2015 Plans - Evans Christmas Lights

if you are running 12v i have heard up to 2 strings or 100 pixels before power injection the best thing i did was test with 100 pixels with da share e 131 tester on full white to see which pixels started not to be full white and on 5 v i got about 80 pixels on full white so i just inject at the out end of the second string

You're unlikely to damage anything by not having enough injection points; the lights will usually just shine pink instead of white until you fix the problem.

There are a few factors influencing the distance you can get between injection points and you have the most important one working in your favour; these are 12V strips, not 5V. As a bare minimum you should be able to get 10 metres between injection points (so that no part of the strip is more than 5 metres from an injection point) and you're likely to be able to get more than that in practice. Remember that voltage drop can occur between the supply and lights and this will shorten the length you can achieve between injection points. Using shorter or thicker cable for injection will help with this issue and DC-DC converters are another option.

I would keep it simple with fusing and just fuse between the injection point and supply. Even if using the same supply for adjacent injection points, you will still need to cut the positive line in the strip half way between each injection point for this to be effective.

Ok so my order has come in and I'd like to get testing!
I have 2x P2 boards brand new & unused so jumpers have so far not been set. Reading the documentation on it I'm a little confused as to what I need to do. The strings I have are 12v and I assume I still need to power the board but at what voltage and how? I have a D2 which I've soldered a 5v plugpack to, do I need to do the same for the P2's?

Hi ,
Please see attached document

It has a table of common settings.

If your PSU is 12V and your lights are 12V too, then the 4th scenario can be used

"12V supply into K1 with 12V out to pixels" - Open, 1-2, 3-4, 2-3, 2-3

gerry said:

Hi ,
Please see attached document

It has a table of common settings.

If your PSU is 12V and your lights are 12V too, then the 4th scenario can be used

"12V supply into K1 with 12V out to pixels" - Open, 1-2, 3-4, 2-3, 2-3

Click to expand...

Thanks Gerry. I have this document but it was confusing me. In chat we were saying I could use 5v as its the same way I power my D2, but you're suggesting to use the same PSU for the strings & power injection to power the P2 also?

If your strings are 12v , then use the same 12 v to power the pixlite.


That is what I have done.and would be the most common way to go. Not often that the controller is powerd with a diff voltage to the pixel , though it is possible.

OK so I have my 12v pixel strips up and running, thanks all in chat for you help over the last week.

Now, in chat last night I said I wasn't going to buy any more pixels or a P10. Then I slept on it and now I think I want 3x P10s for a scrolling sign! Reading Phil's post I see I'll need a Beaglebone Black & Octoscroller Cape to run them, as well as a 5v PSU. I also have this year's ACL Strobes that I currently don't have a connection for so figured I could use the same 5v PSU to drive both the strobes and P10s, is this possible? Also, could I use one side of a AVD-DC48 to control the strobes? I'll be using 1 side of this for some 27v DC strings.

I'm assuming ray can provide the P10s and the 5v PSU, anything else I need like ribbon cables or other things I can get from Ray that I'd need?

P10's are awesome Graham. I've been running just 1 purely off my usb port to play around and I can't wait to scale up to the 8 that I will be using. My daughter thinks I should step up and do the whole roof though.
You can connect the strobes off a single channel of the DC48. All you need to do is follow the connection examples in the wiki for connecting different voltages to the 1 board. There's actually examples in all of my manuals if that's easier to find.
Ray has P10's and power supplies. You'll need an octroscroller pcb which you can scrounge around for or I have them on my site. As long as you mount the P10's close to the octoscroller/BBB then you shouldn't need any ribbon as they come with ribbon and power cable. I actually got my P10's from benbrown and they work great. I'm pretty sure he has 5V power supplies too.

Yes. The 5V power supply should be able to power the P10 panels, the BeagleBone Black and the strobes at the same time; I would be surprised if you exceeded the current capacity of the power supply.

You aren't limited to running just two voltages on the DC48 either. Scroll down to Example 2 here http://auschristmaslighting.com/wiki/Controller_Setups_and_Settings

Another option that might save a small amount of money is a BeagleBone Green. As far as I know it hasn't been tested by anyone here.

djgra79 said:

I'm assuming ray can provide the P10s and the 5v PSU, anything else I need like ribbon cables or other things I can get from Ray that I'd need?

Click to expand...

the P10's should come with all power and interconnect cables.

Grab a Octoscroller from Alan with the real time clock so the sign can run independent if you want. element14 for the BBB

No issues for strobes and panels from same PSU, but would recommend the PSU be mounted close to or with the panels

Cheers

Thanks for the replies. What a difference a week makes! Since my last reply I have placed an order for 4x P10 panels, 2x 5v PSUs and a couple of strings of 5v pixel nodes just for good measure and should all arrive sometime next week!

I have already ordered & received a BBB & Alan's Octroscroller so I'm almost good to go. I do have a question now about running the show. Last year I used a Raspberry Pi running FPP and I know others (Gerry for example) has used a Pi + BBB synced as master slave from what I understand to run the panels, but I've also heard that the BBB could actualy run the entire show including the P10s - is this true? If so is it just like the Pi? (Load FPP onto BBB and load sequences and away it goes?) Given there is only the one RJ45 connector I assume this connects to my network switch and send out all the data relevant to my controllers? I guess this means I can use the Pi for other projects and is not needed in my display? FYI including the panels I'm looking at having around 8100 channels this year all up across pixels, dumb strip and DC items.

I'm also looking to build leaping arches and/or coro stars. CLAP well and truly has taken a hold!
#46daystilswitchon

The BBB can run the show but the current FPP software for it has issues with audio. You could try it but I recommend still using the Raspberry Pi for this year until the audio issues are fixed.

I believe the BBB doesn't have a clock either so if you want to schedule lights with it, you'll need to get the octoscroller board with the RTC if you didn't already.

There's something I don't quite understand. The P10s are driven by the BBB which essentially is a show player like the Pi, is it not? Can I test the P10s via da_e1.31 or do I have to create a sequence in xLights and then export this and play via FPP/BBB only?

So far I have loaded FPP onto the BBB. Just not sure how to setup the "controller" for the P10s in xLights. Is the BBB considered an E1.31 devise and I load the channels for it this way? I'm not using every channel in every previous universe so can I start is at a new universe number?

Hmmm you're getting to the limit of what I know but surely someone will correct me if I am wrong.

First question:
You can do it either way (assuming FPP supports xLights sequences). You can set the BBB to run in bridge mode and it will behave pretty much the same as any other E1.31 controller. Alternatively you could load a sequence onto it. My preference would be to use it in bridge mode because that is the way you'll be using it in the show; BBB in bridge mode with the PI sending the data to it.

Second question:
I believe you treat the channels as if they're the same as any other E1.31 controller if you use bridge mode. Where you do this might depend on what will be sending out the E1.31 data and running the show (I haven't had to do this so not sure).

Third question:
I can't really help; try asking in chat if you don't get a reply. xLights and P10s are both very commonly used so you'll get an answer sooner or later.

The BBB now supports audio.

http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,7959.0.html