DMX RGBW Flood Fixtures

[303Bryan]

From what I can tell, there isn't great support for static DMX flood light fixtures. I am installing DMX RGBW landscape lighting that I would love to be able to easily integrate it in xLights. I've seen some of the workarounds for these fixtures using the DMX moving heads. But, having a drop in DMX RGBW Flood fixture would be a great addition!

If this already exists and I am missing something please let me know.

[Ebuechner]

You would use a single line with the  nodes/string set to "1"

Under string properties select string Type "4 channel rgbw."
Under the appearance settings you could set your pixel size to "100" and your pixel style to "Blended Circle".

[Gilrock]

Yep something like this:

[tbone321]

Would it be possible to add an WRGB option to the 4 channel type.  The DLA RGB floods start with white and it would be nice to more easily integrate them into the display with the correct color order.

[Ebuechner]

Gil or Keith could answer if they're going to add that.
Until then you would follow the instructions above and make a white only flood and RGB flood and match the Channels, then in the layout screen you can put them on top of each other and in a group.
This way you could treat the group as a single flood but it will activate all of the channels when you apply White or you could activate the white separately.

[Gilrock]

You'll probably find you don't like using a 4 channel string type.  Problem is when you drop an effect on the grid we have to make assumptions on whether you want RGB or W.  Currently you cannot activate the W channel at the same time as the RGB channels.  The way it works is you either get RGB or if the color you pick is greyscale meaning R=G=B then we will only light the W channel.

[tbone321]

You'll probably find you don't like using a 4 channel string type.  Problem is when you drop an effect on the grid we have to make assumptions on whether you want RGB or W.  Currently you cannot activate the W channel at the same time as the RGB channels.  The way it works is you either get RGB or if the color you pick is greyscale meaning R=G=B then we will only light the W channel.

That is not much of an issue with me as that is how the Aether works anyway.  If you give the white channel any value other than zero, only the white channel is used and the other three are ignored.  There are times that I want to get the Aethers to be the same color as other nodes and it is difficult when there is no way to set the color order correctly.  It doesn't look like a huge deal to add the new color order and if you are going to have 4 color flood settings, it would be great if they included one that would work with the Aether as there are a lot of them out there.

[Gilrock]

You could run a WRGB device fairly easy using the DMXModel because it lets you define where the red, green, and blue channels fall and then you could just use channel 1 for white and type in 2, 3, and 4 for the RGB channels.  It would allow you to drop On and Colorwash effects to activate the RGB channel or you can use the DMX effect to dial in any channel.  Name the channels in the model definition and the DMX effect will show the names on the sliders.

[ozaz]

You could run a WRGB device fairly easy using the DMXModel because it lets you define where the red, green, and blue channels fall and then you could just use channel 1 for white and type in 2, 3, and 4 for the RGB channels.  It would allow you to drop On and Colorwash effects to activate the RGB channel or you can use the DMX effect to dial in any channel.  Name the channels in the model definition and the DMX effect will show the names on the sliders.

so ....  whats the chance of creating an actual dmx flood model like the OP asked? 

[tbone321]

You could run a WRGB device fairly easy using the DMXModel because it lets you define where the red, green, and blue channels fall and then you could just use channel 1 for white and type in 2, 3, and 4 for the RGB channels.  It would allow you to drop On and Colorwash effects to activate the RGB channel or you can use the DMX effect to dial in any channel.  Name the channels in the model definition and the DMX effect will show the names on the sliders.

While I could jump thru a bunch of hoops as you suggest, is it really that hard to add the new color order for a 4 channel pixel? 

[keithsw1111]

Is it really that hard. No and yes. Adding it is simple enough but because it is used by one person only it becomes a unicorn. A feature so rarely used and untestable that it eventually breaks in some weird and wonderful way and some poor developer is left scratching their head about it.

Consequently we have to evaluate things for their utility and balance that up against the cost. Attitude adds to the cost side of the equation.

[Gilrock]

Dan already added WRGB but I suspect the users will find they don't the way any of the 4 channel string types work.

[jjBrisvegas]

You could run a WRGB device fairly easy using the DMXModel because it lets you define where the red, green, and blue channels fall and then you could just use channel 1 for white and type in 2, 3, and 4 for the RGB channels.  It would allow you to drop On and Colorwash effects to activate the RGB channel or you can use the DMX effect to dial in any channel.  Name the channels in the model definition and the DMX effect will show the names on the sliders.

I used this method and found it quite easy and effective as I have bunch of DMX floods.  I use the DMX model head in bar mode for the actual sequence control (which displays status nicely) and a second single pixel string as described on the layout.  As a newbie it took a few moments of thought but once the first was done the rest was easy.