DMX output Steps

I'm not quite shure I get what you are trying to convey...
The console uses the full DMX-resolution availiable to fade. Be it 8-bit (256 steps/255 above zero) or 16-bit(65536/65535 above zero).

If you hold the Data key (or press it once to lock), you will see that the console does not fade from 7% to 0% in 7 steps, but actually in 0.001% decrements. This applies to any parameter.

 

The colorshifts you experience are almost certainly caused by the fixture itself.
Most LED-fixtures on the market are not built to be faded out over a long period of time.
Long fade times in the lower intensity-ranges are what seperates wheat from chaff. ´

Yes for your observation on the color shift. The intensity is basically a multiplier for the values of each color (think of it as a proportional fader) due to the resolution, on color could be already off whilst others still have outputable values. Hence the color shift.

i agree with the others. during a fade, although the Live display shows percent, the actual output goes through all the available DMX-Steps. so going from 7 to 0 percent outputs values (roughly) 18 through 0.

regarding the color. let's do an example: you start with a color that has blue @ 255 and red @ 10. now you fade out the intensity. intens is a factor over the color values.
100%: 10/0/255 (RGB)
50%: 5/0/127
10%: 1/0/25
5%: 1*/0/12 (1* depending on rounding)
4%: 0/0/10

depending on the product and the calibration (or lack thereof) of individual fixtures you might not get output with a DMX value below a certain value. because dimming LEDs is hard let's assume that a certain striplight can't output a color if the DMX value is below 5 (less than 2%). then you'd lose the red part of the color mix already at 49% intensity of our example.

Thank you, that makes more sense.
It's another case of being taught something that isn't true by someone who never knew to begin with.

My local rental house has tonnes of ChromaQ's ColourForce IIs and I've yet to have a good experience with them in a theatrical environment. The max value we'd output them would be ~20% & then I'd get blamed for their shitty curve.

It's just nice to eliminate all of the other possible causes and focus on an inappropriate fixture for what we're trying to do with them.

Thanks everyone!

there might be a workaround: because you never use them above 20% you can put an ND filter in front of them and then compensate that with higher output. the overall intensity is the same, but instead of using only 50 DMX steps (0-20%) you could use a bigger range. hence when dimming over 10 seconds the distance from step to step is shorter and less noticeable.
ND filters are the grey ones. the lee numbers are (increasingly darker) 298, 209, 210, 211, 299.