Messages

1

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Xlights uploading single channel lights to a WS2811 controller

« on: November 21, 2023, 01:27:28 AM »

I came across what appears to be a bug with the way that Xlights uploads something to FPP.
The lights are single channel lights connected to a 2811DC30 which is a 30  dc dimmer which acts like 10 pixels as far as any pixel controller is concerned.
The attachment shows the xlights setup which I "think" will be as right as it can get for this setup.
When uploading the setup to FPP (which sadly I can't screenshot as it was on someone elses computer and I changed the settings after I diagnosed the problem) the 20 single channel props starting with H_Hip_L on channel 218890 and going through to channel 281909 there is a bizarre action.
What is expected is below
Port 2
Prop        Channel  Pixels  End Channel
H_Hip_L   218890    1        218890
H_Hip_Rt 218891     1        218891

What appears in FPP is ODD
H_Hip_L   218890    1        218889
H_Hip_Rt 218891     1        218890

It's somehow allocating minus 1 channel for the prop.

To get going I changed to
Hips   218890  10  218920

Working like this is fine except any channel changes to Xlights will now screw things up as auto upload is turned off for this controller to stop the weird channel config being uploaded. Prior to Xlights being able to push data out to FPP and other controllers it was just a process of assigning a single channel and in the controller linking that channel. The new process is much easier and I hope that there is a solution to integrate Xlights and FPP together without my weird board and single channel lights causing a problem.

thanks
Alan

2

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: 2023.13 and possibly other versions changing ethernet protocol

« on: August 29, 2023, 02:36:53 AM »

DDP is actually my preferred option and I'd stick with that if possible.
I didn't actually know that there was an auto upload configuration. Cool. You learn something new every day.
Is the auto upload config and my e1.31 workaround the only 2 ways of uploading inputs?

3

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / 2023.13 and possibly other versions changing ethernet protocol

« on: August 28, 2023, 01:51:35 AM »

I am currently rewriting the user manual for my HE123 board. Because DDP doesn't support "Upload Input" which is the easiest way to setup inputs to use in what used to be called FPP bridge mode I am using and suggesting E1.31 as the preferred ethernet protocol. Attached are 3 screenshots. The first shows a HE123 with no expansions E1.31 selected (which allows the upload input to be used). As soon as you click on the variant to add 1 or 2 expansions the ethernet protocol changes to DDP which removes the upload input. Clicking the protocol back to E131 fixes the issue.
I don't know if this is a long term behaviour or something that has just snuck in but it's a bit frustrating writing a manual where you have to document what you consider a bug.
The other option which I don't know if it's ever been a thing or not is to allow "upload input" while DDP is selected as the ethernet protocol. It seems that DDP is the default protocol these days but in my own experience the first time that people want to use their controllers they will want them to have them receiving data direct from xlights which would require the inputs to be uploaded to the controller.
Hopefully this is enough info to document my issue. No idea if it effects other controllers.

4

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / FPP Connect pushing wrong controller

« on: October 25, 2021, 04:18:14 AM »

When doing a controller upload in Xlights (2021.Oct.23) and the controller is a Hanson Electronics model HE123 xlights pushes out the data and sets it to  "F16B w 48 outputs no serial" instead of what it should be which is the RGBCape 48F.

5

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Bug with open dmx

« on: October 17, 2021, 05:58:27 AM »

When testing in Xlights I came across the following issue. I was using an open dmx dongle configured for 512 channels. I added a 24 channel prop and didn't assign any protocol type. When testing within the sequencer and clicking on output to lights the dongle fires up and guessing by the data flashing rate just the channels assigned are being sent out. Regardless of the effect nothing occurred on the output of the dmx board. It wasn't until I set the protocol as dmx open in the controller section that the lights would work. Testing from the tools>test the lights would work fine.
A further peculiarity is that until the protocol is set to dmx open the visualise doesn't show the prop/s but the models will show as being assigned to the dongle in the models list at the bottom of the controller config.

6

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Bug with Tools-test-don't send..

« on: October 17, 2021, 05:26:08 AM »

When doing some testing for a noob via Teamviewer this evening I came across an odd issue. The version was 2021.29 so it may have been fixed since then.
The error process was as follows.
-I was testing a P10 matrix and was sending out a universe at a time to check the panel wiring and config. There was 3 lines assigned on the controller tab with 2 disabled and the 3rd line configured for the 75 universe P10 matrix.
-Changing to tools->test I ticked the "don't send data to unused outputs" as I wanted to confirm matching universes/channels etc from xlights to fpp.
-Unticked output to lights and went back to the sequencer tab, clicked on output lights and no data was being sent out to fpp.
-Changed back to tools>test, unticked the "don't send data to unused outputs", closed the test and the sequencer again worked as expected.

7

Xlights Setup / Re: DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser

« on: October 05, 2021, 06:32:12 AM »

Thanks Dan
I possibly wasn't doing myself any favours by using 2021.16. I guess I'll allow it to do an update tomorrow so I can see if anything changed with my issues

8

Xlights Setup / DMX dongles and props. Setup and visualiser

« on: October 04, 2021, 08:41:44 PM »

This is a multi part question and will also be copied across to the Xlights FB page. I'll copy relevant answers across if any posters don't.
Setup 1.
You have an open dmx usb dongle that you add to the controllers tab of Xlights.  No vendor as it's just generic, assign the com port and leave the channels as 512 so that a full universe gets used.
Change to the layout tab and create a 16 string tree, set the string type to single colour, type to "dmx open" and save.
At this time if you go back to the controllers tab look at the usb dongle and under the models it lists the tree there but no way to visualise it.
Is there a way to visualise?

Setup 2.
 You have a pi cape with dmx output that you want to use dmx fixtures on.
You just add an e1.31, set the vendor as fpp, set the model as pi hat and save.
Add the same 16 string tree and either set the type there as dmx open or temporarily leave it as 2811. Then save.
Change to the controller tab and look at the visualiser for the e1.31.
If you set it as dmx open it's there under serial port 1 as tree.
If you left it as 2811 you can drag it across to serial port 3. When you change back to the layout tab the type will have been set to dmx-pro. It will need to be changed to dmx-open.
Visualiser and everything works as normal

Setup 3.
You have a Pi or Beagle  that you want to put a usb dongle on to control some dmx fixtures.
You add the E1.31, add Vendor as FPP but there is no option to just have an open dmx or lor or any other sort of dongle attached.
If you have a RGBcape48 type cape or similar that has pixels but no dmx output you can force some channels onto it but on the visialiser it comes up with an error although it does add a line for a serial port.

 I can all of these scenarios to work as far as the right lights coming on on the right devices but the visualiser is an issue for nearly everything. Some pro tips and/or a good video would be helpful as I am trying to  people out with their setups and the old school way that I do it works but most are now using or are being encouraged to the controller centric new Xlights setup and the visualiser.

9

Enhancement Requests / Automatic lyric track alignment - import

« on: August 19, 2021, 03:40:01 AM »

There's a website https://autolyrixalign.hltnus.org/ that processes lyric files and audio tracks to create a timed lyric track in json, audacity lrc and another format. The Audacity lyric format keeps the lines from lyric tracks together as well as having the start and end time for each word in the song.
This format is essentially all that is required to generate the first 2 lines of a standard Xlights xtiming file.
If Xlights could import the lyric tracks generated natively then it would make it possible to create a fairly well timed lyric track in a couple of minutes.
Below is the first few lines of Santa Clause Lane by Hilary Duff to the format.

[00:08.22] I <00:08.61> <00:08.61> REMEMBER <00:09.57> <00:09.57> LAST <00:10.05> <00:10.05> CHRISTMAS <00:10.89> <00:10.89> EVE <00:11.49>
[00:11.97] SOMETHING <00:13.02> <00:13.02> HAPPENED <00:13.56> <00:13.56> THAT <00:13.86> <00:13.86> I <00:14.01> <00:14.01> COULDN'T <00:14.52> <00:14.52> BELIEVE <00:15.33>
[00:15.81] I <00:15.96> <00:15.96> WENT <00:16.02> <00:16.20> FOR <00:16.56> <00:16.56> A <00:16.68> <00:16.68> WALK <00:17.01> <00:17.55> AS <00:17.76> <00:17.76> THE <00:17.88> <00:17.88> SNOW <00:18.18> <00:18.18> CAME <00:18.66> <00:18.66> DOWN <00:19.29>
[00:19.74] AND <00:19.95> <00:19.95> WHEN <00:20.25> <00:20.25> IT <00:20.04> <00:20.40> STOPPED <00:20.88> <00:20.94> I <00:21.18> <00:21.18> WAS <00:21.51> <00:21.51> IN <00:21.75> <00:21.75> A <00:21.84> <00:21.84> DIFFERENT <00:22.56> <00:22.56> TOWN <00:23.19>
[

10

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 09, 2019, 06:45:21 AM »

Fixed

Thanks Keith

11

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 08, 2019, 09:10:37 PM »

 I created a video that hopefully shows more clearly than my description what the problem is.
For new lyric tracks there's no problem. If you breakdown the words of an old lyric track and there is punctuation marks then that is where the problem occurs.
https://youtu.be/-AF9tgdQjNg

12

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 08, 2019, 07:23:10 AM »

Due to having a play on Zoom with a couple of guys I traced the fault further.
If you breakdown the phrase "Keith is a legend." with new Xlights releases the 2nd line loses the punctuation and becomes "Keith is a legend" broke down into words. Breaking down that further works fine. If however I have an old lyric track that has "Keith is a legend." as the 1st line then the punctuation will remain when it breaks down the 2nd line and the final word would be "legend.". When you breakdown that word you end up with no phoneme.
  For lyric tracks that start from scratch the removal of punctuation gets taken care of.  I am however re-doing about 14 of my old songs that have punctuation all through them which will be on the broken down words line.

13

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 07, 2019, 04:05:07 AM »

When the fault is present it is possible for it to be triggered with standard keyboard entries.

14

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / Re: punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 06, 2019, 06:50:22 AM »

Further info.
While creating a test sequence for Keith I created a lyric track with Keith, Keith Keith! as part of the lyrics. They worked fine. However in the lyric track I added above if I edit in the same word and punctuation marks at the 17.1s mark where I was playing with then they get ignored.

15

Bugs in xLights/Nutcracker / punctuation marks breaking phonemes

« on: May 06, 2019, 06:22:21 AM »

I'm currently on 2019.24 and sometime fairly recently xlights seems to have stopped ignoring punctuation marks in lyrics. When breaking down words as part of the lyric breakdown process if there is a punctuation mark directly after (and in the case of at least commas before as well) the word gets ignored/skipped as if it's not a valid word.
If for instance the lyric has a comma immediately after a work then that work gets skipped.
It's commas, quotation marks, semicolons at least that cause the problem.

Edited to include a lyric track as the fault is WEIRD.

At 17.1s into the track there is the word "walk". It breaks down fine. Put a comma after it and it ignores the word.

Using 32bit xlights btw.