The Congo Forum (and Congo jr, too!)

About manual and Help

Pedro Alves — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:59:24 GMT

Can I ask if there is any intention to release the manual and the help on the consoles in other languages like for insteance Portuguese??? I've got some tecnician friends that always ask me why there isn't help or manual in Portuguese and I alwyas said to them that it's good for them to learn another language but in my opinion you should release the manual in the language of the countrys were is a Congo.

Just a opinion

Pedro Alves

Net 3 Gateway

Sabine Opitz — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:50:39 GMT

Wir haben nun ein neues E Gate ,das Net3 Gateway - die Frage lautet:Muß ich dafür in den Sytemeinstellungen etwas freigeben?Leider ist die Beschreibung,abgesehen davon das sie auf englisch ist, leider nicht sehr hilfreich - wir haben es am Netz und am Netzwerk angeschlossen und es möchte eine IP Adresse.

Sabine

vom Theater Dortmund

V6.0.2 strange behaviour Master contents. Anyone else?

Gareth — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:42:32 GMT

We have a Congo Jnr running V6.0.2 with a master wing and extra 2 x 10 fader wing.

We are having problems with faders loaded up with Presets, channels and Groups as the contents stop outputting. The fader appears to have the relevant content as the text still appears in the fader window but when you push the fader up the content doesn't output. If you Modify + Preset or Group the content is programmed in correctly. If you reload the same content into the same fader the content then outputs again.

I did think this was just happening after I programmed something new into a fader and this does certainly trigger it but last night I was running the desk for about 5 hours on a show and it was just randomly happening.

We have noticed this for a while and not attached the extra fader wing to see if this would help but it happens with just the master wing attached.

1. Is this something your aware of and is there something I can do to resolve this?

-- I had assumed that changing the page on the Master wing would also change the page on the extra 2 x 10 wing. It doesn't.

2. How should I change it's page? It seems to be stuck on page 3??

-- Looking in the Masters view of various pages it shows faders 61 - 80 has contents loaded onto faders. I've not done this as we don't have those faders.

3. What might be happening here?

4. Is it ok just to have 60 faders and not a block of 40 or 80?

We have also noticed that sometimes the LED next to faders (with loaded content) don't always light up.

We have also suffered a full crash where the hour glass appears and the grey back ground with 'congo' written across both screens. (As it appears when it's booting up).

It would be great to hear from anyone who's having similar issues. Have you resolved this?

Might the above issues be resolved with next update?

5. Is there a likely time scale for next update? Wondering whether to move back to V5.1.

SUBMASTER option, RECORD screen option

Michał — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 19:01:20 GMT

Hi ALL.

There is possible to create two things:

1. Option for RECORD screen. When I REC Preset on a screen I write txt. I have two inputs: P text and S Text. First and defoult is P Text. Maybe Congo Crew create option to choice what text is in first input - defoult? Record will be faster, quickly

2. Masters option. In case when I put EFECT on master. Option what you want to master regulate in effect:

-size

-speed

-size and speed evenly

It not easy write abut questions and sugestuin in not my leanguage... sory for crashes :)

Thanks.

Hiding unpatched channels

Mr Jules — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:57:22 GMT

Hi y'all.

This might be a pretty basic request, but how do you hide unpatched channels in the live screen. I was shown once and instantly forgot.

Ta very much

Congo Offline Editor on Windows 7 via XPMode

pfroy — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 16:49:44 GMT

Hello

I have recently been upgraded to Windows 7 Professional. I have installed the XPMode program so that I might have half a chance of being able to run Congo Offline...

Alas, no. It cannot get past the startup screen.

Has anyone got it working or is there something I'm missing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Paul

Congo Jr. v6

Tina Long — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 13:37:02 GMT

We've recently upgraded to version 6 for our Congo Jr. and some odd things have been happening. Has anyone had issues with intelligent lights not going to zero? For some reason the percentage will only go down to 6. If anyone has any insight, please let me know! :) Thanks!

Where's Congo V6 gone?!

bbmason — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 13:07:35 GMT

Hi Guys,

Appologies if this has already been covered, or if I'm being very stupid, but I was checking for updates to the Congo V6 software today and can't find any V6 software downloads for the Congo Jr! The 6.01 training movies are there, and Congo V5.10 is there, but no V6 release at all?!

Our Jr is running 6.02, and is still not quite behaving as I'd expect - for example, pressing the "group" button no longer presents you with the "Group" tab. Is this deliberate?

Cheers,

Ben Mason

Senior Tech, Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, UK.

Text for Channels on Faders

mdaszenies — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:20:47 GMT

Hi everyone,

I was wondering (and there is nothing about it in the manual nor in the forum...), whether it's possible to have the text from the channel database appear in the display of the fader wing, when you assign channels to faders.

Now the display just says "Kr321", but I'd like it to e.g. say "Kr321 FOH special"

Best,

Mario

Touch screen fade times

Gareth — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:16:10 GMT

We have set up our touch screen with colour groups on in our channel layout. If I trigger a colour group from my master wing I can prefix this with a number and get it to fade to the colour over that time. I can't get this to happen with the touch screen. It simply doesn't see the number inputed. We have an ELO screen and are on V6.0.1 software.

Is there something I can set up to do this or is this a software thing?

If it is software, can you arrange a fix ! ! !

Gareth

Backup - functional

Michał — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:43:39 GMT

Hi.

Now with a new softaware (6...:) we must use a backup. And we using... but backup in our theatre is not working. We have two consoles conect in network ( only cross cable) they see together. Serwer send PLAY to backup.

When we run a cue in SERWER PB, this same change is automaticly on backup but:

Backup dont see the maters changes

Backup have no signal on DMX output

Backup "put GO" when we use crossfader

What we doing wrong???

Clubspot 575

matts90 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:43:28 GMT

Hi,

Would someone be a star and help me by making a fixture template for an unbranded clubspot 575? I've attached the manual for it. I've had a go myself at creating a template - but I still haven't succeded with it yet!!

Thanks in advance
Matt

Selecting Multiple Groups

Ryote — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:56:49 GMT

At present i use my direct selects to store groups, palettes, focus palettes and beam palettes. What i want to know is, is there a way to select multiple selects like you would be able to do with files on a PC using a control button. So for instance i could grab my mac 600's and my robe 250AT's out of the together out of the select list rather than having to continually have to create different types of groups to create combinations. If this isn't possible would it be possible to have in a future release?

Many thanks

Andrew

Important Information about Congo v6.0.x Software

sclausen — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:27:38 GMT

Hello all –

Some of you have noticed that we have removed the links to the v6.0.2 software from the Web site. A number of sites have reported a rare crash and since then we have been working hard to reproduce and eliminate it from the software. This is what we call an “unhandled crash” which takes the console out of the Congo application and requires a hard reset to regain control of the lighting system.

We will soon release a version of software that eliminates the problem. In the meantime, we do not want sites updating to a version that may cause them trouble. If you are currently running v5.1 software, we recommend that you remain on that version.

If you are currently running v6.0.2 software, and you have not experienced any problems, it’s possible that you will continue to run without problems. However, the possibility does exist that you may encounter this crash. So, here are the options:

1) Continue running v6.0.2 software and keep an eye open for an announcement of the v6.0.3 software which will include a fix for this problem. At this moment I cannot say with certainty when this version will be released, however it is our top priority at the moment and progress is being made.

2) Downgrade to v5.1.0 software. Please note, if your show has been programmed in v6, the show file must be converted back to v5 compatibility. There are a number of features from v6 that are not supported in v5 – like Image Effects, extended preset numbers, higher resolution times, masters 41-80, and some others. If a show contains v6 preset numbers, the converter utility will renumber them and store them within a separate show file so that they can be imported back at valid v5 preset numbers of your choice. Downgrading the software will require uninstalling v6, installing v5.1 and then running a small utility to adjust some files on the hard disk.

ETC Technical Support personnel world-wide are prepared to help any customer with questions about this situation or with downgrading their system if desired. They will provide the required files on request and are available at the following numbers:

In the Americas, please call 608/831-4116, or toll-free in the U.S. at 800/688-4116.
In Europe, please call (+44) 20 8896 1000.
In Germany, please call (+49) 8024 4700-0.
In Asia, please call (+852) 2799 1220.

Please note that ETC provides emergency support on weekends and at times outside of normal business hours. In order to provide the best possible support to those who need it, if it’s possible to wait until our offices reopen on Monday to request files, please do so. In the meantime, we are working on a version of software that will fix this problem. If you are interested in becoming a beta site for this version, please send your contact details to me directly.

Thank you for your patience –

Sarah

Group list

Chuffer — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:20:14 GMT

Was it intentional that in v6.02 we have lost the ability to call up the group list by pressing the group key? It still works for presets. Now it changes the keypad to talk only groups - very galaxy (ish)

John

What software?

richard_cooper — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 18:17:47 GMT

I've got a Congo Jnr running on V6 (can't remember the exact version) and I need to update our client machine to work with it, but I cannot find any version of V6 on ETC's site. Has it been pulled for the moment, if so how do you downgrade to V5.1 which does seem to be available.

Or am I going completely blind and it's right in front of me?

Richard

Congo V6.02 crash

khillstrom — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:59:23 GMT

Had my congo crash the other day during a show. was in the middle of running up a fader that had a preset loaded on it and the program just hung with the hourglass and the console stopped outputting DMX, so my whole rig blacked out.

The OS didnt actually crash, just the Congo software. I was able to CTRL+ALT+DEL and restart the congo.exe file and get it back online, but that took a few mins.

This is ver 6.02 I had been having the issue with 6.0 with the excessive "hourglassing" and the console was lagging. I would change and intensity value and it would be reflected on the console, but it would take up to 2 secs sometimes to actually output that change.

updating to 6.02 seemed to fix this, but now I have had this crash.

I have emailed the log files into ETC.

Anyone else dealing with this?

Congo v6 - a note about changed logic for ML controls

Anders Ekvall — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:14:13 GMT

In v6, there is an important change in the way the ML controls work that might be worth pointing out.

In v6, all ML controls and the FCB buttons will control the focused view. In v5.x, they always controlled the lights in Live and you had to use the spreadsheet editor to change values in presets etc.

We have now allowed the ML controls to work directly in the Sequence List, Preset List etc. to simplify changes. But, this means that you have to be a lot more careful about which tab that is focused when you use the ML controls. Also, you have to make sure that the channels that you want to control are selected in the focused tab, otherwise you won't be able to control them.

Software Downgrade

mdaszenies — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:52:44 GMT

Hi and sorry to bother some of you again,

Some stupid prankster did a software update to V6 on our Congo Jr.

How can I re-install V5.1 on our console?

Thanks,

Mario

Congo V6.02 random value changes during preset playback

khillstrom — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 16:47:50 GMT

Hi guys,

I have been experiencing a problem with my Congo for some time now wherein I will have a preset loaded and sitting static and randomly the console will change values on all my different fixtures attributes.

The value changes will be the same for all fixtures of a certain type (ex. Revolutions gobo attribute will change to the same value, Rot speed will all change to same value ect...) This random jump in values does not appear to affect intensity, only attribute values.

Like I said, I have been having this problem at random for quite a long time (before ver 5.0). It seems to be totally random, it is not preset specific. I cannot find any way to trigger this. Every time it has occurred, my rig has been sitting in a static preset.

I am using Net2 to distribute my control, initially I thought that I was maybe getting some kind of random data spike, but then I noticed that the value changes are actually represented on the console, not just the fixtures, so the console is definitely outputting this incorrect data.

Crash Congo jr.

Michał — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 16:13:36 GMT

Hi.

I have crash system on imprtant event. It was yesterday.

Designer have pre-programed console and use only submasters on 2x20 wing. In one time there is ETC screen with crash info.

What can be a reason?

Can I use a PC ( congo offline) to have a backup?

V6.0.2

Update without Master content?

Ric — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:30:38 GMT

Hi Guys,
I've been trying to find the key commands to allow a Preset to be updated, withour it including the Master content.
I'm aware of the # Record + A key commands, but is there a corresponding one for update? (# Update + A doesnt do it).

Mute

Pedro Alves — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 11:56:12 GMT

Hi everyone

Normally I use the Mute key to block some of the masters with content cause sometimes I bring one up without see it and during a play thats not a good thing and after I discover the Mute never happen again.

At this moment we have 2 shows on the same venue (one at morning and other at night) and I use the Mute on the morning and after the play when I load the evening play the Mute key remains on but all the masters work normally. Why doesn't the light turns off when we load a new play?? I notice this with the V5.1 and also on the V6.02.

Pedro Alves

freze after scale in Ch LIST

Michał — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:43:44 GMT

Hi.

I have a problem with CH scale in Channel List.

When I scale some channels and freze the show; when I back to normal mode Congo scale anather time...

so I have CH - 20%, -20%. When I freze anather time and back to show I have CH - 20%, -20%, -20%.

It is OK?

Congo Crashing

Riggwalker — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:41:47 GMT

Has anyone else had problems with their Congo freezing since updating to version 6? Ours stops the output where it is and displays the Congo start up screens on the monitors. We lose control over any of the functions. The only way out is a restart.