Strobe not working with flash buttons

[pieterl]

Hi
I'm struggling to connect what I thout would be the easiest fixture
I've got a strobe, the Ayra flash 60 led.
I found a fixture profile but it's not doing what it should: it strobes at the slowest rate conitnuously when the fixture should just blacked out.
Tried to edit the file but one time the strobe remains full on (blinder), the other time it does not react to the 'strobe' button.
Anyone can point me in the right direction to get this fixture profile right?

It's a 2-channel fixture
CHANNEL 1
000-255: 0-100% Dimmer

CHANNEL 2
000-007: Stroboscope blackout
008-247: Stroboscope mode slow - fast
248-255: Sound controlled mode

[pieterl]

Anyone?
I noticed I can set the default value for the dimmer channel on 0. Then, the blinder is not lit anymore.
BUT - I can only strobe when I press the blinder button too.
This makes no sense, anyone can tell me how this is done please?

[axell]

Pieter,
even if you think your fixture is easy, it need some tricks to make it work. I try to explain why:

The dimmer channel is basically an older „relict“ from the past and not (NOT) so much important in today DMX control as it used to be. As a matter of fact in most controllers today the dimmer ALWAYS stays on full 100% (255) to only „switch on“ the fixture. Mostly nothing else is done with Dimmer Channel. All other dimmer control is entirely managed by RGB(WAU) color channels itself (or on a ColorWheel with Shutter & Strobe using the CLOSED Preset).
And this leads us to your problem with your Strobe fixture. It simply don‘t have any RGB channels to control, just a Dimmer without a Color. You only can dim a Dimmer value, which is not a „color definition“. So your Dimmer is full ON but it is not defined WHAT (Color?) IS ACTUALLY ON. So it ledas to the next problem which is the Strobe function: If you put Strobe to a DMX VALUE to Strobe, it „tells THE FIXTURE“ to interrupt -NOT RAISE OR LOWER - „all RGB(WAU) Color Channels“ from their current DMX value to 0 and then release it back to the previous value. Strobe is NOT pushing a value from 0 to 255 and back - not pushing values up and down. It requires a Color to be ON first to CUT it down (interrrupt) only and then release again -so it is just a „bring down and release“. If you set DIMMER value to 0, the Strobe command then cannot „interrupt“ a value from 0 to 0 - by not even having a Color which is ON.

Because of the (simple but) limted DMX implementation of „just Strobe fixtures“ (yours is not the only one) it is really not trivial to get it working using the standard controls when missing Color channels. Therefor my advise would be: If it works when putting Dimmer to 255 and dial up the Strobe value that it is strobing as expected, store this setting on a Live Edit Preset. - done.

[axell]

After some more experimenting and research I discovered a way on Wolfmix, which even makes this "impossible" (2Ch w/o Color) fixture work with the intended Strobe button

Define a 2 beam profile, configure Ch 1 and Ch 2 each with Shutter & Strobe.
Ch 1 Shutter & Strobe (Strobe)
*1. Preset: Strobe Off (000-000) Default 0
*2. Preset: Strobe (001-255)

Ch 2. Shutter & Strobe ("Dimmer/LEDs")
*1. Preset: Strobe Off (000-000) Default 0 (shuts off the LEDs as default)
*2. Preset: Other (001-254) (ignored value used as placeholder between value 000 (LEDs Off) and 255 (LEDs on) )
*3. Preset: Strobe (255) (Dimmer/LEDs On)

Now assign Channel 1 to beam 1, and Channel 2 to beam 2 and you are set. When pressing STROBE button, both Strobe channels change from off (LEDs Off & Strobe OFF) to ON (Dimmer/LEDs ON and Strobe ON).

If your Channels are opposite (Ch1 Dimmer, Ch2 Strobe) just swap the channels in the Profile Builder and also swap the beam assignments to the channels.

The attached profile is matching Pieter original request (Ch1 Dimmer, Ch 2 Strobe)

[pieterl]

Waw thank you for your effort Axell!
Sorry I haven't replied sooner - I didn't use the fixtures because of this.
It's a bit of a shame that a basic strobe needs such a workaround... Would like to hear from the team if this isn't something they would look into?

[axell]

Well, it is basically not a "special" by Nicolaudie, but more a DMX specification per se. And I doubt that Nicolaudie will go a "non-standard way" with Strobe and "break" standard functionality for one Fixture.
Strobe only works if the Dimmer channel is On, because Strobe "interrupts" the Dimmer value to strobe. In the "old Days" you have to raise 2 Faders (1. Dimmer, 2. Strobe). Here it is the same. You can (1.) activate a Dimmer (i.e. White) and then apply (2.) Strobe. Or you press Blinder+Strobe (Blinder activates the "channel dimmers" and Strobe "then can interrupts" them). That is the function how it is working.
If you want to have both activities automated on a single Strobe button, you have to modify the profile to do so (and you can do that easily with the Profile Builder).