DMX and Model Building

[Bridger]

Greetings

I wanted to ask you if you could help me with a very special use case for QLC+ and DMX.

I would love to use it to light large scale model kits. Those kits have a size in general from 1 meter too much bigger.

I am using this board to control my LED's and so far it works fine however since I am new to QLC and this is not the typical fixture maybe someone would be so nice to help me setting this up.

Most models are set in the Science Fiction Realm but there are also Historical/Modern Era Models

It is planned to run this later on a Raspberry Pi 4 8GB Ram.

This is the LED-Controller I am currently using:



Effects that i would need to have are:
Static Lights
Static RGB Lights
Flashing Lights
Flashing RGB Lights
Powering UP/Down Effects
Pulsing Engines
Pulsing RGB Engines

Thanks in advance for your help

[edogawa]

I've used and still use similar LED controllers, although built into a metal case and 24 channels each.

My biggest setup with these so far included 5 of these 24ch controllers, to drive almost 40 RGB strips of 1 m length, individually. They were built into a stage set to form a set of 7 squares in the back of the stage and 7 - 8 vertical lines each side of the stage. Most of the time some subset of them would just show a specific colour, but in certain moments they also had wild effects running.

In QLC in my experience the easiest way to build these effects was to add them as generic RGB fixture. These have no capabilities apart from 3 intensity channels for R,G,B, so there's no easy or automatic way to make them change colour, fade, strobe etc., and the function wizard cannot generate anything for them.

So I created several fixture groups, used RGB matrix functions to create some running light effects and colour changes. I had about a month to experimet and come up with a virtual console that let me start these RGB Matrices and also control them directly in groups or all of them.

To control all this I had 3 Korg nanoKontrol2 and a Behringer BCF2000, in my situation this was crucial to have, to speed up programming during light rehearsals. The NK2 and BCF2k widgets reflect most of the physical layout of these controllers, and I've collapsed and layered them in the showfile so they don't fill up all the screen, and don't get covered by other stuff when expanded. Another frame collects some buttons for the sequences, and speed dials to control their timing.

When building the theater cuelist, I found out that RGB Matrices don't play correctly from inside a chaser, but one can generate sequences from the matrices and use these instead, partially as part of a collection to also change stage lighting in that same chaser step.

This project was a quite an adventure, and I had a frustrating time and heated discussion here, but everything worked out great in the end. I even drove the strips by audio levels for one scene. This should work much better now than back then, as the audiotrigger input code has been revised and fixed since then.

I append my workspace file so you hopefully can make sense of any of my strategies, but it might be hard, as it's a quite complex workspace and all group, function and widget names are in german. Anyway, all the LED controllers are on universe 1 in my show, all the stage lights, power switches, smoke machine etc. on universe 2.

Hope this helps!

[Bridger]

I've used and still use similar LED controllers, although built into a metal case and 24 channels each.

Hope this helps!

Thank you, the german names won't be a problem since I am from Austria

[GGGss]

and welcome to the forum.
In addition to what edogawa already told you, I'd suggest you create a fixture profile for the interface.
Why? Well, after creating a profile, including the heads, you can start pre-viz in the 2D world. If you arrange your fixtures somehow close to reality, you could start playing around with function, chasers, RGB matrixes, ... It helps the creative phase of your project.
What you will find as a handicap later on, is that this interface does not have a general dimming channel nor a dimming channel per output. This is a handicap (you cannot set individual intensities).
A Virtual Dimmer would be a super welcome feature but QLC+ doesn't provide one.

Now since you are new to QLC+, I'd suggest you start with a small virtual stage (animal farm). On 1 interface, attach some temporary leds and start playing (and harvesting ideas) and get stuck because you want this and can't find a solution. This is where this forum is for. Ask questions
With your wired hardware setup, watch the instructional videos and try out all QLC+'s functions. It is a steep learning curve for beginners.

Oh what the heck ... I'm building you the fixture profile for the interface. It will help you get on. A graceful beer I'll get elsewhere

Attached you'll find the custom 'John Do' fixture and a little QLC+ project showing you some samples.
EnJoY

PS: fixture profile has to be placed inside your user/QLC+/fixtures directory (and restart QLC+)
[edit]PPS: I did not inlcude any VC environment. Put some buttons on VC and bind them to the functions present. Look at the instructional videos [/edit]

[Bridger]

Thank you!

[edogawa]

Oh you're from Austria!

If you live in or near Vienna we could meet and see if I have more tips for you...

[Bridger]

Oh you're from Austria!

If you live in or near Vienna we could meet and see if I have more tips for you...

Unfortunately in Carinthia.

So I have looked into both very helpful asses i got from you both and I have one question:

When setting up the Channels can I set up 36 White Chanels with 36 Heads and if I need RGB power up the different channels at different power Level to get the colour I am looking for.

[edogawa]

You can do whatever you want, it just shouldn't confuse you later...

The controller is meant to drive 12 RGB units, but of course you can use it to control 36 channels of WW or CW strips (it even works wih 12 V MR16 socket spots) or a mixture of all that. Then you can use 36 generic dimmers, or 12 RGB dimmers, or create your specialized custom fixture definitions to reflect that, so QLC can provide meaningful previews, simple desk fader icons and VC elements.

[GGGss]

Absolutely agree
If you know how to create a fixture (and it is not hard at all ... follow the DMX chart and you are ready, so to speak), you can use this interface for whatever use you can imagine.
In essence, you have a 36channel dimmer stack (limited to 24V 1A (or at occasion 3A if not using all channels simultaneously. I try to understand the manual here...)).

For your model building purpose I give an example of what could be achieved :
I once built a show staircase using a DMX interface equally like yours.
Imagine a huge fountain at center of stage. Above and behind, on +1, the guests' entry platform. To the left and right there were banana-shaped staircases. Think Wetten-Dass
When a newly invited guest reaches the end of the entry corridor, the stairsteps would lighten up from the bottom up to +1 level. When the guest(s) reached the +1 platform, the stairs stop doing their chase and movers switched their beam to the entry point. Guests got immersed in light. BIG entry Then, guests stepping down the stair made each stair individually light up. The movers did follow these moves -ish...

...ish
After a while, it really got boring for those who were already present... Too bright a light and 'not that again'-thought, ..., newcomers were amused and looked up every time... Shortly the idea died... It surely was not my idea. #followorders
...ish²
Later on, multiple guests were admitted at once and they decided to take a random stair downwards. Multiple people at multiple stairs!!! This got my preprogrammed logic confused with tad input signals... Mayhem in the mover's light world trying to follow each input.

In about 40 minutes' time, I reprogrammed the whole movers' attitude. Now, they (in groups of movers, now) follow the first right or left person's step sequence... other inputs were neglected. Pfieuw - that was stressy...
The sensors used were industrial 24V proximity sensors positioned in the middle of the step-width. These signals got inputted to Raspberry Pi's inputs. After reconditioning the input signals [I do LIKE Clear Signals ... not the 3V3's Pi levels influenced by parasitics, unhappy capacitance, and signal losses over the cable...], the signals were to Pi's spec: Shunts, zeners, de-bouncing capacitance, and the like. QLC+'s logic and Raspberry Pi's GPIO's sent those hardware input signals to a happy Artnet Universe input for the main QLC+ controller.

At 2 am, I found out that people are very creative. They learned to play the piano. They all stood on the stairs (next to the detection range of the sensor) and swiveled their foot thru the sensor beam, initiating the next move from the stair-lights AND mover's position. The party lasted until dawn.

Message to you: be prepared for the unsuspected ...
No pictures were taken because of non-disclosure clauses in the contract.

[DavidGrc]

Stressy and nice experience Thank you for sharing a anecdote again. It's really interesting !

[Bridger]

Indeed it has a lot of potential that is why I thought this would be the perfect technology for my project and I am not limited to any pre-made boards and if something is wrong I can change it.