I was excited to see in the list of new features for 3.5.2 an update to the MOCO support.
This is something I have tried to use in the past but with very erratic results. The new release seems a little more reliable and I can get it to control the NMX controller(which is at firmware build 40).
However the "current" position value is often reported incorrectly. In the MOCO dialog this is just confusing and I can set the start and end positions and have the motors run as I wish.
In the IC panel (which is what I really want to use) the incorrect reporting of the current position means that the control of the motor generally does not work.
I have two NMX controllers and three motors and all combinations show the same error. The current position is reliably reported by the Dynamic Perceptions app so I don't believe that the problem is in the NMX firmware.
To give you an example:
In the MOCO dialog let's try to do a simple pan of a single motor. No ramp/lead/in/out and a linear change.
Use the joystick control to move to the start position and then the left hand icon in the PAN dialog section to set the start position (let's say the value is 5000), then use the joystick control to move to the end position and use the right hand icon to set the end position (let's say that the value is 45000). Use the "return to start icon" to move the motor to the start. The value of "current" will be correctly 5000.
Now set a value for the duration (let's say just 2 mins for this test) and start the sequence. The value of current will immediately jump to some (apparently random) value which may be more or less than 45000 and then this value will increment. If it chose to jump to a value less than 45000 then it will increment to 45000 within 2 minutes and the camera will be at the correct end position (45000) after 2 minutes. So the desired move happened.
If the initial "jump" was to a value higher than 45000 then the current position will simply increment and stop after 2 mins. The camera will be in the end position.
If I then return to start, the value for the current position will show 5000. On re-starting the run, the current value will immediately jump to the same "random" value as before and the process will repeat.
So knowing this, I can use the MOCO dialog however my aim is to use the IC dialog (and to combine it with the LRTimelapse dialog). I can and do use the interval curve but want to control the NMX. Here the value for the current position is critical. If the reported value is not as expected then the motors will not move. Often I see that the reported "current position" is 1.
The IC panel to ramp the interval is particularly useful for sunsets (shorter interval for the actual sunset and increasing to 25 seconds once it has become dark). I would love to combine that with the control of the NMX.
Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?
Jeremy