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DonkiDonki

By DonkiDonki
in Lighting

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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OK, here's the latest update.

 

All components are sourced, though some are yet to be delivered. I am pursuing a contact to try and and produce most of the casework in aluminium, I'm fairly hopeful but it's not too bad if It doesn't pan out as I have all the wood alternatives sat here already.

 

Space for the electronics & electrics is pretty snug, this now puts an end to any thoughts of internal batteries or active DMX distribution.

 

There were several mains psu's which were the moulded plug type and I didn't want inaccessible internal fuses or 13A plugs & sockets (too bulky) so I have replaced them all with more compact units which will mount nicely in the case and build a power distribution box with fuses for each device that needs power.

The fuses holders will be mounted along side the power switch at the rear of the case.

 

I have been offered an ex-demo illuminated trackball which should fit nicely and have found some funky illuminated switches for the mouse buttons.

There is an ultra compact keyboard which will be on a drawer mounted under the PC-Wing, I have a strip of blue LED tape which will be mounted in the armrest over the drawer for illumination. (I realise this is all looking very RoadHog like, but then I really like the look of those so I have no problem with it)

 

I bought a selection of button caps for the monitor control boards (bare pcb's with a selection of surface mounted switches), couldn't find any that were designed to fit so a bit of bodgery will be needed there - in fact making the housing for those boards looks like the fiddliest part of the whole project.

 

The motherboard & cpu are currently sat in a Citylink van somewhere, presumably in a lay-by while the driver has some lunch and a quick nap. (I hate waiting for deliveries)

The Zotac min-itx motherboard has built-in WiFi which will be used for the usual internet duties and I will add a D-link dir-635 wireless router which will handle MagicQ remote and casual Artnet duties (wouldn't trust it for shows), this will also provide additional ethernet outputs on rear panel.

Processing power is courtesy of an Intel E5300 dual core cpu with 4gb of ram and a 250gb 2.5" sata hard drive (7200rpm); this is way more than MagicQ needs now and hopefully will be plenty for many future versions.

The two 15" monitors will be driven by the on-board Nvidia graphics and the 10" will be driven by a StarTech USB-VGA unit.

 

Right, with a bit of luck I should be able to have a go at serious construction by the end of the week. Fingers crossed. :huh:

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Oh bugger.

 

I'm a bit miffed to find the DVI output on the motherboard is only DVI-D, not much use for VGA monitors. It has one VGA output, a HDMI and a DVI (which I had hoped would drive a VGA monitor)

 

Oh well, that will be another StarTech USB-VGA jobby then. (I could get a DVI-D to VGA converter but that is double the price of the StarTech unit)

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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This is a question for the Chamsys experts.

I have three monitors which are all recognised in MagicQ and I can manually move the main window to the screen I want it on (not always the primary) and I can alter the screen order in the monitor settings which helps with using the external views.

At the moment any screen settings I make are being reset when I restart MagicQ even if I save settings, am I doing something wrong. (using the latest beta)

Also is it possible to tell MagicQ which screen to open onto at startup and set which view type? (I use Touch)

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Does anyone else have this issue, when sending a window to another monitor by pressing the EXT key the window briefly flashes minimised on the main screen and leaves a grey outline which blots out part of the interface window, if you flick a window back and forth the minimised window cascades and blots more of the master screen?

To un-blot I have to switch between touch mode and one of the others.

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Mark M Journeyman

Mark M

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Ive had that issue on a single monitor set up. The way I fixed it was to click on the start menu and then back into MagicQ and it solved it. I thought it was just my graphics card though.
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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Ive had that issue on a single monitor set up. The way I fixed it was to click on the start menu and then back into MagicQ and it solved it. I thought it was just my graphics card though.

 

I've had it on four systems each running completely different hardware and different versions of Windows.

It looks as though the window has to briefly originate on the MagicQ main screen before it gets shifted to the external screen and the main screen doesn't refresh. You gradually lose the on-screen buttons until you manually refresh the main window.

 

I have no idea if this is a quirk of Windows or just how MagicQ generates the windows. It would be great to hear a solution to counter this, either prevent the initial "ghost" window popping up or perhaps have MagicQ refresh it's on-screen buttons whenever a window is moved to an external screen?

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DonkiDonki Experienced

DonkiDonki

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Which software version are you using?

 

Matt

both the latest stable and beta.

It is not a problem in "Normal" as the main window refreshes, it is a problem in "touch" view as the top left buttons get greyed over.

 

The problem is happening on vista 32bit and windows7 64bit, I've not managed to try it on XP yet.

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  • 2 years later...
djlorenz Regular

djlorenz

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I resume this old old old topic for show you my first Chamsys setup, but I'm looking around for some good changes ;)

sorry for bad quality pics...

 

 

http://sphotos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/543681_10150816846986101_1259118293_n.jpg

 

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/536725_10150816925151101_1357750507_n.jpg

 

http://sphotos-c.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/182509_10151023935786101_1608496551_n.jpg

 

http://sphotos-a.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/530086_10151115219441101_1661900022_n.jpg

 

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/382015_10151341982711101_967315503_n.jpg

 

 

 

what do you think about?

now I'm looking for some news... first of all find a cheap programmable keyboard for missing buttons of pcwing... do you know some?

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dmxlights Supervisor

dmxlights

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I am going to be keeping a eye on this. I will be doing something like this but it will be for my own software and a Behringer BCF2000.

 

I will be using a touch screen of some sort and a mini pc with windows xp embedded on it for boot up speed. I am hoping to have boot up time well within 30 sec from push of the power button to my software loads.

 

My main aim is to keep the wight down and over all size down as well.

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  • 2 months later...

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