TRIKS-C BETA Testing

David/Tim,

from my understanding the trik-c is scrolling at the maximum speed that the com port will let it.

as such i dont understand what difference the speed of the pc will have.

So if the pc is causing the ledtrik-c to run quicker then is the ltc program not running at the full com port speed?

i guess we need some sort of benchmark to check for speed differences.

scroll a dot across every led on the screen as fast as you can and time it would be my guess.

Also dave are you doing edge scrolling or full frame scrolling?

anyway this was just some questions to maybe help tim,

Peter
 
Dont forget that LTC is interpreting the .led file. So if you've got a turbo cooled megatower you can get through the base 64 decoding much faster!

In other words the bottleneck for LTC is not the serial port... its the frames.
 
I was doing full frame right to left scrolling text and top to bottom falling animation (Snow). Com port is set to 56K, as I was using a com cable that was also used to control the Ren-C / Ren 64. I might drop the com speed down when I get up from bed tomorrow and see, but I do think the fast full frame animation might be helpful at times

I have not tried edge scrolling yet, as the frame was too fast as it was, and I remember the speed at the mini lol
 
David,

great write up. That's the type of information that we need to make TRICKS super successful.

John.
 
Hey All,

Got the board over the weekend and should have it chugging along by tomorrow night... (EST) :)

I'll keep everyone posted!

-Nick
 
As Dave has pointed out - you 'll need a cable..

For standard serial port use its the same cable (signal wise NOT power wise/ZC wise) as a renc/ren64
Code: 
PC
RS232                              TRIKSC-IN
[DB9]                               [RJ-45]
Pin 3 (TXD) ------------------------ Pin 4
Pin 5 (GND) ------------------------ Pin 5
 
or
 
PC
RS232                              TRIKSC-IN
[DB25]                              [RJ-45]
PIN 2 (TXD) ------------------------ Pin 4
PIN 7 (GND) ------------------------ Pin 5
 
or
 
PC
RS422/485                          TRIKSC-IN
                                    [RJ-45]
(485B-) ---------------------------- Pin 4
(485A+) ---------------------------- Pin 5

Tim
 
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What would be the pinout for an RS232 to RJ485 adapter that is currently used by some of the folks using the Renard system? I have an extra serial port on my computer and was thinking of using a spare converter on it.
 
nromanel said:
Hey All,

Got the board over the weekend and should have it chugging along by tomorrow night... (EST) :)

I'll keep everyone posted!

-Nick
Click to expand...

Great news,

so that proves I can use both the US and AUS mail system. I did not know about the 13 oz rule that USPS enforce. I would hate to admit how heavy some parcels I have sent from a red Post Box in AUS have been.

John.
 
Getting Vixen to drive the LTC.exe was easy here. I created an extra chanel on the sequence (Or you could use one thats not connected).

Add the Launcher plugin and set it to JUST that channel you want to use to drive the ledtriks files.

Go into the Launcher plugin setup and Select add new.

In the program executable path I have "C:\Program Files\Vixen\Sequences\LTC.exe" and in the parameters I use something like "snow.led #fdl200 #frm" and then select a value to initiate it. I started at 100, then the second one will be 99, then 98 etc. As vixen sees whatever the set value is it opens a text box, runs ltc then closes the box at the end of the sequence.

Dont forget, if your led sequence leaves any LED's on, do a #cls at the end to clear the ledtriks. I'd probably do that as a matter of course anyway.

You can get ltc to open a text fille and do that, so in that case the parameters would be just filename.txt and the file would look like this:

poweredby(1Panel).led
#fdl200
#frm
#cls

So far so good

Oh and try not to get the sequences to overlap - it brings a box up when it cant open the com port, asking you would you like to set up ltc.exe and that box does not go away. At least Vixen or LTC does not crash lol
 
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nromanel said:
Hey All,

Got the board over the weekend and should have it chugging along by tomorrow night... (EST) :)

I'll keep everyone posted!
Click to expand...

I'm an idiot... somehow I managed to only order 1 CAT5 Jack from Mouser...
Seems it'll be a few more days until I'm up and running!

DOH!
 
V0.4 of the program works great, although a small delay on program close on an error would be great (say 5 secs) so if there IS a prob you can see what it is (or log that to a .txt file).

I had an issue last night where Vixen had held the com port open and the ledtriks would not do a darn thing, but I could not tell why until I went to the command line and tried running from there. Shutting down Vixen abnd restarting it fixed the issue. A rare one, but it happens here with the renard plugin occasionally for some reason (I had been using the ren on that serial a few mins earlier)

Nick - I know the feeling. I keep 30 or 40 on tap here now, and order more with every parts order just in case :)
 
nromanel said:
I'm an idiot... somehow I managed to only order 1 CAT5 Jack from Mouser...
Seems it'll be a few more days until I'm up and running!

DOH!
Click to expand...

Hi Nick

If you want to run/test in stand alone mode you only need 1 socket (to the Ledtriks!)

I realise this is not a viable long term solution! :)

Tim
 
daviddth said:
V0.4 of the program works great, although a small delay on program close on an error would be great (say 5 secs) so if there IS a prob you can see what it is (or log that to a .txt file).
Click to expand...

lol Dave - it HAS a 2 second delay! Just because your supercooled masterchristmas controller PC (that I really wish I had!) overclocks reality, you probably can't see it!!! Ah yes.. the defintion of 'small'..... :)

I'll pick it up in 0.5 . Also looking at support of 1x2 horizontal panel .LED files (note that currently it only supports single panel with multiple panels for #RL etc).

Also - note re your sequences - currently changing the individual frame duration inside vixen is not supported (you need to duplicate the frames for as long as you need them)

Tim
 
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Yeah I can cope with having to work with a set frame rate (or doing a static frame where I really need it). 0.5 upgrades will be warmly accepted and much appreciated.
 
Excellent!

I am up and running with a big thumbs up over here!

I haven't checked the other post, but Tim, did you post the other chip firmware where you can store 4 frames on the pic for truly standalone operation?

Tim great job with everything, and John Thanks so much for putting the beta together.

I'll be sure to post more as I play more!
 
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Only issue I'm noticing is a few rogue LEDs. I'm attributing it to a 3ft patch cable I'm using to connect to the LEDTRIKS.

I'll make a shorty and report back.

Tim, Is the executable a windows or DOS exe?
I ask because I have a 300mhz machine in the bowels of my basement that would work nicely if I only needed dos.
 
Great to see its up and running Nick!

When you see the rogue Leds are they spread across the panels or predominantly in 1 section? (I reckonf it will be the length of the patch cable..)

I think the basic code can be compliled in dos or windows... will look a bit further into it (but so far its windows).

At the moment the stand alone function is built into the current firmware - we just don't have a way to program the message yet- its hard coded. Jumper 3 invokes stand alone mode (currently programmed to the test pattern and only 1 repeating frame).
 
--MOVED--

I figured this post was more suited for the trick-c driver thread rather then the beta testing thread.

http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4516&page=3#23

------------------------------


The rogue LEDs are just on a single row about 7 of em near the top right of the panel.
I should check the panel as well, since its been moved around a lot lately.

I checked freebasic.net, it seems there are compilers for linux and dos!
I smell a bootable usb key with ltc on it! If you can post (or pm) the source for the latest ltc, I'd be happy to explore those options.

As for the standalone mode on the chip, where are the frames in the asm file? Are those the routines Labeled Frame01 - Frame08?

If so, I take it the numbers represent a binary value in decimal, regarding 8 LEDs on that specific row. Is the order the same is if I was looking at a ledtriks panel straight on?

Also, where could I found the routine that runs through the test pattern?

Sorry if I'm jumping too far ahead! Blinky Lights get me all excited! ;-)

Can't say it enough... but great work all around!

Thanks again!
 
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BBA, (blinky blink anon.) has meetings for guys like us, i am thinking of opening a local chapter.

Hi, my name is John, and I am adicted to Blinky Blink, I look at yards and see display options, I look at decorations and see opportunities to re-engineer..
 
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