adding xLights elements to existing LOR sequences

[patdelaney]

I can’t find the answer to this so I will ask, sorry if it’s a duplicate.

Scenario:
I have been using LOR for 3 years, and every year I just add to the existing sequences and perhaps add new ones.
I have mixture of LOR controllers, USB DMX dongles for Dumb pixels, and e1.31 Ethernet to dmx bridges, and some wireless DMX transmitters/receivers.
  This year I want to add an 1800 channel smart pixel mega tree. I want to use xLights/Nutcracker to do the sequencing, but then I want to incorporate those new elements into the existing sequences. As far as I can tell there are 2 possibly, but not sure if my assumption are correct.

Option 1:
Can I import the existing LOR sequences into xLights/Nutcracker and add the new megatree and still preserve the existing data in the sequences, then export back to LOR. Open that new sequence in LOR and the old data is there as well as the new megatree.

Option 2:
Create a new sequence in xLights/Nutcracker with the megatree and the export it out as LOR
Open old sequence in LOR and add the new dmx channels
In a second window open the megatree sequence that we just created and cut and paste it into the original sequence in the new channels?

I am hoping option 1 is implemented.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Pat Delaney

[sean]

both options work (and have for the last 18 months).

Option 1) this will make a larger file, but it works
Option 2) The better than option1 method is to create effects in xlights and bring back as a LOR Clipboard file (*.lcb) NOT a *.lms file. You then paste the xlights effects wherever you want them in LOR

The best solution, as related to me from LOR users, is
Option 3). Bring in your lms LOR file (Like Option 1) and then never bring it back to LOR. Run you entire show using xlights as the show player. The xlights player can easily do 30-40K channels with no lag.
You could also export the combined sequence as a *.fseq file and run your show on the Falcon Pi Player. This is what I and at least a dozen ohers do.

You have a small enough channel count you could use any of the three. Last year I had 24,000 channels and was very happy with the pi player. I used only xlights as my sequencer.

[JonB256]

I endorse Sean ' s option 3. Worked great for me. Until LOR changes something, big RGB displays are unwieldy.

http://vimeo.com/84737286

[patdelaney]

So option 3 does sound interesting, but how does xLights connect to the existing LOR controllers?

Thanks for the info so far?

[sean]

The SETUP tab of xlights can define interfaces for E1.31, renard, dmx, opendmx.

I understand you can setup your LOR hardware to be able to work with E1.31 and DMX. JonB can describe it.

Remember xLights was originally writtn in 2010 to be a show player for LOR. Matt Brown is a big LOR user (author of xlights).
Think a very slim, powerful player able to run 30-40K channels with no lag.

One caveat to be aware of , xlights takes in a LOR sequence and converts it to 50ms frames, fixed timing. rhis allows it to be fast and no lag.

[JonB256]

The SETUP tab of xlights can define interfaces for E1.31, renard, dmx, opendmx.

I understand you can setup your LOR hardware to be able to work with E1.31 and DMX. JonB can describe it.

LOR Hardware understands LOR Protocol and DMX protocol. Last I checked (and I don't check their forum that often except for software updates), they don't sell anything that understands E1.31.

Now, LOR S3 Advanced works great output E1.31 in either Multicast or Unicast. I ran two seasons that way. Last season I still used my LOR Sequences, but converted them in xLights to the "xseq" format that Sean mentions. Then I added my pixel routines to it. Except as an experiment, I never took xLights/Nutcracker data back into LOR. I was over 6000 channels and it was too slow for me to work with.

My final step was to convert the xseq file to fseq format and then used the Falcon Pi Player (FPP) to control the yard instead of tying up my programming computer and home network.

I use nothing but DMX output (I consider Pixelnet just another DMX - on steroids). So, if you need help outputting and configuring LOR protocol output from xLights, I really don't have hands on experience (3 years out of date, anyway).

JonB

[patdelaney]

Thanks for your advice.. not sure what I want to do yet. I did order a couple Raspberry Pi so I can experiment with Falcon Pi Player. I still have some non RGB elements that I want to keep around. I'm familiar with LOR S3 UI for programming non RGB, I'm not sure how to do that with Nutcracker yet.

I'm going to The Ultimate Academy  I hope to walk a away with a ton of new ideas.

Pat

[JonB256]

Pat, I'll be there, too. I'll be hanging out near the Falcon booth a lot. I still do my non-pixel stuff in LOR.


http://vimeo.com/84738693

[patdelaney]

So I got my Raspberry Pi today and I got the software loaded and updated. In looking at the Web UI it appears that LOR protocol is not supported, just DMX or Pixelnet. I gues If I want to use my LOR controllers, I will have to switch them to DMX.

Do I loose any functionality by doing that?

[taybrynn]

You lose a tiny bit .... Like LOR hardware based shimmer and twinkle but DMX has something similar to replace them ... But DMX is way faster and scales much bigger and has other desirable benefits ... Switch to DMX sooner rather than later

[ValentinoRx]

both options work (and have for the last 18 months).

Option 1) this will make a larger file, but it works
Option 2) The better than option1 method is to create effects in xlights and bring back as a LOR Clipboard file (*.lcb) NOT a *.lms file. You then paste the xlights effects wherever you want them in LOR

The best solution, as related to me from LOR users, is
Option 3). Bring in your lms LOR file (Like Option 1) and then never bring it back to LOR. Run you entire show using xlights as the show player. The xlights player can easily do 30-40K channels with no lag.
You could also export the combined sequence as a *.fseq file and run your show on the Falcon Pi Player. This is what I and at least a dozen ohers do.

You have a small enough channel count you could use any of the three. Last year I had 24,000 channels and was very happy with the pi player. I used only xlights as my sequencer.

Is there a tutorial or video on how to create and export the clipboard files?

[patdelaney]

Noted .... Thanks for all the valuable feedback.

[ValentinoRx]

both options work (and have for the last 18 months).

Option 1) this will make a larger file, but it works
Option 2) The better than option1 method is to create effects in xlights and bring back as a LOR Clipboard file (*.lcb) NOT a *.lms file. You then paste the xlights effects wherever you want them in LOR

The best solution, as related to me from LOR users, is
Option 3). Bring in your lms LOR file (Like Option 1) and then never bring it back to LOR. Run you entire show using xlights as the show player. The xlights player can easily do 30-40K channels with no lag.
You could also export the combined sequence as a *.fseq file and run your show on the Falcon Pi Player. This is what I and at least a dozen ohers do.

You have a small enough channel count you could use any of the three. Last year I had 24,000 channels and was very happy with the pi player. I used only xlights as my sequencer.

Is there a tutorial or video on how to create and export the clipboard files?

[sean]

Yes, one of the seventy I have done. It would have been titled lor and xlights. Maybe six months ago?

Really just export as lcb from xlights instead of lms. That is all for the xlights side.

Now on lor, you need to import in a lor clip board , lcb. You then highlight that effect and select a cell and type ctl-v

[danj]

I am interested in learning how to pull my LOR files into XL/NC and "adding" the effects (e.g., new megatree for 2014) I have developed this year to my 2013 files.  I flipped through Sean's tutorial videos on VIMEO and none jumped out at me as telling me how to do this.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  Thanks.