E682 basic universe mapping question

[danj]

I have a really basic question about the physical assignments on the E682 clusters versus universe assignments. The E682 webpage asks me the starting universe for each cluster assignment. I have xlights setup as 510 channel universes, so I think my channel assignments should be good to go. Not sure about the cluster assignments, though. Do I need to do "universe math" for the starting channel in each cluster so all the channels get laid out properly physically versus the intended universe assignments? Some of the arches & megatree strings start in one universe and end in another.

One more question while I am at it...   I am wiring up one 3M (30 LEDs/m, so 90 LEDs) to each cluster connector.   Should I set the E682 "pixel length" to 360 since there will be four strips connected to each cluster or should I set the pixel length to 90 since that is the length of each strip connected?

Thanks very much in advance!!!   Posted over at DIYC.com, also....

[rando1957]

I have a really basic question about the physical assignments on the E682 clusters versus universe assignments. The E682 webpage asks me the starting universe for each cluster assignment. I have xlights setup as 510 channel universes, so I think my channel assignments should be good to go. Not sure about the cluster assignments, though. Do I need to do "universe math" for the starting channel in each cluster so all the channels get laid out properly physically versus the intended universe assignments? Some of the arches & megatree strings start in one universe and end in another.

One more question while I am at it...   I am wiring up one 3M (30 LEDs/m, so 90 LEDs) to each cluster connector.   Should I set the E682 "pixel length" to 360 since there will be four strips connected to each cluster or should I set the pixel length to 90 since that is the length of each strip connected?

Thanks very much in advance!!!   Posted over at DIYC.com, also....

Dan - here is how I set mine up. This is one E682 that controls 16 x 50 megatree.  As you can see the tree starts with universe 2 and goes to universe 6 (channel 360). So I just start my cluster on the next channel of where the prior one finished.  On the 3M strips, I do not have any but your thought process of using 360 makes sense.  Hope this helps some.
Randy

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[danj]

Yep that works for me.  I will need to do a little "universe math" then...  Thanks so much Randy.

[danj]

So what I figured out over the weekend is that I made math errors when determining my universe versus physical port assignments.  As a result, I had to "move" four of my megatree strips from the first E682 to the second E682 because so I could continue to run all channels in multicast.  This worked fine for all my RGB channels (megatree strips and arches) with one exception.  The first four strips moved to the second E682 (strips 13-16 of 20) seem to be "skewed" upward probably by 15-30 pixels when doing something like a rolling picture (e.g. rolling from right to left) and those strips definitely do not display the same as the others on the megatree when doing other NC effects.  I did not have time to troubleshoot this during the weekend, unfortunately, due to many other commitments.  I am addressing the same universe on both controllers--I setup the first controller so it starts at universe 4 channel 61 (I have the arches' LOR channels before this) and ends at universe 10 channel 240 and the second controller so it starts at universe 10 channel 241.  Should I start the universe assignment on the second controller at universe 11 instead of "continuing on" with universe 10?  My read of the E682 manual is that if the controllers are setup in multicast it is ok to address the same universe on more than one controller.  Any advice/ideas out there???  Thanks in advance!

[rando1957]

Sorry Dan - I used unicast on my E682 and 6804 and did not overlap the universe. You may want to try your second option and have the second E682 start at Universe 11 and just see if that makes a difference. I agree logically you have it correct.

[danj]

Thanks again Randy.   I will try changing the universe configuration as noted and see what difference that makes.   It shouldn't really make a difference though...   Arrgh.  So many little details to know with this Christmas lighting stuff!!

Update: I emailed Jim St. John tonight on this subject and he said my setup should work fine.  Jim suggested using SACNview to run some signals into different universes (it generates colors/sine waves/chases/etc) to validate that the universe in question is or is not functioning correctly.  So I will give that a shot this weekend when I have some time to devote to troubleshooting....