Having issues controling DMXControl with MIDI input

I have been playing with DMXControl for a few weeks now and really impressed with what you can do. At this time I have having some problems trying to get MIDI to control DMXControl correctly.

I have been able to mostly get DMXControl to respond to basic MIDI commands but having a problem triggering a START/STOP command to an effect.

For example in Command Box I am able to make a button by Selecting EFFECT/DEVICE/Start/STOP TOGGLE ON. I can push the button in the Command box and the effect will turn OFF and ON.

I can not make this same command work in the MIDI remote box. Sending a Midi Command of 1/1/1 (Midi Channel/Address/Value) using the same command as above will START the effect but sending it again will not STOP it. It does not matter if the toggle flag is ON or OFF.

To turn the EFFECT OFF I have to send a Midi Command of 1/1/0 (Midi Channel/Address/Value which means i have to send two different MIDI commands depending if I want it ON or OFF. What I want to do is create a single MIDI command that will toggle the EFFECT to START and STOP, just like I can do with a button in Command Box.

To get around this problem what I am having to do is create a new effect that has two Steps with the first Step Starting the effect and the second step stopping the effect. I then configure both steps to "Manual" and then use a midi command to just step to the next step and the effect is on repeat. This is kind of pain to do it this way and you have to make sure the effect is running.

Any help would be appreciated to somehow send one MIDI command and have it toggle START/STOP on an effect.

Thanks.

-Richard Holdman
www.holdman.com/christmas

Below is a screen shot of my MIDI remote box and Command Box.

Good Idea Dennis! I thought about creating an effect that starts the other effects but did not know you could start it in start up. I will give that a try. What I am doing is creating a webpage where you can turn effects off and on and using a program that sends Web input to midi and then using a virtual driver that sends the midi to DMXControl. This way I can make a page that displays on an iphone and you can press buttons on the phone to control DMXControl.

Thanks for the info and I will have to look into some of those things.

I may be working on a project where people can control a Christmas display while they are standing in front of it. Change the color of trees and have it do effects, etc. To make it easy I need it to be a simple web page that people can go to on their smart phones and press little icons to interact with the display.

That makes sense Stefan and I thought it was something like that. The web interface software I am using to create the midi signals does allow you to sing a string of midi commands but when I send both of them it does not work and can not create a delay between them.

Sending two commands got me thinking and I found another method that should always work and you don't have to make sure the effect is playing like I was doing before.

What I did is create a 3 step effect like this

Web Toggle
Chasers->RGB Color Change -> Start (Duration Manual)
Chasers->RGB Color Change -> Stop (Duration 0)
Chasers -> Web Toggle -> Stop (Duration 0)

And then I create two of the same MIDI Controls
RGB Button -> Note On/OFF -> 1 -> 1 -> 0 -> 1
That will trigger) Chasers -> Web Toggle -> Start
RGB Button -> Note On/OFF -> 1 -> 1 -> 0 -> 1
That will trigger) Chasers -> Web Toggle -> Next Step

And it works perfectly! So if the effect is stopped, it will start it and it will also send the next command so if the effect is currently playing it will go to the next step which stops itself.

I have been playing around with the OSC Plug-in and TouchOSC - Cool Stuff! Here is a little sample I put together today. I have an app on my iphone where I can make it be a wireless router, so I was able to have my laptop and an iTouch control DMXC.

http://youtu.be/BiPKm3bim00

These lights are "Rainbow Extremes"

http://www.seasonalentertainmentllc.com/rainbowfloodx.htm

They are mostly used for outdoor type of environments along with Christmas lights since they are weather proof. Instead of each light having its own power supply, you supply the power on the outside and link them together with waterproof cords and connectors.