I started playing around with rgb's about a year ago I bought some rgb string and started using vixen, but never got anything that I made on the preview work on the lights. Now I have more time to work with this, I have 3 e682's that I wanted to start with so I hooked it up using 12v ran the demo runs great, but when I use the simple programing with 1 universe per channel 50 pixels channel 1 lights up correctly channel 2 lights 16 nodes and channel 3 doesn't light at all. I have tried it with different boards all have the same results. Please help.
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- Thread starter cymbiline
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jchuchla
Supporting Member
I think you have your terminology confused so let's straighten that our first to get us on the same page.
Channels are a logical concept. There are 510-512 channels in a universe depending on controller and configuration.
One node needs 3 channels.
One element represents one pixel/node. It needs to be configured for full color which breaks out the single element to be connected to the 3 output channels.
Controllers have output ports. (I think you're calling these channels)
So the process is to define as many elements as you have pixels. Group them appropriately for your strings/props.
Then configure color handling for these pixels.
Now in the 682's setup pages, you need to assign universes and channels to the output ports. How you do this exactly will depend on the firmware you have in the controller and how your strings are connected to the clusters.
But for a simple example with 50 pixels per output here's how to do it. Let's assume you're starting with universe 101 for the first controller and you're using 510 channel universes.
configure output 1-1 to start at u101 channel 1, output 1-2 to u101 c151 output 1-3 to u101 c301 output 1-4 to u101 c451
Then in vixen set up the sACN output controller to have two universes. They will be universes 101 and 102. The first will start at 1 and have a size of 510. The second will start at 511 and have a size of 90.
You'd patch the first string (50 pixels) to the controller's channels 1-150, string 2 to 151-300, 3 to 301-450 and 4 to 451-600.
There is a tutorial with pictures in the vixen documentation for this process. It's based on vixen 3.1 and 682 firmware 4, so the screens are slightly different now, but the concepts remain the same.
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Channels are a logical concept. There are 510-512 channels in a universe depending on controller and configuration.
One node needs 3 channels.
One element represents one pixel/node. It needs to be configured for full color which breaks out the single element to be connected to the 3 output channels.
Controllers have output ports. (I think you're calling these channels)
So the process is to define as many elements as you have pixels. Group them appropriately for your strings/props.
Then configure color handling for these pixels.
Now in the 682's setup pages, you need to assign universes and channels to the output ports. How you do this exactly will depend on the firmware you have in the controller and how your strings are connected to the clusters.
But for a simple example with 50 pixels per output here's how to do it. Let's assume you're starting with universe 101 for the first controller and you're using 510 channel universes.
configure output 1-1 to start at u101 channel 1, output 1-2 to u101 c151 output 1-3 to u101 c301 output 1-4 to u101 c451
Then in vixen set up the sACN output controller to have two universes. They will be universes 101 and 102. The first will start at 1 and have a size of 510. The second will start at 511 and have a size of 90.
You'd patch the first string (50 pixels) to the controller's channels 1-150, string 2 to 151-300, 3 to 301-450 and 4 to 451-600.
There is a tutorial with pictures in the vixen documentation for this process. It's based on vixen 3.1 and 682 firmware 4, so the screens are slightly different now, but the concepts remain the same.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
WOW completely lost. The tutorial your referencing is Home → Controller Setup Example: SanDevices 682 correct. That is the one I was using. I set it up exactly as the tutorial is then after creating 3 strings on the preview of alternating effects with the lights on outputs 1-1 uni1 2-1uni2 3-1uni3 the the only one the only string that lights is 1-1
jchuchla
Supporting Member
Nobody ever said pixel systems are simple. There's a lot you need to understand to make it work. And there's no shortcuts. It's unoirtabt to understand what's happening in each step so you can connect it all together correctly.
First you have elements. One per pixel.
Then these are grouped into strings which are simply logical groups of pixels.
Then you have output controller modules. These take the data from the elements and format then to leave the computer. There are different modules for different output types but you need the sACN type. They all work a bit differently to output the data appropriate for the prodocol. But they all have what we call outputs. The outputs are what gets connected to the elements.
Elements and output controller modules are patched together usually using filters in the middle. A color breakdown filter creates the single element data to 3 separate data streams that can be connected to output controller module outputs. The filters are created when you configure color handling for an element.
Now back to the output controller module. You need to configure this module to tell it how to take the streams coming into the outputs and package it into universes and channels that come out of the computer headed toward your controller itself.
Now at the controller you'll have sACN data coming in. You need to configure the controller to tell it which universes and channels go to which pixel output ports.
It's all rather simile really. But you do need to understand that whole flow and what is happening at which step. Then you can combine all the steps into a flow that works for your setup.
Sometimes people get confused when trying to do too many of these steps all at once, and when combined with the fact that they're working with several elements channels at a time, it quickly gets overwhelming. But if you systematically break it down into blocks you can work with, you can get things connected one string at time and start to learn the pattern and it will start to make more sense.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
First you have elements. One per pixel.
Then these are grouped into strings which are simply logical groups of pixels.
Then you have output controller modules. These take the data from the elements and format then to leave the computer. There are different modules for different output types but you need the sACN type. They all work a bit differently to output the data appropriate for the prodocol. But they all have what we call outputs. The outputs are what gets connected to the elements.
Elements and output controller modules are patched together usually using filters in the middle. A color breakdown filter creates the single element data to 3 separate data streams that can be connected to output controller module outputs. The filters are created when you configure color handling for an element.
Now back to the output controller module. You need to configure this module to tell it how to take the streams coming into the outputs and package it into universes and channels that come out of the computer headed toward your controller itself.
Now at the controller you'll have sACN data coming in. You need to configure the controller to tell it which universes and channels go to which pixel output ports.
It's all rather simile really. But you do need to understand that whole flow and what is happening at which step. Then you can combine all the steps into a flow that works for your setup.
Sometimes people get confused when trying to do too many of these steps all at once, and when combined with the fact that they're working with several elements channels at a time, it quickly gets overwhelming. But if you systematically break it down into blocks you can work with, you can get things connected one string at time and start to learn the pattern and it will start to make more sense.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I understand the basics I follow the tutorials the previews look great but when I try to put the lights to it it doesn't work as setup. I sure its something simple that I don't understand but after doing the same thing over and over again with the same results or worse I'm pulling my hair out. I'm going to go back to the beginning and reread all the documentation again to try to understand this. Thanks for your help.
Bob
Bob