Sean Meighan

Welcome => Do You Need Help? Post it here => Topic started by: ghethco on November 14, 2020, 07:32:08 AM

Title: DLA hardware config (Smart Strings/Pixelnet) in xLights
Post by: ghethco on November 14, 2020, 07:32:08 AM

Hello everyone,

"Rip Van Winkle" here :-)  I did a show back in 2013 with DLA hardware and LightShow Pro software/sequencer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04WNWGKyyJ0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04WNWGKyyJ0)

Afterward I put everything in storage and did not do anything with it until this year.  Now I find that the whole world has changed!  The sources for both my hardware *and* software are gone.  I understand that the DLA hardware should still be usable, but so far I have not been able to get it working with xLights.  Hoping someone can help.

Since LSP is defunkt, I looked at both Vixen and xLights.  I prefer xLights, nice interface and more powerful I think.  Maybe slightly steeper learning curve, but I'm willing to invest the time.

I expect to upgrade hardware eventually, but hoping to get a show going with what I have for this year.

Here are the hardware details:

DIY Light Animation main hardware page: http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=Equipment#DMX_Devices (http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=Equipment#DMX_Devices)

Etherdongle:  http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=EtherDongleUse (http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=EtherDongleUse)

PixelNet 16 Port Active Hub:  http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=ActiveHub16Use (http://www.diylightanimation.com/wiki/index.php?title=ActiveHub16Use)

Smart String Controller v4 (many)

Right now I'm mainly struggling with how to do the controller configuration in xLights.  I currently have (what I thought to be) one DMX/pixelnet universe defined with 4096 channels.

Here's what one person suggested:

Active - Active
Vendor - blank
Supress Duplicate Frames - blank
Multicast - blank
IP Address - blank
Protocol - E131
Priority - 100
Managed - checked
Fpp Proxy - blank
Start Universe - 1
Universe Count - 32
Universes - 1-32
Individual Sizes - blank
Channels per universe - 512

Is this reasonable?  Have not gotten this to work yet, but still trying.

Thanks in advance!

Gary

Title: Re: DLA hardware config (Smart Strings/Pixelnet) in xLights
Post by: keithsw1111 on November 15, 2020, 10:33:40 AM

Pixel net is a USB protocol yet your properties suggest you added an Ethernet output.

Title: Re: DLA hardware config (Smart Strings/Pixelnet) in xLights
Post by: ghethco on November 16, 2020, 09:10:37 AM

Hello everyone.  I got this working by just enabling the "Multicast" setting in the xLights controller config.

@Keith -- thanks for the advice.  As I understand it, my EtherDongle converts ethernet (IP) data to PixelNet.  This is now working.

Gary