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Electronic Theatre Controls Inc

Why Am I Seeing "Patch Limit Exceeded" On An Eos Family Console?

Symptoms

When I try and control my fixtures in Live, I get the error message "Patch Limit Exceeded." It tells me I won't be able to output certain channels.

Explanation of Issue

All Eos Family consoles and ETCnomad USB dongles have a preset limit of addresses that they are able to output to. To determine what your address limit is, go into Live, and press the "About" key. Look for the "System Count" number. This is the amount of addresses your console can output to.

If you patch more addresses than your console is capable of outputting to, it will result in the "Patch Limit Exceeded" error described above. The console will automatically disable output of any channels that contain addresses above the limit.

The console starts counting addresses at Channel 1 and continues up in channel number until the limited number of addresses is reached. It will not output channels above that channel number.

For example:  
My console has a 512 address limit.  I patch 180 RGB fixtures starting at channel 1.  This is 540 addresses.  My console will stop outputting at channel 171 and up, regardless of if channel 1 is address 538-540 or 1-3.    The console is counting the number of addresses starting at the lowest numbered channel and going up by channel until the address count is reached.

Solution

The first option is to unpatch some of your fixtures.

  1. Go to Patch.
  2. Select the channel(s) of the fixture(s) you want to unpatch.
  3. Type "At Enter" and type Enter again to confirm.
    1. For example, [Chan 1 At Enter Enter]
  4. This will remove the addresses from that channel, but leave the Type the same.

The other option is to purchase an upgrade code from your ETC dealer that will unlock additional outputs on your console or ETCnomad dongle. This code can be entered in the Settings of the console, and instantly unlocks the additional addresses for you to output to.