APC + Lighting Soft

hello,
I present: Nicolas, 35 years, living in Brittany France,

I want a lighting control software, using a console APC40 Midi.
my knowledge "midi" are limited.
I use the software "Bomes" for troduire data to this software.
I get a good parametrer keys to keyboard shortcuts, by cons I do not know how to act on the LEDs.
example: function inactive: red or orange
and following a command pad turns green ...

I want to know how and whether it is possible, before buying the full version of Bomes.

thank you

Hi Nicolas

I am away at a trade show so I can't give you a full in depth walkthrough of MIDI mapping your APC40, but yes you can control the lights via MIDI Translator. I would recommend finding the MIDI Specification Sheet for the APC40 online to see what commands need to be sent.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to come here

Thanks
Jared

Hi Jared,
thank you for your reply,
I tried to find info on google, but nothing to do, I do not.
I get to send a keyboard command 'when I press a pad

desired operation:
Standby: all green pad
and during an "on", the pad turns red and when ordering "off" pad becomes green.

thank you for your future answers ...

nicolas wrote:I want a lighting control software, using a console APC40 Midi.

Most light equipment is controlled by DMX, instead of Midi. So I suppose you need a device that converts USB to DMX, to hook lighting stuff to your PC (running Bome). I can't recommend any, a quick search gave e.g. http://www.session.de/STAGE-LINE-DMX-1U ... 3god4GIAXg . No idea whether / how Bome supports those.

hi,
you did not understand,
I already used a DMX interface with my software
the APC40 console serves me trigger sequences of this software using Bome'S

nicolas wrote:I already used a DMX interface with my software

Great !

How does Bome output access the DMX interface ? Is this what you mean by "I get to send a keyboard command, when I press a pad". While I understand that Bome is able to do this, IMHO this is like using a back door. Maybe it would be more appropriate to have Bome directly send DMX or use software or hardware with Midi in and DMX out (or Windows message in and DMX out or TCP/IP in and DMX out).

But OK, simulating a key-press is sending a Windows Message. so maybe we are good

-Michael

APC40 -> Bome's -> Software -> DMX Interface -> Lights

Is "software" a kind of Sequencer ?

-Michael

mschnell wrote:Is "software" a kind of Sequencer ?

-Michael

yes

hi,
there is nobody to help me.....

I suppose nobody can verify this without trying if your sequenzer software reacts to virtual keystrokes as desired.

I did not try but I understand that MT can send any keystroke sequence you want to any running application, as a result of any situation you desire, e.g. due to Midi input from the controller.

And it can send any Midi sequence to the controller to make it do whatever it can.

So this should work.

And anyway, AFAIK, the trial is fully functional, so you can test it yourself.

-Michael

Hi nicolas

I have not forgotten to help you, I'm just winding down from this show and still traveling. What you want to do is definitely possible and we should be able to manage the commands in MIDI Translator. I'll be home tomorrow evening and should be able to dig up the APC40 MIDI spec somewhere. You should be able to find the English translation somewhere on the forum here.

Actually, I think this thread should give you a lot of information

http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.ph ... ilit=apc40

hi Jared,
and thank you for your help,
color functions on PAD is ok, but I can not have a proper operation:

desired:

Translator 0.5: cue3
Options: stop=false
Incoming: MIDI 92 35 7F + first push (note on: red) / 2nd push : note off: green
Outgoing: Keystroke: E

Okay, so to do this we need to create a logic with your translators. You want the pad to be lit up green by default and on the first press go to red, and the second press go back to green. Let's start with getting the pads to light up in the correct order. Also, if I'm not mistaken, you want E to be sent as a keystroke every time the pad is pressed.

So, we have our first translator, sending the keystroke:
So now we will have one translator to cover the color signals. To do this we are going to use a global variable, g0. You use global variables to store any value or state you want. In this case we are going to create a simple toggle switch that goes up from 0 to 1, and then back to 0. A simple binary switch. Then, based on the value of g0 will dictate the color of the pad.
So now, every time you press that button the color should switch and the keystroke E should send.

Does that make sense?

Seems nice and easy

But here we see what I meant with sending a keystroke might be a "backdoor" kind of action.

Supposedly he wants that the color on the controller shows a "state" his sequencer program is in (e.g. "running" vs "stopped". )

Now the color is perfectly toggled by MT (in fact always correctly showing the state of "g0"). At the same time the state of the sequencer is toggled by sending it an "E".

This process rather easily can go out of sync (or already start in an out of sync way).

Hence, IMHO, it would be much more appropriate to send the sequencer different key combinations for setting either state.

If the sequencer does not provide such dedicated input actions, of course MT can't help that.

(BTW.: How does MT make sure that the keystroke is sent to the correct Program (i.e. "window" in Windows speak) and not to any other one ?)

-Michael

hi,
thank you for your help,
but I have another problem,
when I touch the pad1 color change ok
when I touch the pad2: Changing the color of pad1 ....
when I touch the pad3: Changing the color of pad2 ....

is this normal?

nicolas wrote:but I have another problem

I'm rather sure you will see the out of sync problem when the system is in practical used.

Regarding your code:

If you want to color-toggle three pads independently, you need a global variable for each of them to hold their current states.

here: g0, g1, and g2 for example.

-Michael

Exactly what Michael said.

Each button needs its own global variable. Global variables are counted as g0-g9 and ga-gz. So you can use g0 for only one button, and g1 for the second button, g2 for the third button, and on and on. You can also use g, h, i, j, k, l, m and n for the beginning letter (g0, h0, i0, etc.)

So each button needs its own global variable. Does that make sense?

Thanks
Jared