Q Light Controller+

Hello,

I'm doing some small theater lighting for a church production. I have four dimmers on a hanging truss with a few fixtures on each of six channels. What is the advantage to adding the dimmer, versus just adding a few fixtures (either generic, or a simple leko or fresnel that I define) on each channel. Or is there some way to define what's on each channel of a dimmer? I'd like to do something that supports a layout for the 2D monitor. I'd also like to be able to name the channels, like stage left, stage right, etc. That doesn't seem possible with a dimmer.

Thanks in advance,

Howie

You can rename your dimmer channels for sure.
In stead of creating a dimmer with said 6 channels, simply create 6x1 channel and rename them.
Splitting your light setup has 2 advantages:
* power distribution (we didn't talk about Watts yet and I can't believe hanging dimmers are capable of dimming 4kW of incandescents...)
* in function of the distance to the object, you can set a much nicer even light plot. And when you call the scenes, your fixtures can be faded much more evenly. Are you going to include gels in your setup -> they sure will need another intensity setting now.

Hi!

So I have 3-20a circuits running to the truss, and 4-4 channel dimmers. For lights on the truss I have 2-750w fresnels, 6-250w Altman 3.5Q, 1-500w Altman 3.5Q. The dimmers have worked well in the past. I just have to make sure the loads are distributed well. Not on the dimmers are 2-300w Holdlamp RGBW Moving Heads, and 4-90w Betopper RGB Wash. This is the first year we'll be using LEDs. We also have like 15 50-year-old homemade tubes with floods that could be moved forward and back in the tube to adjust the beam angle. I'm thinking we'll retire them this year. We also used to use a simple 12 channel Lightronics board. This year QLC+.

I also have two bars on the two sidewalls that will each contain a dimmer, a 750w fresnel, a 500w leko, and a 250w par.

I was thinking of defining the fresnels and lekos as fixtures with 1 channel (dimmer). That way I can put multiple fixtures on a single (dimmer ) address (now realizing this won't work), and place them in the monitor to reflect their placement on the truss. That doesn't seem possible if I define 4 dimmers with overlapping channels (as I've done in the past). It feels less complicated. And as I'm writing this I see the problems. Channels can't be represented separately in the monitor. So now I understand the why of your suggestion "simply create 6x1 channel and rename them".

It seems the only way a device can be separately visible in the monitor is to be at a different address. Is that correct? I guess I'll have to give up that idea entirely, and live with a single monitor cell representing multiple incandescent devices.

If you add your fixtures to your workspace by using the Generic 1 Channel Dimmer, in the Fixture Monitor they will all have the same size.

You could use the Fixture Definition Editor to (as an example) create:
- Spot small (200 x 200 mm),
- Spot medium (300 x 300 mm) and
- Spot Large (400 x 400 mm).

These fixtures will show up in the Fixture Monitor with different sizes.
Furthermore you can use the option to rotate specific Fixtures by 45 degrees (just left click on the Fixture and change the Rotation), for instance to show the difference between spots and washes.

Channels can't be represented separately in the monitor.

What you can do is create a Dummy Universe (a Universe that you do not use to output to an actual USB DMX interface or ArtNet channel).
If you have two Fixtures connected to the same Dimmer channel, for instance channel 14, you can define the first Fixture on Channel 14 of Universe 1 and the second Fixture on Channel 14 of your Dummy Universe.
If you add both Fixtures to your Scenes (or select both on your slider in Level Mode) you can represent them seperately in the monitor (meaning: you can give them different positions in the Fixture Monitor, but of course they both will act the same).

Thanks! Good advice all around. I look forward to implementing it.