Messages

1

Lights / Re: Supplier for LED strips

« on: September 11, 2015, 02:22:00 PM »

I've spent quite a bit of time shopping online. I think I've been through Ray Wu's entire inventory and the usual suspects stateside. I came across a company in Texas SIRS-Electronics. They have all the high-end DMX Starwars stuff and a section on low-cost RGB.

There's lots of info in spec sheets and wiring diagrams. I sent a general sales inquiry via email and they responded in two business days. It looks like they have  5050 60LED/m RGB 12VDC for $35/5m spool. If I'm not mistaken, it's 4 wire. Connectors, power supplies etc.

Any advice or customer testimonials is appreciated.

60/LED m dumb RGB led isn't that commonly used - what is it you are building?

2

General hardware / Re: help with alphapix 4

« on: September 11, 2015, 12:47:41 PM »

Bigstott if I fire it up in test mode it seems to work fine no flashing and I have switched Cat5 cables to see it that was it.  Unfortunately the thing I am the worst at is probably what is the problem the network

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

I'm not sure if you've open a ticket but random flashing is a result of the following (assumes you are not using LOR S4):

* A second application is outputting data to the controller at the same time.  If you have more than one PC configured for E1.31 output (more so for LOR S3/4), make sure by unplugging the PC from the network when the problem happens

* Anitvirus and Firewall application that are performing packet inspection and delaying packets going to the controller.  This is the #1 cause we've seen.  Try another PC and/or disable the firewall/Anti-virus for testing.

* Networking issues such as wireless networks can result in a vareity of issue - we recommend if you have problem and have the controller receiving data over any part of the network that is wireless, make a direct connection

* Its rare but we have seen cases where multiple network interfaces on the PC can produce the odd output issues.  Try disabling all but the interface used for testing the output of E1.31.

3

General hardware / Re: help with alphapix 4

« on: September 11, 2015, 12:42:02 PM »

Paying $40 for support is nuts, that's almost half the price of the board.

James

We are more than happy to provide support for the controller without the purchase of the support - the optional support is ONLY for PC configuration - Firewalls, IP Addressing, sequencing app configuration etc. 

Since we provide such hands on support for customers, it can easily take 15, 30, 45 minutes with a customer to work through a whole host of issues that customers who do not even know what an IP address is, to get them up and working.  The reality is - this cost money since it costs us a minimum of $36 per hour to provide this support.

So, any issue covered under the optional support has zero to do with the controller - it has to do with items outside such as the sequencing application, anti-virus applications, firewalls, wireless networks, etc.

For any customer that has hardware controller issues - wiring, getting output from the controller, configuration of the web interface, etc - this is 100% FREE and included with the purchase of the controller.

For more information on what is covered and what is not, please see our website:  http://www.holidaycoro.com/product-p/support1.htm

4

Show Assets / Re: HolidayCoro WEB

« on: September 11, 2015, 12:35:00 PM »

The other posts about the nodes being different are correct - while in theory all nodes should fit into a 12mm hole, after you work with a lot of different vendor pixels you come to find that nodes differer in diameter, materials (soft to stiff) and even the space between the "fingers" that grap onto the material.  The material in this item is ABS but due to some of these issues with ABS and it's rigidity, we are going to be switching back to HDPE for all but a few items since it is a bit more forgiving for node installation.

I wish there were standards that we as manufacturers could follow but there just are not any and this sometimes makes it hard for us to meet every requirement customers may have for these types of products.

Thank you,
David
HolidayCoro.com

5

General hardware / Re: Those of you using the AlphaPix 4 Controller

« on: September 11, 2015, 12:22:45 PM »

I have an Alpha Pix 4 and one other thing that I did not mention but can affect how you use this controller until David Moore gets the Firmware updated is it only will address Universe 1-16 not any higher.

We have released updated firmware that allows 999 universes and that can be found here:  http://www.holidaycoro.com/firmware

Also you only have RGB or other output from the entire controller so if you have both RGB and BRG Strings they will not work correctly on this controller, you can have one or the other but not both as each plug will only play what the controller is set for.

Yes, this is the case with the current AlphaPix controller and is listed in the product specifications on the website.  We designed it primarly based on the use in a single element with a single pixel type (megatrees, outlines, etc).  We are releasing a new AlphaPix controller in the near future will support mixed color orders on each SPI output.  This may or may not be a problem - for more "advanced" sequencing software, the software can map to different color orders, for other simplier applications, they assume an RGB only mapping.

The next thing is you only have 4 plugs so one plug is Universe 1-4, next 5-8, next 9-12 and finally 13-16. If you set a plug for less than the four you will limit what can be controlled.

I'm not sure I understand this "limit".  The AlphaPix 4 has four SPI outputs, each can handle 680 pixels and so naturally this means that any given output must use more than one universe if you have more than 170 pixels connected to it.  So, 680 pixels is 2,040 DMX channels or 4 universes of data, so natually if you were to load up an entire AlphaPix 4 controller with 680 pixels per output, you are going to use up 16 universes of data.

Again, hopefully this better explains how the addressing works within DMX.

Thank you,
David
HolidayCoro.com

6

General hardware / Re: Those of you using the AlphaPix 4 Controller

« on: September 11, 2015, 12:13:53 PM »

First of all do not try to use 512 in your Universe Setup in Xlights. It will not work with this controller, you will get pixel color shifts when you cross Universes.

I just want to save some of you some grief when you have weird things happen.

This is normal and a by-product of DMX which is not evenly divisable by 3.  As such, only 170 pixels can fit into one universe and you end up with 2 left over DMX channels (511,512).  The controller either has to use them up as in:

Universe 1 / DMX Channel 511 = Red
Universe 1 / DMX Channel 512 = Green
Universe 2 / DMX Channel 1 = Blue

or skip over them, as in:

Universe 1 / DMX Channel 511 = Unused
Universe 1 / DMX Channel 512 = Unused
Universe 2 / DMX Channel 1 = Red
Universe 2 / DMX Channel 2 = Green
Universe 2 / DMX Channel 3 = Blue

Hopefully this better explains how controllers using standard DMX addressing handle more than 170 pixels on a single SPI output.