VSA Import error

[skulltronix]

Hi, I'm trying to import a vsa file. I watched the video and I setup the skulltronix skull model and vsa routine to match.

 I get the error "Unsupported Event Type! Halted".

 I've tried VSA Ultimate and VSA Open.  My setup in vsa matches the setup in xlights. The setting for controller though only gives options for ports. Is this the issue? Am I supposed to know what port number is used by the USB Enttech Open adaptor?

After the error the window comes up to Assign VSA Tracks to Xlights Models/Layers.  The window is empty.

[Gilrock]

I didn't have the best documentation to go on for the VSA format.  I don't remember it now but looking at the code for that error I look at an event type field and currently I have it coded to support CEventBarLinear and CEventBarPulse.  If you have a different event type then xLights code would need to be modified to account for it if I can figure out the event formatting.

If you still have my email you could send me the vsa file and just in case I need it do a Package Sequence or Package Log files in xLights and send that also.

[skulltronix]

Hi, I deleted a bunch of events from channels that were not checked and it imported ok.

Next question is: In setup: Add USB - DMX  How do I determine ID and Port? Last channel?  Can the adaptor be Enttech Open or does it need to be the Pro?

[Gilrock]

I'm pretty sure I bought the Entec Pro and it worked.  I'm not at home to check.  In the code I see a normal DMX Output class and a OpenDMX output class so there should be an option for the one you need.  I couldn't remember the name of the dialog file to look at it  I don't remember ID and Port I'd need to see the dialog again.  Last channel is just a way to limit it if you know you only use 32 channels you would enter 32.

[skulltronix]

I added more channels and corrected the channel numbers your video and defaults had for the servos. That got the servos moving. No eye lights yet. I’ll work on that tomorrow.
The correct channel numbers for a Skulltronix skull are:
Power 8. Dmx relay. 8 bit.
Jaw 9
Nod 11
Pan 13
Eye ud 15
Eye lr 17
Tilt 19
Torso 21
8 bit eye channels:
Eye bright/strobe 23
Eye red 24
Eye g 25
Eye b 26

Thank you!

[Gilrock]

Yeah I don't think you understood how I was setting up the channels.  Yes the Jaw is channel 9 but what I do is set my Start Channel to 9 for the model and then that makes Jaw channel 1 relative to the start channel.  I do not include the power channel as part of the model when I set it up.

[skulltronix]

That helps me to understand. But I still have nothing working predictably.
 I'm having lots of issues.  I think power is one that may be causing many of the others. I need to be able to turn the power on to the board.  DMX channel 8 needs to receive zero for on and ONE for off.

Other issues:
In DMX Layout why do some servos have settings for slew limit, degrees of rotation and orientation and others don’t? 

Why doesn’t the jaw have a default position? 

In Effect Settings: Servo: When I move the Value slider with output turned on are the servos supposed to move as I move the slider?  Its not happening for me except randomly.

When I play a sequence: If I get servo movement at all it doesn't happen on the servo that it is targeting.

Why is the 16 bit checkbox in effect settings instead of in layout?

When Import Effect is used to import a VSA file the Eye channels all come in as 16 bit instead of 8 bit.

DMX Channels 0-7 are reserved for configuration. Hopefully you aren't using them.

Can we go back to true DMX numbers instead of adding or subtracting 8 from them?  I'd like to have setup match the actual board settings.  I'm SO confused right now.

[skulltronix]

I just used all the default settings to import a vsa file. When I expand the layers I get this display. Should the jaw events also be appearing above -jaw fine?

[skulltronix]

At last - set start channel to 9 and got the servos to work.  Now to wor on the eye lights.

[Gilrock]

Yeah you could have gotten it to work with using 1 for start channel but you would need to fix all the other channel assignments.  Its all relative.

Regarding seeing data in the Jaw channel.  Trust me there's data there.  The upper byte is usually really small.  Lets say you have a value of 750.  Well the upper byte is 0x2 which represents 512 counts and then the remainder is in the "fine" byte which would be 238.  Well the 0x2 byte is going to look really black since its 2 out of 256 as far as greyscale brightness.

But I'm glad you had me look at it.  Not 100% sure but it appears a bug has crept into the Servo effect.  I need to do some digging but the sliders were supposed to be giving you a percentage from 0 to 100% and I see the values going up to 1000 but inside the function I only divide by 100 so that would make the results way too big and cause it to hit the servo limits too early.  Internally the values were supposed to go from 0 to 1000 but there should have been a floating point conversion that made 1000 = 100.0.

[Gilrock]

Yep I confirmed we have a bug.  The panel used to show the slider going from 0.0 to 100.0.  Now it goes from 0 to 1000 and the problem is it's feeding 1000 to my function internally cause it go past the servo limit.

So for instance if I had the Jaw channel set to go from 500 to 750 and you set the slider to max that was supposed to give you a 750.  Currently that's resulting in 3000 because it takes 500 + (750-500)*(1000/100).

[keithsw1111]

This will be fixed in the next release.

[skulltronix]

I did not understand why the visual representation of the jaw was so wacky. Now I get it.

You mentioned that the jaw track doesn’t show much data because  most of the data is in the -Jaw Fine row. How could I then edit a single jaw motion if it doesn’t even appear? That’s a major issue.

Can we get the led channels to be 8 bit by default?  They import as 16 bit. Can we define 8/16 bit in the layout instead of in the effect? 

Please add the power channel also. We need to be able to turn on/off the servos. 

I’d like to roll this out to my customers. They’d like to go Pi and dump windows. Hopefully you can squash these issues quickly. Thanks! 

[Gilrock]

You mentioned that the jaw track doesn’t show much data because  most of the data is in the -Jaw Fine row. How could I then edit a single jaw motion if it doesn’t even appear? That’s a major issue.

Major issue? LOL.  Nobody sequences servos by looking at the color data on the nodes.  You should really never need to expand down to the strand/node level.  You just pick a row for a servo and then drop a Servo effect and then adjust the slider from 0 to 10%.  You're supposed to view the motion in the preview to know what's going to happen not look at the 16-bit data split into 2 bytes painted as an RGB value.

Can we get the led channels to be 8 bit by default?  They import as 16 bit. Can we define 8/16 bit in the layout instead of in the effect? 

I just tested with an import and the led channels came in with the box unchecked so 8 bit by default.  But that occurs based on what you have in our file.  I wrote the code based on what I observed in the same file you gave me "I Like Nightmares".  So I look at the controller type for the channel and the leds in that sequence were defined as "DMX_DIMMER" or 0x11 so if I see that value that is what triggers it to uncheck the box.   You must have a different controller type if you aren't seeing it come in as 8bit.  I'd just need to know which of these will always be 8 bit.  This is really only for importing most people controlling the LEDs directly in xLights would not use the Servo effect they would drop On or Colorwash effects and always get 8 bit.  Everything is written to be flexible its not just written to work with one type of servo or led.

        enum vsaControllers {
            MINISSC_SERVO,
            SV203_SERVO,
            SMI_MOTOR,
            MINISSC_RELAY,
            SV203_RELAY,
            DMX_SERVO,
            LPT_RELAY,
            DMX_RELAY,
            LPT_SERVO,
            MINISSC_DIMMER,
            LPT_DIMMER,
            DMX_DIMMER,
            PARALLAX_SERVO,
            POLOLU_SERVO,
            PICOPIC_SERVO,
            PICOPIC_RELAY,
            SSC32_SERVO,
            SSC32_RELAY,
            K108A_RELAY,
            BOC_SERVO,
            ENDURANCERC_SERVO,
            MAESTRO_SERVO,
            JRK_MOTOR,
            MAESTRO_RELAY
        };

Please add the power channel also. We need to be able to turn on/off the servos. 

I could look at updating the defaults but until that happens you could still include that channel by starting at channel 8 instead of 9 and then just increment all the other channel assignments by one and then it would be available under that model.

[Gilrock]

Also for customer use its kinda going to be a pain because you basically need to put an effect between all the real effects you want to have it hold the value during the gaps or otherwise xLights sends out a zero.  I wanted to have an option that an output latch to the last value instead of 0 but never figured out a good way to make that work with our design.