Q Light Controller+

Hi QLC+ Community,

My name is Alan and i’m from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

I’ve been using QLC+ since 5 years ago in very different scenarios: Discos, Bars, Events and a lot more with excellent results in all of them and Introduccing more and more new functionalites that i dicovered along the time.

A year ago, reading this forum, i noticed that the software was able to run on RPI and decided to buy one. With RPI 3b+ on my hand, send the donation and recive the version of QLC+ for Raspberry. ( Thanks Massimo to give us such a powefull software with the small price of 15 euros).

Flashing the SD card with the lite version of raspbianOS + QLC+ was and easy work and after a few minutes i had mi raspberry pi working with an external usb DMX interface. I started testing in small venues and i was very surprised with the result but with some concerns about usability, so i start to get excited and put hands on to improve my new solution for lights.

Digging on the web, i found Bitwizard DMX board and a hole new world open to me when i received from Netherlands to Argentina in one week. Of course a lot of new knowledge to get into became with this new adquisition. Get the board working propperly wasn’t an easy job, specially for a newbie linux user...but after some days of reading, testing, breaking and starting from 0 again, i could make it work correctly.



I used a few times but the functionalities concerns continue and i run out of time so the proyect get stacked one year, but this pandemic boring world give me more time to restart working on that functionalities concerns.

I could manually install QLC+ on a Debian OS with some upgrades like:

* VNC for controlling RPI and QLC.
* Convert RPI on a HOTSPOT to avoid using a external router to get access for VNC and WEB API.
* Autostart QLC when debian start.
* Add custom fixtures
* Autostart QLC proyect

With that new functionalities, i move on desinging and building a custom RASPBERRY PI DMX HAT with the following characteristics:

* 2 XLR Neutrik Outputs with splitter
* Galvanical and Optical isolation
* Dedicated fan power pins
* Reduce size and heigh
* Status LED for each output
* Extension of GPIO Pins

The first wave of baords will be ready in two weeks!!



With the new board, the challenge of a case came up inmediatly so i decided to start with the desing of a custom 3d case for the RPI + DMX HAT. The case is in the last iteration of design and will be ready to print in to weeks too.



I called my proyect L4e - DMX LIGHTSPOT because it can work standalone with QLC+ controlled via CELLPHONE or TABLET or could be set to work as an ARNET INTERFACE.

My comercial idea for this first phase is to offer in 4 ways:
* Install the full solution, product + service.
* Offer product ready to start for the one who want to create their own scenes
* Sell the HAT+CASE+SD MEMORY CONFIGURED
* Sell the HAT

I have in mind a second and a third phase of the proyecto including a touchscreen display and a midi custom solution but first i need to keep on pushing on the manual and marketing of the first phase.

I’m very happy to share my proyect to the community so everyone could give me your point of view and if some one want to know more about could contact me.

Finally i want give a big thanks to Massimo and all his collaborator on QLC+ proyect and of course to BitWizard beacuse this to proyects really inspire me to keep on moving.

Regarding QLC+ licence, my commitment is to donate 5usd for each solution sold including QLC+ software in gratitude of all the time that was dedicated to this software, enhancemetns to QLC+ 4 and help with new QLC+ 5 version.

Thanks all for expend your time on reading the adventure of this excited proyect for me.

Best Regards
Alan

Nice work Keep posting how progress goes along.
My small suggestion: A PoE option?

Hi GGGss,

Thanks for yout feedback, nice feature that you mention! I will add to my enhancements list.

Will post all the progress to share with the comunnity

If you're interested in using the Raspi as an ArtNet Receiver for your config .. I've done quite alot of work on this and have a configuration management system using Ansible to update/configure a Raspi to receive ArtNet and push DMX out the Bitwizard board .. ( and fadecandy ). Can find it at https://github.com/sandinak/ansible-raspi-dmx. Right now it's mostly configured to my needs .. but if there's interest I can make this more generic for use.

Edit: I've fixed the github link. Jano

Well, finally we have some action with this project.... after a few weeks from my posting, the first group of hats were delivered and ready to start being used!
With the board in my hands, we started to print samples of the enclosure and make some adjustments

A few hours later, everything seems to fit better
Looks like we have our first interface assembled and ready to start runing some testings
But wait, we are in a middle of a pandemic with no events going on...

“If the Mountain won't go to Mohammed, then Mohammed must come to the Mountain“
40 fixtures with more than 400 channelsusing efxs, chasers, timmers... running 24/7 with no need to restart or issue!!

That week was a little bit boring so we made some progress on phase 2 (custom midi controller) and 3 (TouchScreen)
To be continue...

Very nice work! Lemme know if you publish those cases

Hi, love it. Did you ever get this to production because I'm working on something similar right now?

Any Progress?

Also is it possible to get a Sample Board to try out?

Hi ! nice work indeed !
Do you mind sharing the schematic please ? I try to make a USB to DMX converter ...

There's also DiscoHAT made by another QLC+ long time user
https://www.discohat.com/