F16v5 W/SRx2 v5 Dazed and Confused

[vizardknight]

Hello everyone, sorry but this is my first post. I am totally green at using falcon controllers and such ....
So I have a Pi 3+B running FPP, F16V5 and long range Receiver SRx2 V5 plugged into the 17-20 long range port...all connected with a dumb switch (XLights for sequencing). I selected E131 protocol...
It is my understanding that each port (16 ports on board directly wired, and 4 long range ports) of the F16V5 can run about 7-800 pixels. Since I'm just getting started, I am looking to just run up to 100 pixels (ws8211) per port, simple and keep away from power injection for now.
Ok, problem I am seeing is every time i define more than 48 pixels on any given port (144 channels), it rolls into another universe (I thought 1 universe=512 channels). I can't get controller to assign anything greater than 144 channels per port...even on the smart receiver as well.
Am I missing a setting somewhere that defines how many channels are in a universe? Thanks

 

[MikeKrebs]

It looks like you might be trying to manually configure? If you are using xLights, use the visualizer to configure and let xLights figure it out for you. No need to try to manually configure anything. Then upload both FPP and the Falcon controller from xLights.

 

[Skymaster]

There is no good reason to use E1.31- use DDP.
It's simpler and there aren't two separate calculations that need to be made (FPP Channel > Universe/Channel, then Universe/Channel > Controller Channel) where there are potentials for errors, especially with the 510/512 channels per universe issue that can occur.

 

[vizardknight]

Thanks!
I was thinking about that, have not tried that yet. Still makes no sense why it thinks a universe is 144 channels.
Thanks,
Ryan

 

[vizardknight]

There is no good reason to use E1.31- use DDP.
It's simpler and there aren't two separate calculations that need to be made (FPP Channel > Universe/Channel, then Universe/Channel > Controller Channel) where there are potentials for errors, especially with the 510/512 channels per universe issue that can occur.

Thank you!

 

[Skymaster]

Thanks!
I was thinking about that, have not tried that yet. Still makes no sense why it thinks a universe is 144 channels.
Thanks,
Ryan

It doesnt think that at all.
You have each prop defined on its own universe. The prop only has 48 pixels - 48 pixels * 3ch per pixel = 144 channels.

If you want to manually configure it to use consecutive channels across universes on multiple ports, you'd set up something like

• Prop 1 - 48 pixels Starting on U1/Ch1 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on U1/Ch144
• Prop 2 - 48 pixels Starting on U1/Ch145 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on U1/Ch288
• Prop 3 - 48 pixels Starting on U1/Ch289 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on U1/Ch432
• Prop 4 - 48 pixels Starting on U1/Ch433 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on U2/Ch78
• Prop 5 - 48 pixels Starting on U2/Ch79 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on U2/Ch222
• Prop 6 - 85 pixels Starting on U2/Ch223 - this uses 255 channels and finishes on U2/Ch477
• Prop 7 - 121 pixels Starting on U2/Ch478 - this uses 363 channels and finishes on U3/Ch330

However, as @MikeKrebs says, use visualiser, let xLights do all the work and you don't have to think about any of this.

 

[Skymaster]

DDP for the same example:

• Prop 1 - 48 pixels Starting on Ch1 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on Ch144
• Prop 2 - 48 pixels Starting on Ch145 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on Ch288
• Prop 3 - 48 pixels Starting on Ch289 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on Ch432
• Prop 4 - 48 pixels Starting on Ch433 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on Ch576
• Prop 5 - 48 pixels Starting on Ch577 - this uses 144 channels and finishes on Ch720
• Prop 6 - 85 pixels Starting on Ch721 - this uses 255 channels and finishes on Ch975
• Prop 7 - 121 pixels Starting on Ch976 - this uses 363 channels and finishes on Ch1338

 

[vizardknight]

Thanks for all the quick support!!
Really appreciate it...
For others...
I found out why it was thinking the universe was 144 channels. When I selected E.131 on Falcon main settings page, it creates a tab (E.131), on that tab is the definition of how many channels you want to assign per universe, also it allows you to set the starting universe.
I set the universe channels to 144 by accident thinking it was 144 pixels.

Thanks again...
I'll start working on using XLights to configure this stuff.

 

[Skymaster]

Ahh, that tab is used to set the number of input universes in total, as well as the size of said input universes.
You'd usually set this to enough to cover everything you need, possibly with buffer.

From an xLights perspective, this is how I configure mine (it's a v4, but the same)
1. Set Model and the variant correctly to match your controller
2. Set auto layout models, auto size, full xLights control
3. Set the IP address
4. Set Protocol DDP (or e1.31)
5. Set the channels per packet to 1440 for DDP, or univese size to 510 for E1.31 (dont use 512, it's simpler to use 510 because it's exactly 170 pixels)
6. Hit the visualise button and drag on your props to the outputs, and press save
7. Press Upload output at the bottom of the screen

And done. Controller is configured.
Also when you do your FPP connect, if you set UDP Out to All for the FPP instance, it'll set up all the DDP/E1.31 outputs correctly too.