Q Light Controller+

Hi

I'm completely new to controlling lighs over DMX and completely new to Q Light+

I am in a band where we have some stage lightning. That is essentially 4 Eurolite KLS200 light bars (LED's) and a couple of scanners Stairville Matrixx SC 100

Normally we control these with footswitches. The Eurolite has a footswitch with the following labels "Preset", "Sound", "Freeze" and "Blackout" .... The Matrixx footswitch have similar controls but basically we use "Music controlled" random pattern and "Blackout" - noting else

Essentially - what I want to do is to move these controls to our FOH console (Behringer X32) and let our Sound engineer take care of the ligths as well. The X32 has 4 rotary encoders and 8 (free) programmable switches that can be programmed to send whatever Midi we want.. The X32 is already connected to a Mac through Firewire and sends the MIDI to the Mac that way ... Then I have looked at Enttec USB-DMX Open - it seem like the way to send DMX out of the MAC

So - my questions are:

Is it possible to set Q Light controller Plus up in a way to emulate the footswitches ?? I have looked a lot at it seems like a relative simple task to find the DMX codes that turn everything blue - but is it possible to emulate the preset (toggling between fades, colors and strobe and so on) assigned like on the footswitch to ONE of the User assignable switches on the X32 ?? Similar for "Sound" - toggling Soundcontrol on/off and so on ?

More generally on DMX - Will ALL our units have to be on the same "chain" - DMX from Enttec box - to first Eurolite - to the second- to the third - to the fourth, to the first Matrixx - to the second Matrixx- and then terminated - or will we have to run 2 enttec boxes with one chain to the Eurolites and one to the Matrixx scanners ?? (Or the Enttec Pro Mk 2) ?? I THINK I understand that ONE chain can do it all within 512 channels - is that Right ? If so will all our Eurolites have to be configured with the same address - provided that we always want them to do the same ??

MAY I suggest at SUPPORT forum ??

best regards
Lars

Hi,

first I suggest you read how DMX works. Nevertheless, in your case:
- KLS is supported out of the box in QLC+
- Matrixx SC 100 is not, but it is easy to create fixture definition for it (you can start from Matrixx FL-110, it may help a bit)

As for channels number: KLS has 15 channels, you have 4 of them, that is 60, SC has 4 channels, that means you can have plenty of them within 512 channels limit. You can have them (all or in groups) on the same address, thus limiting the required addresses even more (i.e. all 4 KLS with the same address - say 1, all SC with another - say 16) that's 19 required channels.

Yes, it's totally possible to put all fixtures (of one type!) at the same address. Don't put ALL of your fixtures at the same address (i.e. both KLS and scanners) - the control will be impossible. When you are comfortable enough, you can put them at separate addresses, so you can do more advanced show

As for cabling: one chain is enough - from the USB dongle to first fixture, then to second, etc. until the last one. You shouldn't have more that 36 fixtures in line. In that case, use DMX splitter, not Y cables (splitter helps also when the lights are too far from each other to chain them all). You can also use more dongles, but that's not necessary.

Simple control: It seems that both fixtures have DMX values for Sound control, and for presents, so make one scene for each situation (sound controlled, preset #1, preset #2,...)
add buttons to virtual console, also add one button for blackout. Then add remote control, and you're done.

You'll find details in the online manual. If you get stuck, just ask again. Please post your showfile/fixture definition so we can see where did you get.

If you want to "literally" emulate the footswitch, create a chaser foreach button, make a scene in it for each "state"/"preset" you want to have, and map the mix button to the chaser's "Next" button; set the time to infinity. Do that for all buttons. It seems that both types have the presets available as DMX values.

EXTREMELY Helpful post - thanks a lot

I'm sure everything will clear up when I get the USB-DMX Dongle later this week and get a chance to play withe the console, software and fixtures live...

In the meantime I have studied DMX and if I understand it right - ONE chain is just like FM radio ... A lot is in the air but each fixture is just dialed in to listen to one "station" - the same way a lot of fixtures (provided same internal architecture) can listen to the same station... (and yes I DO get that each fixture can listen to a number of "stations") But then again 4 fixtures can also listen to 4 different "stations". Using more chains is just as using fixtures that listen to AM or satellite - and in this world it it only used if you are running out of addresses (stations)..

My reason to want to emulate the foot switches is that I only have 8 buttons and 4 encoders free to control the lightning - so I really have to limit what each button do... Also our Sound Engineer has a lot to do on the FOH sound console - so I will work towards a setup that requires as little interaction from his side as possible