So Many Questions, thoughts...suggestions please

[dwbarnett]

OK I have several questions while I try and get a handle on some show changes.  I'll try and separate them.  If you want a topic for each question, I can do that.  OK here goes....

1. WEBINAR, is there going to be some sort of a setup for a trail run, so I know I can see,hear etc Sean during his presentations.  I have a headset w/ mike setup, not very comfortable after a while.  What do you folks use?

2. Coro or P10 Better.  Before I used LED's on my monster faces. royal PIA to setyp. I thought about this year creating the images on the P10's(need 4), or get Boscoyo to make a custom Coro of the monster overlayed with either tree or C9 singing bulb, then use pixels.  What would be easier to sequence of the 2, as well as setup. The coro monster right now are mounted on wooden frames. The coro is approx. 5'x5'.

Best source for P10 info and setup? Who do you guys like to use, ie Ray Wu or someone else. I know I'll need some Beagle Bone controllers, do I need 4?

2. FPP/WiFi.  I have read the info on the Falcon Christmas site, still very confused on setup. My FPP came with a USB thingy called a WiPi. I could not for the life of me get it to work last year.  I even had a friend that knows Linux try and get it to work...no go. It would light up, but wouldn't talk to anything.  My goal is to access my FPP wirelessly with Ipad.

What do you folks use for wireless on the Pi?  If you use the WiPi, how did you set that thing up?

Lastly, I used strips last year, lot of issues. When working looked great as they were a dense 150 pixels.

However, looking to switch to nodes and use Boscoyos strips(done with Holiday Coro). I would really like to have a look of my strips with the 12mm pixels. IS it possible to get a custom job with that kind of spacing. Someone mention to use the flat square pixels instead of the bullet nodes, thoughts on this?

If it takes a little more than the standard 5m size, ie strips, I have some room to work with re the mega tree height.

Just trying to get ahead of the game this year.

Any input appreciated, still a learning curve for me.

Best,
David

[babybear]

Strip lights.   Oh yes I love the look of them also. I have used nothing but them.  I will say they are very fragile. Keeping that in mind, mine are all mounted solid. These cannot be free hanging. Mounted to cables or ropes.  On my mega tree they are zip tied to aluminum T angle. My stars at the tops I used 2 sided tape to the t soldered all the connections and cover them in a polyurethane.  Being shorts I lose the silicone covers. Doing a lot of back lit coro I do the same for them. Includes my singing faces.  Good choice of starting now.  Rather be ready early than run late and scrambling.  I have 2 good months in now. 

[danj]

Take a good look at James' Boscoyo website here---http://boscoyostudio.com/products/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_6&products_id=2      James provides 1" or 3" centered holes for the 12mm nodes.   So I think you can pretty do whatever it is you want to do....

[sean]

OK I have several questions while I try and get a handle on some show changes.  I'll try and separate them.  If you want a topic for each question, I can do that.  OK here goes....

1. WEBINAR, is there going to be some sort of a setup for a trail run, so I know I can see,hear etc Sean during his presentations.  I have a headset w/ mike setup, not very comfortable after a while.  What do you folks use?

YES, In the next 1-2 weeks i will advertise a streaming test.

I would think you want the audio on a speaker phone if the headset is not comfortable. We are talking about 16 hours of classes. You can join the zoom conference using your phone instead of the audio from your computer.

[dwbarnett]

Hi Sean, Thank You for the info. I may look into getting a microphone, and listening on my speakers.

Look forward to the experience.

danj, I have looked at Boscoyo's site many times. Hence a lot of my questions, I will not use Holiday Coro anymore. Boscoyo is a good alternative.  I'm trying to get some changes sorted out for this year.

I was hoping for a little better insight from the "experts", especially since it's early in the season.  I learned a hard lesson last year, that pretty much near the Halloween timeframe, it's a lot more difficult to get any help, hence wanting to get a good handle moving forward. So far not moving very far.  Hopeful some can change that for me.

Best,
David

[Steve Gase]

I use zoom all the time for work conferences.
I find using my phone's earbuds work very well for these sessions -- they are comfortable for long sessions.
My computer does take the mic over the same plug, so I use my phone's earbuds for talking. 
if you have a modern notebook you'll likely have a built-in camera.  zoom can do both audio and video -- in addtion to desktop sharing.
As sean mentions you can use your phone for the audio as well... instead of the computer-based VOIP.

[dwbarnett]

Thank You Steve, appreciate the input.

Best,
David

[gerry]

Hi David,

May be better to separate the questions or at least for the ones that you don't get response to .

If you use the P10s , you can have singing face images on them as well as other effects.

Even though I built singing faces last year out of neon flex , this year I will be using my expanded P10s for singing faces as well from time to time as folks have posted some nice images that can be used on the P10s for faces.

I used Wifi to multisynch the PI and BBB last year. Worked flawlessly. I used a simple cheap (like about 5 USD) USB Wifi device from ebay that said would work with the raspberry PI and it did. Don't know anything about 'Wipi'.

I used Chrome on my laptop to access it all the time. There is  one set of parameters to get correct and that it. However people do seem to have trouble in getting it correct.
Mostly to do with the gateway and DNS settings etc between wlan0 and eth0. I thought that I had posted a guide last year, as did others.

I suggest that you try again and then post your question and screen shots of your setup on the falcon site as several should also be able to assist.

I get my P10s from Ray Wu.

You only need one BBB and octoscroller (fits over the BBB). That gives u l support for upto 64 panels.

How do u plan to configure the 4 panels - ? If one on top of the other , than the ribbon cables supplied probably wont fit , but it is very easy to make your own (even I could and did). They fit if the panels are horizontally next to each other in a row.

Hope this helps.



I think that you may be able to run the panels via the PI now/soon , using some sort of 'hat' that folks are making/made - have seen lots of postings about that , but have not paid attention as I already have a BBB.
 

[dwbarnett]

Hi Gerry, Thank You! That is valuable information.  I'll look into the falcon website. I understand how to set up the networking, I just couldn't get that little USB WiPi thingy to work properly.

Cool news re the possibility of running the P10's from the RPi instead of the BBB.

Thank You again for your insight.

Best,
David