Q Light Controller+

Hi folks. I have no issue . In fact, for a while I switched to another DMX softrware programming product and while it was fun to use for a while, I have come back to QLC+ and won't be switching again.

I just bought 4 really nice moving head lights. They are American DJ Inno Spot Pro's. I have had moving heads before so I pretty much know how to program them.

However, in the past I have always programmed them so that all the lights of a particular type were controlled together.

Now I would like to have individual control of each light. That's easy to program and I have already done it.

BUT I would also like to be able to control them all at once.

I am not sure how to set up my Virtual Console so that I have both individual and group control of the lights without one set of controls interfering with the other. I don't know where to place solo frames and what to group and what to keep separate. I am primary interested in setting of color, pan/tilt, shutter, and dimmer.

Help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,
Rob (EBDS)

Address the fixtures to different addresses, and create scenes to control the group.

Not sure I understand. The fixtures are already addressed separately.

Let me use an example: Dimmer. I have a slider for each fixture for dimmer control. But I also want a slider to control all of the dimmers. I know the basic programming for all the sliders but if all the individual sliders are adjusted and then I start messing with the global slider will that work?

Here is another example: I have a solo frame for each fixture. In the frame is a button for each color. So now I want to be able to make all 4 red. Should I create a scene with all the fixtures or a collection of the four scenes? Which makes more sense? How will the various buttons react? I don't want to end up with buttons that have to be manually turned off.

And what about pan and tilt? I want individual sliders for each fixture and group sliders.

Rob

Rob,

Dimmers: if you have one slider for each fixture and one for all, each slider can increase the intensity of the respective fixtures, but not decrease. You can add submaster slider that can decrease value (by percentage or limit).

Thanks to those responding to me. I have sort of developed a compromise that will work for me. For some things like fixture color I have created separate settings for each fixture and global settings and it works great but then for other features like dimmer I am using a global slider because it's the simplest way to do it.

Now I have another programming question: I have set up both individual and global sliders for pan and tilt of the 4 fixtures. It works of course perfectly for the individual fixture pan/tilt sliders and the global sliders work as long as I want the values for pan and tilt to be the same for all 4 fixtures. That works great for basic dance floor lighting.

But now I would like to do something different. I would like to be able to shine all 4 spots at a particular location (like a follow spot) and then use some kind of virtual console widget to move them in sync together. So basically a follow spot using 4 fixtures of the same type.

The global doesn't work because the moment I move it all 4 fixtures adjust to the same value. What I need is something like a 'relative' slider that will move all 4 fixtures relative to their current position.

Can anyone help me figure out how to do that?

Thanks kindly once again,
Rob

EBDS wrote:But now I would like to do something different. I would like to be able to shine all 4 spots at a particular location (like a follow spot) and then use some kind of virtual console widget to move them in sync together. So basically a follow spot using 4 fixtures of the same type.

The global doesn't work because the moment I move it all 4 fixtures adjust to the same value. What I need is something like a 'relative' slider that will move all 4 fixtures relative to their current position.

Can anyone help me figure out how to do that?

Thanks kindly once again,
Rob

I thought about that some time ago, too, but I wasn't able to find a solution. Indeed, this would be a really great feature to have!

You may try the enhanced XYPad widget. If I recall correctly, it allows to 1) assign external faders to it (use loopback if you want faders in VC) 2) work in relative mode.

I think relative mode is what I would want to do. Forgive my ignorance but I don't see relative mode anywhere in an XY pad. Could you please help me to know where it is that I set it?

Thanks,
Rob

UPDATE:

janopsvitak, I absolutely love you. I just read about how to do relative programing of an XY pad using a selected position scene in the presets panel. I just tried it and it works perfectly!!!!!

So now I can set a scene to point all 4 lights at the same spot and then set that scene as a preset in the xy pad, select that preset and then control all 4 lights together as one integrated follow spot.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!

Thanks you soooooo much!!!

Rob

Well I spoke too soon. Conceptually the method works but in practice it does not. Not sure what the math is behind it not working. Essentially I point all the lights at one spot and set a position scene for that. I then set that scene in the XY pad which if I''m not mistaken, automatically sets the XY pad for relative mode. Then I move the dot on the pad to move the lights. The lights 'sort of' move in unison but they separate in reality. I am guessing it's because the lights are in different physical locations (about 12 inches apart from each other) so the movement to keep them completely synchronized is more complex than just Relative positioning can handle.

If anyone can shed any light on what I might be doing wrong or make suggestions of how to really get 4 spots to act as one I would greatly appreciate it. I've run out of ideas but then again I am still a relative newbie to QLC+.

Thanks,
Rob

EBDS wrote:Not sure what the math is behind it not working.[...] The lights 'sort of' move in unison but they separate in reality. I am guessing it's because the lights are in different physical locations (about 12 inches apart from each other) so the movement to keep them completely synchronized is more complex than just Relative positioning can handle.

That's right. The relative mode in fact takes the current position of your fixture as the center of the XY pad. It is not meant to control the light spot on the stage, but the rotation of the fixture. Controlling the light spot would mean that you know where are located all of your fixture, and where is the stage, so as to solve the geometrical problem. But rotating of a same angle two light rays which don't share the same rotation center, doesn't lead to the same location of the light spot. For little angles and little distances between the fixtures, it can be unnoticeable, but for large ones of course it doesn't work.