Submasters - Dimmers to control dimmers

Plugins & Plugin Development
#21

The Master virtual device, controls both those two lamps as seen in the screen shot.

I expected if I turned off Lamp Left and turned off Lamp right that the master would see the change and set itself to 0%

But its not working as I thought, but I understand why you have said its only one way Master → Submasters

#22

Yeah, it’s all probably more complicated than your particular usage, because I’m guessing your lamps are just 1-1, that is, all of your submasters are at 100% when the master is at 100%. Other scenarios start to get complicated to figure out the possibilities when you consider that, in reality, you can by design set it up so that Master at 100% means Lamp Left at 75% and Lamp Right at 100%. If you then change Lamp Left manually to 100%, there’s no place for Master to go.

I know you’re a PLEG guy. But there was discussion in the Reactor topic a while back about keeping a number of dimmers/switches in sync at 1-1. Doable, of course.

#23

Yes that’s correct 1 to 1

#24

@rirgpapa—that is correct. The master, frequently called the “Grand Master,” is the top level control element. It affects everything below it and is a one-way, top-down relationship. It is not affected by changes made to submasters.

Your example is correct. The modern concept of master and submasters came from the first electronic control systems where electronic dimmers responded to an analog control signal, zero to 10 volts DC, for example. The grand master was a potentiometer fader (variable resistor) with the top connected to +1) VDC and the bottom connected to circuit common. The wiper of the fader would move from 0 t0 10 volts as the fader was moved from bottom to top. The output of the grand master fed all the submaster faders and the individual channel faders. Switches were used to select whether an individual channel fader was directly connected to the GM output or that of a submaster.

If the GM was set to 50%, the maximum possible output of any channel was 50%. An individual channel on a submaster set to 100% would still have a maximum output of 50% because the submaster is fed from the GM. Lowering the submaster to 50% will produce a maximum output of 25% for an individual channel set to 100%. THe system is a set of cascaded voltage dividers and you can’t get out more than you put in. In Vera, the faders are virtual but the sames rules must apply.