Those of you using the AlphaPix 4 Controller

[kentd]

I have noticed some posts of people wanting to use the AlphaPix 4 Controller and I want to give some heads up so you can avoid some problems that may stump you when they come up.
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. Each plug can control 600 individual pixels or nodes.
I just put together a 18 x 25 matrix which is 450 Nodes and the data is from one plug but the 12+ is split into 3 separate strings of 150 Nodes. When I set up the Raspberry PI to run this matrix I had to make sure that each Universe on the PI running in Unicast mode was only 510 Channels and the start channel was 511 on the next Universe and so forth. In other words the Matrix starts on channel 1 and goes to 1350. The matrix is 1 String 450 Nodes and 18 Strands. When the PI was set in this manner everything the AlphaPix controls works as it should. If per chance you start the Universe two on Channel 513 and so forth trying to skip the two extra channels you will not have your model work correctly.
I just want to save some of you some grief when you have weird things happen.
BTW My show controllers are Falcon 16 V 2 Units and I am using three of them.
I have a pair of Starbursts mounted on 10' poles with a firestick going up the pole, A mega tree with 180 degree 79 Node Strings for 24 Strings, A Starburst on top of this tree, 5 globes mounted on Large Candy Cane Striped Posts with Dalek Mini Trees between the Posts and a 42 x 50 Node Matrix.
One Falcon runs the two Starbursts and Firesticks plus other items that I haven't put together yet. One runs the megatree with it's Starburst, the Globes and Dalek Trees and one runs the Large Matrix.
I hope this post may be of some help to those of you wanting to use the AlphaPix Units. They do work but until the firmware gets some upgrades they do have limitations that the Falcon controllers do not have.

[flyinverted]

The same is true for any controller EXCEPT The Falcon16.  510 limit per universe for RGB.

[jnealand]

The same is true for any controller EXCEPT The Falcon16.  510 limit per universe for RGB.

Not quite true.  All the DLA Lynx equipment works fine with 512.  It is all those not from the Lynx or Falcon lines.

[flyinverted]

All will work with 512 for pure single channel needs.

The issue of 510 vis 512 comes into play with RGB.  Can the Lynx in fact do RGB with 512 per universe? If so that is cool.

Pixel #1 = Ch 1,2,3
Pixel #2 = Ch 4,5,6
...
Pixel #170 = Ch 508,509,510
Pixel #171 = Ch 511,512, XXX

Can the Lynx map that last blue channel on Pixel #171 to the next universe?

[Gilrock]

I use 512 for all my J1SYS boards but they don't cross universes.

[jnealand]

Can the Lynx map that last blue channel on Pixel #171 to the next universe?

Lynx is the originator of pixelnet and it is a 4096 "pixelnet" universe.  We just use all channels sequentially.  Never had a problem the last two years.

[kentd]

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. 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. 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. Yes the price is less however the versatility of say the Falcon controller is going to be more to what a serious display is geared to which is why I only use the Alpha Pix as a test for strings and some effects but run a display from a Falcon. Just to let you know and save some grief later if you expect more from the alpha pix.

[HolidayCoro]

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.

[HolidayCoro]

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

[Gilrock]

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.

You can define 6 node orders in xLights on a per model basis.  If you have multiple node orderings in the same display element you can deal with that using multiple models to match the node ordering and then tie them together in a model group.  If you delve into xLights you'll find it's more "advanced" than all the sequencers you can purchase.