Virtual console can a button change which fixture a slider controls?

[BushAl]

Hi this is probably a silly question as I am very new, but I have read the manual and tried various things without success.
We are small hall, mainly doing concerts with some plays, and QLC+ looks perfect. Thanks for your work on the software.
We have lots of similar lights and for concerts we would set up some colors and leave it at that. We could use the simple desk, but then the inexperienced operators finding the right fixture is tricky.
The ideal would be a set of sliders (for RGB etc) and a number of buttons for each fixture (or set) which could map to the physical layout.

Pressing a button makes the sliders control that fixture, while leaving the levels of the others alone.

Is this, or something like this possible?

Thanks again

[GGGss]

Welcome to the forum.

In short: Yes it is possible.
I would set up VC having 2 pages: 1 for your plays, 1 for gigs.
Then in concern to the colourization of your lights: You can use sliders in level mode, only to adopt the dimmer channel of your fixtures. Under or next to that create a solo-frame with button bound to scenes, only having colour information in it. Now you can separate control the intensity and the colour. If you want in control of everything, put all above inside a normal frame, add a slider in submaster mode. With this slider you can change or fade-in f.i. all running functions. This is actually my standard setup for almost all of my shows.
The page for the plays could hold a chaser (or multiple) and a 'go' button to change from one preprogrammed scene to the other... (note the 'dump-dmx button' where on your gig page, you could setup a look, dump those values into a scene, and use that scene inside a chaser for the plays...)

A dirty looking VC from a latest project (was work in progress at the moment of backup-save on stick I now have on me...)

[BushAl]

Thanks for that GGGss,

I am afraid I have not explained well enough. I can see how I can separate intensity from colour, as your VC shows. I am trying something different.
We have 18 pars, all hex units, so to adjust the colour might take 6 sliders, for each or 108 in total. Messy.
Yes we can start in groups, but it would be nice to be able to be able to set the main group colours, then adjust each fixture separately if needed, without having hundreds of sliders.

So to describe the simplest layout if I have two pars and one slider for intensity on the Virtual Control, is it possible (by button or any other way) to make the slider control first one par, and then the other?

Thanks again for your help.

[GGGss]

No I'm afraid this is not possible ... your cannot 'route' information from one slider to a channel of a fixture.
You'll need to be creative to achieve something like that... Or change your workflow.

[BushAl]

Thanks - I thought that was the answer. While I understand it could be tricky I can see that an intermediate step between a physical fixture, and the controls would be quite useful. It could for example allow fixtures with different channel sequences to be treated as a group (so a hypothetical fixture with RGBWAU could be grouped with a weird one which just had WGBRA).

Anyway Thank you for the clarification

[scarffac3]

Hello,

I can't believe that it is not possible, maybe it's very difficult.
I think you can add some buttons on VC for fixtures or fixture groups. For each fixture you can add three dimmerchannels in a universe you don't use. You can make a scene for each button. In this scene should the first two (of the three for each fixture) dimmers (of the fixtures you want) selected and slides up to 255. The second channel should be configurated as inverted dimmercurve.
Now you need to assign the scenes with the buttons.

For having one slider for all, you need to add sliders to the VC for Dimmer and RGB etc.
In the new universe you add some more dimmers, for each slider one. Assign them directly together.
Now you can activate the loopback output on the universe with the fixtures. In one universe you can activate the input of this universe.
The slider for each should receive their data from one loopback slider. You need two more buttons and some scripts to detect the flags of the first buttons. I think you can understand it better, if i post my project.

If the input output configuration is not saved: The Loopback is activated in universe 2, for Input and Output (same universe).
(And Channel 102,105,108,111 in universe 2 are inverted).

Have fun, Scarfface

[GGGss]

Rather complex for the novice user, but a nice solution to create a selective switchboard.

[BushAl]

Wow - I went away and researched some other options, so missed your posting Scarfface. Thanks very much for the project and the idea, which (I agree is complex, but mainly in setup).
Thanks again - I will have a serious play but I think I understand what you are doing.

[scarffac3]

Here is an update of the project, cause i learned, getting rising and falling edges via input profiles:

[BushAl]

Hi all. Hope you are having a decent holiday period.

I finally got back to this as I have at last received my real lights, but unfortunately I have a problem.

I made what I thought was the minimal change to the Buttoncontrolsfixtures.qxw, which was to change the address of the real lights and add two of my lights which are similar to studio 1 and 2, as they are setup in my Universe 1.
I then changed the Studio 1 and Studio 2 slider sets on the right to point to the channels of my PARS rather than the originals.

I am controlling universe 1 via the E1.31 plugin via a DMXKing eDMX1 pro, so made changes to the output for that universe.

I don't think I made any other changes, and used the same qxi file.

The sliders operate as I expected and the monitor shows the correct channels changing.

However the lights flicker as if strobe was on, but erratically as if there is a timing issue somewhere, so I have obviously done something wrong. Colours are correct - just the flicker.

I attach the qwx file I used, so if anyone could review it I would be very grateful. I also attach the fixture definition I used for my PARS.

Thanks and have a great holiday

[scarffac3]

hello,
I dont know what happend there, and I m not sure with creating fixtures, but it seems, there is a fixture definition problem.
(I think there is a mistake in the configuration file, should be the strobe channel not be strobe2 in the 8-channel mode?)
But it seems that this generate not the problem. I tried a little with creating a new fixture etc.

But at least i deleted all again, and downloaded the stuff again. After adding another pair of your fixture, an added them to the sliders, it worked (as far as i can see with the channel monitor)

Have a nice day, and merry christmas!

[BushAl]

Thank you again, I am not sure what happened then, but the configuration you uploaded worked, and so does the one I made.

So now I must hope you will be patient with me, as I have two other problems. I need to add several more Pars, and I am obviously missing something. I did the following:-
1. Add the new fixture (I just used the first of the one you added).
2. Add a new scene (and add the new fixture to the all scenes)
3. Add a new channel to the input profile (105 p5 button)
4. On the virtual console
4a. Copy the Studio 2 frame and sliders to Studio 3 and change the level output of each slider to the appropriate channel on the new fixture.
4b. Copy the Studio 2 button and attach to the new scene.
I am clearly missing at least one step, as the Studio 3 sliders move all the time, and the Studio 3 button does not stay active.
I attach the amended configuration and input profile.
Thanks for your help.

[scarffac3]

My english is not that good, (i dont understand what you mean with Studio 3 sliders move all th time).

But you forgot to activate the studio 3 channel in all scenes, where you added this "dummy fixture" and you have to set there a value of 255 too.
I also found an error: In the InputProfile you should activate the checkbox for "Generate an extra Press/Release when toggled"
This for getting a short signal, when the state (studio3 is activated or not) changes. The Button with the scene only send the state,but the frame need this short signal, for selcting and unselecting.

Good evening

[BushAl]

Thank you again Scarf Face, you have solved my problem, which was I was not setting the channel on Studio 3 to 255.
Thanks again - I hope not to bother you again!

I hope you have a better 2022 than 2021.