Best practice for LOR dongle **RESOLVED**

[Charles Belcher]

Gil/anyone,

I am doing something for the first time this year.

I want to add (2) LOR ServoDog to my rig and use an LOR dongle to send data.  I am using the latest versions of both xLights and Falcon.  I use a Pi3 B+ as "master" and a Pi2B as "remote" for my projector.

I want to hang my LOR dongle off my master FPP Pi.

I see two places that could solve this:


a) "Add USB", then drop down box to LOR

OR

b) "Add LOR"

My questions are:
1) Which method do I use to accomplish this?
2) What are the two different methods best case use?

Thanks in advance,

Charles

[Gilrock]

The "Add LOR" option was my attempt to reverse engineer the LOR protocol so it allowed xLights to work past the normal 96 or so channel barrier.  For a small number of servo channels you probably don't need it and I don't even know what commands the ServoDog uses.

But if you connecting your LOR dongle to the FPP Pi those options don't even come into the equation.  The Setup page in xLights is mainly only for outputting from xLights.  To output USB from FPP you gotta figure out how to configure that inside FPP software.  Now if they've got some new way to do that with ZCPP I don't know much about it.

[Charles Belcher]

The "Add LOR" option was my attempt to reverse engineer the LOR protocol so it allowed xLights to work past the normal 96 or so channel barrier.  For a small number of servo channels you probably don't need it and I don't even know what commands the ServoDog uses.

But if you connecting your LOR dongle to the FPP Pi those options don't even come into the equation.  The Setup page in xLights is mainly only for outputting from xLights.  To output USB from FPP you gotta figure out how to configure that inside FPP software.  Now if they've got some new way to do that with ZCPP I don't know much about it.

Gil,

FYI, ServoDog controller acts like any LOR controller either with RS485 or DMX.  You have to use the LOR utility to set the unit ID number, but after that, it is just a controller.

I will hop over to the Falcon site and explore.  I am skipping DDP and ZCPP.  I use Pixcon16 controllers and I understand those protocols lean more to the controller side of managing data; ie., Falcon controllers.

Charles

[Gilrock]

If the data going to the ServoDog is going through a PixCon16 first then it will be E1.31 data in xLights setup.  And that's only if you want to run from xLights for testing.

[Charles Belcher]

If the data going to the ServoDog is going through a PixCon16 first then it will be E1.31 data in xLights setup.  And that's only if you want to run from xLights for testing.

Gil,

I have something weird going on and that is why I am trying to go the dongle route.  The bridge jacks on the Pixcon16's is how I have run my LOR AC controller and my AC dumb rgb controllers for years.

I wanted to add the ServoDog controllers this year, but for some unknown reason, those same bridge jacks are throwing off random fluctuating voltage that the ServoDogs are more sensitive to.  LOR is looking into this and I hope to have an answer.

I am using low level logic control out of the ServoDogs to trigger solid state relays, so any voltage turns them on, then off, then on, then off and renders them unusable.

[Gilrock]

How do you know there are random voltages have you used an oscilloscope on the lines?   Does the PixCon bridge send DMX or LOR?  Is it trying to supply power or is it just data lines?

[Charles Belcher]

How do you know there are random voltages have you used an oscilloscope on the lines?   Does the PixCon bridge send DMX or LOR?  Is it trying to supply power or is it just data lines?

The bridges send DMX.  I put my Fluke meter across the ServoDog output pins and read the voltage.  The Servo Dog has different output setting you can use; either Servo or Digital output.
The digital outputs are low level which when triggered put +5V on the output pins.  I am using the D/O function.

I have an 8ch SainSmart SSR relay wired to the output pins on the ServoDog.  The SSR relay when triggered connects the circuit for my little 120VAC motors.  Further, the relay has LED's on the input side so you can see the flickering also.


Charles