"Virtual" Intensity Slider for 3 channel DMX Flood

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 3:24 am

Is there a way to create a "virtual" intensity channel for a 3 channel DMX flood. I have 2 floods that are just RGB, I would like to be able to fade that light down to off with a slider (linked to a BCF2000). I'm coming up empty on how this could be done. Examples would be very much appreciated.

Thank you!!

bleurose · Tue May 24, 2016 3:42 am

You say you want to "fade it out" with a slider, but you need to "fade it up" too, and to "fade it up" you need to fade it up to SOMETHING, i.e., some color. If, for instance, you just want to use it as a "white" flood, you would do this:

1. Create a scene function with the fixture in it and turn all of its channels "on" and set them all the 255 (full). That will set the light to full white.
2. Create a slider in VC and attach the scene function to the slider.

Now this slider will fade the fixture UP to white or DOWN to black. You will not see any colors as throughout the entire process, all three channels will be locked to the same levels and will therefore put out a varying intensity of "white" light (I always put the "white" in quotes beecause RGB fixtures generally don't give off a GREAT "white" but rather a sort of muddied white).

You can set the scene to any color you choose instead of "white" (for instance purple by just activating the B and R channels at full) and again, attaching that scene function to a slider in the VC will enable you to fade the channel up to the specified color and down to zero smoothly with just one slider.

Once you have this slider, attaching it to a physical slider on the BCF2000 is no different than attaching any slider on that device to a virtual slider in the VC. Just follow the BCF2000 instructions.

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 5:22 am

Okay, well that works to some degree. Here is my use case (and I will attach my QXW file as well). In one of my scenes, the floods go through a sunrise color morphing sequence (with about 8 other lights), where at the end they are Yellow (R:255, G:255; B:0). What I would like is to have this reflected in the slider on the virtual console. Which currently it does not. (The reason for it going to the Virtual console is I will have Fader 5 attached to the BCF2000, and want to have the ability to drop the "intensity" of the flood down to off via the mechanical slider.

How I have it currently programmed is Fader 5 goes to a scene with the Floods R/G at 255. However the chase sequences do not activate this slider. I'm a bit perplexed by this. Thank you.

Does this make sense?

Fiddler on the Roof.qxw: (991.77 KiB) Downloaded 199 times

bleurose · Tue May 24, 2016 7:47 am

Hi,

You have to include your special fixtures too whenever you download a qxw file that has special fixtures. If you don't I get errors when I try to load the qxw file because I don't have the special fixtures you are using.

Thanks!

Jon

bleurose · Tue May 24, 2016 7:50 am

...and I do think you have encountered a "limitation" in this use case. Since your fixture itself doesn't have an intensity control, there is no way to "virtually" create one. Since you are adjusting the color levels in various steps for that fixture, at the end you just have the values of the three color channels and ALL of those can't really be "converged" into an intensity "channel" that you can attach to the BCF2000 (or to a single slider, for that matter). Its a nice idea, actually, but I don't think QLC+ currently has that capability.

bleurose · Tue May 24, 2016 7:51 am

I think the best case you will be able to do is to manage the three channels separately and then just reduce all of them when you want to "fade out" manually.

OddSocks · Tue May 24, 2016 8:54 am

Sorry this is just a quick answer as I have not had the time to look at you file yet but could you use a sub master?

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 8:54 am

OddSocks wrote:Sorry this is just a quick answer as I have not had the time to look at you file yet but could you use a sub master?

How would that work? Sorry to sound ignorant. Can you submitter just 3 channels?

OddSocks · Tue May 24, 2016 8:54 am

ralbrightii wrote:
OddSocks wrote:Sorry this is just a quick answer as I have not had the time to look at you file yet but could you use a sub master?
How would that work? Sorry to sound ignorant. Can you submitter just 3 channels?

Here is just a quick example.

RGB Test.qxw: (4.67 KiB) Downloaded 183 times

Assign your BCF input to the sub master and away you go.

I will try and look at you file this evening and see if I can suggest how it would work for you.

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 8:54 am

OddSocks wrote:
ralbrightii wrote:
OddSocks wrote:Sorry this is just a quick answer as I have not had the time to look at you file yet but could you use a sub master?
How would that work? Sorry to sound ignorant. Can you submitter just 3 channels?

Here is just a quick example.
RGB Test.qxw
Assign your BCF input to the sub master and away you go.

I will try and look at you file this evening and see if I can suggest how it would work for you.

Much appreciated sir.

Took a look at your sample file, and it does control it. The problem would be to get the slider to go to 100% during the sunrise sequence. That would then translate to the BCF Fader 5 going to full and being ready for me to drop down for a slow fade out.

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 3:10 pm

Here are my custom fixtures

OddSocks · Tue May 24, 2016 6:49 pm

Hi,

Have a look at the attached file, have had to play with some loop back channels. See if you can use it to get you further whit what you want.

ralbrightii · Tue May 24, 2016 6:49 pm

OddSocks wrote:Hi,

Have a look at the attached file, have had to play with some loop back channels. See if you can use it to get you further whit what you want.

Can you utilize Loopbacks on a slider while still assigning the slider to be controlled by/controlling a physical slider on the BCF2000? It doesn't appear to allow that to work to me. Or am I missing something.

I am sorry to sound so ignorant, I am still very new to this, but I am a quick study once the material "clicks".

Thank you for your help.

ralbrightii · Wed May 25, 2016 12:02 am

Okay, thank you Oddsocks, that gave me further ideas. I restructured my virtual console to include the Submaster in its own frame with the RGB channels for the flood. Attached is the latest QXW file. To start everything correctly, ensure all sliders are at 0. To activate the scenes as I intend for them to go. Hit "Sunrise" (Fader slot 1 top button), you will notice faders for Scrim Row Intensity, Fiddler Pin (white), Fiddler Roof will raise up (watch the DMX output to see all of the channels). Clicking on "Stage Blue Sky" will launch the other sequence, in which you will see Front Fill Intensity, Row 1 Intensity and Row 2 Intensity faders rise. However at no time does fader slot 8 (the new sub-master) slot raise up on its own. (This is a problem.)

One problem I do notice is that with the sub-master group for the individual channels of the Floods, during the Sunrise (while the button is active) you see the sliders do their dance in R & G (no blue in the color mix), but when the Sunrise clicks off, the RGB faders for the Floods reset to 0.

Looking to the right you will see two buttons (Fade 2 Fiddler and Fade 2 Black), they are designed to fade 1st to Fiddler then to the black. The Pinspots are weird devices and only dim on channel 1 from range 1-134, but that is a full color dimmer only, To be able to do other colors, you must raise the channel 1 to 240 or higher. Then the colors respond. (DUMB I know.) This can be manually activated by the "Intensity Override button in the #5 slot.

Another problem the buttons Fade 2 Black and Fade 2 Fiddler, are suppose to take all levels down to 0, but clicking on it yields a drop to about 3-8 Intensity. Hmm Why is this?

I want to tie these 8 faders into the BCF2000 box, so I can manually fade them down (if desired)

Does this make sense? Help please.

Fiddler on the Roof.qxw: (994.9 KiB) Downloaded 181 times