Owner manual

Protocol Translator
Note: For reliable operation, groups of 16 or more actions sharing a common trigger should be broken into groups of
15 or fewer actions, each with a separate trigger.
INITIALIZING LECNET DEVICES
Some LecNet devices require initialization before the normal action mappings will function. A good example of this is
the Remote Levels On function of the AM8 mixer. This action must be sent once before any mute, unmute and
volume settings will work. Lectrosonics recommends assigning a single pulsed AXlink channel or a single MIDI note
or program change as the trigger for all once-only initialization of LecNet devices. That way a single AXlink or MIDI
command can accomplish the entire LecNet initialization. (See “Multiple Actions from a Single Trigger”, above, if your
initialization includes more than 15 actions.)
FASTER SETUP
For setups requiring a great many translations, you may find it helpful to keep the Edit LecNet Action Map Entry
window displayed continuously during data entry. Clicking Apply will commit your changes to the current entry
without dismissing the window. You can click New in the LecNet Action Map frame one or more times to create new
translation entries. Each new entry has the same contents as the entry that was previously selected, except that the
ID is automatically incremented. This is ideal for creating long sequences of similar translations. The same technique
may be used when creating new monitor map entries.
Other time-savers include double-clicking an action map entry to edit it, and pressing F1 for context-sensitive help
almost any time.
ACTION AND MONITOR FILES
The actions and monitors shown in the Actions Master List and Monitors Master List are stored in ordinary text files.
Lectrosonics-supplied actions and monitors are stored in actions.ini and monitors.ini respectively. These files may
be downloaded from Lectrosonics’s web site and replaced at any time, to make the most recent and most extensive
set of actions and monitors available. The most recent files may be downloaded from http://
www.lectrosonics.com/dl/downsoft.htm
User-supplied actions and monitors are stored in actuser.ini and monuser.ini, in the same text format. If you use
your own actions and monitors, you will want to copy your actuser.ini and monuser.ini files to any computers used to
set up or examine the PT3. If you wish to change the order in which your user-defined actions or monitors are
presented by the PT3 software, the lines in actuser.ini and monuser.ini may be reordered with an ordinary text
editor (e.g. notepad). A sequence number at the beginning of each line enables the PT3 software to locate the proper
actions and monitors regardless of their order in the text files.
HOW VALUES WORK
The PT3 has the ability to scale numerical data in such a way that an action or monitor can be designed to “do the
right thing” regardless of what the underlying LecNet device actually requires. A good example of this is the volume
settings on the AM8 mixer. A setting of 0 selects full volume, and larger numbers select greater and greater amounts
of attenuation. A value of 31 selects the minimum volume (muted). By building the maximum value of 31 and inver-
sion requirement into the action, a standard full-scale (0 to 255) volume control can be created. It is hoped that the
user can regard such actions as “magic” and get the desired results by merely using them intuitively. A complete
explanation is included here for users wanting to fully understand PT3 operation, and users desiring to create new
actions and monitors.
Every trigger event has associated with it a numerical value. Once received, this value is “normalized” to the range of
0 to 255. Here is a list of trigger types and how they are normalized.
Trigger Type Value Received How Normalized
MIDI controller 0-127 mult. by 2 (0-254)
MIDI program none value of 255 used
MIDI note 1-127 (velocity) mult. by 2 (2-254)
AXlink channel off or on 0 or 255
AXlink level 0-255 left alone
AXlink pulse none value of 255 used
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Rio Rancho, NM – USA