Q Light Controller+

I'm afraid I don't have much opportunity to use QLC+ but I try to keep across all the forum postings and don't think anyone's mentioned this.

I downloaded 4.7.0RC1 yesterday onto an Ubuntu 13.12 machine with an Anyma DMX interface and had an intermittent problem with the virtual console apparently working but not actually controlling the lights. I made a simple workspace with two four-channel dimmers on addresses 1-8, controlled by 8 sliders also mapped to the faders on a BCF2000. I had the situation more than once where the Simple Console sliders controlled the lights, but the sliders didn't, although they moved under mouse and BCF2000 control. Restarting QLC+ cured the problem, at least for a while. Then I once had 7 of the sliders working and one not working. I thought one of the dimmer channels had failed and checked the fuse. Fortunately during the show it all worked perfectly.

I'm sorry this is rather vague and unpredictable, but I just wondered if anyone else had experienced similar, or if the description of the symptoms gives any clue as to possible causes.

Have you had a look at the QLC+ DMX monitor to rule out any external issues?

No, I didn't - but wouldn't that be right at the end of the chain before the data gets sent to the output, i.e. after the Simple Console (which works)?

Matthew,

does it happen also when you don't play with Simple Desk? Once you move a slider in Simple Desk, it overrides everything (there's even no HTP). In that case, you may try to push the X button to reset the values (it is not enough to pull the slider to 0 - that will just force zero value).

I guess Simple Desk should show somehow what values are overridden...

I think I only tried Simple Desk once I had created the workspace and found the slider did nothing, so the answer is yes. I must have another go and try to reproduce the problem. I hadn't spotted the "reset universe" X-button - would be interesting to see if that fixes things.

I've just dug out a dimmer and discovered that I am wrong above and you are right - I must have moved a slider in the Simple Desk (probably to test the dimmer) and that indeed prevents the Virtual Console channel from working. When it's returned to zero there is no indication at all that it's having any effect. Resetting the universe made the Virtual Console slider work again.

It's a relief this isn't some obscure bug that has only affected me. I agree though that there should be something that indicates that the Simple Desk is overriding the Virtual Console. The Simple Desk help page does not explain that there is any interaction, nor the significance of the Reset Universe button in this respect.

Perhaps something quite easy to do would be to make the Simple Desk tab change colour if it is having any effect (with a tooltip to explain what it means - if you can have tooltips on tabs)? Then you could see from the Virtual Console that something was up. More sophisticated would be to make the affected controls in the Virtual Console change colour. This would probably be unnecessarily complicated (and impossible!) though as I assume in most cases you would never want to use the Simple Desk in combination with the Virtual Console, so a simple indication that the Simple Desk is "interfering" would be adequate.

Hi, this is not a bug, but the expected behaviour.
There are case where you really want this, also when you drag a channel to 0 (for example to shut a strobe or a light went crazy)

What I can agree on is the lack of documentation about this important feature and a visual indication of what's happening (I fooled myself a couple of times on that too...)

Thanks for reminding me this. I'll improve the docs and make the sliders background RED when a channel is overridden.

Sorry I didn't mean to imply it was a bug - and you've just made it very clear what a useful emergency measure it could be. Colouring slider backgrounds red is a very good idea (tells you exactly what has been overridden) but I still think it would be good if there were also some indication that this was happening when the Simple Desk is hidden. I suggested making the tab red but perhaps a small icon (with a tooltip) in the area of the operate/edit button might be easier/better?

The idea of making the slider red is a great idea and I agree with Matthew in that a visual representation on the tabs would be useful. I last read this forum thread this morning but 2 hours later I was stressing trying to work out why my scenes weren't working!

Implemented !
Highlighting the simple desk tab is more difficult. I need to think of a clean solution

Thanks Massimo, has this also been added to the documentation (if it isn't there already?)

Yes, I documented it, even though I guess my way of documenting things is way lower than the expectations...

So is the solution to this problem simply pressing on the reset universe button? I did that and it still doesn't seem to work!

The solution to the movement of a slider in the Simple Desk stopping the Virtual Console controlling that channel is the reset universe button, yes. You might have other things going on.