First time Ending Channel issues VER2016.49

[zstoner]

Hello all, Setting up system with 2 PicCon16 contollers with the Smart RGB ribbons from Holiday Light Express and also the c9 Pixels from them as well. They are 16ft 150 LED's and 3 nodes per channel. So I take that as they are a 50 channel strip. I set all this up and then when I look at end Channel is says 150 not 50. Is it just saying this because its RGB and 50x3 or am i doing something wrong? Will end chanel 150 cause issues as the next prop start channel should be 51.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[Ebuechner]

Each node or section of a light strip consists of three channels red green and blue. So 50 nodes in a string would equal 150 channels. So in your setup Arch II would start at channel 151. When you said three nodes per Channel those terms are incorrect . There would be three channels per node, light strips often have 3 LEDs per section that work together, each section in the strip would have 3 channels red green blue

[zstoner]

Thanks for the help. Last question, So my Ribbons are 150 LED/s total 16ft. They have a total channel count of 50 so if i set end channel to 512 for each universe that just means i will have to go back and remove the extra later. Would rather set all this up for max use so down the road i can just add and not have to reconfigure the channel counts. So pretty much with the PixCon16 just set end channel to 512?

[Ebuechner]

Let's start off with the ribbon you will see the cut points on the ribbon in between those two points should be 3 LEDs this is not always the case but I'm going to make the Assumption that's what you have. In each section there's also a small black Chip that controls the LEDs each one of those sections has 3 channels. You have 10 controllable sections per meter so 5 meters has a total of 50 x 3 is 150 channels not 50. Second thing is setting your universe's for expansion this can be a good idea if done right. but set your max Channel count on each Universe to 510 not 512 the max number of nodes you can run on the universe is 170 which works out to 510 channels. Just keep trying to remember that each node or section of a strip is 3 channels and multiply it. The whole thing is a little confusing at first but you'll get it.

[Ebuechner]

I just thought I would add if I was you I would just set my max Channel count to what I need  per Universe to what's being used. (Don't end up being a pixel packer) I won't get into the details but it can affect the performance of the network. While using xlights it's really not hard add channels to a universe if needed. It's always better to add more channels by putting in more universes at the end. I switched over from light O Rama and it took me a little time to get used to the differences but the grass is definitely greener

[zstoner]

So i set them to 150 per Universe Set Arch 1 to Unv 1 start channel 1 then Arch 2 to Unv 2 and start channel to 151 but then it kicks to a 450 end channel. Is this a bug or something. It doesnt seem to be

[Gilrock]

You are entering the number of lights which is 50.  The problem is you keep calling that number channels so that is what is being corrected.  Its not channels its nodes or lights.  xLights automatically calculates the number of channels based on the string type you select which is typically RGB.  So you tell us it's 50 lights that are RGB we automatically say that's 150 channels.

[zstoner]

Im doing 50 nodes as that is how many of those black chips are on the string and I know these strips go in groups of 3 RGB LEDS. How should I be entering it?

[Gilrock]

You had it set fine in your screenshot.  It's should be 50.  That's 50 nodes which gives you a channel count of 150 per strip.

[Ebuechner]

I was trying to look at the screen shot from my phone. Shouldn't the end channel on Arch number 2 be 300?   I just looked at the second screenshot it looks good. I was trying to make sure you understood the difference between nodes and channels

[zstoner]

Correct it should  be 300 but if you look when i go to layout for arch2 it makes the end channel 450

[zstoner]

Seems when I use the "Offset from" is whats messing it up. If i just tell it start channel it seems to work. Going to try this and see what happens

[Ebuechner]

I have four archs myself 50 nodes each using two universes when I set mine up the layout screen and xlights was completely different. I went through and manually entered all of my universes and start channels on each prop my biggest problem at the time was I had to match 12501 channels to LOR exactly so I could convert over with data layers.  I Have gone into the layout screen and made some minor changes here and there since then. I would have to say that I'm more familiar with the old layout screen then the new one. It looks as though you're on the right track when I started out I was trying to incorporate my Lor stuff as well as their Network when I let that go and went to all E1.31 life got a lot better. Second best thing I did was stop pixel packing the more pixels you put on the universe the slower the refresh rate is

[Gilrock]

I think you're making this 10 times harder than it needs to be.  Just tell Arch2 to start at offset 1 from the end of Arch 1.

[zstoner]

I got it all working by dropping the offset. Only thing now is the light Flicker. Starting to regret going with this PixCon16. Not sure what to do.