Avolites DIAMOND II Operation Manual
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Avolites DIAMOND II Operation Manual

Avolites DIAMOND II Operation Manual

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AVOLITES DIAMOND II
OPERATION MANUAL
SOFTWARE VERSION 3.x
Useful phone numbers:-
Avolites England
sales and service
service out of hours (+44) (0) 831 17 88 88
fax
modem/bulletin board (+44) (0) 181 961 4838
Avolites America
sales and service
fax
The latest version of this manual (in Microsoft Word 97 or PDF) and
Diamond II Software can be downloaded by modem on the above modem number
You can also download the latest personality disks.
No Liability for Consequential Damages
Avolites has a policy of continuous product and documentation improvement. As such the detail within this
manual may not match the operation of the Diamond II or other products.
In no event shall Avolites be liable for any direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential damages or
loss whatsoever (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, or other
pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use an Avolites product even if Avolites Ltd. has been
advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or
limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.
revision 3.01
(+44) (0) 181 965 8522
(+44) (0) 181 965 0290
(+1) 615 938 2057
(+1) 615 938 2059
www.audiovias.com

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  • Page 1 (including, without limitation, damages for loss of profits, business interruption, or other pecuniary loss) arising out of the use or inability to use an Avolites product even if Avolites Ltd. has been advised of the possibility of such damages. Because some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages, the above limitation may not apply to you.
  • Page 2 www.audiovias.com...

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL CONTENTS 1. OVERVIEW 2. BEFORE TURNING ON 3. CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS MANUAL 4. THE KEYSWITCH 5. PATCHING 6. EASY START DIMMER 1:1 PATCH 7. WIPE ALL AND SELECTING THE NUMBER OF HTP CHANNELS REQUIRED 8. PATCHING FROM SCRATCH 9.
  • Page 4 19. THE PROGRAMMER 20. TO PROGRAM OR EDIT A MEMORY 21. EXPLANATION OF CLEAR 22. WHICH CHANNELS ARE RECORDED 23. TO SET THE FADE TIME FOR A MEMORY 24. SETTING THE MEMORY REPLAY MODE 25. TO VIEW, SELECT OR CHANGE THE MEMORY MODE 26.
  • Page 5 40. TO RECORD A GROUP 41. TO USE A GROUP 42. TO STORE A FOCUS 43. TO APPLY A FOCUS 44. FOCUS TIPS 45. EXPLANATION OF THE MIMIC LED’S 46. TO SET INSTRUMENTS ON MIMICS 47. UNFOLD 48. TO ALTER LEGENDS 49.
  • Page 6 61. TO CHANGE ACTIVE SCREEN 62. THE STAGE REMOTE 63. USER SETTINGS AND PREFERENCES 64. USING THE GRAPHIC TABLET 65. KILLING DMX CHANNELS IN AN EMERGENCY AND THEN REVIVING THEM AGAIN 66. SERVICE OPTIONS 67. UPGRADES 68. CHANGING FROM EL SCREEN TO VGA CRT 69.

  • Page 7: Overview

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL OVERVIEW The Avolites DIAMOND II uses the latest technology to create a lighting and moving light control desk with features unequalled elsewhere. Combining the qualities of a traditional 'preset' lighting control desk, with all the advantages of programming directly from the preset faders, together with powerful theatre editing, using a keypad to select channels and set levels.

  • Page 8: The Keyswitch

    Until a channel is patched it is not shown on the screen, LED mimic or output. DETAIL ON HOW THE PATCH WORKS ♦ The Diamond II patch works in two ways, firstly the HANDLE (a preset fader and the swop/add button associated with it) is patched internally, then the DMX channel is patched.

  • Page 9: Wipe All And Selecting The Number Of Htp Channels Required

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Turn the key to SYSTEM. • Press [A] then [F] then button [C]. After this all memories chases etc. will be erased and the desk will be ready for programming. The first 180 dimmers will be patched onto faders 1 to 180 in that DMX order, using DMX line 1.

  • Page 10: Patching Dimmers

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Place a blank formatted disk in the disk drive. • Press the [DISK] button. • Now press button [A], SAVE TO DISK. • Now press button [F], CONFIRM. See section 59 for more information on the disk system.

  • Page 11: To Patch Instruments (Anything Which Is Not Ageneric Dimmer)

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • From the patch menu press button [A] marked DIMMER. You are now presented with the first free DMX number working upwards from DMX 1, on the line you selected. You may use this number or select a different DMX number from the [KEYPAD].

  • Page 12: Patching Instruments Which Use A Separate Dimmer

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Finally press a preset fader [SWOP] button to patch the instrument. PATCHING INSTRUMENTS WHICH USE A SEPARATE DIMMER. When an instrument requires a separate dimmer channel, such as the Vari*light VL5, a special dimmer channel is allocated as the instrument is patched. This is called a PENDING DIMMER.

  • Page 13: To Invert A Channel

    Avolites consoles this was achieved by setting the block size, or recording the memory into every page with the page cue lock on. The DIAMOND II has a more powerful way of locking memories which allows any memory or sequence to be locked on all pages.

  • Page 14: Insert And Delete With Locked Masters

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • First turn the key to SYSTEM. • Then press button [F] marked LOCK MASTERS. Any locked memories are shown by flashing LOCK on display above the memory fader. • Pressing [GRAB] locks or unlocks a memory or sequence.

  • Page 15: To Program Or Edit A Memory

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL TO PROGRAM OR EDIT A MEMORY • Set up the memory on the presets, with the Grand Master, Preset Master and Memory Master at full. • Press the [MEMORY] button. • Press [MEMORY FADER SWOP] button To see the memory •...

  • Page 16: Setting The Memory Replay Mode

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Wait down Fade up Fade down LTP fade LTP wait For times longer than 60 seconds use the decimal point. For example, to set the Fade up time to 1.5 minutes, press the following buttons.
  • Page 17 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL move from whatever position they are towards the new position. If the fader is moved down they will move back to the original position. Use this mode to control LTP channels with the fader. Useful if you wish to change between two colours, or move to a particular pan and tilt position and then back again.

  • Page 18: To View, Select Or Change The Memory Mode

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL TO VIEW, SELECT OR CHANGE THE MEMORY MODE You may view the memory mode selected by pressing the MEMORY MODE button. (This is to the left of the to the tens page select button select button 1.) •...

  • Page 19: To Set A Chase Speed Using A Wheel

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL ♦ Steps which have not been assigned individual times are called SIMPLE STEPS. TO SET A CHASE SPEED USING A WHEEL First connect a chase to one of the chase playback controls as follows:- •...

  • Page 20: To Change A Step Back To Using Simple Times Once It Has Been Made A Complex Step

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Note that new times will be stored into the step that is LIVE at the moment [ENTER] is pressed. Once a step time is altered in this way the step is then called a COMPLEX STEP.

  • Page 21: Setting The Chase Parameters

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL It may be useful to view the sequence steps on the screen, to do this:- • Press [VIEW], • Followed by the [CONNECT] button. The screen tracks the NEXT step. The LIVE and NEXT step are identified on the screen.

  • Page 22: Include

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL ALL LINKS ON (off) allows a fast method of turning all the links to ON or OFF. This may be considered as making a chase into a theatre sequence. MORE When MORE is pressed the following options are presented:-...

  • Page 23: Insert

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Press [DELETE] • Press a [MEMORY FADER GRAB] twice to remove an existing Memory or CHASE. After the first press a prompt will appear requesting the same grab to be pressed to confirm the delete.

  • Page 24: Linking And Duplicating Memories And Chases

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • First UNFOLD the chase or sequence, by pressing [UNFOLD] • Then press the [MEMORY FADER SWOP] on the chase you wish to unfold. • Press [INSERT] • Press the [MEMORY FADER SWOP] at the point you wish the new memory to be inserted.

  • Page 25: To Connect To The Sequence Control

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Using the above method it is very easy to move memories from one page to another or put them in the correct order on a page. NOTE Chase steps cannot be linked, you must use DUPLICATE.

  • Page 26: To Apply A Focus

    FOCUS TIPS What follows is a number of tips and additional information given to us or observed by us from Diamond II users. The common thread is that preplanning will make programming much faster and so more enjoyable. Focuses give a quick way of applying a value to an instrument channel. But they also allow an easy way to modify memories at a later time without having to adjust the actual memory.

  • Page 27: Explanation Of The Mimic Led's

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Colour - Holding only colour information, can be a mix of colour wheels, and colour mix if the instrument supports this. Gobo - Holding gobo information, whilst these don’t normally change, putting gobos on focus buttons makes selection very easy.

  • Page 28: To Set Instruments On Mimics

    Press [F] to leave the preference menu. UNFOLD Unfold is unique to the Diamond II. It allows testing of a sequence with parallel access to 30 steps at a time. Any step can be altered and instantly viewed. To UNFOLD a CHASE •...
  • Page 29 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL [C] ANIMATE [D] OFF [E] UNTOUCH [F] DEFINE THE STAGE These are described in the next sections. LOCATE FIXTURE This allows instruments to be positioned on the stage in white, no gobo, and positioned at 50% pan and tilt. NO CHANNELS ARE TURNED ON WITH LOCATE OR PLACED IN THE PROGRAMMER.

  • Page 30: Using Animate

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL This selects a menu that allows the stage to be defined to enable the moving light tracking system. USING ANIMATE Animate is a simple function allowing the most complicated sequences to be automatically built allowing you to try out ideas.

  • Page 31: Changing Channels On An Instrument From Fade To Instant

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL CHANGING CHANNELS ON AN INSTRUMENT FROM FADE TO INSTANT LTP channels can be selected to fade or be instantly output. This is because some parameters you may not wish to fade, for example GOBO whilst others such as colour mix channels should fade.

  • Page 32: To Create A Table

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • The ON/OFF button actually cycles through three states, 'ON', 'OFF', 'UNTOUCHED' before returning to 'ON' again. The state of the attribute is shown by the RED and GREEN LEDs, as follows:- RED on GREEN off = channel 'ON'...

  • Page 33: To Use A Table

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • When you have finished press button [F] marked Finish. Additional entries to tables can be added at any time by following the above method. Tables are replayed in alphabetical order. Tip: If you would like your entries to be recalled in the order you created them in they should be labelled numerically i.e.: 01...

  • Page 34: To Save A Table To Disk

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Select the instruments. Press the Function button containing the table. The table is listed on the screen. • Use the cursor buttons to select an entry in the table. You may use the QWERTY keyboard to find an entry in a table. (Early versions will only sort on the first letter, you must then use the cursor buttons to move to the correct entry).

  • Page 35: Blind Programming

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL To add individual channels • Use the [ENTER] button between each channel. To set the level on the selected instruments • Move the dimmer level wheel • Use the [AT PERCENT] button • Follow this with a single numeric.

  • Page 36: Blind Programming And Quick Blind Edit

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL When recording in BLIND mode only channels selected in the programmer will be recorded. If you wish to start from a previously recorded memory use the INCLUDE function to bring any memory into the programmer.

  • Page 37: Disk

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL [BLIND] is pressed. (To avoid this happening record the channels on a spare memory master and put this up.) When recording in BLIND mode only channels selected in the programmer will be recorded. If you wish to start from a previously recorded memory use the INCLUDE function to bring any memory into the programmer, by pressing the memories [GRAB] button.

  • Page 38: To Change Active Screen

    TO CHANGE ACTIVE SCREEN Since the Diamond II can control a number of physical screens with each one showing different information there has to be an easy way of selecting which screen you are in control of.

  • Page 39: The Stage Remote

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL THE STAGE REMOTE The stage remote is connected the desk via a cable with a 25pin D type connector. This may be plugged into either end of the riggers remote, whichever is most convenient. It may be plugged and unplugged at any time.
  • Page 40 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL ♦ NOTE When using the VIEW DMX screen and the [DIM] function the channel levels on the screen will flash indicating that DMX channel is under control of the remote. The level on stage will however be constant.

  • Page 41: User Settings And Preferences

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Pressing the bottom left button will give the status of the remote, Enabled or Disabled. ♦ If the LED’s flash once it is disabled ♦ If the LED’s flash twice it is enabled USER SETTINGS AND PREFERENCES To enter the USER SETTINGS menu •...

  • Page 42: Using The Graphic Tablet

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL ♦ RECORD ALL CHANNELS means that every channel will be recorded. This will use considerable quantities system of memory. The amount of memory available is displayed on the LCD screen as a percentage of the total available.
  • Page 43 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL • Use the down arrow to select option 8 • Use the right cursor button select G. TABLET CONNECTED. • Turn the key back to PROGRAM. To use the Graphic Tablet to control colours:- Ensure the configuration procedure has been done as shown above.
  • Page 44 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL Using tracking with the graphic tablet • Train the desk. • Select the fixture or a number of fixtures by clicking on a select button with the button on the stylus held in, or select instruments by using a previously recorced GROUP.
  • Page 45 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL This function steps through the instruments selected when a GROUP has been loaded. Instruments are selected in the same order as the instrument selection when the group was first created. • Click on [NEXT INSTRUMENT] If you wish to re-select all the instruments again then click on [SELECT ALL].

  • Page 46: Killing Dmx Channels In An Emergency And Then Reviving Them Again

    Load and Run Software from Disk This option allows loading of new software from disk. To load new software, place the disk supplied by Avolites in the disk drive and press this button. The software will be loaded and start running immediately.

  • Page 47: Upgrades

    Modify Memory This allows the contents of a memory location to be modified. Useful for testing displays etc. Only use this after contacting Avolites, since you may corrupt system variables, causing insidious problems with the desk, which may not immediately show on the desk.

  • Page 48: Power Up Messages

    ALL THE OPERATIONS FROM THIS MENU WILL ALTER THE CONTENTS OF MEMORY AND SO CHANGE YOUR SHOW OR YOUR SOFTWARE. ONLY USE THESE FUNCTIONS IF YOU HAVE NEW SOFTWARE SUPPLIED FROM AVOLITES EITHER BY POST OR BY MODEM. DO NOT PRESS ERASE ALL SEGMENTS UNTIL YOU HAVE SAVED YOUR PROGRAM.

  • Page 49: Additional El Or Crt Screens And Driver Boards

    • When all the memory is erased you will be asked to HIT A KEY. Press any button at this point. • Now insert your NEW PROGRAM disk, supplied from AVOLITES either by post or by modem. • Press button [B], to start loading your new program.
  • Page 50 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL ♦ Bit 2 ON = EL screen, OFF = VGA screen ♦ Bits 3 = OFF- only one video board fitted, = ON - two video boards fitted. ♦ Bits 4 to 8, Always ON, these will be used for different screen types in the future.

  • Page 51: Patching Ltp Channels For Dimmers

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL PATCHING LTP CHANNELS FOR DIMMERS The Diamond II can control up to 300 Highest Takes Precedence channels and any number of Latest Takes Precedence up to the number of DMX channels (two in the standard configuration).

  • Page 52: Help

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL HELP Help loads the file HELP.D2 from the system disk, this is an ASCII text file and you may customise it as you wish. TO LOAD HELP • Place the system disk in the disk drive and press [HELP].

  • Page 53: Auto Functions In A Chase

    AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL AUTO FUNCTIONS IN A CHASE This function is not fully implemented yet. Enter the STACK SCRIPT function from the CHASE PARAMETERS option in the program menu, button [A]. The following menu is presented:- LOOPS AUTOLOAD...

  • Page 54: Known Problems In Version 3 Software

    ⇒ DIMMER CURVES PROBLEM The curve name does not appear on the screen. SOLUTION Curves are not yet available in the Diamond II. If you have a particular curve requirement please contact Avolites R&D in London. ⇒ INVERT A CHANNEL PROBLEM Does not work.
  • Page 55 AVOLITES DIAMOND II OPERATORS MANUAL SOLUTION Run the chase, then reconnect. ⇒ CHASE LTP CHANNELS CONTINUE TO RUN WITH FADER DOWN PROBLEM LTP channels still face on a chase after the chase fader is taken to zero. This happens only when you have changed page with the chase running and the fader up, then on the new page taken the fader down.

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