Manual Control

Manual Control is exactly what it sounds like: you take over a controller's channels and drive them yourself, in real time, from your browser. Every change you make reaches the hardware right away.

It's the fastest way to verify wiring, test a sensor, troubleshoot a stuck show, or demonstrate the system to someone walking by.

Starting Manual Control

From a controller's Overview tab, click Start Manual Control. The button turns red and reads End Manual Control while the session is yours, and a Local Control Active badge appears next to the channel list. The button is disabled while the controller is locked.

Starting Manual Control stops whatever the controller was playing, show or ambient. Triggers that arrive during the session don't start shows; the controller is yours until you end it. The status LED blinks orange for as long as Manual Control is on, and every indicator light is switched on for the session even if you normally keep the lights off, so you can see what you're doing.

A wired Hard Stop won't work during Manual Control

While Manual Control is on, the controller ignores its own physical inputs, including one wired as a Stop, Safety Lock, or Hard Lock (emergency stop). Don't rely on a wired safety stop on a controller you're driving by hand. A stop or lock sent from a different controller, or latched from IgorBox Studio, still works. The same applies during Live Preview.

Driving channels

The channel list shows one row per channel. What you get depends on the channel type:

• Relay outputs (Output 8 MKII channels, Input 16 relays, the relays on an IgorBox DMX): a toggle switch. Flip it on or off.
• Dimmable outputs (LED Controller channels): a slider with 0%, 50%, and 100% marks.
• Color groups: LED Controller channels that are assigned to a color group appear under a Color Groups heading with one color control per group instead of separate sliders.
• DMX fixtures (IgorBox DMX): a card per patched fixture; see below.

Zero All, in the header of the channel list, turns unheld relays off, sets unheld dimmable channels to zero, and returns unheld DMX channels to their resting defaults. Inputs and held outputs are left alone.

note

A channel that a Logic Rule is holding is greyed out and can't be changed from Manual Control. Hover it to see which rule (or which other controller) has it, and reset that rule to release the channel.

For equipment that must stay on through shows, use Preparation. Release its hold from Overview → Preparation before trying to change that output by hand. You cannot turn on a Preparation control during Manual Control.

Testing inputs

You can watch a sensor on the controller's Overview tab without starting Manual Control. Its input row shows TRIGGERED or IDLE as the sensor changes.

On firmware 2.2.2, physical inputs do not start shows or run rules while their controller is in Manual Control, either on that controller or on other controllers. If you latch an input on or off in Studio during the session, that only changes its displayed state. It does not test the connected actions.

To test what a sensor would actually do:

1. Click End Manual Control.
2. On Overview, expand Direct Trigger.
3. Make sure everyone around the effects is ready, then click the input's play button.

Direct Trigger runs the input's connected shows and rules. To check the physical wiring too, press the real button or activate the sensor after ending Manual Control.

With the sensor's controller and receiving controllers on firmware 2.2.2, ending Manual Control does not fire shows just because a sensor changed during the session.

Check older controllers before testing

A controller on firmware 2.2.1 or older can still trigger other controllers when you latch an input in Manual Control. An older receiving controller can also fire when the source leaves Manual Control after an input changed. Update all controllers involved in the scene before relying on the behavior described above.

Finding a box or a channel

When several controllers share a cabinet, or you're staring at a bundle of wires wondering which output is which, Manual Control can make the hardware wave at you. These controls need firmware 2.2.0 or newer; on older firmware they don't appear.

• Identify Box: in the button row at the top of the Overview tab while Manual Control is active. Click it and every indicator light on that controller blinks (the status LED keeps showing its normal pattern) until you click Stop Identifying. Walk over to the rack and the blinking box is yours.
• Identify channel: a toggle on any channel that has a connector light. Turn it on and that channel's connector lights blink so you can trace its wiring. You can pick a different blink color to tell two channels apart; the color is only for the blink and isn't saved anywhere.

Both only work while Manual Control is on. Turning on Identify Box takes over any channel blinks you had going. Turning it off, or ending Manual Control, clears everything back to normal.

Driving DMX fixtures

On an IgorBox DMX in Standard or Buffer mode with at least one fixture patched, the Overview tab shows a DMX Fixtures panel with a card per patched fixture. Each card's controls follow the fixture's channel kinds:

• Dimmers and levels: percentage sliders. 16-bit channels show two decimals and move in finer steps.
• Color groups: a swatch and percentage in the card header, an inline color picker, an Off button, and an expandable row of per-component sliders.
• Pan/tilt: a 2D joystick pad, with an optional coarse and fine slider pair below it on 16-bit heads.
• Named states: a dropdown of the fixture's named ranges (gobos, programs, reset functions) with an Off entry at the top. Scrubbable ranges like strobe speed get a slider.

Each fixture card has an Off button, and Zero All in the channel list header covers the whole controller. Both return unheld DMX channels to their configured defaults rather than blindly to zero, so props with a home position park correctly.

In Buffer or Fixture mode, or in Standard mode with DMX input enabled, the Overview tab also shows a DMX In panel with the incoming signal. It's view-only and doesn't need a Manual Control session.

Ending Manual Control

Click End Manual Control. What happens next:

• Unheld DMX channels return to their configured resting defaults, and in Buffer mode the console's signal passes through again.
• Unheld relay and dimmable outputs stay where you left them until the ambient show or the next triggered show drives them. Use Zero All before you end the session if you want them off.
• The ambient routine starts again from the beginning, if one is set. A show that was playing when you started Manual Control doesn't resume.
• If the controller was busy downloading a show or an update when you ended the session, it stays locked (purple status LED) until that finishes.

Manual Control also ends when you close the browser tab. The controller's own front button doesn't end it; like every other physical input, the button is ignored while you have control.

If the controller loses contact with IgorBox Studio, because your network dropped or you walked out of WiFi range, Manual Control ends on its own within about a minute. A session you forget about can't hold a controller forever.

Sharing a controller with your team

Only one person drives a controller at a time. If someone else already has Manual Control, the Overview tab tells you ("Another user is controlling this") and offers two choices:

• Take Over moves control to you. The other person's tab becomes an observer.
• Stop Manual Control ends the session for everyone. IgorBox Studio asks you to confirm when the session belongs to someone else.

If it's your own session in another tab, the note reads "You're controlling this in another tab" and the button is Move Control Here.

Manual Control vs. Live Preview

Manual Control and Live Preview both drive a controller in real time, but they're different tools:

• Manual Control drives channels directly from switches and sliders. No timeline. For wiring tests, demos, troubleshooting.
• Live Preview plays a show from the timeline editor on real hardware. For authoring shows.

They can't run at the same time, and the status LED blinks orange for both:

• While a Live Preview is running, the controller page says so and offers Stop Live Preview instead of Start Manual Control. Stop it first, then start Manual Control.
• Starting a Live Preview while someone holds Manual Control makes the show editor warn you that the controller is in manual control. Confirm with Take over & preview and their session ends.

Permissions

Manual Control needs permission to control your controllers: editors, admins, and owners have it. Viewers see the channel states but get no controls. Set roles under Settings → Members.