Okay, sorry for the delay. I haven’t had lots of tinkering time and have been split between DMX and the new LCARS interface on the other thread.
The short answer is that it’s pretty easy. I run openHAB (and a bunch of other stuff) on an Ubuntu box inside Docker. For my desktop setup, I have a two-monitor MacBook Pro set up, with a RPi4 connected to monitors on either side. The Pi monitors are for light web browsing, logs, and a HABpanel to stay up whenever I’m at the desk.
For the moment, I have QLC+ installed on the RPi4. Like I said elsewhere, I am using the paid version of QLC+ (€15 for lifetime updates). The author makes a pre-built image available, but I installed the .deb package since I’m using the Pi for other things as well.
The package includes the typical QLC+ program (the same as available on Mac) as well as a systemd service version that exposes control via a webpage on the local network. The service version is limited to basic control and doesn’t offer you the ability to create much of anything, so it’s usefulness is limited to running projects that you create using the full version.
At the moment, I’ve found it easier to just run the full desktop version while I build up my DMX system. Once it’s mature, it will be easier to run it on the systemd version.
Yes, it’s straightforward. I have openHAB communicating with QLC+ on Universe 7, and it’s open as an input only universe in QLC+. There’s two options, as far as I’ve discovered, for passing openHAB instructions onto devices with QLC+ in the middle.
- Configure a universe (ArtNet or SACN E1.31) as an input from openHAB and as an output to wherever your lights are. When set up this way, openHAB continually overrides any local setting on QLC+, so openHAB has the last say as to how the light is displaying.
- Set up a dedicated input universe to communicate between openHAB and QLC+. Then, add items to the virtual desk and configure them to react to input from the openHAB input universe and then output to either a scene, a chaser, or to a level on a channel.
I’m using the second approach. It’s more work to setup but respects the chasers rather than overriding the levels with an openHAB color item.
Does that answer your questions? I found the QLC+ video tutorials helpful in figuring this all out.