ThomasL

Thanks. I have been going through that manual, and the pages you referred to had some vital pertinent info such as not using Note Off, using only Note On and velocity to control the lights' value, and setting the Pearl to MIDI Slave Mode as well as the Channel No. However, the software I was using to send the MIDI Notes would not allow the typing in of commands as required by the Pearl manual. It only gave me drop down selections, etc. But I've solved it all today. Basically, the Pearl 2000's Playback Faders (the one we are using here anyway; not sure if other Pearls are programmed differently) would only respond to MIDI Note C (Octave 1) for Playback 1, C#/Db (Octave 1) for Playback 2,...till D (Octave 2) for Playback 15. These are the first 15 keys of a MIDI keyboard from the left. I did not attempt Message Changes, etc. I used a virtual MIDI keyboard, and had to use its 'Transpose' feature at -3 to get the Octave 1 Notes. It initially defaulted, after setup, to 'Transpose = 0' which gave me Octaves 6-7 Notes, which the Pearl would not respond to. Client is happy as he now has a Show Control Template for all 15 Playback Faders which he can sync down to the micro-second with the start of his WO shows or sequences. Thomas Leong Malaysia

Hi All, Does anyone have insights or experience in sending MIDI Notes to the Avolite Pearl 2000 with the objective of controlling each of the 15 Playback Faders? Up to now, I've managed to 'accidentally' discover that Note C (Octave 1) will communicate with Playback Fader 1. Next, I have to 'discover' the other 14 MIDI Notes and relate each to the other 15 Playback Faders. If anyone has any insigths or experience in a more efficient way of discovering or specifying the MIDI Note, it would be appreciated. Normally, I would use 'Capture MIDI message', but the Pearl 2000 does not seem to have this feature. I've tried MIDI Test mode to 'see' the MIDI message sent to the Pearl, but the Pearl's LCD screen remains blank when I try this. In relation to Watchout, we are using VenueMagic DMXAV software on another PC to control WO5 shows (via serial to TCP), and want to use the same (VenueMagic) to control the Pearl Lighting Controller as well (via MIDI) so that WO and Lighting are tightly controlled together. Using a USB-DMX unit on the WO pc is not practical as the lights and controller we hire are programmed by contractors. We just want to control their Pearl 2000 once they complete the lighting cues. Any help or suggestion is appreciated. Thanks. Thomas Leong Malaysia

Did the $0D carriage return appended to the end of a command work for you? I have just tested from one Watchout 5 to another Watchout 5, and proved the theory - that WO does not auto append the carriage return $0D to the end of a string command. You have to manually include it for the command to work. A space between the command and $0D is not necessary, though it does not hurt either. The other gotcha is that sometimes, the opening of the TCP port may be fractionally slow such that the receiving end does not get the command. So repeating the command a second later in the Timeline solves it. It would help troubleshooting if a future version of Watchout could include a Monitor pop-up window for messages/commands sent out from Watchout. And using the Microsoft Loopback Adapter, one need not even physically need to hook up with a network to program and test commands from a Production PC. Please let us know your result. Enquiring minds would like to know. Thanks.

Not sure if you need - Open in Watchout. According to Watchout's manual, when the cue is played, Watchout will open the connection specified, so I would think it superfluous to repeat the Open command in your string. On the other hand, perhaps there is no harm done to ensure it is open. And yes, I think it should be - 1111$0D C00$0D in Watchout. ("I think" because personally I have not sent a command out of Watchout before - don't have a device that can accept TCP/IP strings; but I have sent string commands into Watchout, and without a carriage return $0D at the end of each command, Watchout would not work, though like you, via Hyperterminal it did. Mmm...having said that, perhaps I should try sending string commands from one Watchout PC to another to check out Watchout's Output of strings. Tomorrow!)

I have found that if the connection has been establshed properly between units over TCP/IP, then there is a high probability that it is a syntax error on the part of the user. The most common mistake is assuming that a device automatically appends the carriage return or line feed keystroke to a string. I suspect Watchout does not, and your Telnet application does. So try adding $0D (i.e. $ for Hex, 0 as in the numeral zero, and the capital letter D) to the end of your string command in Watchout's String Cue window. This is the hex code for a carriage return.