Q Light Controller+

I have a project I'm working on right now for an upcoming rental and ran into a usage scenario that may prove useful for designing their show and future shows.

Is it possible to assign a button to trigger a preset within the XY Pad widget? I have multiple working areas that will be used throughout the show (on stage, crowd, wall effects, etc) and because of that I also have a bunch of XY pads cluttering up my VC. The widgets don't need to be visible since everything is already defined via the efx function and the widget itself. Ideally I would just hide the widgets off screen or maybe in a frame page somewhere.

I know I can accomplish this with an external controller or keyboard shortcuts, but my booth space is at a premium so I don't have the luxury of time to practice what keys trigger which function, or space to set up a larger monitor to see everything. I will need access to all these different working areas on a moment's notice, and trying to scroll between them via frame pages is not really an option.

So, possible? Pipe dream?

Hey,

since the presets support external input, you also can use the loopback plugin to achieve what you want: http://www.qlcplus.org/docs/loopbackplugin.html

If you want further help, please share your workspace file.

Regards,
siegmund

Ah right, I never really messed around with loopback options because the documentation is rather... sparse.

I've gotten as far defining the loopback in/out, but I'm hung up on what to do next with the external settings for the buttons and widgets. This is about as far into it as I got last time. I understand conceptually how the process works, but I just don't know how to make it work within the program. Pretty sure all I need is a nudge in the right direction to fill in the last couple blanks and I should be good to go from here out.

I've attached a sample workspace with the widgets and buttons set up and named accordingly.

Aha I see ...

Well you have to be able to output something to the loopback-output and attach the loopback-input to the control.

I have changed your project and you find it attached.

Steps to take:
* make 2 dummy fixtures in Universe 2 fi. a dimmer on U2.ch1 and U2.ch2
* make 2 dummy-cues with those fixtures and set it's sending value to 255.
* have these cue's set in the buttons below the XY's
* now have the Universe 2 to output to loopback 1
* the same has to be done so that universe 1 gets it input from loopback1

* Crowd XY - preset : it has to be configured so this preset is called by input loopback1 - channel 1 (tricky thing is to manually enter 1)
* Stage XY - preset : preset has to be called by loopback1 - channel 2 (enter 2 manually)

I took the liberty to change the behaviour of the knobs to 'flash' - easier to watch what happens...

and maybe to understand it better this symbolic
flash-buton -> sends 255 to loopback 1.ch1 (via cue on dummy_U2.Lpb1) -> get inputted to Universe 1 and coupled to the preset-knob in the Crowd-XY

Easy? Not exactly but I tend to think in telephony-terms. Extension 1 in areacode 2 calls to switchboard with message 'deliver 255 to areacode 1 coming from ext.1' - the switchboard in areacode 2 delivers message to areacode 1. Extension XY-Crowd is listening to messages coming from areacode2-ext.1 and get the message with payload 255.
In this analogy you have to change the underlined words Extension = channel, areacode = Universe and messageboard with loopback

If you have additional questions: - Shoot
Regards,
Fred
[edit: typo's]

The wheels are turning now! Thanks for that. I'm very much a visual/kinetic learner, so seeing everything laid out made it clear as day and your play-by-play explanation of the process should help me emulate it for the remainder of my pads from here out.