Moving Head Advance Effect - Color Wheel also turns on dimmer

[marklancer]

NOTE: IF YOU DO NOT ATTACH A SEQUENCE THAT DEMONSTRATES YOUR PROBLEM THEN THERE IS A HIGH PROBABILITY YOUR ISSUE WILL JUST BE CLOSED AND NOT INVESTIGATED.

Describe the bug
When using the color wheel to select a color on the MHA effect the dimmer channel is automatically set to 100%

To Reproduce
See attached sequence and screen shot below. The first effect selects the color wheel using the channel and the dimmer is not activated. The second effect selects the color wheel within the MHA effect and the dimmer channel is set to 100%

Expected behavior
Selecting a color using the color wheel should not have an effect on the dimmer channel. Typically when sequencing you would select the color prior to have the dimmer on to give the head time to cycle to the desired color.

Screenshots

Versions (please complete the following information):
Windows 11
2024.08

Additional context
Add any other context about the problem here.

Attachments

• If associated with a crash please attach/link to a dropbox containing the crash log that was produced
• If it crashed but no crash log was produced please use Tools Menu/Package Logs and attach/link to a dropbox containing the resulting zip file
• If the error relates to rendering an effect or a crash while sequencing please use Tools Menu/Package Sequence and attach/link to a dropbox containing the resulting zip file

If you would prefer not to post your sequences publically please say so and be ready to PM them to one of the developers when asked.
MHA Testing.zip

[AzGilrock]

I actually didn’t write any dimmer control for the moving head effect. I linked into the preexisting color wheel support in xlights. So I don’t even know how that works until I dig into that code

[AzGilrock]

It looks like the DmxColorWheelAbility class has always turned on the dimmer channel based on the color value being commanded. If you were running moving heads before my new model/effect you should have seen the same behavior. If I change that it could break existing sequences so I would need to hack in a new option that turns off that coupling.

[computergeek1507]

When I added the color wheel code, I planned to add a "wheel delay" to turn off the dimmer or turn on the shutter during color changes but didn't get to it. My workaround was to turn on the shutter during color changes. My heads also have an option to automatically turn on the shutter during color wheel rotation. I personally like having it control the dimmer so I don't need to set it in a separate effect.

[AzGilrock]

Yeah that's fine we probably just need to add a checkbox for independent dimmer control.
I have an idea I'd love to implement just not sure if its feasible. I don't like how everyone has to go outside the effect to turn the lights on and off so I thought it would be cool to have another tab that is like a little mini sequencer window where you could drop just On effects to control the dimmer during the duration of the effect.

[dkulp]

Could it just be a value curve?

[AzGilrock]

Yeah I did think about value curves but I was thinking of it like we normally use them like having a slider and the button to bring up the curve dialog. That's a little clunky for the average person wanting to tweak values. So maybe a value curve nested right into the tab like the position grid and provide easier ways to interact with it. People would probably need the timing marks echoed down onto the grid to know where to line things up.

[AzGilrock]

And to flow with how the effect works it would need to be able to have independent curves for each head or set of selected heads. Might be cool if the curves for the inactive heads were also shown dimmed out below the active curve your working on. Sounds like a good idea to work on that could use the existing value curve class.

[marklancer]

I haven't ever sequenced directly with the color wheel so I didn't realize that the current behavior is the expected behavior. Knowing that now, it would be simple enough to turn off the shutter during a color wheel change if the beam display is not wanted.

The issue could be closed unless you developers think there is a benefit to adding some sort of de-coupling method.

Thank you for your efforts.