Mega tree assistance

Hi all. Need some assistance please

I have a mega tree giving me grey hairs.

The tree is 18 strips of 75 pixels.
This is split into 2 strands of 9 strips each(675 pixels each). Each strip is connected to a separate ESP32.

ESP 1 is channel 7213 - 9237 on Xlights
ESP 2 is channel 9238 - 11262.

Auto Layout and Auto size is on.

I've set up 2 9 strip shadow models and assigned the controllers to them in Xlights.

The main model start channel is 7213 and end channel is 11262.
Shadow model 1: 7213 - 9237
Shadow model 2: 9238 - 11262

Each output has a null pixel\node on it.

In WLED I have set it to skip the 1st pixel - all works perfectly in WLED.

In Xlights I have set the null pixels to 1 as well.

I found doing text that the strands are off by 2 pixels, not 1.

Some other effects look fine though?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.

The usual answer for this stuff - is do it in one place but not both. I suspect that Xlights is offsetting by 1, and then WLED is offsetting what it gets by 1.

thewanderingpine said:

The usual answer for this stuff - is do it in one place but not both. I suspect that Xlights is offsetting by 1, and then WLED is offsetting what it gets by 1.

Click to expand...

As I was typing this out this morning, that exactly what I thought.
I was under the impression when Xlights takes over from WLED, all settings are ignored from WLED, but that obviously not the case.

So the "null pixel" ... does it have real channel data (unlike an f-amp)? What does "skip the first pixel" in WLED mean, does it mean removing 3 channels of data, inserting 3 channels of data, or zeroing out 3 channels of data?

merryoncherry said:

So the "null pixel" ... does it have real channel data (unlike an f-amp)? What does "skip the first pixel" in WLED mean, does it mean removing 3 channels of data, inserting 3 channels of data, or zeroing out 3 channels of data?

Click to expand...

Correct it does have real channel data, it will then just skip it.
So you must tell WLED you have 11 pixels, not 10, and it must skip pixel 1.

As far as I can tell, it would zero out the data, but I am by no means sure.

To me it sounds like WLED would have to introduce data for pixel 1, as xLights is not aware of that and not sending it. Skip pixel doesn't do that, it probably does the opposite, and that explains why it's off.

Now here's where I'm a bit concerned... xLights will introduce a null pixel at the beginning of a model for you (or you could put a 1-pixel line there too), but I'm not sure if you can put them in the middle of the model... and you have this on both strings I assume.

Again, just because I haven't heard how, doesn't mean you can't... xLights is full of things I've never used. I'd be running for the F-amps right about now, but that's in my instincts anyway.

merryoncherry said:

To me it sounds like WLED would have to introduce data for pixel 1, as xLights is not aware of that and not sending it. Skip pixel doesn't do that, it probably does the opposite, and that explains why it's off.

Now here's where I'm a bit concerned... xLights will introduce a null pixel at the beginning of a model for you (or you could put a 1-pixel line there too), but I'm not sure if you can put them in the middle of the model... and you have this on both strings I assume.

Again, just because I haven't heard how, doesn't mean you can't... xLights is full of things I've never used. I'd be running for the F-amps right about now, but that's in my instincts anyway.

Click to expand...

Thank you.

That makes good sense. Perhaps I should try and see if the signal is good enough without the null pixel. The controllers are really close to the 1st string.
I do have the null pixels on both strings.

I will try it and revert back.

As for the F-Amps, I'm in the South of Africa, no way we can get those goodies here, even if we could, I can't sacrifice an arm or a leg, or a kidney, to fund it

I hope you had success taking out the null pixel.

If not, and nobody else knows how to do it in software, you could bypass the first real pixel on each of the 2 strings on the tree, essentially the first pixel would be near the controller not on the tree. A bit of a hack, but its pretty late in the season to experiment and I don't have any good ideas.