ANSI E1.11) optically isolated port (bi-directional)

• RDM (ANSI E1.20)

• 4x GPI

• MIDI, MSC & MMC

• SMPTE, MTC & Art-Net timecode

• Art-Net, sACN & KiNet

• TCP, UDP & OSC

• Master-slave protocol for synchronising multiple CueCore3 units

• Scheduling with Real-Time clock1, weekdays and sunrise/sunset

• NTP time synchronisation

• Desktop or DIN Rail mounted

• Kensington lock

• Locked power cable protection

• PoE (Power Over Ethernet) Class I

• Bundled with CueluxPro, vManager and Kiosc software

1.3 Comparison

The following table visualises the diﬀerence between the CueCore3, CueCore2 , QuadCore and CueCore1. This overview might prove to be helpful to CueCore users considering choosing the model for their new designs.

Please note that there is no battery ﬁtted inside the CueCore3. The Real-Time clock has

a backup charge through means of a super-capacitor.

CueCore3 QuadCore CueCore2 CueCore1

CPU 4x1.2GHz 180MHz 180MHz 120MHz

Memory 8GB 32MB 32MB 8MB

DMX 4 in/out 4 in/out 2 in/out 2 out + 1 in

RDM yes - - -

MIDI in+out - in+out in+thru+out

GPI 4x digital/analog - 4x digital/analog 4x digital

SMPTE in - in in

MTC in+out - in+out in

Art-Net in+out in+out in+out in+out

sACN in+out in+out in+out -

KiNet out out out -

TCP in+out in in -

UDP in+out in+out in+out in+out

OSC in+out in+out in+out in+out

POE class I class I class I class I

DHCP yes yes yes -

NTP yes yes yes -

Real-time Clock yes yes yes yes

CueluxPro 4 universes 4 universes 2 universes 2 universes

1.4 Limitations

The CueCore3 is a powerful device with many possibilities, there are however some limitations, as shown in the following table.

Playbacks 16

Cues per Playback 32

Tracks 128

Action lists Each source once

Actions per list 64

Actions system-wide 128

Tasks per Action 16

Tasks system-wide 256

Variables 20

Timers 4

1.5 What’s in the box?

The CueCore3 packaging contains the following items (see ﬁgure 1.2):

• CueCore3

• Ethernet cable

• 6-pin terminal

• Power supply

• 4x international plug

• Information card

Figure 1.2: CueCore3 box contents

1.6 Saving data to memory

This manual will describe how to conﬁgure the CueCore3 and program tracks, playbacks, action, etc. The unit’s web-interface is used for editing these kinds of elements. When changes are made, these changes are directly stored in the RAM memory of the CueCore3 and the programming will directly inﬂuence the behaviour of the unit. RAM memory is, however, volatile and its content will be lost through a power cycle. For this reason the CueCore3 will copy any changes in the RAM memory to its onboard ﬂash memory. Flash memory retains its data even when not powered. The CueCore3 will load all its data back from the ﬂash memory upon startup.

This memory copy process is conducted automatically by the CueCore3 and should not be of any concern of the user. One point of consideration is, however, that after making a change the unit should be given time to perform the copy to ﬂash. As a rule of thumb, do not disconnect the power from the device within 30 seconds from making a programming change.

1.7 Document Organisation

This manual discusses setting up and programming the unit. Chapter 2 provides background information on the communication protocols used the CueCore3. Chapters 4 and 5 cover how to set up the unit and conﬁgure the network connection.

The Patch information is needed when controlling ﬁxtures directly. This page is covered in Chapter 7.

Chapter 8 and 9 cover recording, storing and playback of lighting content.

Programming the automation, triggering and converting functionality is done in chapter 10.

Supporting tools such as Purple Cloud, vManager and Kiosc are explained in chapters 14, 15 and 16 respectively.

When in a hurry, you could skip all chapters and directly follow the quickstart tutorials in chapter 3.

1.8 Further Help

If, after reading this manual, you have further questions then please consult the online forum at http://forum.visualproductions.nl for more technical support.

Chapter 2

Protocols

The CueCore3 is ﬁtted with several communication ports and supports various protocols. This chapter describes these protocols and to which extent they are implemented in the CueCore3

2.1 DMX-512

DMX-512 is the standard communication protocol for stage lighting. Its oﬃcial name is E1.11-2008 USITT DMX512-A. Nowadays the reach of the DMX protocol has extended beyond entertainment lighting and is also used for architectural lighting.

Originally one DMX network contained 512 channels which is called a ’universe’. With the growing size and complexity of lighting systems it is now very common for a system to compose of multiple universes, each conveying 512 channels.

It is advised to use a shielded twisted pair cable for DMX cabling. The cable should be terminated with an 120 Ohm resistor.

DMX-512 is a very successful protocol with, however, a few limitations. The maximum number of attached devices is limited to 32 and they all have to be connected in bus-topology having one cable running via each device. Furthermore, a DMX-512 cable should not be longer than 300 meters.

Figure 2.1: Visual Productions’ RdmSplitter

The DIN Rail RdmSplitter from Visual Productions (See ﬁgure 2.1) helps tackle those inconvenient limitations. The Splitter takes a DMX signal and sends it out again on its 6 DMX output ports for scaling group topology. Each output port is capable of driving 32 more devices. The Splitter can also function as a signal booster as each port supports another 300 meter long connection.

2.2 RDM

The Remote Device Management (RDM) protocol - oﬃcially called ANSI E1.20

- is build on top of the DMX-512 protocol. RDM enhances DMX with bidirectional communication allowing the ﬁxtures to be detected, addressed and polled for status information.

Although standard DMX cables can be used, the equipment requires speciﬁc electronic considerations for being RDM capable.

The CueCore3 can discover RDM ﬁxtures, set starting addresses and choose modes.

2.3 Art-Net

The Art-Net protocol primarily transfers DMX-512 data over Ethernet. The high bandwidth of an Ethernet connection allows Art-Net to transfer up to 256 universes.

The data sent out for Art-Net does put a certain load on the network, therefore it is recommended to disable Art-Net when not in use.

Additional to transmitting DMX-512 data, Art-Net can also be used for transferring timecode information for equipment synchronisation.

Each CueCore3 supports sending and receiving of 2 Art-Net universes as well as receiving Art-Net timecode.

2.4 sACN

The streaming Architecture of Control Networks (sACN) protocol uses a method of transporting DMX-512 information over TCP/IP networks. The protocol is speciﬁed in the ANSI E1.31-2009 standard.

The sACN protocol supports multi-cast in order to take eﬃcient use of the network’s bandwidth.

The CueCore3 supports sending and receiving of 2 sACN universes.

2.5 KiNet

KiNet is a proprietary protocol of Philips Color Kinetics to control their LED ﬁxtures and power supplies. It is a lightweight Ethernet-based protocol that carries DMX-style data. Within the CueCore3 it can only be used to output data.

2.6 TCP

The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is a core protocol of the Internet Protocol Suite. It is used for its reliable, ordered and error checked delivery of a stream of bytes between applications and hosts over IP networks. It is considered ’reliable’ because the protocol itself checks to see if everything that was transmitted was delivered at the receiving end. TCP allows for the retransmission of lost packets, thereby making sure that all data transmitted is received.

The CueCore3 supports receiving and sending TCP messages.

2.7 UDP

User Datagram Protocol (UDP) is a simple protocol for sending messages across the network. It is supported by various media devices like video projectors and Show Controllers. It does not incorporate error checking, therefor it is faster than TCP but less reliable.

There are two ways how to have the CueCore3 respond to incoming UDP messages. The API (see page 131) makes typical CueCore3 functions available through UDP. Furthermore, custom messages can be programmed in the Show Control page (see page 61). This is also the place where to program outgoing UDP messages.

2.8 OSC

Open Sound Control (OSC) is a protocol for communicating between software and various multi-media type devices. OSC uses the network to send and receive messages, it can contain various information.

There are apps available for creating custom-made user interfaces on iOS (iPod, iPhone, iPad) and Android. These tools allow to program fool-proof userinterfaces for controlling the device. E.g. Kiosc from Visual Productions.

There are two ways how to have the CueCore3 respond to incoming OSC messages. Firstly, the API (see page 128) makes typical CueCore3 functions available through OSC. Secondly, custom messages can be programmed in the Show Control page (see page 61).

2.9 GPI

The CueCore3 features four General Purpose Input (GPI) ports that can be connected to external equipment, switches and sensors. State changes on these GPI ports can be used to trigger programmed events inside the CueCore3.

Each GPI port can be switched between Digital and Analog. Set to Digital the port works as a contact-closure. In Analog mode the port is a 0-10V level input.

2.10 MIDI

The MIDI protocol is intended for inter-connecting musical devices such as synthesisers and sequencers. Furthermore, this protocol is also very suitable to send triggers from one device to another and is often used to synchronise audio, video and lighting equipment. There is also a large collection of MIDI control surfaces available; user-interface consoles with knobs, (motorised-)faders, rotary-encoders, etc.

The CueCore3 is ﬁtted with a MIDI input and MIDI output port. It supports receiving and sending MIDI messages like NoteOn, NoteOﬀ, ControlChange and ProgramChange.

2.10.1 MTC

MIDI Timecode (MTC) is the timecode signal which is embedded into MIDI. The CueCore3 supports receiving and transmitting MTC. It is not recommended to combine the use of MTC with ordinary MIDI as MTC consumes the bandwidth of the MIDI connection.

2.10.2 MMC

MIDI Machine Control (MMC) is part of the MIDI protocol. It deﬁnes special messages for controlling audio equipment such as multi-track recorders. The CueCore3 supports the sending of MMC commands; please refer to page 125.

2.10.3 MSC

MIDI Show Control (MSC) is an extension of the MIDI protocol. It comprises of commands for synchronising show equipment like lighting, video and audio devices. The CueCore3 supports receiving MSC commands. This support is hard coded and does not require any Show Control programming. Please refer to appendix ??.

2.11 SMPTE

SMPTE is timecode signal which can be used to synchronise audio, video, lighting and other show equipment. The CueCore3 supports receiving SMPTE that is transferred as an audio signal, also know as LTC timecode. The CueCore3 only supports receiving timecode. If a timecode generator is required then the Visual Productions’ TimeCore is recommended as shown in ﬁgure 2.2.

Figure 2.2: TimeCore

2.12 NTP

Network Time Protocol (NTP) is a networking protocol for clock synchronisation between computer systems over networks.

The real-time clock (RTC) in the CueCore3 can have a small deviation and drift over time. By occasionally synchronising (e.g. once per day) to an external time server - using the NTP protocol - the RTC stays accurate.

2.13 DHCP

The Dynamic Host Conﬁguration Protocol (DHCP) is a standardised network protocol used on Internet Protocol (IP) networks for dynamically distributing network conﬁguration parameters, such as IP addresses.

The CueCore3 is a DHCP client.

Chapter 3

Quickstart

This chapter provides step by step tutorials on how to program your CueCore3 for some typical tasks:

• Playback lighting scenes based on the scheduler

• Choose between diﬀerent lighting scenes via incoming UDP messages

• Record a show from an external DMX console

• Conﬁgure as Art-Net Node

3.1 Playback based on scheduler

This tutorial shows how to create a lighting scene and have it activated at a certain time of the day. The scene will be de-activated at another time. Follow the steps below:

1. Connect to the network Connect the CueCore3 with an Ethernet cable to the router. It is required that the network is managed by a router that features a DHCP server. If the network router is not DHCP capable then read the network chapter on page 36 for alternative setups.

2. Install the vManager To access the web-interface of the CueCore3, the vManager tool is required. This tool can be downloaded from the Visual Productions website. Once the installation is complete, run the vManager to discover the IP address of the CueCore3.

3. Open the web-interface Choose the CueCore3 from the device list and click on the Browse button to open the web-interface.

4. Create the scene Use the browser to go to the CueCore3’s ’Track’ page. Select a track from the table and press the ’Open Console’ button. Create a scene by using the command-line syntax. E.g. 1<thru>3 @ <full>

5. Create a cue Go to the Playback page and select Playback 1. Press the Add button to create a new cue. Once the Cue is added it will automatically refer to Track 1.

6. Start playback Press Go+ on the transport area to start the Playback. The playback now indicated the green ’play’ icon.

3.2 Choose scenes via UDP

This example will create two lighting scenes. They will be put into a single playback. This means only one scene will be active at a time. Furthermore, a cross-fade will be deﬁned between the scenes and the scenes will be triggered by receiving simple UDP network messages. Please take the following steps:

2. Create the ﬁrst scene Use the browser to go to the CueCore3’s ’Track’ page. Select a track from the table and press the ’Open Console’ button. Create a scene by using the command-line syntax. E.g. 1 @ <full> or 2+3 @ 50 <enter>

3. Create the second scene Press the ’right arrow’ button to switch to the next track. Again make a scene by using some command-line syntax; e.g. 1 THRU 4 @ 10 ENTER

4. Program the playback Go to the ’Playback’ page, select the ﬁrst of the six playback and insert two cues by pressing the ’add’ button. Set cue #1 to refer to your ﬁrst track and cue #2 to refer to your second track.

5. Create an action list Go to the ’Show control’ page. Select ’UDP’ from the ’Sources’ table. Copy UDP to the ’Action list’ table by using the ’Add >>’ button. Select the new UDP action list and insert two actions by pressing the ’<< Add’ button twice.

6. Create actions Select the ﬁrst action and press ’Edit’ to open the dialog. Change the trigger value to ”tulip”. Add one task by using the ’Add’ button. Choose ’Playback’ from the list of task types. Select the newly added task and set the ’feature’ to ’Transport’ and set the ’function’ to ’Jump. Parameter 1 should be set to ’1’ (addressing the ﬁrst playback) and parameter 2 should be set to ’1’ (jump to the ﬁrst cue).

Press the ’Close’ button, select the second action and press ’Edit’ again. Change this trigger value to ”crocus”. Add a task by pressing ’Add’ and choose the ’Playback’ task-type. Select the newly added task and set the ’feature’ to ’Transport’ and set the ’function’ to ’Jump. Parameter 1 should be set to ’1’ (addressing the ﬁrst playback) and parameter 2 should be set to ’2’ (jump to the second cue).

7. Test with netcat and monitor On your computer, use a simple command-line tool like netcat to send a UDP string to the CueCore3. On Mac OSX netcat is started with the command nc -u 192.168.1.10 7000 (replace 192.168.1.10 with IP address of your CueCore3). From now on you can type tulip <enter> or crocus <enter> to send this messages to the CueCore3.

Go to the ’Monitor’ page in your browser and select ’UDP In’ to verify your device is receiving the UDP messages correctly. On the ’Playback’ page you should see playback #1 respond to the incoming UDP commands by activating either cue #1 or cue #2.

3.3 Record a show from an external DMX

The CueCore3 is capable of recording DMX data. This tutorial explains the required procedure.

1. Connect the external console Connect the DMX output of the DMX console to Port A of the CueCore3. Connect the ﬁxtures to Port B.

2. Conﬁgure port settings Go to the Settings page and set DMX Port A to In. Set Port B to Universe A, it will now transmit DMX channels 1-512.

3. Throughput the DMX The DMX received by the CueCore3 will not automatically be output to the ﬁxtures, however, it is desirable to see the console’s output on the actual ﬁxtures. To achieve throughput of the DMX, go to the Show Control page. Create a DMX Input action list and insert one action.

Edit the action. Set the Trigger Type to UniverseA. Add a DMX task and set its feature to Universe and its function to Control HTP, the ﬁrst parameter should be set to 1.

4. Conﬁgure the recording Go to the Track page. Select the ﬁrst track and press the Erase button. Wait until the erase process is completed. Set Mode to Manual. Set Source to DMX and set Sample rate to 40 FPS.

5. Record Press the Record button at the begin of the console’s show. Press the Stop button when the show is ﬁnished.

6. Test the result Make sure the console outputs only zero values. Then playback the track’s content by enabling the Track Preview checkbox.

3.4 Conﬁgure as Art-Net Node

The CueCore3 is capable of sending and receiving various data protocols. This tutorial shows you how to receive Art-Net, and transmit the data through the DMX ports on the CueCore3.

2. Conﬁguring the Art-Net input Go to the Settings page and set the desired Art-Net universes for port A and B at Sub.Uni A and Sub.Uni B The CueCore3 counts the Art-Net universes from 0.0. For example, Art-Net universe 1 is at 0.0, Art-Net universe 16 is at 0.15 and Art-Net universe 17 is at 1.0. It is also possible to enter the Art-Net universe number (0, 16 or 17 for example) and the CueCore3 will automatically convert the value to a valid format.

3. Conﬁgure port settings Go to the Settings page and set DMX Port A to Universe A and Port B to Universe B.

4. Forwarding Art-Net to the DMX outputs To forward the Art-Net values to the DMX ports, the Receiving Art-Net template can be used. Select it, and add it by clicking the Add >> button. The Art-Net input is now forwarded to the DMX output.

Chapter 4

Installation

This chapter discusses how to set up the CueCore3.

4.1 DIN Rail Mounting

The device can be DIN Rail mounted. The device is prepared for DIN Rail mounting by using the ’DIN rail holder TSH 35’ from Bopla (Product no.

22035000).

Figure 4.1: Bopla DIN rail adapter

This adapter is - amongst others - available from:

• Farnell / Newark (order code 4189991)

• Conrad (order code 539775 - 89)

• Distrelec (order code 300060)

4.2 Rackmount

There is an adapter available for mounting the CueCore3 into a 19” rack . The rackmount adapter is 1 HE and is sold separately. It ﬁts two units, however, it is supplied with one position closed by a blind panel, see ﬁgure 4.2.

Figure 4.2: Rackmount adapter

4.3 Power

The CueCore3 requires a DC power supply between Volt with a minimum of 500mA. The 2,1 mm DC connector is center-positive. The CueCore3 is also Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) enabled. It requires PoE Class I.

Figure 4.3: DC polarity

4.4 GPI

The CueCore3 features four General Purpose Inputs (GPI) ports that can be connected to external equipment, switches and sensors. State changes on these GPI ports can be used to trigger programmed events inside the CueCore3.

Each GPI port can be switched between ’digital’ and ’analog’. In the digital mode the signal is held up by an internal pull-up resistor and results in a logic ’0’. The external equipment is intended to short the port’s pin to the provided ground pin. This short will create a logic ’1’. All four ports share one common ground pin.

When set to analog the external equipment is supposed to supply a voltage between 0V and 10V to the port’s pin. For convenience, a 10V supply is available on one of the pins of the GPI connector. Please refer to ﬁgure 4.4 for the pinout of the GPI connector. Be careful not to supply more than 10V to the GPI port

as that might cause permanent damage.

Figure 4.4: GPI Pinout

Figure 4.5 shows examples of how to wire a contact-closure to a GPI port set to digital. And it shows an example of potentiometer connected to a GPI port set to analog.

(a) Contact-closure

(b) Potentiometer

Figure 4.5: GPI Wiring examples

Please refer to page 90 for more information on conﬁguring the GPI ports. Programming events based on GPI activity is done in the Show Control page, which is discussed on page 61.

Figure 4.6: GPI Connector

The green connector used for the GPI port has part number CTB9200/6A and replacements can be ordered from Farnell/Newark (order code 3881880).

Chapter 5

Network

The CueCore3 is a network capable device. A network connection between a computer and the unit is required to conﬁgure and program the CueCore3, however, once the device is programmed then it is not necessary anymore for the CueCore3 to be connected to an Ethernet network.

There are multiple arrangements possible for connecting the computer and the CueCore3. They can be connected peer-to-peer, via a network switch or via Wi-Fi. Figure 5.1 illustrates these diﬀerent arrangements.

Figure 5.1: Network arrangements

The Ethernet port on the CueCore3 is auto-sensing; it does not matter whether a cross or straight network-cable is being used. Although the Ethernet port is classiﬁed as 100 Mbps, buﬀer limits may apply for speciﬁc tasks as API messages.

5.1 IP Address

The CueCore3 supports both static IP addresses and automatic IP addresses. By default, the CueCore3 is set DHCP in which it will be automatically assigned an IP address by the DHCP server in the network. The ’DHCP server’ is typically part of the router’s functionality.

Static IP addresses are useful when there is no DHCP server in the network, for instance when there is a direct peer-to-peer connection between a CueCore3 and a computer. It is also useful in permanent installations where the IP address of the CueCore3 is known by other equipment and therefor should not change. When using DHCP there is always the risk of automatically being given a new IP address in the event that the DHCP server is replaced. IP addresses make sure that all equipment on the network have unique IP addresses.

The CueCore3’s LED helps to determine which kind of IP address is set. The LED will indicate red when using DHCP and it will indicate white in the case of a static IP address.

There are three ways to change the IP address setting of the CueCore3.

When using static

Figure 5.2: Reset button

• vManager can be used to detect a CueCore3 on the network. Once found, the vManager software (ﬁgure chapter 15) allows for changing the IP address, subnet mask and DHCP settings.

• If the IP address is already known then browsing to this address using the computer’s browser will show the CueCore3’s web-interface. The Settings page on this web-interface enables changing the IP address, subnet mask and DHCP settings.

• By brieﬂy pressing the reset button on the device it toggles between static and automatic IP addresses. By pressing and holding the reset button (see ﬁgure 5.2) on the device for 3 seconds, it will reconﬁgure the unit to the factory default IP address and subnet mask. No other settings will be changed. The default IP address is 192.168.1.10 with the subnet mask set to 255.255.255.0.

5.2 Web-interface

The CueCore3 features an inbuilt web-server. This web-interface can be accessed via a standard browser. It is recommended to use any of the following browsers:

• Microsoft Edge

• Google Chrome (v83 or higher)

• Apple Safari (v14 or higher)

• Mozilla Firefox (v54 or higher)

The web-interface enables you to conﬁgure and program the CueCore3. When browsing to the unit the home page (ﬁgure 5.3) will appear ﬁrst. The home page is read-only; it provides information but does not allow for changing any setting. The other pages present many settings that can be edited. These pages will be discussed in the subsequent chapters.

Figure 5.3: Home page

5.2.1 Uptime

This ﬁeld indicates how long the unit has been alive since its last reboot.

5.2.2 Last Server Poll

Indicates the last time the time & date was fetched from a NTP time server.

5.2.3 Master IP

When the unit is not in Stand Alone mode, then this ﬁeld displays the IP number of system that is mastering the CueCore3. Refer to chapter 6 for more information on operating modes.

5.3 Access via Internet

The CueCore3 can be accessed through the Internet. There are two ways to achieve this: Port Forwarding and VPN.

• Port Forwarding Is relatively easy to setup in the router. Each router is diﬀerent so it is advised to consult the router’s documentation (sometimes it is revered to as NAT or Port-Redirecting). Please note that port forwarding is not secure, since anybody could access the CueCore3 this way.

• Accessing via a Virtual Private Network (VPN) tunnel requires more setup eﬀorts, also the router needs to support the VPN feature. Once set up, this is a very secure way to communicate with the CueCore3. A VPN is a network technology that creates a secure network connection over a public network such as the Internet or a private network owned by a service provider. Large corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies use VPN technology to enable remote users to securely connect to a private network. For further information about VPN please refer to http://whatismyipaddress.com/vpn.

Chapter 6

Operating Modes

A CueCore3 can operate in three modes, each mode resulting in a diﬀerent behaviour of the device.

• Stand-alone

• Slave

• CueluxPro

By default the CueCore3 operates in the Stand-alone mode.

Figure 6.1: Status bar

The status bar at the bottom of the web-interface (ﬁgure 6.1) indicates the current operating mode. When mastered by CueluxPro the home page of the web-interface show the IP address of the CueluxPro system (ﬁgure 6.2).

Figure 6.2: Master IP

6.1 Stand-alone mode

In this mode the CueCore3 is an autonomous device for controlling lighting. Typically it is loaded with lighting content and programmed to respond to external triggers and/or internal scheduling. This is the default behaviour of a

CueCore3; the stand-alone mode is active whenever the CueCore3 is not in the slave or CueluxPro mode.

6.2 Slave Mode

Some demanding lighting designs can require more than two universes of DMX. When multiple CueCore3 units are combined to create a large multi-universe system there is the need for synchronisation of those CueCore3 devices. The Slave mode facilitates this. See ﬁgure 6.3.

Figure 6.3: Master/Slave setup

When in Slave mode the CueCore3 is taken over by a master-CueCore3 and is no longer responsible for its playbacks and scheduling; the master takes care of this. All the slave requires is to contain the lighting content in its tracks. The master-CueCore3 will control all its slaves to activate the same tracks and keep the playback of those tracks synchronised.

It is necessary to put all action-programming in the master-CueCore3. In fact, the playback information inside the slaves will be overwritten by the master. The master does this because it stores a copy of its playback-data in each slave to enable the slave to continue autonomously in case the communication between master and slave is interrupted.

The logical place for the action lists and action for a master/slave system is also inside the master, however, it is allowed to place actions in a slave and they will get executed.

The Slave mode is enabled in the Settings page (See chapter 13, page 83). Once enabled, the Slave mode is entered as soon as the master connects to the slave. The Slave mode reverts back to the Stand-alone mode when the master disconnects or when the slave disables Master/Slave in the Settings page.

6.3 CueluxPro Mode

CueluxPro (see ﬁgure 6.4) is a software-based lighting console that is bundled with the CueCore3. The purpose of the CueCore3 in this mode is to be an interface between CueluxPro and the DMX lighting ﬁxtures. Therefore the CueCore3 will forward the data received from the CueluxPro software to its DMX outlets. During this mode all internal playback and scheduling within the CueCore3 is suspended. Figure 6.5 illustrates a typical CueluxPro/CueCore3 system.

Figure 6.4: CueluxPro

The CueCore3 enters the CueluxPro mode as soon as it is patched to one or more universes within the CueluxPro software. This mode is exited by un-patching the CueCore3 or closing down the CueluxPro software.

Figure 6.5: A typical CueluxPro system

Using the CueluxPro software in combination with the CueCore3 results in a

lighting control system with a larger feature set than using the CueCore3 on its own in the stand-alone mode. CueluxPro features:

• Personality library with 3000+ ﬁxtures

• FX Generator

• Matrix Pixel-mapping

• Groups

• Palettes

• Timeline editor

CueluxPro can also be used for generating the lighting content that can be uploaded to the CueCore3. After uploading, the CueCore3 can continue to be used stand-alone. For information on how to use CueluxPro please refer to the CueluxPro manual on the Visual Productions website. This manual provides instructions for connecting to CueluxPro and uploading content to the CueCore3.

Chapter 7

Patch

The Patch page is the starting point when using the CueCore3 to control DMX ﬁxtures. This page is used for identifying which ﬁxtures will be controlled. Up to 256 ﬁxtures can be entered.

Figure 7.1: Patch Page

7.1 Address

DMX starting addresses range between 1 and 2048 (or between A.1 and D.512). The CueCore3 automatically sets the DMX address when adding ﬁxtures to the patch, by ﬁnding the ﬁrst available DMX channel in your conﬁguration. You are free to change the address.

If you have multiple ﬁxtures selected, the CueCore3 will set the entered address for the ﬁrst selected ﬁxture and will automatically have the next selected ﬁxtures follow the previous ones. For example, if you select four RGB ﬁxtures in the patch and set the address to 101, this will result in addresses 101, 104, 107 and 110 for the selected ﬁxtures.

7.2 Personality

Each ﬁxture requires a personality; a proﬁle that matches the ﬁxture’s DMX traits. The personality can be composed out of the following parameters:

I Intensity

R Red

G Green

B Blue

C Cold White

W Warm White

A Amber

U UV

Z Zoom

F Focus

S Special

When a parameter is 16-bit it requires two DMX channels. In this case, the ﬁne channel is denoted by the parameter character in small capitals. E.g. a 16-bit RGB ﬁxture, occupying 6 DMX channels, would have the following personality RrGgBb.

A personality string can be entered directly in the patch table or by using the Personality dialog (ﬁgure 7.2).

7.3 Virtual Dimmer

Personalities with RGB but without Intensity will automatically be given a virtual dimmer. This means that the CueCore3 will act as if the ﬁxture has an intensity channel and allows for RGB and intensity to be programmed separately, however, it will modulate the intensity on the RGBCWA values.

Figure 7.2: Personality dialog

7.4 Discover

Use the Discover button to search for RDM capable ﬁxtures. Fixtures found via a RDM discovery will show their RDM UID in the patch table.

Before using RDM, RDM needs to be enabled. This can be done on the Patch or Settings page. By default RDM is disabled.

7.5 Locate

When the Locate checkbox is enabled, then all ﬁxtures will be doused except the selected ﬁxtures; they will be fully on. This function will help identify selected ﬁxtures.

Chapter 8

Tracks

A Track is a piece of lighting content that can be activated by a playbacks. Tracks can contain dynamic lighting eﬀects; each track can be a ’DMX recording’ with a certain duration. Of course a static scene can also be stored in a track.

There are three diﬀerent ways to put the content inside the track. The Console page allows the user to create and edit a static scene directly via the webinterface. This page also is capable of recording a static scene from an external DMX, Art-Net or sACN source. The Console page is discussed in detail on page

48.

The second way for storing content into the tracks is done via the Recorder section; this section of the Track page contains control for recording dynamic DMX content from external DMX, Art-Net and sACN sources.

Furthermore, it is also possible to create the lighting content using the CueluxPro software and upload it to the CueCore3. This can be dynamic as well as static content. For more information on CueluxPro see chapter 6, page 40.

8.1 Number of Tracks

The CueCore3 has a ﬁxed number of 128 tracks.

8.2 Track Properties

The Track listing (See ﬁgure 8.1) displays the following track properties:

Figure 8.1: Tracks

Label The name of the track; this ﬁeld can be changed by

double-clicking.

Size The number of bytes used by the data inside the track.

Duration The length of the track displayed in

hours:minutes:seconds.milliseconds.

FPS The sample rate of the track displayed in Frames Per Second

(FPS). The sample rate has been chosen during the recording process and cannot be altered afterwards.

8.3 Console

The Console page (see ﬁgure 8.2) allows to edit a track directly through the webinterface, however, a track does need to be a static scene; it should only contain a single DMX frame. If the track already contains more than one DMX frames and thus it is a dynamic track, then it can be made static by erasing it. The track can be edited by selecting the track in the table and then pressing the Open Console button. This will automatically enable the Track Preview checkbox so the content that is being edited in the Console page is also outputted live.

The ’Track Preview’ is a useful option to brieﬂy test the content stored in a track without having to conﬁgure a playback for it. Please note that any active playback will be released when the Track Preview is enabled.

Figure 8.2: Console page

Inside the Console page the DMX values of the track can be changed by using the Command-line interface. The following table oﬀers examples of the supported commands.

Command Function

1 @ 50 ENTER Sets channel 1 at 50%

1 + 2 @ FULL Sets channel 1 and 2 at 100%

1 THRU 3 @ 0 Sets channels 1 through 3 at 0%

1 THRU 3 + 5 @ 0 ENTER Sets channels 1, 2, 3, and 5 at 0%

ALL @ 100 ENTER Sets all channels in the selected universe at

100%

1 @ + 10 ENTER Increases channel 1 value with 10%

ALL @ − 20 ENTER Decreases all channels in the selected universe

by 20%

By default the Console page presents the DMX values in percentage (%). When the representation is switched to decimal (by using the ’Decimal’ button) then the values in the table above would be interpreted as decimal values as well. E.g. 1 @ 50 ENTER would set the channel at decimal value 50 which relates to 20%.

Instead of setting the values manually, the Console page also oﬀers to make a snapshot - record the entire scene - from an external DMX, Art-Net or sACN

source. The buttons in the Capture section become available when the CueCore3 is receiving the signal of the corresponding protocol. I.e. that the ’DMX’ button is disabled unless the unit is receiving actual DMX. Please be aware that - once enabled - pressing one of the capture buttons will overwrite the current channel levels in all universes.

8.4 Recorder

The Recorder section is used to capture dynamic content from an external source and store it inside a track. In order to be stored in ﬂash memory, a track requires to be erased ﬁrst. It is advised to manually erase the track before starting a record. This is done by selecting it in the table and then pressing the ’Erase’ button. In case a non-erased track will be directly recorded then the CueCore3 will automatically ﬁrst erase the track, however, this gives less control over the timing of the start of the recording, especially in the Manual mode.

Figure 8.3: Recorder section

The icons in the track table visualise the diﬀerent states of the recorder. The ’trash icon’ indicates a track is being erased. The ’orange dot’ signiﬁes a track being ready to start recording, this corresponds to the Triggered or Timecode mode. A ’red dot’ indicates a recording in progress.

8.4.1 Mode

The triggering modes deﬁne how the recorder is initiated. There are three diﬀerent modes.

• The most simple mode is Manual. In this mode the user has to manu- ally press the ’Record’ button to start and press the ’Stop’ button to end the recording. Although simple to operate, this mode does not give accurate control over the timing of the begin and end of the recording. Both human interaction and operation through a web-based user-interface will introduce some degree of lag.

• An automated way of starting and stopping the recording process is done in the Triggered mode. One of the data channels is allocated to control the start/stop. The channel address is denoted by the ’Trigger Channel’ ﬁeld. It is advised to include this channel in the show programming done on the external source; a typical lighting console allows accurate timing of DMX channels which gives ﬁne control over when the recording starts and ends in relationship to the show content. When using the Triggered mode pressing the ’Record’ button will prepare the track for recording; it will be erased when necessary and then stay idle in anticipation of the trigger channel going high to indicate ’start’. The recording is ended by setting the trigger channel to 0%.

• The Timecode mode allows for the recording process to be synchronised by incoming timecode. Pressing the ’Record’ button will prepare the track for recording; it will be erased when necessary and then stay idle in anticipation of the timecode to start running, it stops when the timecode resets back to 00:00:00.00. Always record from frame 00:00:00.00. If the content is supposed to run at a diﬀerent frame then use the playback’s ’TC Oﬀset’ property to achieve that.

A typical challenge with recording dynamic DMX data is to create a seamless loop. Often the manual mode will most likely not be suﬃciently accurate to achieve a seamless loop. The triggered mode oﬀers a way to remote control and make the recording seamless. Alternatively, the lighting content can be designed in CueluxPro instead of recording from an external source, as CueluxPro automatically takes care of making its content seamless.

8.4.2 Sources

The CueCore3 is capable of recording DMX data from an external source by using three diﬀerent protocols:

• DMX

• Art-Net

• sACN

Please consider that the operation of these protocols depend on their properties the Settings page.

8.4.3 Sample Rate

The Sample Rate setting will determine how many samples of the data are taken per second and stored in memory. This setting variants are 5, 10, 30 and 40 Frames Per Second (FPS). 40 FPS gives maximum quality in terms of smooth dimming curves. 5 FPS is a low value but useful for slow DMX changes and consumes much less memory. The 40 FPS setting is recommended unless there is a reason to reduce the sample rate.

8.4.4 XLR Adapter

The DMX ports on the CueCore3 are mainly used for outputting DMX and therefor are ﬁtted with female XLR connectors. When using the ports as an input it is likely that the XLR needs to ’gender change’ into a male connector. Neutrik oﬀers the NA5MM (ﬁgure 8.4), a 5-pin XLR male-to-male adapter for this purpose.

Figure 8.4: Neutrik NA5MM

8.5 Track Capacity

The CueCore3 has 8GB memory, of which approximately 4GB is reserved for the tracks. The device uses a compression algorithm to store the data and optimise the storage for best use. The duration of the recording that the track can hold depends on several parameters: number of tracks, dynamic lighting content and the number of DMX channels used. Therefor the maximum duration is hard to specify, however, some guidance can be provided:

In a typical scenario where 32 moving heads - together consuming 512 channels

- are constantly changing their primary attributes (position, shutter, colour & gobo) then the memory will hold approx. 16 minutes per track in a 8-track setup. In a 32-track it will hold 3 minutes per track. Both examples are recording at 40 FPS.

In a worst-case scenario with 2,048 channels actively changing to random values (pixel-mapping content) then a 1-track setup will hold approx. 6m32s, a 16track setup will hold 24s per track. Both examples are recording at 40 FPS.

If the limits of the capacity are reached then there are three diﬀerent ways to help overcome this.

• Reduce the ’number of tracks’ in the settings page. Note that the current track content is lost when changing this setting.

• Reduce the sample rate.

• Spread the content over multiple tracks. They can be linked together later

on the Playback page (For more information go to chapter Playbacks, page

20). This way cross-fades can be generated by the CueCore3 instead of being recorded.

Chapter 9

Playbacks

A playback is capable of activating the lighting content stored in the tracks. Tracks are merely storage for lighting scenes and eﬀects; the playbacks actually plays them. The playbacks are located in the Playback page in the web-interface, see ﬁgure 9.1.

Figure 9.1: Playback page

There are 16 playbacks available. Each can contain up to 32 steps, called ’cues’. A cue will contain a reference to a track plus additional information such as fade-time and duration. Figure 9.2 illustrates the structure of a playback.

Playbacks can be run independently of each other; they can all start or stop at diﬀerent times. It is possible to control the same DMX channels from multiple

Figure 9.2: Playback structure

playbacks and have them merged together. Also, it is possible to have each playback control a diﬀerent set of DMX channels; making each playback responsible for a diﬀerent zone. Figure 9.3 shows an example of controlling multiple zones in a hypothetical restaurant.

Figure 9.3: Playbacks controlling zones in a restaurant

9.1 Precedence

All active Playbacks produce DMX values. These values will be merged together and sent to the DMX output. The precedence setting determines how this merging is done. Each playback can be set to either HTP (Highest Takes Precedence), LTP (Latest Takes Precedence) or Priority.

HTP is the most common choice in precedence. With HTP the output of all playbacks is compared to each other; for each DMX channel the level is set to the highest value found in that particular channel amongst all playbacks. The table below shows an example of HTP merging.

Playback 1 Playback 2 Playback 3 Merged Output

Channel 1 0% 0% 25% 25%

Channel 2 100% 0% 25% 100%

Channel 3 0% 0% 0% 0%

Channel 4 0% 100% 25% 100%

In the LTP approach only one playback is active amongst all LTP playbacks. The output of that active playback is included in the merge with all HTP playbacks. All other LTP playbacks are ignored. Which LTP playback is active is determined by which playback is started latest, or which received a Go+ command latest. Please consider ﬁgure 9.4.

Figure 9.4: Playback precedence

If there is a playback active with its precedence set to Priority then all other playbacks are ignored. When there are multiple Priority playback then those will be merged together according to the HTP principle.

9.2 Playback Properties

Each playback provides a set of properties that can be used to customise the playback’s behaviour. Some properties are changed by double-click.

Label The name of the playback.

Intensity The output level of the playback.

Typically, a DMX recorder stores the values of the channels without knowing its functions. When reducing the output level at the Playback all channels are reduced, also the ones that contain information other than intensity/dimmer levels. This has the undesired eﬀect that RGB or Pan Tilt channels are also aﬀected, whereas ideally only the intensity levels should be lowered. This is a challenge all DMX recorders have. The CueCore3 overcomes this issue by using the information from the Patch page to check which channels control intensity, only those channels will be dimmed. If no ﬁxtures are patched, then all channels will be dimmed.

Rate The speed of the playback. By default, it is set to 0%. It can

go up to 100% (faster) and down to -100% (slower).

Release When released the playback can fade out to zero. This release

time deﬁnes how long this fade out will take. Setting it to 0s will result in an instant release.

TC When enabled, the playback is synchronised to the current

timecode (TC). By default, TC is disabled. Note that the Settings page provides a ﬁeld for selecting the timecode protocol, e.g. ’internal’ or ’Art-Net’.

TC Oﬀset Speciﬁes at which timecode frame the playback starts.

Precedence Determines how the output of the playbacks is merged

together, as explained on page 55.

MFade Normally the fade time between cues is determined by the

’fade’ ﬁeld in the cue properties. When Mfade is enabled then the playback will ignore the cue’s fade times and use the master fade time for all its cues.

Repeat This property determines what the playback does when it

ﬁnishes the last cue. Loop: Will start over from the beginning. Bounce: Will make it traverse back to the beginning, and it will keep going back and forth. Random: The order of the cues will be random. Oﬀ: The Playback will automatically release when reaching the end of the cues.

Cue Current/Total of Cues. Indicates which cue is currently active

and indicates the total number of cues in the Playback.

The intensity and rate properties are not stored in the CueCore3’s internal ﬂash memory. It is expected that these properties can change often during the operation of the CueCore3 and could consequently wear out the ﬂash memory.

A consequence of not storing these properties is that after a power cycle their levels will be reverted to the default values. If the intensity or rate requires to be permanently set to a value other than the default value then it is recommended to use the Show Control page and create an action in the ’System’ action list. This action can have its trigger set to ’Startup’ and contain tasks to set the playback’s intensity and rate to the desired values.

9.3 Cue

A cue is a step inside a playback. A playback can contain up to 32 cues. A cue does not contain a lighting scene, rather, it refers to a track which does contain the lighting scenes. It is possible for multiple cues to refer to the same track. The cue does contain information on how long the lighting scene should be played and if it should be cross-faded from the previous cue.

Figure 9.5: Cues

Each cue provides the following properties:

Track A reference to the track that will be played in this step.

Fade The cue will fade from the current levels to its programmed

levels. The time it takes to cross-fade is speciﬁed by ’Fade’. When the fade is set to 0 then there will be no cross-fade; the values will change instantly.

Duration Determines how long the cue will be active before traversing to

the next cue. This is the time between the completion of the cross-fade into this cue and and the start of the cross-fade to the next cue. The duration ﬁeld accept not only ’time’ input such as ”.5” ”30s” or ”1m15”, it also accepts ’number of cycles’; the playback can run the cue ”1x” or ”10x”. This is particularly useful when the track referred to by the cue contains a (seamless-)looped eﬀect. Please note that if the track contains a static scene; i.e. the track only holds a single DMX frame, then running it for a number of cycles will create a very short cue as a single DMX frame only takes 25ms. The third option for the duration ﬁeld is to input ”halt”. In this case the cue will continue to run indeﬁnitely; it requires a Go+, Go-, Jump or Release command to traverse to the next cue.

The Playback page provides the following buttons to edit the cues:

• Add: Will add a new empty cue.

• Remove: Will remove the selected cue

• Up: Will move the selected cue up a position.

• Down: Will move a selected cue down a position.

• Fade: Will open a pop-up window where you can set the fade time.

• Duration: Will open a pop-up window where you can set the duration.

9.4 Transport

The transport section oﬀers buttons to control the playbacks.

Go+ Jump to the next cue.

Go- Jump to the previous cue.

Release Deactivates the selected playback. Press and hold to release all

playbacks.

9.5 Master

The master section provides features that are applied to all playbacks.

Intensity The master intensity works like a theatrical ’grand master’; it

dims the output of all playbacks taking their individual intensity setting into account.

Rate The master rate will control the play speed of all playbacks;

with taking their individual rate settings into account.

Fade The master fade time overrides the fade time of all cues. This

only applies to playbacks that have ’MFade’ enabled.

Similar to some of the playback properties, the master properties are not stored in the internal ﬂash memory. Please refer to the discussion on page 57.

Chapter 10

Show Control

The CueCore3 can interact with the outside world;

Another option is integrating the CueCore3 with other systems, by using the various protocols it can receive to trigger its functionality. The Show Control page (See ﬁgure 10.1) enables this kind of programming to be made.

Figure 10.1: Show Control page

The Show Control page presents a system of actions. A signal that the CueCore3 should to respond to or perhaps convert into some other signal, needs to be expressed in an action. Before programming actions please consider the show control structure in ﬁgure 10.2.

The CueCore3 is capable of listening to various protocols. These available protocols are listed in Sources, however, the CueCore3 can only actively listen to 8

Figure 10.2: Show Control structure

protocols at once. The active protocols are listed in Actionlists. Each actionlist can contain actions. Within a protocol/source each individual signal requires its own action. For example, when listening to channel 1 and 2 on the incoming DMX, the DMX actionlist needs two actions; one for each channel.

Inside the action we deﬁne the trigger and tasks. The trigger speciﬁes for which signal to ﬁlter. In the above DMX example the trigger would be set to ’channel 1’ and ’channel 2’ respectively. The tasks determine what the CueCore3 will do when this action is triggered. Several tasks can be placed in the action. There are tasks available for a wide range of CueCore3 features and external protocols. Task types are detailed in Appendix B on page 114.

Please consult the API appendix on page 128 before implementing incoming OSC or UDP messages; the API already exposes typical functionality through OSC and UDP and therefor it might not be necessary to implement custom messages.

10.1 Sources and Actionlists

The Sources listing presents all protocols that the CueCore3 is capable of receiving. It also includes internal features that can create events that can be used for triggering actions, such as the calendar-scheduler. These sources are available, however, they will only be actively listened to once moved to the action-list table.

UDP Incoming UDP network messages

TCP Incoming TCP network messages

OSC Incoming OSC network message

DMX Input DMX received on one or more of the DMX ports (switch

port to input in the settings page)

Art-Net Incoming Art-Net DMX data

sACN Incoming sACN DMX data

Timecode Timecode signal, specify the incoming timecode protocol on

the Settings page.

Kiosc Triggers from Kiosc. For each Action various controls can

be chosen such as buttons and sliders, colour picker etc. The order of the actions will control the arrangement in Kiosc.

Scheduler Triggers based on time, date, weekdays, sunrise, sunset &

timespan.

Playback Events generated by the playbacks

Randomiser The randomiser can generate a random number

System Events such as ’Start up’

Variable The Variable source works in combination with the variable

task (For more information about the Variable task please refer to Task Types). The Variable task will set a value of which an enabled actionlist type with Variable as Source will use as a trigger. The CueCore3 will keep the values of the 10 variables even after shut down so long as the RTC battery is not empty.

Timer There are 4 internal timers in the CueCore3. An event will

be raised when a timer expires. Timers are set and activated by the Timer tasks.

Actionlist Gives an event when an actionlist is enabled or disabled.

User List 1-4 These actionlists will never trigger an event, however, they

are useful for advanced programming.

Actionlists can be temporarily suspended by disabling their checkbox in the Show Control page. There is also a task available to automate changing the state of this checkbox.

10.2 Actions

Actions are executed when a certain signal is received. This signal is deﬁned by the trigger. A trigger is always relative to the actionlist the action belongs to. For example, when the trigger-type is set to ’Channel’ then it refers to a single DMX channel if the action is placed inside a ’DMX Input’ list and it means a

single Art-Net channel if the action resides in an Art-Net actionlist.

Figure 10.3 shows the screen when editing an action.

Figure 10.3: Edit Action dialog

A trigger is determined by the trigger-type, trigger-value and trigger-ﬂank ﬁelds. Although these ﬁelds are not applicable for all actionlists and are therefor sometimes omitted in the web GUI. The trigger-type ﬁeld speciﬁes what kind of signal the action will be triggered by.

For example, when making an action in the Scheduler list there is the choice between ’DateAndTime’ and ’WeekdayAndTime’ trigger-types. The triggervalue speciﬁes the actual signal value. In the schedular example the trigger-value could be set to ”2016-03-24 11:00” or ”Weekend 10:00” respectively.

In some actionlists actions do also need to specify the trigger-ﬂank. The ﬂank further speciﬁes the value that the signal should have before triggering the action. For example, when an action is triggered from the Kiosc list, the ﬂank will determine whether to trigger only when the button goes down or only when it goes up. Appendix A provides an overview of the available trigger-types.

An actionlist can have up to 48 actions, system-wide there is a maximum of 64 actions.

10.3 Tasks

Tasks are added to an action in order to specify what to do when it gets executed. Up to 8 tasks can be included in an action, systemwide there is a maximum of 128 tasks. The tasks are executed in the order of the list. There is a wide selection of tasks available to choose from, they include altering any of the internal software features like playbacks and recorder but also sending out messages through any of the supported protocols. The tasks are organised in categories. Once a task is chosen from these categories each task allows for further choice between several Features and Functions. Tasks contain up to two parameters that might be required for its execution.

If the event that triggers the action passes a parameter along then this parameter can be used in a task. The Set function makes a task use a ﬁxed value, however, when using the Control function then the trigger’s parameter is used. This is very useful for conversions between protocols.

For example when converting 0-10V to DMX the GPI action speciﬁes the port (e.g. #1) and ﬂank (e.g. OnChange) on which it will trigger. The actual 0-10V level sampled on the GPI port will be passed along and fed into the action. Then when a task (e.g. DMX) uses the function Control this 0-10V level will be used for setting the DMX value.

A task can be tested by selecting it and pressing the ’execute’ button in the

Edit Action dialog. The complete action can also be tested; go to the Show Control page, select the action and press the Execute button.When either of

these Execute buttons are used, the source of the Control value for tasks will be the Execute button. The result will depend on the chosen task and feature, but will most likely be 100%, 1.0, or 255 when pressed and 0%, 0.0, or 0 when depressed.

Appendix B provides a detailed overview of the available tasks, features, functions and parameters.

10.4 Templates

The Show Control page presents a list of templates. A template is a set of actionlists, actions and task. These templates conﬁgure the CueCore3 to perform typical functions; for example convert Art-Net to DMX or control the 6 playbacks through OSC. The templates thus save time; otherwise actions should have been set up manually. They can also function as a guide to soften the learning curve on actions; a lot can be learned from adding a template and then exploring the actions and tasks it created.

Please note that some templates require settings to be changed in the settings page; for example the ’Receiving Art-Net’ template needs the DMX outlets to be set to outputs in order to achieve an Art-Net to DMX conversion.

Appendix C gives an overview of the available templates.

10.5 Variables

Variables are part of the show control system in the CueCore3. There are 20 variables and each can hold a value in the range of [0,255]. These values can be manipulated by tasks and can be used for advanced action programming. Variables can be added as sources in order to have actions triggered when a variable changes value.

You can see the status of the variables in the monitor page, as discussed on page

79.

The values of the variables are stored in the same battery backed-up memory as the RTC; it will hold the values between power cycles, if the time between power-on does not exceed a few days.

To illustrate the use of variables, please see the following example in which a variable is used to keep track of the cue index between power-cycles. (By default, the CueCore3 does not remember which playback or cue was active after a power-cycle.) For simplicity, we assume that an external system is selecting cues inside the CueCore3 by sending UDP messages.

• Program a playback to contain 4 cues.

• Add the Variable source and insert one action. If the variable changes

then jump to the appropriate cue by adding a Playback task to this action.

• Have the external system use the UDP API to set the variable values in order to select a cue. The appropriate API message is core-va-1-set=<integer> where integer is the cue index.

• Add the System source and insert one action. At start-up, trigger a variable ’change’ in order to jump to the previously selected cue.

10.6 Timers

The show control system of the CueCore3 features four internal timers. By using tasks, the timers can be set to certain durations and they can be started. Once started the timers will countdown to zero. When the timer reaches zero it will generate an event that can be captured by using the Timer actionlist. Please note that the timer values are not stored between power cycles. You can see the status of the four timers in the monitor page, under Timers.

The next example will show a timer being used to regularly send a UDP message to an external system in order to notify that the CueCore3 is still ’alive’.

• Setup and start the timer at power-on. This is done by creating an action in the System actionlist.

• If the timer expires then send the UDP message and restart the timer. This is done by creating an action in the Timer actionlist.

10.7 Randomizer

The Randomizer is an internal software feature that can generate a (pseudo)random number. This is useful for having an event trigger a random lighting scene in a themed environment. The randomizer is activated by the Randomizer task. The result of the randomizer’s calculation can be obtained by catching the event in the Randomizer actionlist.

The following example shows how to use a Kiosc button to trigger a random cue.

• Inside the Kiosc actionlist is a button-action. This triggers the task Randomizer, which is set to a range of between 1 and 6. (Parameters 1 and 2 of the task Randomizer)

Kiosc will just simply show one button.

• Next in the actionlist Randomizer there is an action triggered by the Randomizer. The task Playback, controlled by the result of the Randomizer, jumps to a cue in Playback 1 (Parameter 1 of the task Playback).

• When the Kiosc button is pressed the Randomizer picks a number between one and six, as deﬁned in the Randomizer task. The Playback task receives this number and triggers the corresponding cue.

10.8 User Lists

Normally a source is connected to a communication port, protocol or software feature. Actionlists will be triggered as soon as an event happens in a source. There is an exception; the User Lists are not connected to any source and therefor will not be triggered by any communication or other event. The purpose of User Lists is to have extra actionlists containing actions which can be triggered by explicitly linking to it. See page 122 for details of the Link feature in the Action task.

The following example demonstrates the use of a User List. Imagine a scenario in which the GPI is used to change between three lighting scenes. To prevent unauthorised use a key-contact-closure is connected to GPI pin 4; the ﬁrst three GPI should only respond when pin 4 is a closed contact by using the key.

• Create a playback with three cues

• Create an User List with three actions.

Set each action to jump to one of the three cues in playback 1.

• Add an GPI actionlist and link the ﬁrst three GPI ports to the action in the User List.

• Use the fourth GPI port enable or disable the User List.

For brevity the state of the GPI port 4 is ignored at start-up. Usually additional actions are created to Refresh this port on start-up.

Chapter 11

Protocol Conversion

The CueCore3 is ﬁtted with several communication ports and additionally supports various Ethernet-based protocols. Although some protocols are predominantly used for triggering the internal playbacks (such as GPI, MIDI, UDP, OSC, etc.) and some other protocols are mainly used for recording (such as DMX input, Art-Net and sACN) the CueCore3 is capable of converting one protocol into another. This chapter provides an insight on which conversions are possible and how to set them up.

All possible conversions can be organised into two categories: Converting Control Protocols and Converting DMX Universe Protocols.

11.1 Converting Control Protocols

The ﬁrst category of conversions comprise the protocols typically used for triggering or transporting one piece of information. The following table shows these protocols and what kind of information they are able to carry.

Control Protocols Information

Digital GPI On/Oﬀ

Analog GPI percentage [0%,100%]

MIDI number [0,127]

UDP -

TCP -

OSC percentage [0%,100%], number, string, colour, On/Oﬀ

DMX number [0,255]

Art-Net number [0,255]

sACN number [0,255]

Although DMX, Art-Net and sACN are dedicated lighting protocols and naturally ﬁt in the next category, their individual channels lend themselves well for conveying control messages.

Setting up a conversion is done in the Show Control page. First add the incoming protocol from the ’Sources’ table into the ’Action list’ table. Then add an action to this new action-list. Inside this action the trigger-ﬂank ﬁeld (if visible) should be set to Change; as this action should be triggered every time the incoming signal changes. Furthermore, a task need to be added, the tasktype determines which protocol is the output of our conversion. It is important that the ’function’ in this task is set to ’Control’. This will make sure that the output is not a ﬁxed value, rather it will output the information received from the incoming signal.

Please consider two examples. Figure 11.1 shows a conversion between Digital GPI and OSC. This example assumes the GPI Port 1 is set to ’Digital’ on the Settings page.

(a) Step 1

(b) Step 2

Figure 11.1: Conversion from GPI to OSC

Figure 11.2 shows a conversion between MIDI and DMX. This example assumes

the DMX Port A is set to ’Output A’ on the Settings page.

(a) Step 1

Figure 11.2: Conversion from MIDI to DMX

(b) Step 2

11.2 Converting DMX Universe Protocols

This category includes all protocols that carry a DMX Universe (a block of 512 DMX channels). These protocols are DMX, Art-Net, sACN and to some extend KiNet. The CueCore3 is capable of receiving a complete DMX universe from one protocol and sending it out on a diﬀerent protocol. Furthermore, it is able to merge DMX universes from multiple sources into one output protocol. All this is done with a minimal amount of conﬁguration in the CueCore3. The following table lists examples of the conversions that can be made.

Example DMX Universe Conversions

DMX ->Art-Net

Art-Net ->DMX

DMX ->sACN

sACN ->DMX

DMX ->KiNet

Art-Net ->sACN

It is also possible to create combinations of the examples above. For instance you could set up a conversion from DMX to both Art-Net and sACN. Or merge incoming Art-Net and sACN together into the DMX output. Also, at any point it is possible to merge the incoming DMX data with the data generated by the internal playbacks.

To set up the conversion go to the Show Control page and choose the incoming protocol from the ’Sources’ table and add it to the ’Action lists’ table. Then add an action for each DMX Universe you wish to convert; e.g. when converting two DMX ports to Art-Net it requires two action to programmed. The trigger-type

in the actions should be set to ’Universe’ to make the CueCore3 process the 512 channels as a whole rather then process individual channels. Each action should contain a DMX-task with the ’feature’ set to ’Universe’; all DMX Universe data is ﬁrst being copied into the CueCore3’s internal DMX buﬀer. From this buﬀer it can be copied to the DMX outlet or the other protocols such as Art-Net and sACN. Figure 11.3 provides a schematic for this data ﬂow.

Figure 11.3: DMX merging data ﬂow

The function needs to be set to Control HTP.

Function

Control HTP Highest Takes Precedence

Clear

All channels are compared and the highest levels are used for the merged output (HTP precedence).

The additional ’Clear’ function is not related to the data merging precedence; it is just a function to clear the whole universe to zero.

Please note that the ’Templates’ table provides pre-programmed conﬁgurations for the most popular conversions.

A very typical conversion that can illustrate as an example is to convert Art-Net universes 0.0 and 0.1 to DMX output A and B respectively. Figure 11.4 shows action-list, ﬁgure 11.5 show the contents of ’Action 1’ and ﬁgure 11.6 show the required conﬁguration of the Settings page.

Figure 11.4: Converting Art-Net to DMX step 1

Figure 11.5: Converting Art-Net to DMX step 2

Figure 11.6: Converting Art-Net to DMX step 3

Chapter 12

Monitors

This page allows the user to inspect the incoming and outgoing data, both DMX-type data (See ﬁgure 12.1) as well as control messages (See ﬁgure 12.2). Monitoring incoming and outgoing data can help the user troubleshoot during programming.

Figure 12.1: DMX Monitor

In the Monitor page three diﬀerent sources of input can be found (DMX, ArtNet and sACN), along with the control input and output sources (TCP, UDP and OSC). On the right side of the page there are the universes were the user can swap between the two of them or choose a preferable unit for displaying the requested information.

The Monitor page also presents an overview of timer and variable values. See ﬁgure 12.3

Figure 12.2: OSC Monitor

The variables can be renamed for convenience. It also possible to set the variable value directly in this screen.

Figure 12.3: Timer & Variable Monitor

Chapter 13

Settings

The CueCore3’s settings are organised into sections, see the Settings page ﬁgure

13.1. This chapter will discuss each section.

13.1 General

You can change the CueCore3’s label. This label can be used to distinguish the unit in a set-up with multiple devices.

By enabling the Blink checkbox the device’s LED will blink to help to identify it amongst multiple devices.

The API commands discussed in appendix D start with a preﬁx that is set to core by default. When using multiple devices from Visual Productions it can be useful to assign unique labels to these preﬁx, especially when using broadcasted messages. Read more about feedback loops in paragraph D.4.1.

Unauthorised users can be prevented from making changes to the CueCore3 by enabling the Password protection. Once enabled, the password can be disabled via the web-interface (using the Disable button) and the reset button (see ﬁgure

5.2). Long-press the reset button to disable the password protection; this will also revert the unit’s static IP back to the default factory settings.

13.2 IP

The IP ﬁelds are for setting up the IP address and subnet mask of the CueCore3. The Router ﬁeld is only required when Port Forwarding is used. You can also enable or disable the DHCP feature (For more information see chapter 5 at page

36).

Figure 13.1: Settings page

Figure 13.3: IP Settings

13.3 Slaves

This section enables the master-slave synchronisation.

Figure 13.2: General Settings

Figure 13.4: Slaves Settings

The master-CueCore3 should specify the IP addresses of its slaves. When the IP is indicated in white then the master-slave connection is established, otherwise the IP is indicated in orange. For creating a system with more than four slaves, a broadcast IP can be set. A message sent to a broadcast address may be received by all network-attached hosts. A typical broadcast IP address is 192.168.1.255, however, this depends on the subnet used.

The slave-CueCore3 units require the ’Allow control by master’ checkbox to be enabled. Enabling ’Allow control by master’ checkbox will cause playback data

to be overwritten.

13.4 Date & Time

The date and time of the RTC can be set here. The clock has a back-up battery to keep the time during a power down. Daylight Saving Time (DST) is supported for the regions Europe and United States.

The Time Server ﬁeld allows a NTP server to speciﬁed. At start up, the CueCore3 will fetch the time and date from this server. Additionally, an action can be used to fetch the time. The DST and the Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) are taken into account when obtaining the time for the NTP server.

The following table lists suggested NTP servers.

Figure 13.5: Date & Time Settings

Continent Server

North America 64.90.182.55

South America 201.49.148.135

Europe 216.239.35.8

Africa 196.23.245.74

Asia 133.100.9.2

Australia 137.92.140.80

13.5 Location

The astronomical clock in the CueCore3 calculates the sunrise and sunset times based on day of the year, latitude, longitude and UTC. The latitude and longitude values deﬁne the position in the world and should be entered in degrees. The latitude value should be positive for North and negative for South, the longitude should positive for East and negative for West.

The website http://www.ﬁndlatitudeandlongitude.com/ can help discover the latitude and longitude values for the current location. The time-zone and perhaps daylight saving time of the current location is expressed in the UTC value. UTC is - in this context - equivalent to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

For example, Visual Productions’ HQ is based in the city of Haarlem, the Netherlands. During the winter the UTC equals +1 and in the summer during day light saving time it is set to +2. So, the settings for the Visual Productions’ HQ are shown in Figure 13.6.

The Oﬀset ﬁelds allows to shift the sunrise and sunset triggers, both earlier and later. For example, to have a trigger half an hour before sunrise set the oﬀset to -00:30.

Figure 13.6: Location settings

13.6 OSC

External equipment sending OSC messages to the CueCore3 need to be aware of the number speciﬁed in the ’Port’ ﬁeld. This is the port the CueCore3 listens to for incoming messages.

Figure 13.7: OSC Settings

The CueCore3 will send its outgoing OSC messages to the IP addresses speciﬁed in the ’Out IP’ ﬁelds. Up to four IPs can be speciﬁed here. Use the ’ipaddress:port’ format in these ﬁelds, e.g. ”192.168.1.11:9000”. If a ﬁeld should not be used then it can be ﬁlled with IP 0.0.0.0:0. It is possible to enter a broadcast IP address like 192.168.1.255 in order to reach more than four recipients.

Enabling the Forward checkbox will have the CueCore3 copy every incoming OSC message and send it the addresses speciﬁed in the ’Out IP’ ﬁelds.

13.7 Timecode

The CueCore3 can receive SMPTE, MTC and Art-Net timecode. This section allows to choose one of these protocols as the timecode source. Alternatively, the CueCore3 also has ’internal’ timecode; a timecode generated by the unit itself. Synchronisation of playbacks and actions depend on this choice.

Figure 13.8: Timecode Settings

The timecode freewheel will allow continue for some frames after the timecode source stops. ”Forever” can be entered to continue when no timecode is received.

13.8 Purple Cloud

The CueCore3 can be remotely monitored via the Purple Cloud.

Figure 13.9: Cloud Settings

The Share Analytics checkbox needs to enabled - as well as an Internet connection - in order to establish a connection with the Purple Cloud. By enabling the Share Analytics checkbox you agree to having anonymous statistics and usage data collected by the cloud. Visual Productions will only use this data for improving its products.

The Cloud ID should contain your ID as generated by the Purple Cloud. This ID can be found on the cloud’s Account page. This ID connects the CueCore3 device to your Purple Cloud account. The Cloud ID is displayed in yellow in case no match has been found in the Purple Cloud ’s database.

13.9 TCP/IP

Deﬁnes the listening ports for TCP and UDP messages. External systems intending to send TCP or UDP message to the CueCore3 need to know the unit’s IP address and this port number. By default both ports are set to 7000.

Figure 13.10: TCP/IP settings

13.10 DMX

The DMX settings specify whether the DMX port is an Input or output.

Figure 13.11: DMX settings

When the Slow DMX checkbox is enabled, the CueCore3 will slowdown the rate at which it sends out DMX. This is done to facilitate DMX ﬁxtures that have diﬃculties keeping up with the optimal DMX transmission rate.

When programming a show that does not use all DMX universes it can be useful to set multiple DMX ports to the same universe. This can make cabling more eﬃcient and perhaps prevent the need of a DMX splitter. For example, when using only 512 channels bothDMX ports can be set to ’Universe A’.

RDM can be disabled by using the Enable RDM checkbox. This checkbox is repeated on the Patch page.

13.11 Art-Net

The Art-Net feature in the CueCore3 supports 4 universe out and 4 universes in.

These universes can be mapped to any of the 256 available universes in the Art-Net protocol. The universe is entered in the ’subnet.universe’ format, i.e. the lowest universe number is written as ’0.0’ and the highest universe number is denoted as ’15.15’. The outgoing Art-Net transmission can be disabled by entering ’oﬀ’ in the output ﬁelds.

Figure 13.12: Art-Net settings

The Destination IP determines where the outgoing Art-Net data will be sent to. Typically, this ﬁeld contains a broadcast address like 2.255.255.255 which will send the Art-Net data to the 2.x.x.x IP range. Another typical Art-Net broadcast address is 10.255.255.255. When using broadcast address 255.255.255.255 then all the devices on the network will receive the Art-Net data.

It is also possible to ﬁll in a unicast address like 192.168.1.11; in this case the Art-Net data will be send to one IP address only. This keeps the rest of the network clean of any Art-Net network messages.

13.12 sACN

The CueCore3 supports 4 incoming sACN universe and 4 outgoing universe. The universe ﬁeld should hold a number in the range of [1,63999]. Outgoing sACN transmission can be disabled by entering oﬀ into the sACN output ﬁeld.

Figure 13.13: sACN settings

Set priority ﬁeld to control the priority level of the output universe. The priority can be set from 0 (lowest) to 200 (highest).

13.13 KiNet v1

The CueCore3 features transmission of DMX data via KiNet; it supports KiNet protocol version 1.

Figure 13.14: Kinet Settings

13.14 GPI

The GPI ports can be conﬁgured either as digital (contact-closure) or as analog (0-10V) input.

In case a port is set as analog and the signal supplied falls within the 0-10V range (e.g. 1-5V) then it is recommended to calibrate to port in order to map the minimal voltage to a logical 0% and map the maximum voltage to 100%.

To perform a calibration ﬁrst enable the Calibrate button, then bring the incoming signal to the minimum level, bring the signal to the maximum level and then close the calibration process by clicking the Calibrate button again.

Figure 13.15: GPI Settings

Do not apply more than 10V to the GPI port, as this could cause permanent damage.

Figure 13.16: Timespan settings

13.15 Timespan

The Timespan section allows for four periods of time to be deﬁned. The beginning and end of the time periods will trigger actions in the show control page.

An advantage of Timespans over normal scheduler actions is that Timespans are power-cycle safe. When the CueCore3 is without power during the moment of a normal scheduler trigger then it will miss that trigger. Timespans, however, will still receive the trigger once the power is restored after the moment has occurred.

Timespans are ideal for deﬁning periods of time during a year (like Christmas or Easter) or periods during the day (like opening times).

When entering the date and time data, XX’s can be used to signify a ’don’t care’. This allows for easily programming of yearly, monthly or daily reoccurring events.

Chapter 14

Purple Cloud

The Purple Cloud is a cloud service created by Visual Productions. It allows CueCore3 and Kiosc Touch devices to be remote monitored via the internet.

The Purple Cloud is accessible via www.visualproductions.nl. Registration is free of charge.

Figure 14.1: Account settings

Organisations can register an Account - see ﬁgure 14.1 - and add their team members as Users.

To connect your devices to your cloud account, you would need to take the following steps:

1. Enable Share Analytics Enable the checkbox in the CueCore3’s Settings page. See also page 87.

2. Enter the Cloud ID This ID can be found on the Purple Cloud’s account page. Copy this ID into the Cloud ID ﬁeld on the Settings page of the CueCore3.

Your device should now be visible in the Devices page of the Purple Cloud, see ﬁgure 14.2

Figure 14.2: Devices overview

The CueCore3 can now be monitored by double clicking the device in the table. This brings up a pop-up window that mimics the CueCore3’s web-interface.

Figure 14.3: Remote monitoring a CueCore3

Chapter 15

vManager

A free-of-charge software tool called vManager has been developed to manage the devices. vManager allows for:

• Setup the IP address, subnet mask, router and DHCP

• Backup and restore the device’s internal data and settings

• Perform ﬁrmware upgrades

• Set the real-time clock of the CueCore3 (The computer’s date and time

will be used)

• Identify a speciﬁc device (in a multi device set-up) by blinking its LED

• Revert to factory defaults

Figure 15.1: vManager

The following section explain the buttons in the vManager, as seen in ﬁgure

15.1.

15.1 Backup

Backups of all the programming data inside the device can be made. This backup ﬁle (an XML) is saved on the computer’s hard-disk and can be easily transferred via e-mail or USB stick. The data of the backup can be restored via the Restore button.

Figure 15.2: Creating a backup

Apps distributed by app stores are not allowed to access ﬁles outside this designated location. It is important to know where vManager is storing its ﬁles, in case you wish transfer a backup ﬁle to memory stick or dropbox.

The designated ﬁle location diﬀers per operating system and is likely to be a long and obscure path. For this reason, vManager provides you with a shortcut to the correct ﬁle location. A Folder button can be found in the ﬁle related dialogs. Clicking this button will open a ﬁle browser at appropriate folder.

15.2 Upgrade Firmware

To upgrade the ﬁrmware, ﬁrst select the device and press the Upgrade Firmware button. The dialogue allows for selecting from the list of ﬁrmware versions available.

Warning: Make sure the power to the device is not interrupted during the upgrade process.

15.3 Set Date & Time

The computer’s date and time can be quickly copied to the unit by selecting a device and clicking the Set Date & Time button. Not all Visual Productions devices feature an internal real-time clock.

Figure 15.3: Firmware upgrade

15.4 Blink

The device’s LED can be set to Blink fast for identifying the particular unit amongst multiple devices. The blinking is enabled by double-clicking on a device in the Devices list or by selecting a device and then clicking the Blink button.

15.5 Factory Defaults

All the user data like cues, tracks and actions are stored in the on-board ﬂash memory. They will be completely erased and all settings will reverted to their defaults by pressing the Factory Defaults button. This action does not aﬀect the device’s IP settings.

15.6 RTC Calibration

The CueCore3 features an internal real-time clock (RTC) that is used for generating scheduler triggers (date, time, sunrise, etc). In case that the clock is drifting, i.e. slowly falling behind or getting ahead of the real time, then it can be calibrated again using the vManager. The procedure is as follows:

1. Select the CueCore3

2. Click on the Start RTC Calibration button

3. wait approximately 30 minutes

4. Click on the Stop RTC Calibration button

5. Apply the recommended calibration value in the dialog (ﬁgure 15.4)

15.7 Reboot

The Reboot button allows you to remotely restart the device. This is useful for testing the unit’s behaviour after a power-cycle.

Figure 15.4: Apply calibration value

15.8 Installing vManager

The vManager app is available on a wide range of operating systems, both mobile and desktop.

The softwares is distributed through app-stores to take advantage of receiving future software updates automatically.

15.8.1 iOS

vManager can be downloaded from the Apple iOS app-store at https://itunes. apple.com/us/app/vman/id1133961541.

15.8.2 Android

vManager can be found on the Google Play store at https://play.google. com/store/apps/details?id=org.visualproductions.manager.

Android 5.0 or higher is required.

15.8.3 Windows

Visit the Microsoft store at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/vmanager/ 9nblggh4s758.

Windows 10 is required.

15.8.4 macOS

Visit the Apple macOS app store at https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vmanager/ id1074004019.

macOS 11.3 is recommended.

15.8.5 Ubuntu

You can acquire the vManager from Snapcraft at https://snapcraft.io/ vmanager.

Alternatively, it can be installed by using the command-line:

snap find vmanager snap install vmanager

To update the apps later on via the command-line type:

snap refresh vmanager

Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is recommended. The software is only available for the amd64 architecture.

Chapter 16

Kiosc

Kiosc is an application for creating custom touch screen user-interfaces for the range of lighting controllers from Visual Productions. Kiosc is designed to have no editing capability, making it a fool-proof interface that can safely be presented to non-technical operators.

Figure 16.1: Kiosc

Kiosc is the ideal way to remote control our solid-state lighting controllers like CueluxPro, CueCore1, CueCore2, QuadCore, IoCore1, IoCore2, LPU-2, DaliCore, B-Station1 and the CueCore3. Kiosc enables you to choose scenes or presets, set intensity levels or choose RGB colours.

You can also use it to control third-party AV equipment. Kiosc speaks UDP and OSC.

100