Big arches

[gadgetsmith]

You know I used to be that guy that didn't want to pack my universes either.  But the F16v2 has made it so easy I switched all my stuff over to pack it in there.  I've had outputs that start on channel 511 of a universe however crazy that may seem to some people.  That's why xLights and the Falcon boards are a perfect match because they both worth pretty much the same way.  Just define where things start and it handles the rest.

i see what your saying. I was just trying to make it easy for me. My mind still stuck in LOR world. This is my first year without LOR and first year with pixels, Pi, and fpp. Jumped head first woth about 7,000 pixels and I ordered 3 f1)v2s with expansions and one without lol. No idea why that many but I did lol

you better get building props with that many pixels!! worrying about how to configure your universes is the least of your worries! 

[gadgetsmith]

Yeah I don't use spreadsheets to track channel number since I can access my controller from the same PC as xLights I just open the program on one monitor and the controllers on another and setup my start channels or change them when necessary.

another benefit of falcon controllers and per port addressing.  (alas, I need spreadsheets with my 682's)

[Eric_Edwards]

Lol. I am. In the garage nightly working on something. Boscoyo studios is amazing lol got his strips for my tree, house, windows ,  doors, roof etc,  got some node nets for my big pine trees, got his coro arches. And some being custome made for my driveway arches. And his mini trees and 32 snowflakes lol.


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[mararunr]

I thought about that also Mark but I didn't think an arch had multiple lines in the channel list to the right.  If it does then yes you can check the box and type in your own numbers.  I just don't think you can split a single line into two.

Ah, maybe arch doesn't have the individual outputs capability since if you had multiple strings it would probably think they are multiple arches.  The 360 tree is what I did it on so it expected multiple strings and had the individual outputs capability.  Thanks for the clarify Gil - always learning (and that's a good thing)!

[JeffL98]

Would somebody explain the term 'pack the Pixels'. Not sure  I understand. Thanks --Greg--

I've not heard that term, but I'll take a stab at this.

Say you have 5 strings of 100 pixels in each string for a total of 500 nodes (1,500 channels). You'd typically set up XLights with three 510-channel universes to cover it. The protocol allows for 512 channels per universe, but most use 510 giving you 170 nodes per universe. So, node 1-100, and 101-170 would be on universe 1, 171-200, 201-300 & 301-340 would be on universe 2, etc. Basically a contiguous 'pack the Pixels' use of channels. Forgive me if my math is off. I'm doing this in my head.

Another way to set it up is to use 5 partial universes with a string on each universe. So node 1-100 on universe 1, 101-200 on universe 2, etc. This sounds so much easier doesn't it?

With 500 nodes, it really doesn't matter which way you go, but when you multiply that by 10 or 100 or 1,000, the universe count rises quickly. Older controllers only support a handful of universes so that almost mandates 510-channel universes unless you have stacks of cash for more controllers and network switches.

If you add Falcon Player (FP) into the mix, you have to mirror the channel setup in FP. It's just easier to remember 510 for every universe (and sort out the channel-to-pixel connection at the controller) rather than use a non-standard amount. 300 here, 60 there, 150 over there, etc.

You might think well, I could set FP for 510 and it still won't be a problem since I've separated each string on a separate universe. True, but then your pushing a full universe worth of data over the network even if you only use 1 node in the universe so network saturation becomes a problem as the number of universes reaches a certain point. I forget what that limit is. I think it's been tested to 64.

I hope this helps.

Jeff

[Gilrock]

You know I think I was thinking about this wrong and didn't pick up on what others were saying.  If you define Universe 1 a little short then our output will flow right into the next universe allowing you to start output 2 at the beginning of Universe 2 if that's what you want to do.  So just make sure you define Universe 1 to the exact length in xLights.  It's a little less efficient to not come close to filling the universe but not usually a problem.  So yeah just make universe 1 360 channels in xLights if you want to stick to the original plan.  Sorry for the confusion.

Pixel packing would be trying to use a full 510-512 channels instead of stopping at 360 or anything much shorter since a full 512 will probably get sent on the network anyways.

[Eric_Edwards]

You know I think I was thinking about this wrong and didn't pick up on what others were saying.  If you define Universe 1 a little short then our output will flow right into the next universe allowing you to start output 2 at the beginning of Universe 2 if that's what you want to do.  So just make sure you define Universe 1 to the exact length in xLights.  It's a little less efficient to not come close to filling the universe but not usually a problem.  So yeah just make universe 1 360 channels in xLights if you want to stick to the original plan.  Sorry for the confusion.

Pixel packing would be trying to use a full 510-512 channels instead of stopping at 360 or anything much shorter since a full 512 will probably get sent on the network anyways.

yes. Thank you. I totally forgot about some of this stuff. When I was thinking about it in my head. First year with xlights so I'm trying to remember a lot lol. Also I was playing with single string chase for arches last night and messed with the sliders and stuff and now it's way Outta wack. Is there a way to restore it back to default.


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[jnealand]

When I get things out of whack I just delete the effect and add it back it.  Kind of like Ctrl-Alt-Del on the PC.

[Eric_Edwards]

When I get things out of whack I just delete the effect and add it back it.  Kind of like Ctrl-Alt-Del on the PC.

i tried that but I guess maybe when I hit update it saved those settings on that effect?


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[jnealand]

You might have to delete the effect then do a render all or whatever you had there will still be there.  I have a tendency to not save or render until I am done working on a sequence for that session.  Just more stuff to learn and there seems to be more stuff these days than my old brain can absorb.

[Eric_Edwards]

You might have to delete the effect then do a render all or whatever you had there will still be there.  I have a tendency to not save or render until I am done working on a sequence for that session.  Just more stuff to learn and there seems to be more stuff these days than my old brain can absorb.

lol thanks for the tip.


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[AussiePhil]

You know I used to be that guy that didn't want to pack my universes either.  But the F16v2 has made it so easy I switched all my stuff over to pack it in there.  I've had outputs that start on channel 511 of a universe however crazy that may seem to some people.  That's why xLights and the Falcon boards are a perfect match because they both worth pretty much the same way.  Just define where things start and it handles the rest.

i see what your saying. I was just trying to make it easy for me. My mind still stuck in LOR world. This is my first year without LOR and first year with pixels, Pi, and fpp. Jumped head first woth about 7,000 pixels and I ordered 3 f1)v2s with expansions and one without lol. No idea why that many but I did lol


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100% with Gil.... I also went from a per universe setup with fpp and J1Sys controllers to a largely contiguous channel array for the three F16v2's.
I did however keep 16 universes in XL4 as 4800 channels with 16 300ch universes, to cater for a 16 x 100 node based matrix running from J1Sys controllers to keep the universe boundary stuff easy.

I hear it's your first year but please just bite the bullet and stop thinking in discreet universes.
you will find it far easy in the long run to handle the final output config directly on the F16v2 units.

7000 Pixels = 21,000 channels = @42 -510ch universes.
Well inside the 64 universes each unit can handle.
Even with your proposed multiple Pi's running each F16v2 I'd just let each Pi play the entire 42 universes to the F16v2's and then pick the channels needed for each port from the 32k array.