Hi, bit of an odd situation, but I'm trying to setup something for our non-techy volunteers. Basically, I want to link QLC+ with RenewedVision's ProPresenter. For now, all you need to know about ProPresenter is that I can make it send a MIDI note to QLC+ when a slide is chosen, and in this case, it's a background slide which is clicked before every song.
I've already got ProPresenter talking to QLC, and clicking a button in a solo frame that changes our LED bars to match the video background on our screens. The problem comes up when someone clicks a background twice. Basically, clicking a background a second time disables the button, and makes our back wall go totally dark. This is an extremely jarring effect, and would totally disrupt our service if one of our generous non-techy volunteers did a totally normal thing.
The solo frame already handles disabling the scene, and I never want our back wall to be dark, so is there a way I can change MIDI behaviour to never deactivate a button, and only to activate it? Alternatively, I've looked into ways to setup the solo frame so that one function must always be active within it, but both avenues have turned up no results for me. So I bring my dilemma to you experts here!
Activate Button on MIDI, but never deactivate
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etchonmind
- Posts: 22
- Joined: Sat Jan 18, 2020 12:12 am
- Real Name: Oliver Keller
From the top of my head:
(This is not ideal, but still better than black)
Use two frames: One standard, one solo.
In the standard frame, use a button to toggle a scene that you can accept as a default setting.
In the solo frame, put all the color scenes you want on the various buttons, just as you described.
What should happen: Switch the default scene on in the standard frame.
Override that scene via the solo buttons. If someone fatfingers the solo frame and makes all scenes in there inactive, QLC+ should return to the scene you still have active from the standard frame.
If you want to have multiple default screens, say a few brightness levels or colors, just add buttons to the standard frame.
I´m sure there is other solutions, so let´s see what other people come up with.
(This is not ideal, but still better than black)
Use two frames: One standard, one solo.
In the standard frame, use a button to toggle a scene that you can accept as a default setting.
In the solo frame, put all the color scenes you want on the various buttons, just as you described.
What should happen: Switch the default scene on in the standard frame.
Override that scene via the solo buttons. If someone fatfingers the solo frame and makes all scenes in there inactive, QLC+ should return to the scene you still have active from the standard frame.
If you want to have multiple default screens, say a few brightness levels or colors, just add buttons to the standard frame.
I´m sure there is other solutions, so let´s see what other people come up with.
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Hazzardous13
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:34 pm
- Real Name: Nathan Hazzard
Ah, I was excited to try this, and set up a button with all my defaults straight away, but what ended up happening is that with the default always being active, it would override any lower values in my other scenes.
A real shame though, I thought this was totally going to work for me for about an hour!
A real shame though, I thought this was totally going to work for me for about an hour!
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Hazzardous13
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:34 pm
- Real Name: Nathan Hazzard
For reference, since I'm really relying on a solution to this I'll add something else I tried. I attempted adding 2 MIDI notes to a single slide, that trigger 2 buttons in the solo frame, in hopes that I could trick the slide into rapidly blacking out the lights, and then enabling the function again during the fade out time.... No such luck, this approach didn't change the behaviour in qlc+, maybe if I could force an artificial delay in ProPresenter? But I don't believe I have that option.
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GGGss
- Posts: 3052
- Joined: Mon Sep 12, 2016 7:15 pm
- Location: Belgium
- Real Name: Fredje Gallon
If you want to filter inputs you will have to create a frame-mechanism...
if the background click is given, this command is bound to a button in it's frame.
This starts a sequence and the first step is to disable that frame (so no new triggers get caught)
and now the rest of your plot can go.
now...
When a new slide or theme comes up - the frame should be enabled again (ready for new triggers)
Every element with it's content should be treated alike.
(I hear you say - but that is a bunch of frames and commands ... yes it is)
Through the use of a loopback channel you can en-/disable the frame from within a sequence started in that frame.
if the background click is given, this command is bound to a button in it's frame.
This starts a sequence and the first step is to disable that frame (so no new triggers get caught)
and now the rest of your plot can go.
now...
When a new slide or theme comes up - the frame should be enabled again (ready for new triggers)
Every element with it's content should be treated alike.
(I hear you say - but that is a bunch of frames and commands ... yes it is)
Through the use of a loopback channel you can en-/disable the frame from within a sequence started in that frame.
All electric machines work on smoke... when the smoke escapes... they don't work anymore
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Hazzardous13
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:34 pm
- Real Name: Nathan Hazzard
Ok, this took me FOREVER, but I finally managed to find a way to implement your solution (a frame mechanism)..... QLC really didn't want to cooperate for me at any point.
Basically what I've done, is wrap each button in the solo frame within a frame. Each frame listens to a dimmer on another loopback universe for enable/disable. I then added the respective dimmer to each scene. Now I THOUGHT that would make things easy.... But the frame enable/disable only listens to pulses, rather than checking the value of a signal, and even then, it only listens to values with an intensity greater than zero. This caused the button to properly disable the frame, but then disabling the function wouldn't re-enable the frame.
I was able to circumnavigate this by changing the dimmer channel modifier to "Preheat 5 Percent". By setting this, disabling the function would set the dimmer channel to another non-zero value, and the frame would interpret this as a toggle and re-enable.
The final danger to this approach is that the frame interprets this channel as an external controller, and as such, the frame can be toggled even when not in design mode, such as when previewing and setting up these scenes. This can cause frames to be out of sync, and disabled when starting QLC. To circumnavigate this, visit Simple Desk, go to your universe, and set 2 values on the dimmer that's causing problems, then disable the fader on simple desk. This will send 3 pulses to the frame, ultimately re-enabling the frame by default. Yikes!
This is a huge pain to setup on all of my scenes, but ultimately worthwhile for us to error-proof ProPresenter.
Basically what I've done, is wrap each button in the solo frame within a frame. Each frame listens to a dimmer on another loopback universe for enable/disable. I then added the respective dimmer to each scene. Now I THOUGHT that would make things easy.... But the frame enable/disable only listens to pulses, rather than checking the value of a signal, and even then, it only listens to values with an intensity greater than zero. This caused the button to properly disable the frame, but then disabling the function wouldn't re-enable the frame.
I was able to circumnavigate this by changing the dimmer channel modifier to "Preheat 5 Percent". By setting this, disabling the function would set the dimmer channel to another non-zero value, and the frame would interpret this as a toggle and re-enable.
The final danger to this approach is that the frame interprets this channel as an external controller, and as such, the frame can be toggled even when not in design mode, such as when previewing and setting up these scenes. This can cause frames to be out of sync, and disabled when starting QLC. To circumnavigate this, visit Simple Desk, go to your universe, and set 2 values on the dimmer that's causing problems, then disable the fader on simple desk. This will send 3 pulses to the frame, ultimately re-enabling the frame by default. Yikes!
This is a huge pain to setup on all of my scenes, but ultimately worthwhile for us to error-proof ProPresenter.
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the5thmaasen
- Posts: 4
- Joined: Tue Oct 25, 2022 8:04 pm
- Real Name: Michael Maasen
I am currently trying to do the same thing with ProPresenter... My volunteers keep accidentally turning off all the lights by pressing things twice. I thought they'd eventually learn not to, but it has been years now...
In theory, using Sliders for the functions instead of Buttons inside of a Solo Frame should also accomplish this, but it doesn't seem to work EXCLUSIVELY when controlled via MIDI.
I'm not going to lie, I didn't really understand everything you said about your actual solution. Would you mind uploading a rough video of you explaining it?
In theory, using Sliders for the functions instead of Buttons inside of a Solo Frame should also accomplish this, but it doesn't seem to work EXCLUSIVELY when controlled via MIDI.
I'm not going to lie, I didn't really understand everything you said about your actual solution. Would you mind uploading a rough video of you explaining it?