Sean Meighan
Software => Xlights Setup => Topic started by: Stormyblade on November 02, 2020, 12:20:55 AM
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Recently I had some help from one of the members via Zoom with getting my controllers set up (I use 1 E682 and 1 BBB to drive a 4Wx5H matrix) for my Halloween display. (I had been doing the specific addressing, such as 192.168.5.220:1:1 for the first light in the first model type thing.) Halloween seemed to go off without a hitch...until I noticed that on my Window model, the last light/node in the line was displaying a different color, as if it was picking/grabbing the data from one of my other models. Then I noticed that several of my models were doing the same thing - the last node/light in the string was "grabbing" the data from the 1st light in the next model.
I'm enclosing a couple of screenshots of my xLights setup - 1st is the Controller tab and you can see that I have the device named. 2nd is the Layout and just for reference, my Window model is supposed to be the first universe and the first model using the House lights controller. I've checked, re-checked, and counted three times to ensure I've got the right number of pixels assigned to each model.
Before I go nuts trying to have Christmas work, is there something I didn't read right in the manual? Something that needs to be switched? And, why are there all those ! characters at the start of each channel assignment? Lastly, if I follow the xLights manual and start assigning the models to the House lights controller, and then tell the next model to follow the previous one, the 1st pixel assignment moves away from the Window model to another one and I need it to stay there.
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It is using the first channel, first universe on that controller .. but you have a matrix higher up on the controller tab so it wont be the very first channel. Since the controller is Universe 1 you can determine that it is indeed Uni 1 Channel 1 99 absolute channel is some rather big number becasue of the matrix offset.
As for the ! in front of the controller that is just xlights syntax to denote a controller type setting. Sort of like you see # for hard coded universe or just a 1-9etc number for absolute and and a > for following etc.
Push the config and dont sweat it :-)
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Thank you for that explanation and for letting me know that the ! character at the front of every model channel address is just to denote how it's being addressed. I recall seeing something like that in the manual but didn't expect to see every model address with it.
However, this still doesn't answer my question about why most ( if not all) of the models have the last light in the string running a different color. As an example, my Window model has 65 lights, the 1st light in the string sits at the bottom left corner, and the string moves clockwise around the frame, with the last light in the string ending right at the bottom left corner. My Left Corner, Middle Corner, and Right Corner models are just strings of bulbs going up, with the 1st light at the bottom. If I run a Fan effect across the entire house, what happens is that if the entire string of Corner models is purple as the fan 'blade' moves across, the node at the very top (and end) of the string is showing up as a different color (let's just use green as an example since I'm doing Halloween colors) -- the color of the blade that is moving across one of the other models.
Also, to go back to the addressing concern I had in my original post, if you look at the screenshot of the Layout tab, the first addressed node in my models should be the Window model - it's channel should be 122881, designating it as the first one *after* my Matrix. But, because I used the xLights automatic start channel system by assigning the model to the House Lights controller, that first channel is now set to the Left Corner model and the Window model is now set to channel 122965. That's wrong but I can't change the address. See the screenshot I included showing the Window model.
If I need other screenshots to help explain, just ask. Thanks.
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First off quit worry about the colors until you know your channel setup is correct. Why are you saying the Window model channel is wrong? If you are using Auto mode in xLights and then you upload that config to the controller and it matches then the channel xLights picked is irrelevant.
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Gil,
Thanks for replying. I'm trying not to be concerned, but after seeing a small glitch in the Halloween show, I'm just a little nervous about the upcoming Christmas sequences. I guess I'll just have to upload a couple of them to my Pi (Master FPP) and test them out to see if everything holds. And, I guess you are telling me that I shouldn't worry about the channel numbers being incorrect to what I think they should be - as long as xLights knows how to drive them, and as long as the actual display matches the preview, I should be fine.
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Well I'm just saying I don't know how you are determining what you believe the channel assignment needs to be. You're saying the Window should be the first model on that controller but its showing up as the second model. Don't you set that order in the Visualizer?
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Well, that may be where I'm not setting it up the way it should be. Per the video that I watched regarding model setup you can use the Visualizer and the manual also talks about using setting Start channels automatically, but it would appear that the first port you assign a model to is going to be assigned the first set of channels, then the next port assigned gets the next model, etc. So if I had my Window assigned to Port 14 before, (but it's supposed to using the first group of channels on that controller), and used Visualizer to set up the models, it now assigns the first group/set of channels to whichever model I assign to the lowest numbered port on the controller. It would seem that if I want to keep my Window model assigned to the first group of channels, I need to drag and drop that model over to one of the lower numbered ports inside Visualizer, and then assign the next model to the next port, and so on.
I'm probably way over-thinking all this and probably trying to explain too much. I truly do appreciate the ease-of-use that you guys are working to create for xLights users.
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Don?t fight it. Either give yourself over to xlights and forget about start channels or take control and do it yourself. Being in between is a really hard place to be.
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Keith,
So you are saying to give in...to the *light* side?? ;D ;)
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Okay, I'm coming back to this post because I'm trying to get my Christmas display set up and testing is showing that something is off. I didn't change a thing from my Halloween setup to my Christmas setup other than allowing xLights to do the automatic numbering of channels across all the models.
I let xLights do all the numbering of the channels and simply assigned each model to it's controller. However, when I played several different sequences, the first model under my House Lights controller (in my case, Corner Left) outputs only as bright white for 25 or 26 of the 28 pixels. The rest of the house lights play just fine and do what they are supposed to do.
So when I go back to xLights, and try clicking on the various models, I noticed that every other model highlights in yellow in the preview pane, but the Corner Left model shows up as just grey (or maybe a light blue, or still just white...hard to tell).
Is there a setting I'm missing? Are my controllers defined correctly? Help would be greatly appreciated here as my in-laws are in town and I'm supposed to have the entire house up and running before they leave early next week. I'm attaching screenshots of my controllers and of the preview pane so you can see a model being highlighted.
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as Keith would say ' log into the Zoom Meeting (via big blue button on http://xlights.org/ (http://xlights.org/) ) ' there's lots of people on there this time of year helping people out
Tip: when posting screen shots of your Layout tab, order by Start Chan, it makes it easier to spot channel overlaps or gaps
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Good idea on the Zoom Meeting - I was able to get help from a couple people in there. :)
And I re-ordered my Layout tab...forgot about that when I was changing things around earlier this year. :-[ Of course, I know right where to look, but that doesn't mean everyone else does, right? ;)