Calibrate Spotlights
Notice: Beltpack cables manufactured after 7/1/2012 no longer include a light sensor element due to parts obsolescence and our inability to find a suitable replacement part. These beltpack cables will still track normally but can no longer be used to perform automatic light calibration. Manual light calibration will be required for systems using these cables.
This is the last step in defining the 3D space that Autopilot II will use.
Turn all four beltpacks on and place them on the stage. The placement is not critical but the beltpacks should be spread out about 10 feet or more from each other. The arrangement from calibrating the receivers will do nicely. Once the beltpacks have been placed, they must not be moved or the automatic calibration will fail.
The elements must face up so the lights can shine on the face of the element. This enables the beltpacks to "see" the lights and transmit a signal to the controller telling it when the light is shining on each individual beltpack. When the light hits the beltpack element, the power indicator on the beltpack will light up more brightly. You can see this change by moving the element in and out of the light beam.
Then press Auto Calibrate Lights to start the calibration.
Auto calibrate all the lights.
The first step is each light in turn will move in a large spiral to attempt to find each of the four beltpacks. The words Not Calibr... will change to 4 red lights representing the beltpacks 1-4. As each beltpack sees the light in the large spiral, the dot representing it will turn yellow.
Next, the lights in groups of four, will center themselves on each of the beltpacks, using a small spiral. After each light is centered on the beltpack, the indicator will turn from yellow to green to tell you that this part of the calibration is done.
After centering on each of the four beltpacks, the lights will be marked calculating until the controller box has calculated where the light is. At that point the word Calibrated will appear next to that light. If there are more than four lights, next group of four lights will search for beltpacks, and the red, yellow, and green light procedures will occur again.
Auto calibrate individual lights.
Each light can be individually calibrated by pressing the Auto Cal button for each light. This is most efficiently done for only one light. For example, if the fixture has been moved after calibration for some reason. Since the time consuming part of the calibration is centering the light on the beltpack, it is beneficial to calibrate them in groups.
Manually calibrate individual lights.
Bring up the screen for manually calibrating the light by pressing the Manual Cal button on any one of the configured lights.
The light must be pointed at 4 spots to be calibrated. Each beltpack can be used for a spot, or 1 beltpack can be used for all four spots, or the spike marks (1-4) can be used for spots. If you choose to use only 1 beltpack, that beltpack must be moved for each spot. Once again, the spots should be no closer than 10 feet from each other and should be evenly spaced around the performance area. For light fixtures mounted on the floor, the receivers can be used as calibration points.
For the first point, select the beltpack number used for that point. Then use the arrow keys for pan and tilt controls to center the light on the beltpack. The up and down arrows are for tilt and the left and right arrows are for pan. Holding the arrow key down will move the light faster. If focus is available on the fixture then a focus slider will appear and may be used to sharpen the beam.
As an alternative, if you are having problems exactly centering the light, you may use the pan and tilt to get the light close to centered and then move the beltpack to the exact center.
When the light is centered on the point, press Collect for that point. This tells the controller what pan and tilt values are needed to hit that point on the stage.
Continue for the next 3 points. After the data is collected for all the points, the controller will calculate the position in space where the light is and then mark it calibrated.
The same 4 points do not need to be used for each light if it is not convenient (ie. a set peice has been moved onto the stage between light calibrations).
If Auto Cal fails to find 1 or more beltpacks, then the manual method must be used.