First DDF XML File - Looking for Feedback

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    Hello,

    I'm new to DMXControl3, so forgive me if I'm missing something obvious or overlooked documentation that already exsists.

    I've created a DDF for a Chauvet Intimidator Trio light. It works in DMXControl3 and can control the functions that I need. I haven't found much documentation other than the "Lesson 20 Tut 3" page on the wiki so most of this I've done just by reading that page and poking around at the DDF XML files that come with DMXControl3. I'm not sure how 'correct' it is and I'd like to fix it before I upload.

    If anyone wants to look at the attached file, feedback would be welcome. Or point me to documentation I've missed, that would be great too.

    In particular I'm thinking that the "Rotation" feature (Ch 15) of the Chauvet Intimidator Trio isn't implemented properly. I'd love to get it to work just like "strobe" XML element where the is a pulldown that lets you select the type of Rotation you want and then use the slider to choose the speed. However I was unable to make something like that happen. So I've implemented it as five "raw" elements.

    Thanks

    Andy

    Chauvet_Indimidator_Trio_15ch.xml

  • Qasi May 12, 2022 at 8:30 PM

    Approved the thread.

    Good morning and welcome Andy to the DMXControl community!

    I just took a look into your DDF and could see, it's a very good start. Due to the fact, that you look first our english documentation, you are right, that there is not really a lot - and also not really up to date. In the last time, I put a lot of my time in the first step in the German one. They was also outdated, until we start in 2020 our documentation offensive. So what I would like to say: if you take a look in the German documentation of the DDF or also other parts with the help of a translation assist.

    Regarding your first DDF, you saw it already right, that there are some open points in the strobe-tag and a better way to implement the channel 15.

    The main point to the strobe-function: you need to define, in which range of DMX values at this channel, the strobe is disabled. This is the for example range 20 to 24. Here you have an overlapping which the shutter but DMXControl 3 will handle that logical. The second point to the strobe function are the values for the attributes minval and maxval. There you define the "real world" result of this function. That means: related to the strobe, your device is able to strobe from 0 Hz to maximum 20 Hz. According to the manual, the minimum strobe speed of 0 Hz is at DMX value 25 and the maximum of 20 Hz at DMX value 64. The same procedure you should add also to the other strobe modes. At the end, the first lines would look as the following:

    XML
    <strobe dmxchannel="10">
  <step type="open" mindmx="20" maxdmx="24" />
  <range type="linear" mindmx="25" maxdmx="64" minval="0" maxval="20"/>
  <range type="fade out" mindmx="70" maxdmx="84" minval="0" maxval="20"/>
  <range type="fade in" mindmx="90" maxdmx="104" minval="0" maxval="20"/>
  [...]
</strobe>

    To use the rotation and indexing function of the lens in a good way, you can test the following - the index- and rotation function:

    XML
    <index dmxchannel="14">
  <range range="60" mindmx="0" maxdmx="63" minval="0" maxval="60" />
</index>
<rotation dmxchannel="14">
  <step type="stop" mindmx="0" maxdmx="0" />
  <range type="cw" mindmx="128" maxdmx="191" minval="0.05" maxval="5" />
  <range type="ccw" mindmx="192" maxdmx="255" minval="0.05" maxval="5" />
</rotation>

    By this example, I assume some points:

    • the maximum indexing angle of the lens is 60 degrees
    • the maximum rotation speed is 5 rotation per second
    • stopping the rotation is set to DMX value 0

    I hope, you can follow me so far and my tips will help you to improve your DDF. If there are some further questions, don't hesitate to ask. :)

    Best regards, Stefan

    Thanks Stefan!

    The link to the German docs will work fine. Not sure why I couldn't find that myself earlier.

    I implemented the strobe function as you suggested. It works great. I've updated to make the "real world" rate match the min/max value. This works for the "linear" type (0 to 20hz as you mentioned) but the other types have a different max hz. I tried to implement it as shown below but either I still don't have the XML correct or DMXControl3 just ignores it and always uses 0-20 in the GUI. Honestly, it doesn't really matter for my use, I'm happy with the way it is working, but if there is a better way to implement just let me know.

    The rotation continuous rotation (channel 14) is working perfectly, however the indexing is not. From looking at the "Channel Overview" tab, DMXControl3 has a value of 04 on channel 14 at initialization and then and ignores the "Index" slider.

    I have a couple other Chauvet lights (simpler than the Intimidator Trio) that I'm going to switch to and write DDFs. Once I've uploaded those I'll come back to the Intimidator Trio.

    Thanks again for taking the time to look at the XML and providing feedback. From looking at the other posts on the forum, I can tell you guys are very busy so I appreciate your help.

    Andy

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