Sean Meighan
Software => Xlights Setup => Topic started by: George34 on June 21, 2017, 06:45:14 AM
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Ok...running a small show for my 1st year with pixles. 1 falcon board and running 10 stings of lights all with a 50 count on all of them.
So here's my question. When i set up my universes should i put each string of 50 on a seperate universe or let a universe fill up then go to the next one? I plan on getting bigger eventually but figured go small..get my feet wet and build from there.
Any advise will be greatly appriciated.
Thx
G
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You can do it either way. With the Falcon boards its easy to fill up the universe which is the more data efficient way to set it up. You can daisy chain the models in xLights and then when defining outputs on the Falcon after you enter number of nodes for each output you can see where it ends and start the next output one channel higher.
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While gil is right you can do it either way I would go with the policy of always starting a string of lights connected to a string port on a falcon to a new universe and channel 1.
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If you want a middle of the road view:
We use the long string method for everything that goes to a specific controller. (We let the controller make the divisions to the various ports.)
We start each controller on a different "natural break" (as in universe number with at least a pair of zeros at the end. e.g., Controller #1 starts at universe 100 and ends at 193, Controller #2 starts at universe 200 and ends with 205, Controller #3 starts at 300 and ends... [you get the picture].)
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I do it like Al says. Every controller starts on a new boundary but within each controller I run all the channels back to back and I fill up the universes. Keith and I have different opinions on this topic but its probably because I'm only running one prop per output so to start every output on a new universe would be very inefficient use of the data packets. If you are running a lot of elements from one port then maybe that would make sense for you. My method is so fast that I normally redo all my universes every year as I'm setting up...and that's mainly because I've used my controllers for demos and all the channels get messed up during the off-season.
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Thank you .. Really good stuff here.
I drown myself in these youtube vids and just like you all said they do it both ways. With that in mind is there a particular way that will make it ezr for setup/sequencing..etc in your opinion? Like i said tryn to keep it as simple as possible so i csn get the knowledge i need and grow from there.
G
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I guess before I would answer that question I'm curious what you're going to do with that 10 strings of 50 pixels? Are you spreading them all over the yard? Or are they all going to be on one element like a pixel tree?
You're just starting out in this and it could be done either way easily, which way would be easier for you to keep it straight in your head while learning?
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Ask 10 people and you will probably get 10 answers. For instance I also have pixelnet props in my show and they use a 4096 channel universe. So it all depends.........
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10 string (50 count each) will border the house. I figured 1 string per port and 1 universe per port. I think in my head that will be the easiest to do.
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Just watch the quality and length of wire between the controller and the first pixel and I think you'll be fine.
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Quality?
I'm running a centralized set up. 25ft or less is what I'm shooting for. What is the average max length for 1st pixel to the board?
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Quality. There's been some cheap Chinese wire floating around that people have tried with not-so-good results. Nobody's sure exactly what type of metal they are using, just remember copper is King. At 25 feet you should be fine if you make sure you use a decent wire that's at least 18 gauge or better. If you only have 50 pixels per run you won't have much of a load to worry about. As you go forward and get bigger you'll have to think more about things like voltage drop and Signal degradation.
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Well i didn't even think about all that but the lights ive got were from wowlights. They had a 10% off sale so got the lights that i needed from them. I know everyone seems to like RAY but im a very impatient person and he takes to long to deliver. Lol. On that subject who else do u recommend to buy from? I am a firm believer of you get what u pay for.
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Almost all the lights are coming from China no matter who you get them from. I've never thought Ray took long to deliver. It varies based on what you are ordering. Some items he is literally making them after you place the order. All because you buy from a US vendor that costs more it doesn't mean you are getting better quality. I don't believe any of the US vendors actually plug in the lights they are buying from China and testing them before they ship them to you.
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I just got an order from Ray that arrived in LA the day before it was shipped from Hong Kong...lol.
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What site do you go to for him?
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You can find him on aliexpress.com but I'm not sure how to get to his store on there. I followed a link to some lights my first time and then I saved him as a favorite store. A lot of folks email him directly for quotes at ray@rita-light.com.
Gil
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I usually find him just by Googling Ray Wu. He comes up at the top of the page most of the time.
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If you're into lights like most of us going to his store can be a dangerous thing. I usually walk away spending twice as much as I intended. On the bright side it would probably be worse if he organized his store.
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The one thing confusing about Ray's store is it seems like you can find the same item listed 10 different ways.
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His cost is a little lower but his shipn is ridiculous.
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I just got my quote back with a one week to ship time. Then have to wait a couple of days for shipping, but I don't think that is too long. Custom items take awhile and ordering right before Chinese holidays will also result in a longer delivery. I've been ordering from Ray for 4 years and never had really long time and have had a couple that were really short. YMMV
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Another vendor is Roger auchebon, pixelsequencing.com. He gets most of his stuff from Ray. I had my presale stuff in a week. I've had good success from holidaycoro as well, but I'm not a fan of his business style so I haven't ordered from him in a year or so.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
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His cost is a little lower but his shipn is ridiculous.
The more you buy the better the shipping price gets. Remember it's coming from China and I don't think the shipping price is too bad taking everything into consideration. And if you email him he will quote you a better price on shipping. Watch out using a credit card on the Allied Express website a lot of Banks will automatically flag it as fraud and shut your card down.
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This year I ordered my lights from Roger auchebon, pixelsequencing.com. I had credit card issues with Allie. It was not even on my end as I went to My CC before I ordered. Now if you wait for his summer sale his prices are good. In his winter sale this year I got 16 P-10 panels and just over 10,000 bullets (LEDs) and out of all of those I had 1bad LED. Yes it is hard waiting. Great Guy to work with. Ill pay a little more if needed to get the service.
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Another vendor is Roger auchebon, pixelsequencing.com. He gets most of his stuff from Ray. I had my presale stuff in a week. I've had good success from holidaycoro as well, but I'm not a fan of his business style so I haven't ordered from him in a year or so.
Roger is a good friend of mine and I have done some work for him on some commercial installs the last two years. A couple of updates for the record, it is Roger Aubuchon and he buys from Paul Zang. I mention that so that someone will not think that his pigtails are compatible with Rays.
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Another vendor is Roger auchebon, pixelsequencing.com. He gets most of his stuff from Ray. I had my presale stuff in a week. I've had good success from holidaycoro as well, but I'm not a fan of his business style so I haven't ordered from him in a year or so.
Roger is a good friend of mine and I have done some work for him on some commercial installs the last two years. A couple of updates for the record, it is Roger Aubuchon and he buys from Paul Zang. I mention that so that someone will not think that his pigtails are compatible with Rays.
Thanks for correcting me on his name. However, he told me he gets the majority of his stuff from Ray. Not that it really matters in my book.
Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk
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10,000 lights. Holy crap you all are in a different league. I'm over here buyn 600 pixles. Lol feed?
Well another issue came up tonight. What are the rules on this? Do i need to start another
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First it does not matter it its 2 lights or 20,000 we are all here to help each other. This year I went big as I'm changing over all my lights from strips to bullets. The weather here in Rochester takes it toll. If you have a different Issue you would like to address its best to start another topic with the proper title. That will help you get the right people to help you.
One other thing Welcome to Xlights.... There is no stopppppping now..... Catch the Bug
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Well thank you for that. That's good to know. All this has just been a learning as I go thing. All started out with my son wanting lights because our neighbor always goes big with his lights and my son (7yrs old) asked if I could put up more lights cause all I did was one stran of white lights on the roof line. So i said OK and I googled "bad ass xmas lights" and a guy who was using LOR popped up. I did a little research and i did LOR with LED lights. Bought all that i needed..jumped all in and did my show. I didn't even know our neighborhood had a light contest much less that my neighbor had won it for the past 3yrs. Needless to say I won last year so now im looking into better stuff I stumbled onto all this. Even thou i got a perfectly good LOR system in the attic im doing this now. Lol.
Guess if all else fails i can do LOR still. Ha Ha...
Anyways that's my story so just thought id share. Sorry i rambled on.
:)
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I have to say that your story is about the same as most of our stories.
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And here i was thinking I was unique. lol