Q Light Controller+

Hello.
I Have been using QLC+ under Ubuntu and XP since Heiki made the announcement that he was ending QLC, and while reluctant at first (I'm not a big fan of change) I have come to like QLC+ a great deal. However when I began using it I built a show file that I recycle for every show. However i just overhauled my entire lighting rig. Dumped my scanner based rig and sprung for 12 Martin Mac101, 6 High End Studio Beam PC 250s, 4 chauvet colorails and a few other assorted goodies. Now when I began to create my new show files for use with this I noticed a few annoying little things.

Firstly, under windows 7 it seems you can no longer set the background color for buttons..

Secondly, the EFX system lacks a speed control. Heiki had it set where you could assign a bus to control the speed of that efx, but it would appear the bus system is gone in QLC+? Or am I missing something fundamental?

The final thing which is less a bug but more a feature request would be to allow me to set start offsets in certain fixtures. 6 of my Mac 101s are the 2nd gen and their home position is offset 90° from the 1st gen ones (makes the head face down when home instead of straight out to make panel access easier) this makes aligning EFX impossible without a start offset for 6 of them.

Thanks in advance.

Hello JL, the switch from QLC to QLC+ probably needs a bit of documenting/experimenting first.

1- buttons background: use version 4.8.1 and not 4.8.0
2- Buses have gone for Heikki's will, not mine. When I forked QLC they had already been replaced. To control the speed of a EFX you probably need to use a Speed Dial widget. Here Jano can help you more than me
3- it should be possible to assign EFX initial offsets in the EFX editor

1- I actually am as i just checked the version. i am able to change button color on my XP machine and under Ubuntu but under windows 7 and 8 the buttons remain the tan color despite my best efforts

2- boy what a terrible decision busses were a fantastic management tool since you could use them to manipulate all kinds of things. as far as a slider widget can i just set the widget, program the speed and delete the widget? I have absolutely no need for a speed control outside of editing as I'm usually using it at concerts, theater shows, figure skating shows etc where i only need the speed for that specific efx and that speed should never change. i have separate buttons of a faster version of the same efx which makes On The Fly programming easier because i can simply press 3 buttons and the color macro, movement speed and shutter setting (strobe vs solid etc) i want happen instantly. no need to mess around with the mouse moving a fader widget.

3- Ah i must have missed that, i actually assumed it would be in creating a new fixture definition for the offset. is that a whole efx offset or a fixture specific offset?

On a completely unrelated topic, i love your avatar Massimo!

(writing this once again, thanks SF forum software!)

1. button background works fine for me (W7/64 SP1, QLC+ 4.8.1)

2. QLC used buses where you attached each function to a bus. In the last never released version Heiki turned that concept over: You have a [speed dial widget](http://www.qlcplus.org/docs/vcspeeddial.html) , and you assign functions to it. So you can have more speed controllers for a particular function. Alternatively, each function can have its own speed setting (look for the same icon in the EFX/Chaser/... editor).

Small problem is that speed dials do not work in design mode. That means, in order to set all function the same:

- create all functions
- create one speed dial for each group of functions (small/fast/...) in the virtual console (just put them off screen if you don't need them regularly)
- assign functions to speed dials as needed
- start operate mode
- set desired speeds
- stop operate mode
- save the workspace

In the end you may find it's more flexible...

3. EFX offset may or may not work for you since they are offsets along the EFX path. For simple paths like line it may be enough, but for more complicated ones it won't work.

[Channel modifiers](http://www.qlcplus.org/docs/channelproperties.html)  from the Fixtures tab might be the solution for you. With them you can recompute DMX output on the fly.
In your case, if you need to shift the values lets say by 50, set following points:

- 0 -> 50
- 205 (=255-50) -> 255
- 206 (=255-50+1) -> 0
- 255 -> 49 (=255-50-1)

If you can describe the positions of your heads, I may create the modifier for you. I need:

- head positions for DMX values of 0, 127, 255 - for PAN and TILT and for both generations
let's say the front of the head is pointing North, cables South. Where is the head pointing when PAN=0? PAN=127? PAN=255? etc. Alternatively, you can tell me DMX values when the head is pointing N, W, E (PAN) straight up, down. horizontal (for TILT).

- direction of movement when you go from 0 to 255 (CW or CCW, PAN & TILT). I suppose the direction is the same for both generations.

I run QLC+ on Windows 7 64bit as well and buttons background color works OK for me too on 4.8.1.

JL, do you have any specific theme set in your Windows machine ? Maybe you can post a screenshot ?

P.S. I guess you're a whovian too, nice one ! Totally following series 8 every saturday

3. One more thing. It is possible that they changed home position (if that is the position of head after power on) but they didn't change the mapping from dmx values to positions. Even if they did, it kay be possible to upgrade/down grade fw to make them behave the same. Test this: set allpans ans tilts to 0 in the simple desk. If all heads are same direction,you are ok.

Thanks for the in for I'm going to set up a test rig to see if j can get it all working. And I'm not entirely sure about your offset question. The martin rep told me a software change was made becausenpeople complained about the head position when the fixture was first powered on the head faces straight up (or Downdepending on orientation) which mean toy had to turn the head with your hand to get to the display so they patched the firmware so the heads pan value was changed by 90° £nd tilt was changed by 120° so you could get to the panel easier. Its actually strange though. 0 puts the fixturehead straight up 1 puts it at the home position that the s2 firmware set so maybe just a 0 > 1 on tilt and a 0 > 64 on pan? I'll have to mess with it and see if I can set that offset the way you mentioned. Also I completely missed the timer button in EFX. That makes a lot of sense... Duh.

As for buttons, I have windows 7 basic theme set with aero effects off to help with ram usage, perhaps that's causing the issue? Again I'll ceck on that tomorrow also.

And Massimo, whovian forever! I'm liking peter cipaldi this far hope it stays on this good