Q Light Controller+

Hello, new member, very happy to have found this forum. My band has been using a cheap Chauvet Obey 40 to control our DMX lights and I have now switched over to using QLC+ with a dmxKing ultraDMX RDM Pro. Our light rig consists of two Chauvet ColorStrips (not mini), two Chuavet 4Plays, and four Chauvet TriShots.

One of the TriShots is behaving very strangely. One of the 7 channels controls a pulsating effect, making the intensity pulse from 0 to 100% and back again, at a speed controlled by another channel. This light works perfectly when using our Obey 40, but the pulse effect is completely screwed up when using QLC+. Instead of pulsing and being able to control the speed, it just flickers very fast and at very low intensity. The other three TriShots work fine with the same settings. I tried changing the cables, the order of the lights, the starting address, I tried putting 4 empty channels between each light. I tried starting a new workspace and reprogramming the scene from scratch, I even tried adding the fixture as a new generic item with 7 channels. I tried plugging directly into the troublesome light and eliminating all other fixtures. Nothing seems to help this one light act normal when using the Pulse functions, but it works perfectly on the Obey 40. When using QLC+ the RGB channels work fine, the dimmer works fine, only the strobe/pulse channel seems to go berserk on QLC+, and only on this one light out of four identical lights. But it works perfect on the Obey 40.

If it helps diagnose the problem, because the Chauvet ColorStrips are apparently notoriously glitchy, I have had to configure the ultraDMX RDM Pro to the maximum compatibility mode, which makes the ColorStrips work perfectly, and every other light except this one TriShot seems to work perfectly under this mode. I have tried changing the transmit mode back to normal, but the odd TriShot still has the exact same problem while the other three still behave properly.

Very odd behavior. Any idea why this one channel would work fine in the other three TriShots, and would work fine when using the Obey 40, but makes the light go bonkers when I use QLC+?

Thanks so much for your help.

Update... I thought I had tried every combination, but I found something new (and possibly found a workaround). It turned out that I could make all of the TriShots behave in a similar fashion if I made their address the last in the line. Whenever a TriShot had the final highest DMX address, that TriShot displayed the odd behavior while the other three would act normally.

So now I have reversed the order of my DMX addresses to put the TriShots first, then follow them with the 4Plays and finally with the ColorStrips. I only have half the rig redone but so far it seems to have fixed the issue.

I'd still be curious why this would happen, why being the last fixture in the DMX addresses would make one channel not work properly. It wasn't even the "last" channel. And I forgot to mention earlier than I *am* using a terminator.

Any DMX genius who'd like to explain it to me, I'd love to know.

Thanks.