Strategy for reduced level, some channels

[rawbengal]

I am setting up a fountain show in which qlcplus/DMX is being used to control several fountain pumps and LED lights. The value sent to the pump drives how high the water jets shoot. We need to create two shows...

1) the main show in which the lights and jets change and operate at what I will call full levels.
2) an identical version of the show in which ONLY the channels controlling the jets are reduced by some percentage. The purpose of this alternate show is to allow for the jets to operate at reduced levels in windy conditions.

I plan on having three GPIO switches (this will run on a RPi)... one to enable show #1, another for show #2 and a third to turn everything off. Ideally, switching between show #1 and show #2 would be seamless and simply change levels without restarting but... that isn't a requirement. Lastly, I *could* set it up so that the shows are triggered using OSC messages if that helps... perhaps I can send an OSC message to change a submaster?

Does the community here have any recommendations for how to structure this setup? Ideally I don't need to literally program two shows with different levels for the jets... Maybe somehow using a slider to reduce only the jets?

thanks!
Rob

[Baer]

Personally I would create 2 Scenes.
1 with the lights and one with the jets.

Then you can use 4 Buttons (Light, Jets full, Jets reduced, all off) or 2 Buttons (Lights, all off) and a slider (Jets level)

For the 4 Buttons solution: you can set an intensity adustment in the buttons propertes for the scene
For the slider solutions: use the slider as playback slider (should be possible to adjust the intensity percentual here)

[rawbengal]

Thanks for the suggestion! It doesn't seem to work.

Any method I use in the Virtual Console (eg: playback slider, sub-master or button with "Adjust Function Intensity") works fine with functions that have STATIC channel values.

However, if I use a function that has ANIMATING values, these methods do not work unless I move the slider in real time while the function is playing back. In other words, if I set the slider at 50%, it will make the change until the function moves to the next step, at which point, the result pops back as if the slider was at 100%... If I actively move the slider, while the function is animating, it works fine. This looks like a bug. Essentially, the intensity adjustment is ignored while the function is animating... only seen when the slider is adjusted.

Interestingly, the grand master fader on the left side of the VC works as expected.

This is kind of a show stopper for me in using this method. Any other suggestions? I would dig through the code but I'm really sure where to look since this seems like fairly idiosyncratic behavior.

Rob

[Baer]

Oh OK, i thought the intensity setting would be effect the whole function.
We need to ask someone whos more confident in qlcs behaviour to say if this is intended behaviour or a bug

[plugz]

However, if I use a function that has ANIMATING values, these methods do not work unless I move the slider in real time while the function is playing back. In other words, if I set the slider at 50%, it will make the change until the function moves to the next step, at which point, the result pops back as if the slider was at 100%... If I actively move the slider, while the function is animating, it works fine. This looks like a bug. Essentially, the intensity adjustment is ignored while the function is animating... only seen when the slider is adjusted.

I tried some combinations and didn't run into any issue. Which QLC+ version are you using ? Can you provide a sample workspace ?

[rawbengal]

Thanks for the reply...

I just tested with 4.10.5 on MacOS. Also didn't work on Windows, same version.

Attached is a test file. It looks like I was able to get it to work in some circumstances...

1) If I build a sequence by using the (red circle) clone button to clone/append scene settings to a chaser, it seems to work (press the "works dynamic" button in VC).

2) If I build a sequence by clicking '+' button (upper right) in chaser/sequence view and then adjusting parameter values, it doesn't work (press "doesn't work" button). When trying with SUBMASTER and PLAYBACK sliders be sure to set to a lower value and then release slider... observe in fixture monitor that values go back to 255. Wiggle slider and they pop back.

Honestly I've been getting a variety of odd behaviors when building sequences using technique #2, so, perhaps I am just doing it "wrong." This method seems to be preferable if only so that you don't create dozens of scenes just for each of the various steps in a chaser. Using technique #2 also doesn't work with submasters.

best,
Rob