Virtual dimmer

jacoporicci · Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:10 am

Hi Guys! This is my first post here and I'm so happy to join this community. I would also like to thank Massimo and every single person who has worked on this project that changed the way I program lights. I've abandoned a physical console to dedicate myself in testing this awesome software. I've a question for you guys: is there anyway to create a virtual dimmer for fixtures that doesn't have a dedicated dimmer channel? This thing would be very useful since I use a lot of DMX-RGB drivers for led strips that don't have a dedicated dimmer channel. This is very annoying because if I have to do a scene in which my strips are flashing, I have to do it for every single color that I want my led strip to be. I'm also open for workaround and for solutions that require a bit of work, I'm not here to have my problem solved without getting my hands dirty.

Thank you for all your work, have a nice day!

mcallegari · Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:13 pm

Hello, I'm afraid the feature your asking for is not there.

However, you can achieve it with the Virtual Console, by doing some kind of a "live-design" of the project.

Steps:
- Create a Frame
- add 2 Sliders to it
- set one slider in level mode and enable the RGB channels you want to control. Also enable the "RGB Click&Go" option
- set the other slider in submaster mode
- go to operate mode
- select the RGB color you want using the Click&Go button
- adjust the color level with the submaster
- dump the final result to a Scene (http://www.qlcplus.org/docs/dmxdump.html)

Hope it helps

janosvitok · Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:20 pm

If you want flashing:

1. create fixture group for all your RGB rgb strips
2. create rgb matrix for the group that flashes the strips (odd/even may be handy here if you use proper geometry for the group)
3. put animation widget on the virtual console
4. choose color as you wish

mcallegari · Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:27 pm

Actually, thinking about it, you don't probably even need the submaster slider.
I don't remember if a submaster controls also sliders in level mode (or if someone implemented it lately)

The Click&Go button + DMX Dump should be fast enough

jacoporicci · Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:07 pm

I will try these tips as soon as I can and I will report here. In the meanwhile, thank you for your prompt support!

Edit: I've tried both tips but I can't get what I want. I'll explain better... I work in the electronic dance music world where the live component of a light technician is very important since there's pretty anything preprogrammed and the strobe effects are like oxygen in this field. Recently we built up some sceneries filled up with rgb led strips dmx controlled via a dmx-rgb driver. The problem is that this driver doesn't have a dimmer (or shutter) dedicated channel. I have to be able to select a color and then Open, Close, Strobe the "shutter" as you would normally do on a moving head. For what I've seen fiddling around with the software this is impossible to do at the moment but it would be a nice feature to take in consideration. If you still have tips and tricks I'm open to try those.

Anyway, Grazie Massimo!

P.s.: It appears to me that this link is broken, just reporting!

http://www.qlcplus.org/downloads/4.8.4/QLC+_4.8.4.dmg

mcallegari · Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:07 pm

jacoporicci wrote:P.s.: It appears to me that this link is broken, just reporting!
http://www.qlcplus.org/downloads/4.8.4/QLC+_4.8.4.dmg

I fixed it. Thanks for reporting

jacoporicci · Tue May 05, 2015 7:46 am

Sorry annoying you guys but has anyone a solution for this? Any workaround?

Thank you

plugz · Tue May 05, 2015 2:21 pm

Hi,

I have to be able to select a color and then Open, Close, Strobe the "shutter" as you would normally do on a moving head.

What can't you do with an Animation widget with color controls ?

jacoporicci · Fri May 08, 2015 9:08 pm

Sorry I didn't get your question

plugz · Sat May 09, 2015 9:08 am

What is the limitation of the Animation widget ?
What do you want to do, that the widget cannot do ?

IDaninator · Sat May 09, 2015 1:55 pm

What he would need to use the Animation widget the way he wants to is a button that sets the intensity of the animation widget to 100%. A flash button for the widget.
Am I right?

If so: There is a workaround. Just use the loopback plugin as an input on the widget, this way you can flash the intensity by flashing the loopback channel.