Moncha 2.5.2 - Struggling a little with text timing.

[GuyMark]

Hello.

I purchased a laser recently which came with "Ishow" and even before I found this forum, I had already decided it was beyond ghastly. I am sure it must work somehow but half of the time the screen didn't even display properly. So I went hunting.

I don't object to spending a little money on software but I am only after "simple and quick" at the moment - and at first glance Moncha seems to be a fair compromise.

The part I am struggling with is the timing of scrolling text.

For example, if I load Moncha, then select “4-Running” sample text – it works perfectly in the window to the left. If I then drag that down to the laser trace bar and click play in the trace bar, I only get to see a fraction of the animation before it "times out".

If I set the scene time at 0 and 1 (default value), the animation runs at the right speed BUT only displays the first few letters before running out of time, If I increase the scene time from 0 + 1 to perhaps 0 + 6 to let the whole thing scroll, it goes VERY fast and still only takes a second.

If someone could please just talk me though how to do this one example working (using the "4-running" sample text") I am fairly sure I can figure out the rest - at the moment though it seems almost as though the scene timer is not how many seconds it is allowed to run - but how many second of animation it must cram into 1 second of display time.

Thank you.

Mark

[JohnYayas]

Maybe you can set the speed in the cue. I have Moncha but I don't use it enough to know. Also, why 2.5.2? That's an outdated version.

[GuyMark]

Maybe you can set the speed in the cue. I have Moncha but I don't use it enough to know. Also, why 2.5.2? That's an outdated version.

Hi.

Yes you're right, there is a newer version but the one I have is (I think) the only free version and although I don't mind spending a little to buy a newer version, I thought I would see if I could make sense of driving it first.

When i load it up, it helpfully tells me there is a newer version, but when I click the link, it takes me to a page where I can buy other versions instead.

If I can just find a way to make the text work I think I can suss the rest out myself but at the moment, no matter how I set the speed it works GREAT if I just click the effect (all my changes - colour,speed,size) take effect but the moment I drag it down to the laser-timeline all the timing seems to be ignored. I know I am doing something wrong but when I asked a friend if he could have a go - he too ended up with the same problem.

Thank you for the reply - and I will keep on trying different ways to try and make it work.

[JohnYayas]

Hi.

Yes you're right, there is a newer version but the one I have is (I think) the only free version and although I don't mind spending a little to buy a newer version, I thought I would see if I could make sense of driving it first.

When i load it up, it helpfully tells me there is a newer version, but when I click the link, it takes me to a page where I can buy other versions instead.

If I can just find a way to make the text work I think I can suss the rest out myself but at the moment, no matter how I set the speed it works GREAT if I just click the effect (all my changes - colour,speed,size) take effect but the moment I drag it down to the laser-timeline all the timing seems to be ignored. I know I am doing something wrong but when I asked a friend if he could have a go - he too ended up with the same problem.

Thank you for the reply - and I will keep on trying different ways to try and make it work.

Free version? Do you mean the demo version? Which DAC do you have?

[GuyMark]

I have one which was made many years ago for the "Alphalite" system by an enthusiast but the unit I am using it with is a 1500mW laser with the ability to read .ilda shows.
As such I am not wanting to use the software to DRIVE the laser, just to help me compile .ilda shows which the laser unit itself (has own ilda "player only" installed).

The version I found 2.5.2 came up as free - and there is (at least as far as I can see), no mention of the fact that it is a demo. I fully accept it may well be - but it does not say so when it loads up. I just checked and clicked the "About" box and there is no reference to it being a demo.

I might be wrong but it was my understanding that this version was free and that newer versions were available in three types - lite, pro and the even whizzier .net version. And also a trial version too. But all of those were of the new Version 4.x software - and nothing to do with the Version 2.5.2 product.

As I say, I may be wrong, but that was the impression I had - and also it seemed to be confirmed when I visited their site here http://www.showtacle.com/products/moncha Nothing about the old version and all about series 4 - whichever version you want.

Not sure if that helps too much but I *think* my version albeit older is a "working system" (save etc works) I am just having a real problem is getting text timing to work properly.

[JohnYayas]

Interesting. I think you might be wasting your time. Moncha only works with its own DAC and it does not have a way to export to ILDA files.

[GuyMark]

Oh! Groan!

Well that at least means I needn't spend more time trying to work out how to solve the text problem I guess

Thank you, it was a bit confusing as it reckoned it has "export to SD-ILDA" which I thought meant if I ever managed to make a show, it would let me dump it on an SD card as an ilda file. Ah well. I cannot bring myself to try and learn Ishow, I will see what else I can find that is fairly "simple to learn the basics".

Thank you again.
Mark

[JohnYayas]

I didn't come here to try to sell you something but my software is low cost and will export to ILDA files. There is a demo version you can try out: www.hingednewt.com

[norty303]

The moncha.net DAC has an SD card slot. I suspect that what you are seeing is the facility to export to the moncha DAC card, probably over the cat5 connection.

[GuyMark]

Ah yes, that would make sense I guess - but it was confusing of them to call it SD-ilda".

It's a great shame as if it had been able to export ilda and I could have worked out the timing issue, it was something where everything else looked simple enough for a noob like me to play with and had a LOT of stock images to play with. I liked the fact that, it was less than five minutes to have custom text with some good scrolling effects, suitable animations "ready to test". Having looked at a few other programs, it seems there is no "quick and dirty" mode. It's either a "half evening job" or forget it. the Moncha things seemed to be "Good to go in five minutes" - which meant you could even stick a fun / daft / silly comment up "on demand" at a friend's party if you had a notebook with you.

I guess if I was a laser professional that was going to spend weeks composing light shows to music tracks etc, any of the amazing packages would be awesome, I just wanted to get "one step up" from the lasers that come with a keyboard and offer a VERY basic solution. They are ok, I just wanted a little more flexibility without two orders or magnitude more complexity.

I will keep looking