Loopback Questions

[edogawa]

I changed your workspace to come as near as possible to what you say you want:

- Universe 1 input is patched to LB1 Out, and uses input profile "Loopback Test"
- delete unneeded LB in universe
- scene Red Par outputs to the Generic RGB fixture, not to the loopback channels again (why should it)
- button Red Par in VC is bound to external control Button 1 in LB 1 Out universe
- button LB Button is attached to the scene LB Button and is a Flash button

now if you hit "LB Button", it triggers "Red Par" button/scene and turns off immediately again, but "Red Par" stays active,
Hit it again and both turn off again.
If you keep "LB Button" to be normal button, it will toggle like "Red Par" does.

[ShagLight]

Thanks for the help, but still not working like I want. When you change the "LB Button" to toggle (not flash) it works like before, which is:

When you hit "LB Button" "Red Par" turns on and both buttons are on. Hit "LB Button" a 2nd time and it turns off but "Red Par" stays on with both buttons on. Hit "LB Button" a 3rd time and "red Par" turns off but "LB Button" stays on. Hit "LB Button" a 4th time and it turns off. Both buttons are now off.

I just have a feeling whatever the problem is something simple that all of us are missing. LOL

[MichelSliepenbeek]

Let's go back a few steps:

The reason I want it to work that way is in 4.13.0 there is still a problem with the cue list's external input for play using my APC40 MK2. Any other button will send any feedback value for the color of the LED on the APC button. But the cue list only sends one value.

As far as i can see, the problem is that the cue list only sends feedbacks when it is active, so when the chaser is running.

If you want a workaround for that you could try the following:
Create a Dummy scene (e.g. that sets a value for a Dummy Fixture) .
Add a Button for it on your VC and set it up to react on the same External Control as the Play Button of your Cue List and set the Feedback options to the same values as you use for your Play Button (or maybe just the opposite, you have to experiment with this).
Now press the Dummy button manually on your VC (not on your akai) when you start your show or even better add this dummy scene to your start up function ( the Green Flag button on your Functions tab).

Explanation:
The dummy function will initialise the specific button on your AKAi by sending the Feedback first. When you press your AKAI button, it will both start your chaser (which will now send a feedback) and turn your Dummy Scene off.
If you press that button again, it will stop your chaser but also restart your dummy Function (which will now send a feedback).


Another option could be to use the custom Feedback values in your Input Profile (open your profile, select the specific button and then you will find those on the bottom of the screen).

[ShagLight]

I actually though about doing that and I'm going to. But I'd still like to be able to trigger a chaser or sequence with a flash button.

Thanks again for the help!

[GGGss]

to trigger a chaser or sequence with a flash button

A flash button cannot trigger Chasers and sequences. This is by design. There is some workaround for this here. Can you look them up?

[ShagLight]

to trigger a chaser or sequence with a flash button

A flash button cannot trigger Chasers and sequences. This is by design. There is some workaround for this here. Can you look them up?

I saw the workarounds and none of them really work the way I want. I just wanted to use a chaser or sequence as a strobe so all fixtures strobe in unison. But that's ok, not that important.

[BremDjenzzen]

I actually though about doing that and I'm going to. But I'd still like to be able to trigger a chaser or sequence with a flash button.

Thanks again for the help!

You can do this with a workaround. You assign your flash button to a loopback function.
after that you make your loopback the input of a virtual fader and assign your chaser as function to the fader.

The only thing that this doesn't do is nicely complete the chaser. But if you can live with the abrupt end then it works nicely.

I don't know if this helps anything, but i find it handy

[ShagLight]

That works good. You can also have that flash button in toggle mode and the slider will toggle. That could be part of a solution to my Loopback Question No. 2 thread.

But I still can't help but think there has to be a way to do that with a button instead of a slider. And also do the opposite where a slider or dimmer toggles a button on and off.

Thanks again for the input. My 2 threads on loopback have been very interesting and I'm learning a lot.

[ShagLight]

Let's go back a few steps:

The reason I want it to work that way is in 4.13.0 there is still a problem with the cue list's external input for play using my APC40 MK2. Any other button will send any feedback value for the color of the LED on the APC button. But the cue list only sends one value.

As far as i can see, the problem is that the cue list only sends feedbacks when it is active, so when the chaser is running.

If you want a workaround for that you could try the following:
Create a Dummy scene (e.g. that sets a value for a Dummy Fixture) .
Add a Button for it on your VC and set it up to react on the same External Control as the Play Button of your Cue List and set the Feedback options to the same values as you use for your Play Button (or maybe just the opposite, you have to experiment with this).
Now press the Dummy button manually on your VC (not on your akai) when you start your show or even better add this dummy scene to your start up function ( the Green Flag button on your Functions tab).

Explanation:
The dummy function will initialise the specific button on your AKAi by sending the Feedback first. When you press your AKAI button, it will both start your chaser (which will now send a feedback) and turn your Dummy Scene off.
If you press that button again, it will stop your chaser but also restart your dummy Function (which will now send a feedback).


Another option could be to use the custom Feedback values in your Input Profile (open your profile, select the specific button and then you will find those on the bottom of the screen).

Update: I experimented with the workaround and found the cue list play seems to send a feedback high value of 255, regardless of what value you assign. It even sends the value of 255 when you assign a zero value. So if I use the workaround with a dummy scene, there seems to be a conflict with 2 different feedback values. I'm thinking this is a bug with the Cue list?

However, 4.13.0 did fix the original bug with the submaster. (Windows 10)

Attached is the cue list file again. I know it might be hard to track this bug down without an APC40 MK2, but other external controllers with LED buttons would probably do the same thing (for example, APC Mini MK2, Launchpad, etc.).