xLights Setup and Using Controller for Start Channel

[stampedeboss]

I see some real promise here but appears that there is no way to indicate which port, i.e. the displacement in controller.

How is the controller option supposed to work, I have a controller with16 ports and some number of of universes per port.  I would like to be able to say controller the start channel is Controller "A" port 3 and have it figure out the start channel. Using the port in the controller settings has no impact.  Am I missing something? For uploading to controller how does it figure it out?

The only way I see to use the controller is to use pick one then type in the displacement by adding up all the preceding channel counts for the ports.

[jnealand]

I've been trying to learn all this as well.  I finally skinnied down my network setup such that I only have one line per controller and therefore see only 1 IP on that setup page.  Last year I had a line for each prop or group of like minded props even though they were all being controlled by the same Light controller.  Much less to get confused about.  The controller selection in network setup is used so that the program knows which protocol or config to use when talking to that particular controller and the IP address has to be the address of the controller even though that address is not necessarily on my show network.  It is accessible however via the network routing setup.

The ports are set in the models.  Xlights know which controller to go to by what the start channel is set to in the model and then by what the controller is set to in the network setup.  My biggest problem is that I use all master remote where every controller has a PI on them and I do not understand completely the IP designations need for upload.  This following is how it appears to work via my testing to date.   I need to upload info to the F16 but it must go to the IP address of the controller.  Yet I run the show with the IP address of the Pi via the multisync and master remote functionality of the FPP.  I'm still playing with this stuff to learn as I have yet to find any documentation that explains it.

I use the following scheme for network setup where 192.168.1.x is my show network
Pis are all addressed as 192.168.1.abb  This address is used in the network setup for all my PiCaps and Hats

When I have a controller connected to the Pi via an ethernet cable the eth0 interface on the Pi is 192.168.bb.1 and the F16 IP is set to 192.168.bb.2  This (.2) is the address that I have to put in the network setup for an F16 or the right click "Upload to Controller" does not work  The network routing, both at the computer and within FPP, takes care of making the F16 accessible from the show network.  I am assuming this same setup would be used for any controllers that are actually connected to a PI via an ethernet cable.  I only have F16s so am not and cannot  test any other controllers that can be configure by xlights..

Remember that I have no data cables in my setup and every controller has its own FPP.  If you have multiple ethernet connected controllers to a single FPP then you would just need to change the 4th octet on each successive controller.

Using the above addressing scheme seems to work for uploading although I do not have a functioning show setup yet this season and can not turn any light on.  I just have all my FPPs and all my F16s powered up and accessible so I can play with controller and FPP uploads until I understand it better.

[stampedeboss]

But the issue is the port defined in thee model doesn't help if its not used for the controller option on start channel.  Regardless of what is selected, it appears the start channel for the model has to be adjusted based on the relative position from the 1st channel of the controller.

It works well for an ESPixelStick, but not multiport controllers.  I had 1 line per port defined, then chained the props together the same way they are attached to the port.

It appears I will have to convert back to the 1 output per port, and continue using  either universe or output number. 

WISH LIST:
It would be great if they could add which port is assigned to the entry in setup, then in the layout you could select the Controller in start channel and the port number in controller details, it would then have the starting channel number........ That would be the end of spreadsheets.

[jnealand]

I quit posting wish lists,  too many to keep up with.  As it is, there is way more functionality in both hardware and software these days that I never thought of myself and still do not know what to do with.  Heck I still have buttons on my 2016 vehicle that I still don't know what they do.  And let's not talk about smartphones. yikes

[Gilrock]

To be honest I get lost trying to read what your talking about.  I still manually configure my controllers and find it quick and easy.

[jnealand]

I think you may be right Gil.  Like you I have configured all this stuff manually for years.  I'm just trying all this upload stuff for size now because this season I will no longer be using any pixelnet controllers and no longer need to think about pixelnet universes as far as addressing goes.  So far I find it more difficult than just doing the config manually.  But since I am re-addressing everything I figured that I should at least try it out.  Not committing to using it at show time yet.

[poporacer]

I use the upload function in xLights and my setup is similar to jnealand and it works great. (I have used the wired setup as well and didn't have any problems) I am all wireless, Pi connected to F16, F8PB, PocketScroller, Pi with Pihat. For things to work, you have to have your setup tab with your E1.31 networks setup with the correct universes and Controller IP. That way xLights know what universes go to which controller. Then you can daisy chain all of your models for each controller starting with channel 1 of the first Universe for the first model and each subsequent model's start channel will be after the previous model. Then when you get to the next controller, start a new series of Universes (I use 100 for the first controller, 200 for the second, etc.) Then you simply tell each model what port of the controller it is connected to. You have 2 steps to the upload from the Setup page. First you upload the E1.31 input definitions and then you upload the output channels. It is actually very simple for me. I can make changes and upload and they work. Here are some screenshots to hopefully help. If you have physical models daisy chained to your controller, then make sure you daisy chain them in the same order in xLights. And you will enter the same port connection for all the models and xLights will adjust the start channels automagically in the controllers when you upload. Add a Model, just add it in xLights, do the 2 uploads and your controller is now configured!
If you see, my F16 uses the 100 series universes (100-115) and my next controller used the 200 series universes (200-203). My Megatree's start channel is Universe 100, Channel 1 and I setup the Megatree to be 8 strings with 4 strings per strand (32 strand tree). 8 strings means that it is going to use 8 ports. I set the port connection to 1 and because xLights knows that Universes 100-119 belong to my F16 and that it is going to use ports 1-8 it has all the information it needs to upload.