The PID library

Every fixture’s maker adds parameters of its own beyond the ones E1.20 defines: a color calibration, a fan mode, a dimmer curve. A fixture should describe each one when asked, and many do. The PID library names the ones a fixture lists but will not describe, so they read as words in the report rather than a number in hex. It also holds fixture profiles: what particular models are known to get wrong, and the channel layouts their manuals give (see GDTF files and the PID library).

What the bench has

Choose Fixture → PID Library… (⌥⌘P) (macOS) to see the tables this bench has, one per brand: where each came from, how many parameters it names, and its source, usually the maker’s manual. Select a table to see the names. Under the tables are the fixture profiles and the quirks each records. This works with nothing connected.

In the report’s Parameters list, a manufacturer parameter the library named is marked table. One marked mfr was named by the fixture itself, or by nothing, in which case it shows as (unmapped): a table for that brand, or a newer one, would name it.

Updates

The library updates itself. Each time you connect, the bench asks the public RDMBench PID library whether there is a newer version and offers it in a banner: Update, Later, or Skip This Version. Only a list of files is fetched, and nothing about your fixtures is sent. Turn the check off in Settings with Check for PID library updates when connecting, and check by hand with RDMBench → Update PID Library…. Downloaded tables are kept beside the app’s own copy, and win over it where both name the same parameter.

Adding to the library

When a fixture describes a parameter the library does not know, the report shows a banner saying so. Propose… sends what the fixture said to the public library on GitHub, for its maintainer to review. Export… saves it as a file instead. Either way it holds the fixture’s own names and descriptions, and nothing that identifies the unit. A fixture that lists parameters but describes none of them can still be sent: it tells the library which ones to look up in the manual.

Fixture → Contribute Fixture Profile… does the same for the model: its personalities, sensors and parameters, as a starting point for a profile.

From the command line

rdmbench-cli pid-tables lists the PID library’s tables and profiles, and rdmbench-cli update-pids updates them (--check only asks). rdmbench-cli export-pids writes the parameters a fixture describes that the library lacks; --share leaves out the unit’s UID.