Mitras profilux weird lighting schedule issue

[sylvius]

I finally got my Mitras set up, both in slave mode address 2 and 3 with profilux (with PWC card) as address 1. I loaded the RRL17k lighting and shifted it to run 9AM to 9PM. Everything was fine. I wanted moonlight so I set the royal blue to 1% at the first and last scheduled slot instead of all at 0% and set the moon simulation to run 9PM to 9AM. Again all was fine.

Now here's the problem. I wanted the moonlight to be off midnight to 5 AM. I added another scheduled slot at midnight with 1% on royal blue (so it wouldn't try to slowly ramp down from 9PM to midnight) and then 12:01 all 0%. Similarly I did 5 AM 0% and 5:01 AM 1% on royal blue. When I load that, the lights just stay on even though illumination channels in profilux say they are all off. Luckily I checked on it last night after 9 PM when it should have ramped down to the moonlight and noticed the lights were still bright.

I tried adding those time slots both in multichannel setup as well as doing it in light composer and sending the new schedule to multichannel and either way the same thing happens. Everything looks correct on profilux either with app or GCC but the lights show on. Deleting the extra time slots reliably fixes things but forces me into either no moonlight or all night moonlight. Is there a limit to the number of schedule slots that can be set? Any other ideas of what might be causing the problem?

Two other semi-related issues:
1) Is there any way to temporarily change the lighting. For example, when adding new livestock to temporarily darken things or when cleaning to temporarily set a whiter light? I can see where maintenance mode can trigger settings on a lightbar but I can’t see a way to do it with Mitras LX7. From the Mitras manual it seems that this is an option in GCC when connecting directly to the light but is it possible this feature is unavailable when the light is a slave to profilux?
2) Is there any way to change the clock to 24 hour? I have been unable to find a setting for that but would greatly prefer it. I have found that GCC seems to use the computer setting but the app (ios and android) seem to only show me AM/PM despite the device being set for 24 hour clock.

Thanks!

 

[sylvius]

No one with any input?

 

[Tristren]

Are you using the Moonlight simulation settings?

I use Lightbars so can't comment on the Mitras specific issues?

@Lasse uses Lightbars as well, but he knows everything about all of it regardless

Cheers,
Tony

 

[Ditto]

1) There is a limit I believe it is 12 points on the schedule. I am finding a post where someone was having the same issue and it was because they had too many points.

2) maintenance mode is only for the light bars (I have both on my tank) and it only impacts the illumination channels of the light bar.

3) no way thar I am aware of to switch to 24 hour mode

 

[Lasse]

No I do not know everything .

I do not really understand how you have configure it - especially with the two extra channels. Can you explain further?

1) You want to have lower intensity - you can always use this

With higher intensity and Mitras 7xxx - I do not know. The lightbar can be set in the maintenance tab - but mot the 7xxx serie

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2) I do not know - but in my case - it follow my computers settings both in GCC and app/myGHL

Sincerely Lasse

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[sylvius]

Thanks all, really appreciate it! I searched the manual for a limit on the number of dimming points but was unable to find one. However, the RRL program has 11 time points so I am sure that is the issue when I exceeded 12. Light composer and multi-channel illumination settings page should really indicate the max number of dimming points and, ideally, throw an error when it's exceeded.

What a bummer that maintenance modes can't trigger anything on the LX7, that's a huge deficiency IMO. Right now I am using acclimation mode to ramp up to these new lights but I suppose once that is done I can use it as a workaround to sort of quickly turn the lights down temporarily.

I'd kill for two quick lighting override settings, one for low light (e.g., push a button and get moonlight) and one for bright white light for photos or cleaning. I guess for the former one could also use manual thunderstorm with aggressive dimming and no lightning (but then couldn't also have random thunderstorms). Can't think of any way to get temporary bright white light.

 

[Lasse]

There is one way in GCC (not in the app or My GHL as I see it) Go to Illumination and Illumination overview. Check test light scene and pull the cursor to the point you want. Itt works for LED bars at least

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Sincerely Lasse (the king of work around )

 

[sylvius]

Hail Caesar! That's genius, thank you!

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

It is 100% possible to set the LX7s to react to a P4's maintenance mode. For example, if you want to run blues only or whites only for a set amount of time. Since the LX7 reacts to the commands given by the P4, as long as each LX7 fixture has a maintenance mode setup, it will also trigger when the matching maintenance mode number is triggered on the P4.

Here's how to set that up:
1. Connect to each LX7 and choose a maintenance mode
2. Specify the channels that will be affected by this mode and the duration
3. Save settings
4. Connect to the P4, choose the same maintenance mode number, set the duration to the same as what is on the LX7, type-in a description, and save settings.

DONE.

I'll write up a Knowledge base how-to article about it next week.

 

[sylvius]

Oh that's so awesome! From the manual it made it seem like once they are in slave mode settings on the light itself don't matter. Will get my USB cables out and set it up soon, thanks!

 

[sylvius]

It worked! So great, just makes me wish for more maintenance modes

 

[Ditto]

@Vinny@GHLUSA - thanks for the information, I tried and it does work, learn something each day

 

[Member No 1]

It worked! So great, just makes me wish for more maintenance modes

@Vinny@GHLUSA Yes please, more maintenance modes.

 

[sylvius]

Yes indeed. My maintenance mode wish list so far is:
1) Shut down sump but keep display tank moving with lights on (so wave pumps normal but pretty much everything else off).
2) Shut down everything except lights.
3) Shut down everything including lights
4) Turn the lights down for adding livestock and letting them find their safe place.
5) Turn on white light for photos
6) Power cut mode
7) In a perfect beautiful world I would love love love it if I could figure out how to wire power cut monitoring into a circuit that is not fed by my backup generator (I wonder if my transfer switch has a way to do this) so I could have one severe power cut program run for a few minutes off battery while the generator fires up and then institute a second less severe maintenance mode while generator is on (e.g., lights on but low, a little heat but not full bore, etc). This is almost certainly severely overthinking things as I think my generator will be able to manage my current max 300W of heat and two LX7206.

I could fudge 2 and 3 if I could figure a way to make one of my feed pauses also activate maintenance and setting the wave pumps and lights respond (so feed pause 1 could turn off wave pumps and turn on maintenance 1; feed pause 2 could do the same as 1 but also activate maintenance 4). I assume it is possible to have a maintenance mode and feed pause active simultaneously but haven't figured out a way to get a feed mode to trigger a maintenance mode. Any suggestions?