Controller recommendations

The reality is it doesnt matter which one you choose because they will all still get the job done. Asking which controller is best is like asking people which is their favorite car, you will never get agreement.

I own all of the previously mentioned controllers and more and can tell you that they all do the job and that is controlling pixels. Each controller has their strengths and weakenesses but in the end it doesnt make much difference.

So you need to work on whats important to you and then go from there.

The reason i mentioned the pixlite is because its Australian made, the designers are active on this forum and their is decent documentation and community support

The J1SYS is another great option with a lot of power and features and can be purchased locally, there is a lot of community support if you get stuck.

The Sandevices is a good valued option that can be bought in a kit adding extra value, the interface has come a long way and this is a very good option but is not available from any Australian sources and has to be bought from the US which may cause issues if their you require a quick replacement. Again great community support

There are other options outside of the big 3 but many of these are DIY project based or commercial options
 
J1sys has been around for a long time and was one of the first Controllers readily available in Aus this does contribute to why most of us have them.
As far as being "more superior", Both of them do pretty much to the same thing at the end of the day.
The thing I like about the j1sys is the options to to add Null Pixels anywhere in the universe up to 4 times as apposed to only available at the start of the universe this is also the feature for changing the RGB orientation of different strings.
When buying lights from China "Life is like a Box of Chocolates" you never now what RGB orientation your going to get.
RGB orientation isn't a big deal for some as it's also easily done in the Sequencing Software for some, Others not so easily done.
 
I agree with what all have said here.


I have tested almost every board with LOR / Nutcracker Xlights.
I plan on using the P12S for my tree and the Pixlite16 for my Bush Matrix.


They are both good Controllers.


The only problem I have found with the Pixlite16 or Pixlite4 is the configuration software can not find the controller if you have 2 network cards. You have to disable one Network so it can find the controller. Not sure if this is related to being able to set the default route on the controller itself. It may be a bug with the configuration software as the controller is reachable once it is configured. If you re-enable the other interface it will still work there after...but the controller software may not find the card again after a reboot.


-Blu
 
love my SanDevices e6804's.. Will be running 3 of them this year.
 
I don't think that it is superior, I think its based upon knowledge and how to use it. I use J1systems controllers because I knew there was support on the forum, once I got stuck I asked for help and received it. And now I am comfortable using them.
 
I do agree with some of the comments about J1sys support and lack of official documentation. I've had a few occasions where it took them a long time to respond to inquiries but there is always a reason and they always get back to me and its never weeks its just sometimes days. Last year I had 3 controllers fail (lightning hit my house and shorted out a ton of stuff) and I really didn't have the money to replace them. They worked with me and sent me brand new controllers at a huge discount and I just had to send the top boards back to them. They didn't have to help me and they did. So I will always buy their products.
 
bluzervic said:
The only problem I have found with the Pixlite16 or Pixlite4 is the configuration software can not find the controller if you have 2 network cards. You have to disable one Network so it can find the controller.


-Blu
Click to expand...


Blu, I have two network cards and I haven't had any trouble with the config software finding my controller. I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology here or if it's even that related as I'm no computer guru but here's what I did. In the IPv4 settings on the network card I just made sure the ip address was in the range of that used by the controller. I think from memory it is something along the lines of 192.168.0.X. Then no problems. I might of had to set the subnet mask (now I'm really out of my depth) to 255.255.255.0. That IP address works as long as the controller has the default IP address. If you have changed it the address needs to be the same as the controller with the last number only being different.

I might be off on the wrong tangent here but mine seems to work and that is all I have done.
 
Blu, I have two network cards and I haven't had any trouble with the config software finding my controller. I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology here or if it's even that related as I'm no computer guru but here's what I did. In the IPv4 settings on the network card I just made sure the ip address was in the range of that used by the controller. I think from memory it is something along the lines of 192.168.0.X. Then no problems. I might of had to set the subnet mask (now I'm really out of my depth) to 255.255.255.0. That IP address works as long as the controller has the default IP address. If you have changed it the address needs to be the same as the controller with the last number only being different.
Click to expand...


It probably is because the Config Software thinks it is on my Home network, it probably does not bother to look for the E1.31 Network afterwords. I have 192.168.1.0/24 for my E1.31 network. If I temporarily disable my home network the Config Software is then able to find the Controllers and will continue to find them after re-enabling the interface. However, after a reboot...one must do the process all over again.


For all technical purposes, it is a connected network and routing should not even be an issue.


One thing noted... the controllers will work fine regardless.... it is just I will need to do the above mentioned process should I need to reconfigure anything. So, the problem is not the controller itself, but probably the conf software. I can not say for sure that if the controllers could have their Default route set if the config software would then be able to find them. I am sure if I wanted to take the time to see what was happening with wireshark...I may be able to narrow it down.


-Blu
 
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