Q Light Controller+

Hello, I'm using QLC+ with a Enttec DMX pro Mk2 on Windows 10. I have a had a problem which has persisted across several versions, including the latest 4.10.3a. What I have seen is that at random I will get a message saying QLC+ has stopped responding and then it must be restarted. This is awkward during a show. The one upside is that it does not seem to occur while I have a chaser active. I have run a very complex show with no issue but this problem would crop up before the show when I did not have the chaser active.

Since it appears to be random and can be hours between occurrences I have not been able to figure out what is causing the problem. I suspected a driver issue and reinstalled the driver for the Enttec device with no apparent change. Is there anyway I can get more information about why the program crashes? Can I trigger a crash log or additional logging which does not drastically alter the performance?

Thanks

I occasionally get something similar with my system. Running WinXP, QLC+ 4.10.1, using E1.31 outputs and Korg NanoKontrol2 Midi. I make fairly heavy use of RGB Matrixes and Collections in Chasers to run my events.

I find that I'll get random "stopped responding" crashes after I've done a bunch of editing. Fortunately I save often so I don't lose much anymore. And It doesn't seem to happen if I just open and run a workspace. Only after I've been editing things. So I've taken to making edits, saving, then closing and restarting QLC+ before the event. That seems to get me around crashing during an event, but I still have troubles during setup.

I'd like to run some tests on your workspaces to find where the crash is, can you share them ? Thank you

plugz wrote:I'd like to run some tests on your workspaces to find where the crash is, can you share them ? Thank you

Hi,

Were you ever able to do any investigation on this? I have seen this happen again with 4.10.4. Is there any diagnostic information or logging I can run which might help?

Thank you.

Here is my workspace, It has grown rather large accumulating several shows worth of scenes. After the most recent show I cleaned out some of the older stuff and cut the size in half. I have not loaded the trimmed file on the show system to see if that helps. I have only noticed the issue on the show system which is one reason I suspected a driver issue with the dmx interface. However, it could be OS related because the other system I use (at work) to do a lot of prework and editing of the scenes is a Windows 7 box.

The file is too large to attach. Here is a dropbox link to a zip file with the workspace and custom fixture files:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cnhs70ibv72t ... s.zip?dl=0

Here's my workspace from this past week.

Hi,
i have the same problem with akay apc mini. If I move the fader sometime the program go in heang and the gui go to white screen. I try to remove the usb cable of midi controller and the qlc becomes usable.

I try with differen qlc vertion on win10 and win7 but the result is the same.

Luca

luca wrote:Hi,
i have the same problem with akay apc mini. If I move the fader sometime the program go in heang and the gui go to white screen. I try to remove the usb cable of midi controller and the qlc becomes usable.

I try with differen qlc vertion on win10 and win7 but the result is the same.

Luca

Same for my.. but i using 2x conttrolers.. and if program not responding, i need to remove akay.. that program working, but my another conttroler ( BCF2000 ) missing.. seams that program midi support crashing.. :/ Need fast fix for that

Hi,

I am still seeing the program crashes with 4.10.5b. I had high hopes that the work done to prevent crashes with DMX input with the Enttec Pro Mk2 in the recent releases would improve the situation. If anything it has gotten worse. It is very embarrassing when the lighting control fails with actors on the stage and people in the audience.

I would love to know if there is a way to diagnose the problem short of switching to another control program. I would like to continue using QLC+ but I cannot continue unless I have faith that I can get through a show successfully.

I am using a Windows 10 system with and Enttec Pro Mk2 (both universes) and QLC 4.10.5b.

Thanks.

mgweber wrote:I am still seeing the program crashes with 4.10.5b. I had high hopes that the work done to prevent crashes with DMX input with the Enttec Pro Mk2 in the recent releases would improve the situation. If anything it has gotten worse. It is very embarrassing when the lighting control fails with actors on the stage and people in the audience.

I would love to know if there is a way to diagnose the problem short of switching to another control program. I would like to continue using QLC+ but I cannot continue unless I have faith that I can get through a show successfully.
I am using a Windows 10 system with and Enttec Pro Mk2 (both universes) and QLC 4.10.5b.
Thanks.

Well, one should try if things are working before doing it with actors and audience.
Apart for that, I tested quite a lot the latest changes on all platforms (Linux, Windows and macOS) with a Mk2 and it was working. Latest changes mean: receiving input DMX data.
Your case seems to be related to 2 universes output and no input at all.
Is that correct ?

Correct, I am running two universes of output with no input. I have tested with a single universe off another system using a Enttec pro (not the mk2) and didn't notice any problem but it could be that I just didn't wait long enough. Tonight I will take this other system (windows 10 Dell laptop) and connect it to the theater's enttec mk2 and run the rehearsal to see if it behaves. If it does that will become my show system instead of the theater's computer.

I previously tried complete uninstall and reinstall of QLC+ and the Ftdi drivers with no noticeable change.

The maddening thing is the randomness. Usually, if there is some known issue I can work around or avoid it. The program will crash while sitting there without touching the system. I do have a chaser running with infinite duration scenes but IIRC it has also done this without a chaser active. I just look up and see the error dialog saying that the program has stopped responding.

Many releases ago I was using the program on a Vista laptop and QLC+ had its issues when editing some of the scenes but I had no issues while running the cues. Now it is the opposite I have no idea if it is a configuration or driver or program issue.

Thank you.

Random crashes have been reported several times in this forum. See
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10628
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=9865
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10276

but unless I am able to reproduce them myself or someone come up with a debug log of the crash, this is very hard to resolve, especially if it takes hours to happen.

I agree and understand, this was why I started the thread by asking how can I gather more information so that there is a possibility of figuring out the problem. Any way to enable detailed logging or generate a crash dump or something like a core file? I know how this is impossible to diagnose without more information. I am hopeful that running on my personal laptop will yield different results. This would then point the finger to some configuration or software incompatibility on the theater's system.

I will look at the links you posted to see if I can find a common thread. I need to narrow it down from it could be anything. That's not very helpful.

Thank you for your help and the fine work you do on this program.

To be honest, Windows is the most difficult platform to debug on.
Linux is much better in that sense, and macOS can produce nice crash logs as well.
So I'm afraid at the moment there's nothing you can do to help on this

If you have the chance, I would say give Linux a try. You can easily start a live image from a USB pendrive, install QLC+ and load your project.

Sigh...I was afraid that was the boat I'm in. I've done a fair bit of software development on unix boxes but my windows experience is thin to say the least.

I'm looking at three options now. 1) Linux usb boot drive (thanks for the idea). I've not been willing to completely wipe the Win10 install on their system so this might be a good middle ground. 2) Using an art net interface either the DMXKing edmx4 or the Enttec Ehtergate Mk3 and 3) Some other controller.

Is there a preference on the art net node? My gut feeling is that the connection to the USB Dmx controller is the source of the trouble. The other thing I've noticed is that the UI has tendency to slow down when connected to the USB DMX controller. Possibly using the art net interface would remove this issue.

Thank you.

Quick update. I tried the live boot from USB drive but didn't like that because I would need to install everything every time I booted the system.

What I did do which worked very well is to create a Linux vm in virtual box. I got everything configured and installed the drivers at home then when I got to the theater I installed virtual box, copied the virtual disk file and everything was up and running. It has been solid through final dress and 3 shows which equates to about 20 hours of usage (considering pre and post show wait time).

The UI is a bit sluggish in the VM (the fades are smooth) so I am planning on setting up the system to dual boot Win 10 and Linux. I am very happy to have a reliable system!

Thank you for your suggestions.

Please see this: viewtopic.php?f=32&t=10757

Hi, i am new here but i'm using QLC+ since 2016. Many thanks to Massimo. Great job.
I would like to share a quick conclusion after i tested 2 projects of mine.
One, is for a music school and contains some karaoke music and lights show. This works perfectly.
But the second, is for a theater scene. This project crashed often.

But, good news for me (and for you, i hope): the problem dissapeared after modifying ALL sequences with duration 0ms (used in chasers with loops) with any other value (1000ms and 100ms in my case).

No sequences in my projects with duration zero since now.

No other crased encountered after this. Hope it will be useful for you.

Thank you again, Massimo!

WIN 7, 3Gb RAM, AMD