Vixen, servos light etc

A

Andsolo21

New member
Hi all,
Very new to this, much to the annoyance of my partner, I’m setting up a small light display this year for both Halloween and Xmas,
I’ve done loads of background research but I’m still at a pause for now.

So far I have
Vixen 2 & 3 ( don’t know which one to use)
Arduino uno r3
Adafruits 16ch servo controller
Basic 4 channel relay board

I figured I’d start with the minimum and expand from there, what I’d like to do is something similar to the singing pumpkins and skeleton to start, hence the servo controller,

Anyone any idea where to start I’ve had a look at vixen and tried to follow some of the instrucables out there, only to end up more confused.

I’d like to have 1 solo pumpkin and 4 background pumpkins And a few lights dotted around

Any help on setting the servos and extracting the data for moving the servos would be greatly appreciated
 
You need to give a bit more information.

Where did you get the pumpkins? If DIY, what kind of servos are you using.

What are you planning to do with the Arduino?

What is a basic 4 channel relay board?
SSR? With / without zero crossing circuit? Hardware Relays?

Do you want to dim the lights or just turn them on/off?

Vixen 2 is no longer supported. It works but it is a bit behind the times. Vixen 3 is a completely different product than Vixen 2. Knowing one does not help you with the other. Once we have more information, we can help you set up your elements, get the preview set up and then start sequencing.
 
Hi Martin thanks for the quick reply

They’ll be diy pumpkins using standard Rc servos (not micro) and 180 degree movement ( spare boat/car) that I have lying around.
Arduino I was going to use as the link for all the components.
The basic relay board is mechanical I don’t need dimming for now just on and off
If I need dimming apparently the adafruits servo board can offer this but I’m unsure on how to power the 240v side it, but it’s not important for now,

Ok if it’s best I’ll go with vixen 3 if you recommend I do, I’m just pulling info from different areas at the moment, I’m happy to go with the better recommendations
 
In vixen 3 setup:

Create a group called "Pumpkins"
Create an empty group called Pumpkin_Solo
Drag and drop the Pumpkin_Solo group onto the Pumpkins group (There are other ways to do this but I want you to understand the group of groups concept).
Create an empty group called Pumpkin_background_1
Create an empty group called Pumpkin_background_2
Create an empty group called Pumpkin_background_3
Drag and drop these into the pumpkins group.

For your solo pumpkin create a channel for each of your servos and lights (Pumpkin_Solo_left_eye etc).
Drag these to the Pumpkin_Solo group. Arrange them in a way that makes sense to you within the group (can be changed later)

Now create the channels for the other pumpkins and drag them into the proper groups (Remember to use a naming convention such as Pumpkin_Background_1_Left Eye etc.

Next set the color handling filter for all of the servo channels to one color and make the color white. I use white because the definition for white is easy to manage. Using a different color can become an exercise in frustration.

Look at your groups. Do they make sense TO YOU? If not, tweak them. There are no rules here. I have given you one naming convention. You do not need to use it, but I have found that having a naming convention (something that makes sense to you) makes managing the elements simpler.

After you get this done we can move on to creating a preview. FYI: I have never created a servo based preview. I would just assign a light to indicate current state of the output. Not sure that is correct. Someone that uses servos should chime in here.
 
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Couldn’t resist that line, plus it’s true she’s already annoyed as it’s only January, but I’ve heard that sequencing can be a nightmare that’s why I’m on the ball now..
 
Thanks Martin I’ll set it up as you’ve said first thing and I’ll post back on here when I’ve set it up as suggested
 
My wife gets a break from Christmas in the living room from Nov 27 - Jan 2. All the rest of the time there is some form of project going on wire I am cutting, stripping, twisting, drawing, gluing something. She is a bit tired of Christmas all year. I am no linger allowed to bring Christmas projects on vacation. She is looking forward to this year because we are not going to have a significant show so the living room will be mostly wire free.
 
Sounds like my house, I’m a self employed computer engineer and work from home, my office has now spilled to every room in the house, according to my wife. Don’t think it helps that I built myself 3 retro arcade machines and placed them around the house, 2 tall uprights and a coffee table machine
 
Hi Martin I have this so far but don’t know about the colour handling etc that you’re talking about
image.jpg
 

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Lower left is a box called "configure" and it has "Dimming Curve" in it. This is actually a drop down box. The other option in he drop down is the "Color Handling" filter. Select an element, set the configure bx to color handling, click the wheel to the ight of he box. This brings up the color handling dialog. The bottom selection in thedialog (can be any color) is for pixels and assigns three channels to an element. The top selection is for "Single color" on a channel. This is the one you want for servos and single color strings. Select it and set the color to a "pure" color. I use white since it is easy to work with.

When seqencing, the intensity of the color sets the value being sent to the channel. off == 0 full on == 255
 
Looks good. I would not use generic serial output. It has been depricated.

Next you need to create a preview.

I suggest taking a picure of the area you will have the pumpkins in and setting it up as a background. Then add / draw lights that represent the servos and other elements. Then map your elements to those you drew.

Try to creae a preview and then let us know what issues you are having.
 
Now for the time consuming part. Start a new sequence, associate the music and add marks for the beginning of each word. Then you need to decide whether you want to use the lip sync functionality or just plop down colors to make the servos move.
 
Import what? Detect what?

Vixen does not know what is in your minds eye. It facilitates your ability to map what you envision to your elements.

Yes sequencing is time consuming Yes it can get boring. Yes it gives a sense of pride whe you are done.
 
I was just wondering if there was a way to convert the vocal side of things in an external program then reimport it into vixen as an output field
 
Some people use papgagoyo (not the correct spelling) to do the lip sync stuff. It is still a manual process. There is no Freeware program that I know of that listens to the sound track and generates a lip-sync pattern. There are a couple of programs that attempt to identify beats and word start but I have not found them to be verry accurate. Your ears, a good set of headphones and setting playback speed to 25%, is how I do it. You listen for the start of the word, add a mark, move on to the next word. Lyrics are available for most songs online.
 
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