Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

RGB Tool


Ponddude

Recommended Posts

It seems imperative that the RGB tool is rapidly approaching. I have a question regarding its operation...or in the event that this isn't how it works, a request to add this.

I have designed a few RGB fixtures that I will be using with the DC controller. I plan on having one controller control all my RGB fixtures. My plan had one channel with all red LED's, one channel with all green LED's and one channel withe blue LED's. My ultimate idea for this tool would to be able to take those 3 channels, combined them into one, and then have the software/controller figure out the intensities each channel would need to be set at to create the color I selected from a list. So if I wanted purple it would put 33% red, 66% blue and 0% green in their respective channels and the color would show up in the single channel in the SE.

That probably was not the best way to describe it, but I hope you understand it.

Is this something that is coming or is there a possibility of creating this?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ponddude wrote:

It seems imperative that the RGB tool is rapidly approaching. I have a question regarding its operation...or in the event that this isn't how it works, a request to add this.

I have designed a few RGB fixtures that I will be using with the DC controller. I plan on having one controller control all my RGB fixtures. My plan had one channel with all red LED's, one channel with all green LED's and one channel withe blue LED's. My ultimate idea for this tool would to be able to take those 3 channels, combined them into one, and then have the software/controller figure out the intensities each channel would need to be set at to create the color I selected from a list. So if I wanted purple it would put 33% red, 66% blue and 0% green in their respective channels and the color would show up in the single channel in the SE.

That probably was not the best way to describe it, but I hope you understand it.

Is this something that is coming or is there a possibility of creating this?



Yup, this is how I would expect a color picker to work. You either pick the color and the software does all the work, or you just put in the 3 intensities you want for RGB. Either way, it should be one channel on the sequencer which in turn will control 3 channels. Plus, it will be smart enough to guess the approximate color you made, so now you can see that color on the visualizer. Pretty cool!

At least, that is what I'd hope for! I'll be curious to see if it will also play nicely with firefly, which would be one channel with 3 controller addresses! Ex. (B1, channel 1; B2 channel 1, B3 channel 1.) As opposed to a regular RGB tool which would be B1 channel 1, B1 channel 2, and B1 channel 3.

Edit: I didn't really respond to Ponddude's suggested use. I'm thinking in terms of DMX and Firefly. I am expecting the software to work in logical units of 3. That is, you can reduce a red, green, and blue channel (3 channels) to one channel on your screen. So say you had 5 red, 5 blue, and 5 green DC floods. The LOR tool would reduce that from 15 channels to 5 channels. I'm not sure we will be able to alias the channels like you suggested which would take those 5 channels down to one. That would be pretty neat though. We'll have to wait and see what the software holds. At the very least, your channel count will go down!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

michael.farney wrote:

Yup, this is how I would expect a color picker to work. You either pick the color and the software does all the work, or you just put in the 3 intensities you want for RGB. Either way, it should be one channel on the sequencer which in turn will control 3 channels. Plus, it will be smart enough to guess the approximate color you made, so now you can see that color on the visualizer. Pretty cool!



G'day Michael,

I'm not sure if I've misunderstood your logic, but in your thinking would this still allow you to fade down from one colour while ramping up to another colour for a smooth transition, over a specified timeframe?

I can understand the ability of a colour picker being able to switch instantly between 2 colours using 1 sequencer channel, just not a gradual transition which can be currently done across 3 separate channels separated into RGB.

Cheers,

davidt, Australia
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Is any thought being given to the DMX units with a 4th channel for dim? I know they can be done as a RGB trio, plus an independent dim channel that would most often get left at 100% on, but for simple fading a color out by RGB, you wind up using two or three iDMX channels, where using the dimmer channel would only use one. I'm still scratching my head on use cases to try and figure out how much value would be added having that 4th channel as part of the tool. It may be that the primary value comes in having it in the visualizer instead of having to draw both the RGB, and the intensity channel, and mentally merging them..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Michael...

I like what you said, but I really am hoping you will be able to take 3 channels and condense them into one, even if the controller isn't an RGB controller. Now my particular application would use a DC controller, but I can even see this being used with and AC controller.

Dan, I get what you are saying as well, but is the feature I am talking about a possibility too?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

-klb- wrote:

Is any thought being given to the DMX units with a 4th channel for dim? I know they can be done as a RGB trio, plus an independent dim channel that would most often get left at 100% on, but for simple fading a color out by RGB, you wind up using two or three iDMX channels, where using the dimmer channel would only use one. I'm still scratching my head on use cases to try and figure out how much value would be added having that 4th channel as part of the tool. It may be that the primary value comes in having it in the visualizer instead of having to draw both the RGB, and the intensity channel, and mentally merging them..

Have you tried dimming the R, G, or B channel instead of using the actual dimmer channel? I (generally speaking) always leave the dimmer on 100%. Then if I want a fade down in red, I just fade the red channel. Keep in mind that the dimmer just dims all 3 channels (RGB) simultaneously. So, really, you have no value in using it except for saving you from dimming the 3 RGB channels individually or if your fixture has special effects --- my fixture has strobing effects on the dimmer channel.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Davidt wrote:

michael.farney wrote:
Yup, this is how I would expect a color picker to work. You either pick the color and the software does all the work, or you just put in the 3 intensities you want for RGB. Either way, it should be one channel on the sequencer which in turn will control 3 channels. Plus, it will be smart enough to guess the approximate color you made, so now you can see that color on the visualizer. Pretty cool!



G'day Michael,

I'm not sure if I've misunderstood your logic, but in your thinking would this still allow you to fade down from one colour while ramping up to another colour for a smooth transition, over a specified timeframe?

I can understand the ability of a colour picker being able to switch instantly between 2 colours using 1 sequencer channel, just not a gradual transition which can be currently done across 3 separate channels separated into RGB.

Cheers,

davidt, Australia



Yes, this was a big miss on my part! And if you saw Dan's post above, it looks like this feature will be included!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ponddude wrote:

Michael...

I like what you said, but I really am hoping you will be able to take 3 channels and condense them into one, even if the controller isn't an RGB controller. Now my particular application would use a DC controller, but I can even see this being used with and AC controller.

Dan, I get what you are saying as well, but is the feature I am talking about a possibility too?

This is what I meant to say if I didn't express it right. Dan didn't comment on how the RGB tool will use channels yet.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For an example, I can fade orange by fading from 100% red, and somewhere around 30% green, with both going to zero in the same time.. But it uses two iDMX smart channels instead of one.. If I wanted pale orange, with some blue mixed in, I would be fading three channels instead of one...

The city park show is close to where this would make the difference in needing an additional iDMX or not.. Or the difference of not doing fades..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

michael.farney wrote:

Ponddude wrote:
Michael...

I like what you said, but I really am hoping you will be able to take 3 channels and condense them into one, even if the controller isn't an RGB controller. Now my particular application would use a DC controller, but I can even see this being used with and AC controller.

Dan, I get what you are saying as well, but is the feature I am talking about a possibility too?

This is what I meant to say if I didn't express it right. Dan didn't comment on how the RGB tool will use channels yet.


I just found this post by Dan. Looks like we do get 3 to 1 channel ratios:



There will be a new version of software that has some new features that will address the new RGB device. That version of S2 will have a single channel where you can pick a color (rather than 3 channels to pick the color). It will also allow more than 16 channels per controller so that all channels can be addressed from a single unit ID.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great find Michael!! I most have missed that in my readings.

Thank is exactly what I need!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

LightORamaDan wrote:

RGB support it will allow you to pick a color and to then smoothly transition to another color.



Excellent, thanks Dan. I think a 4th channel support for intensity would also be useful as many DMX RGB spots require an overall intensity channel to be set as well as the 3 individual RGB intensity channels.

Or would the plan be to have the 3 RGB channels consolidated into 1 and still have a separate channel (if required for overall intensity)? Like anything else, we will all probably need to change different aspects of how we sequence when it becomes available and I could live with this.

Cheers
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...