Why can't I get smooth fades?

[erdtas]

Hey guys. I recently bought a residential kit and I'm hooking up 10 spotlights to it with a programmed sequence. I'm trying to get the lights to slowly fade in and out so I've created some 5-second fades. But these don't seem to work properly, when the fade kicks in the bulb doesn't start gradually from 0% but it's lit up and then gets a bit stronger. It doesn't seem to be as bad when fading out but it's still not super smooth. I went into the hardware utility to test the lights, and I'm able to manually try fading them in and out, and they work perfectly smooth then. Do you have any suggestions for what I can do to achieve this same smoothness through the sequence editor? Thanks!

[dibblejr]

Not sure about S5 but in S4 I am able to "fade a fade" if that makes sense. Also intensity settings can be adjusted in S4, I am assuming S5 has that same capability. Are the floods you have actually dimmable?

JR

[erdtas]

What do you mean by "fading a fade"? I have mine set up like this (attached screenshot), are you doing something different?

I'm actually using S4 as well. I am not sure if the floods are dimmable (I don't have the packaging) but I have a feeling that's not the issue since I am able to fade them perfectly manually through the test console (pic attached).

[dibblejr]

My fades work for me and though I cant tell where in the spectrum 0-100 is I can see light gradually increasing/decreasing. I have accidentally fade a fade before to where you almost cant see it but I think that was with pixels. It was a learning curve for me and intensity levels made it worse, or confused me may be the better way of saying it.

The fade you post, imo is to small of a window to visually see the change. I may be wrong though, that is why your eye processes it making you think its not there. 

I only use the fade tool now, console test has always seemed spotty to me. I don't use HU for any more than unit ID and rgb color order changes. All testing is done with my test sequences. Or an actual sequence.

JR

[MichRX7]

Raises hand, "Yes, I too would like to understand this fade a fade policy you have."

In your screenshot it looks like you are doing  0-100% fade down/up in 5 seconds or less. That means in second one there will be no light to very little light. What do your lights look like at that 20%? 10%? On some devices it is less discernible in the lower and upper percentages. On many of my fades I do the 25-100% up or down because I want some of the light on right away. On many I do 25-75% up and then pop the next cell at 100%. Also, what is the light level if you put the intensity at different frames. I would create 5 two seconds frames and set the light level at 20%-40%-60%-80%-100% and watch the difference. Then do the same 10 second fade up in another cell and see if it smoother.

[erdtas]

These are very useful suggestions, thanks! I actually tried a version of your suggestion where I split the 5 seconds into two sections, the first going from 0 to 50 and the second from 50 to 100. This didn't seem any different from the 0-100. I will give doing 1-second intervals a try and see if that changes anything.

My problem is this: with a 5-second fade from 0-100, at 1 second it should be 20%, however it feels like it shoots up to 50% within one second and then gradually goes from 50 to 100 in the next 4 seconds. At first I thought that maybe my lights weren't capable of being dimmed below 50% but that is not the case since I'm able to do it manually through the hardware utility.

[Mr. P]

Not all lights are created equal. I have some lights that when they fade they will shut completely off at 40% and some that can fade all the way down. You do have to verify if the floods you purchased are capable of fading as there are many that are not. They look like 110v floods on a CTB16 so you need to make sure they can fade to begin with.

[erdtas]

That makes sense. I googled the info on the bulb and found that they are 120v floods that are dimmable: https://www.energystar.gov/productfinder/product/certified-light-bulbs/details/2298257

So I assume they should be capable of what I want them to do?

[MichRX7]

Another thought is to take and do the 5 cells at 2 seconds each 20-40-60-80-100. Then in the second row do a 0-100 fade for the full 10 seconds and set the lights side by side. The one should jump every two seconds, the other fade. Every time the one jumps up, the other should be a bit dimmer and fade up to the same.

[erdtas]

MichRX7 you are a genius, I'll test that and see what's going on. Thank you!

[MichRX7]

1 minute ago, erdtas said:

MichRX7 you are a genius, I'll test that and see what's going on. Thank you!

No, just a lot of years debugging computer code.