HI- I am absolutely new to DMX and to QLC.
Using QLC on a Mac (High Sierra 10.13.6), connected to a Philips Selecon PL1 RGBW LED fixture via a USB to DMX dongle.
I have used the PL1 fixture from the QLC library of fixtures, and have also used the 'wizard' to create many 'Presets solo frame' buttons for individual preset colours, a slider 'GM', and a 'Colour macros chaser'. From what the wizard had created, it *seems* like it mainly used one channel on teh fixture - the channel that uses DMS 0-255 values to load a preset colour balance.
The single-colour buttons in the 'Presets solo frame' area all work as expected - click them and the light makes that colour. Talk about a cheap thrill, but for my very first time controlling alight with DMX I was pretty stoked!
But... The macro is really baffling me.
The 'Colour macros chaser' *seems* to use the 'Presets solo frame' items inside of it. Also, the 'Colour macros chaser' has values for 'Fade IN' and 'Fade Out', both set to 1s.
Running the macro does not have results that I expected, in two ways:
1) When changing between colours it is behaving as if a slider must physically travel between positions. So when the macro steps from 'pink' (DMX 68 - 71) to 'blue' (DMX 56 - 59) it must pass through the values for 'light pink' and 'green' to get there. This causes a rapid colour sequence as the values transition across other values. I don't understand why this is the behaviour -because I thought QLC would simply IMMEDIATELY CHANGE the value being sent rather than 'slide to a value'.
Eg signal seems as if it should be sending DMX ...69,69,69,69,57,57,57,57... at a colour change, but it behaves as if it is sending DMX ...69,69,69,66,62,57,57,57,57...
Any help understanding why this is the case would be awesome - as I want it to just CHANGE colours not SLIDE TO another colour.
2) There isn't any fade at all. The light just changes colour, no fade in brightness or any fade between colours. So I am not understanding what the fade value is controlling in the 'Colour macros chaser' editor. I'm only guessing, but maybe it's that the 'fade' behaviour is not actually tied to the 'Intensity' channels for the light? Any input on what those 'fade' settings are actually controlling would be helpful.
Thanks for helping a noob figure it all out!
Help understanding macro behaviour when changing values sent
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edogawa
- Posts: 631
- Joined: Thu May 07, 2015 10:34 am
- Real Name: Edgar Aichinger
Hi, and welcome to the sometimes strange world of LED fixtures and QLC+
To me the behaviour you describe seems just to be expected.
I do not have access to this device, but i've tried and added one for each of its modes (16bit, 8 bit and 5 channels) to a fresh empty workspace and let the wizard create the macro widgets (works only for 16 and 8 bit modes, as 5 channel mode lacks the macro channel).
As I can see, the predefined colour buttons of the solo frame, the chaser and the click&go fader/button all access the same functions/scenes which the wizard created from the "colour preselection macro" channel, which only has preset colour zones and hard switches between them, much like a traditional scroller. So the fade times in the chaser cannot in any way fade smoothly from one of these presets to another, because the fade just travels the dmx values of this channel, which uses hard stepping. Just try and move the corresponding fader in the simple workspace. No matter how slow you move it, it will never fade from one colour to the next...
To achieve what you are looking for, you would have to work directly on the rgbw colour channels, manually create scenes with your desired colour mixes, build a chaser that consists of these, and add a cuelist in the virtual console (or replace the chaser your generated one refers to) to fade between these. Basically, recreate what the wizard did, but work directly on the rgbw channels. It may take a while to understand how these "building blocks" interact or depend on each other but it's not all too hard.
On a side note, be aware that at this time QLC can use 16 bit control only for Pan and Tilt in moving lights, regrettably not for dimming or colour mixing, but I think this is in the queue for QLC5.
I hope I've made sense.
Cheers,
Edgar
To me the behaviour you describe seems just to be expected.
I do not have access to this device, but i've tried and added one for each of its modes (16bit, 8 bit and 5 channels) to a fresh empty workspace and let the wizard create the macro widgets (works only for 16 and 8 bit modes, as 5 channel mode lacks the macro channel).
As I can see, the predefined colour buttons of the solo frame, the chaser and the click&go fader/button all access the same functions/scenes which the wizard created from the "colour preselection macro" channel, which only has preset colour zones and hard switches between them, much like a traditional scroller. So the fade times in the chaser cannot in any way fade smoothly from one of these presets to another, because the fade just travels the dmx values of this channel, which uses hard stepping. Just try and move the corresponding fader in the simple workspace. No matter how slow you move it, it will never fade from one colour to the next...
To achieve what you are looking for, you would have to work directly on the rgbw colour channels, manually create scenes with your desired colour mixes, build a chaser that consists of these, and add a cuelist in the virtual console (or replace the chaser your generated one refers to) to fade between these. Basically, recreate what the wizard did, but work directly on the rgbw channels. It may take a while to understand how these "building blocks" interact or depend on each other but it's not all too hard.
On a side note, be aware that at this time QLC can use 16 bit control only for Pan and Tilt in moving lights, regrettably not for dimming or colour mixing, but I think this is in the queue for QLC5.
I hope I've made sense.
Cheers,
Edgar