QLC 4.11.1 ADJ Tribar spot RGB matrix (behavior dim channel)

[dpeete0]

Hello QLC-team,

First of all "All the best for 2018 .......!"
and thanks again to share this great QLC+ project!

I made a small "test setting" concerning ADJ Tribar spot fixture which I would like to use in a project.
I experienced a strange behavior of the dimchannel when using the RGB matrix.
In attachment you will find my test setting.

The behavior can be checked in the fixture monitor or simple desk

OS: Windows10

Best regards,

Dirk

[nedmech]

I ran into this today on my setups as well (Windows 10, Linux Mint 18.2 KDE, both running QLC+ Version 4.11.1). This seems to be an issue with multi-head fixtures with RGB Matrices in Version 4.11+ in general. I've attached my own file to demonstrate this issue as well.

The "Dimmer control" checkbox in the RGB Matrix settings seems to only apply to the master dimmer channel for the fixture when intensity channels for a specific head are non-zero. Otherwise, if that specific head's intensity values are all zero, the master dimmer channel for the entire fixture goes to zero as well regardless of what the other heads are doing. It always seems to be tied to the last head.

The dimmer control functionality was working correctly prior to Version 4.11.0 (I tested 4.10.1 and 4.10.5b). The fixture's master dimmer channel would always be 255 if ANY head's intensity values were non-zero.

[mcallegari]

Sorry guys but I can't seem to understand the issue.
Can you please explain what I should see in your sample workspaces and how to see it ?
Basically drive me through it and tell me what is the behavior you are expecting.
Thanks

[dpeete0]

mcallegari,

The behavior I should expect, in Nedmech's example, is that dimmerchannels , in the 3 examples, should be zero at all time.
In the examples the dimmerchannel goes up and down unwanted.

Clear now?

best regards,

Dirk

Sorry, writting in English is not what I do every day

[janosvitok]

https://github.com/mcallegari/qlcplus/issues/991
viewtopic.php?f=21&t=11367

TL;DR: don't use dimmer control

[nedmech]

The behavior I should expect, in Nedmech's example, is that dimmerchannels , in the 3 examples, should be zero at all time.
In the examples the dimmerchannel goes up and down unwanted.

Not quite what I was trying to show. Actually, I was expecting the opposite of what you described.

What I expected:

• Turn on the RGB Matrix
• DMX channels for each head should change per the matrix design.
• DMX channel for the main dimmer control for the fixture should be 100% if ANY of the heads are active (or even if the matrix is running would be an acceptable behaviour).

What I observe:

• Turn on the RGB Matrix
• DMX channels for each head change correctly per the matrix design.
• DMX channel for main dimmer remains at ZERO until the last head in the fixture has a non-zero value.

From reading the topic that janosvitok linked to, it sounds like this is already a known issue. Although I would lobby for keeping the DImmer Control checkbox option. My rationale is that without it, I would have to create multiple functions to run matrixes when I have fixtures that have a master dimmer channel. If all I have are simple 3-channel fixtures, or multi-head units that actually light up with only 3 channels of data, then it's not really an issue. But some of my fixtures require a master dimmer channel to be active before they will output light on any heads. If I can't have the matrix control this, then I have to make additional scenes or faders to turn on the master dimmers before the fixtures are usable in a matrix. If the Dimmer Control checkbox worked as intended, I would only need the matrix function to accomplish full control.

For my usage, I have to deal with volunteer operators, so keeping it as simple as possible is highly preferred. I can imagine having the same conversation multiple times:
Volunteer: "Why won't my ____ matrix turn on those heads?"
Me: "Have you created a second function to turn on the master dimmer for that fixture?"
Volunteer: "Huh? Why would I have to do that?"