Author Topic: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations  (Read 780 times)

Offline laserman

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I think have a major design bust in my display but I thought I would ask the experts before I throw in the towel for this year.  I installed icicles across the front of my house every 3 inches, up and down gables, across gutters, etc. They are installed in groups of ten icicles with each icicle consisting of a 16 led strip.  Each group of 10 is controlled by a Falcon F16V3 output from one of three controllers. To minimize wire lengths to the nearest controller I reverse wired the groups on the "down side" of the gables with the intent of using the reverse option on the controller output port to get the correct direction flow.  That appears to be a mistake.

When I reverse the port output for the group to get the direction correct, because the beginning of the first icicle in a group starts at the top and ends at the bottom of the 10th icicle, the entire group is displayed upside down.  I can't scroll text across the icicles, whole house group effects are distorted, meteors go up instead of down, etc., and it is just a mess.  I use a multi-segment poly-line model in X-lights for the icicle model.

Is there a way to correct this problem in software or do I need to rewire everything next year to get it to work correctly?

Offline Gilrock

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #1 on: December 22, 2019, 10:12:12 AM »
Really there is almost no way you can wire it that we can't make work.  I get home in 2 hours and could help with more detail then.  First if you could draw a picture showing how it's wired I'm not sure I follow the text description.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk


Offline Chris Stone

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #2 on: December 23, 2019, 01:21:35 AM »
If I’m reading this correctly it seems to be the same issue I’m having.

You fed the display from the top/right on the section going down the gable?
So your N1 pixel is at the top/right and N160 pixel is bottom/left of those outputs ?


N145.       N129
N146.       N130
N147.        N131
N148.       Continuing in this order to N1
N149
N150
N151
N152
N153
N154
N155
N156
N157
N158
N159
N160


Offline laserman

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #3 on: December 23, 2019, 06:20:36 PM »
Gilrock - Attached is a spreadsheet that I think will give you a good idea of how I have everything wired.  I look forward to your magic.

Offline Gilrock

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #4 on: December 23, 2019, 06:34:04 PM »
Chris is right its an issue with PolyLine right now when you try to use the right side start.  Only way to fix it I believe is to use a custom model.  We probably need to try to fix the code.  Not sure if the Icicle model would work but you can try that.

Offline Chris Stone

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2019, 06:34:41 PM »
Laserman

I was wondering.. on the strings wired per the yellow table, do those sections display the words correctly?

Thanks

Offline laserman

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Re: Falcon Controller output port reverse direction option has limitations
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2019, 06:56:15 PM »
Chris - Yes text will display fine on the normally wired groups.

FYI - For this year I am leaving ALL groups, yellow and green, in the forward direction on the controllers.  I am deleting all of the whole house effects I had sequenced and am replacing them with the same effects applied to icicle sub-models.  Where it is more conducive to the desired overall effect, I am using the "flip horizontal" transformation in the buffer for the green groups that are wired in reverse.  A lot of work, but at least it's an effective solution assuming I get them all changed before it is time to take the display down.  I will rewire everything next year.