ccb setup in xlights

[Ken Collins]

I have a fellow light enthusiasts knee deep in lor equipment. I convinced him to tackle xlights for sequencing/running his display this year. I've used xlights, sense before nutcracker4, but I'm at a loss as to how you set up cosmic color bulbs/ribbons in the set-up tab on xlights. I can't seem to find any documentation on how this is accomplished. I'm sure this has been done before, the xlight manual doesn't really have any info, that I could find. any lor converters out there willing to share? The a.c. controllers are no problem, just the ccr/ccb chnl layout in the set-up screen has me baffled.

[Gilrock]

So I assume he will be using the LOR USB dongle?

If so I'd use the new LOR output I created.  I don't have the program in front of me but you would add your AC controllers there also in the table.  For CCB's / CCR's they would be the RGB controller option.  Set unit number and # of channels and it should be good to go.

[Ken Collins]

Wow, thanks Gil. I had already done that, and started over thinking/outguessing myself, wondering if I had to add each set of pixels to a universe.
you made that easy, Thanks again..

[Ken Collins]

So after looking, he has over 40 cosmic device fixtures. Is there a limit?

[JonB256]

So after looking, he has over 40 cosmic device fixtures. Is there a limit?

His budget is > mine

[Gilrock]

Seems like there could be no way he is running all that on one dongle unless he sends the same effect to everything and its able to get great compression in the command.  So yes there is a limit but it has to do with what baud rate you use, how many channels you are trying to drive, and how complex the effects are on those channels.   By complex I mean a wide variation in colors.  Its easy to tell an entire string to be red but telling it to display a rainbow takes a heck of a lot more data using LOR protocol.  I've only imitated the Legacy LOR protocol so my bandwidth will be less than what LOR can do if you are using the Enhanced protocol.  Its really best to just switch everything to be driven with E1.31 and using bridge cards to convert E1.31 to DMX and then you can run a million channels.

[Ken Collins]

he was running several lor networks, and that is where I got confused in the set-up panel

[Gilrock]

he was running several lor networks, and that is where I got confused in the set-up panel

In the "Add LOR" dialog you set a COM port so you only enter the devices that are on that COM port.  You will need to create a new "Add LOR" entry for every COM port.  Each of those LOR networks gets its own COM port right?

[Ken Collins]

Thanks Gil. Will that support as many cosmic devices as an lor network? I was think'n he told me 6.

[Gilrock]

I will support more than it used to but less than what LOR does with it because I'm not reverse engineering their entire protocol just enough to make some good improvements.  If you really want the best result you throw all LOR USB dongles in the trash and switch to running your LOR equipment in DMX mode and use E1.31 to DMX bridge devices or controllers.

No one can say exactly how many can be supported on one LOR network because it depends on baud rate and which effects you are running.  If you just want to run everything red, green, and blue you can support a lot more channels than say running a butterfly.  And that statement holds true even for LOR software running on their own network.  Its really just not a great protocol but were trying to support it.

[Ken Collins]

Thanks Gil, that would really make life easier.
I'll go bridge shopping and make that proposal.

Another question, in the set-up page, on the lor tab, in the lor controller definition, what are the address mode breakdowns?

[Gilrock]

The address mode needs to match however you have the hardware setup if you viewed it in the LOR hardware utility.

[Ken Collins]

So, after setting up all the lor networks off comm ports, if I want to add e131, do I start at universe 1?

[Gilrock]

Doesn't need to be 1 any universe between 1 and 64000.  Each output does have an ID if its not a universe so you need to make sure you don't create universes that conflict with the ID number you assigned for the LOR outputs.  Its in the same column on setup.

[Ken Collins]

Thanks again Gil