Falcon F48 and a Matrix board Setup Help

[Ianpor]

Good Morning all you smart people, this is my first year with programable RGB lights, for the last 10 Years we have had a static display covering our 350 square meter front yard.
During COVID we decided to convert to smart RGB (5 Volt) and have been modifying our display to the new LED’S.

We have installed permanent lights around the shed, across the roof lines and some other areas, made a mega tree and re-wrapped out 6.5M sleigh and reindeer display. We have managed to get everything working in X lights with the Falcon F48 until we tried to add the Matrix we made.

The matrix is 39 strips of 60 Led’s per meter IP 65 5 Volt placed onto a sheet of Luca bond, we have made 10 ports with pigtail to connect to the Falcon and s few injection points to cater for the voltage drop.

When we first made the display we tested it and all worked fine, it was the only thing connected to the Falcon and after some trial and learning we managed to get it displaying images and even a movie.

Yesterday I tried to add the Matrix into the display and came across an error Controllers bank channel count (3720 is over the maximum 3072)

There are some screenshots of the error, Xlights, and the Falcon before the Matrix was added.

I would gladly Pay anyone to come to my place in Bundoora and show us a few tips and tricks as time is getting close now, we are not running our display to music so but more still as a static display with some more flare.

Cheers
Ian.

 

[AAH]

That error indicates that you haven't assigned sufficient universes/channels or that you have exceeded the maximum number of channels across a bank of 4. I can't actually see the matrix defined on the F48 but I may be missing something. If I am reading it right it should be on outputs 33-40 and there's not screenshot showing that.

 

[darylc]

Make sure that port groups don't exceed 1024 pixels (3072 channels)
eg 1+17+33, or 2+18+34 etc.

 

[Ianpor]

The display is broken up into 10 channels across the display, we have 240 pixels per port so this makes 960 pixels per differential board. We have used two full boards and two ports from the last board.
If my maths is correct the board shouldn’t be over as it’s 960 pixels under the 1024.

Ian

 

[Ianpor]

That error indicates that you haven't assigned sufficient universes/channels or that you have exceeded the maximum number of channels across a bank of 4. I can't actually see the matrix defined on the F48 but I may be missing something. If I am reading it right it should be on outputs 33-40 and there's not screenshot showing that.

I just added the Matrix back into Xlights, on port 21-30 I can't upload this to the Falcon because of the error. Im sure its a stupid NEWBIE error in design.

 

[darylc]

Best bet is to hop into zoom, the port limits are not per receiver, but as I said in my last post. Go to xlights.org and press the blue zoom button

 

[Katekate]

 

[Jorge Bolivar]

@Ianpor
Can’t see the full controller screenshot but, the slider is set for 24 nodes per port max for bank 3 when your ports seem to use more than that. your xLight shows your matrix in port 33-40 that are on the controller bank 3.
if the controller screenshot download complete I may be able to help with balance the banks.
Careful w changing the ports, bank 1 is set for 900 and bank 2 for 100. Just the ports in bank 1 will be ok.

 

[BAZMick]

Change the matrix port over to say port 9-12 and move the trees at 9 and 10 up to 7 and 8. Port 9 can then run 3x strings of your matrix, port 10 another 3x strings, port 11 another 3x strings and then the last string out of port 12.

 

[Ianpor]

Thankyou to everyone who helped, Thank You to Darryl Collins for the Zoom call, I deleted all the models and moved some things around, also with Darryl's tutoridge I separated a big display into two data lines of 400 each and decided to move all the permanent LED's I've installed over to NodeMc boards and free them from the Falcon.

I really appreciate all the help from everyone thanks.

Ian

 

[Ianpor]

View attachment 15713

Thanks for the Diagram, being new these help to understand the Falcon better.

 

[Derf]

View attachment 15713

Just in regards to the f48. This controller acts like an f16v3 with 2x 16 port expansions meaning the max pixel output per port is 341 pixels and not 1024. Unless you change your pixel port groups to suite.

 

[Katekate]

yeah its 1024 split across the 3, and you can balance the split in the controller config.

 

[Benslights]

Just in regards to the f48. This controller acts like an f16v3 with 2x 16 port expansions meaning the max pixel output per port is 341 pixels and not 1024. Unless you change your pixel port groups to suite.

Derf this is very true and gets many people unstuck and not something that everyone should skim over when reading this thread.

 

[Jorge Bolivar]

Just in regards to the f48. This controller acts like an f16v3 with 2x 16 port expansions meaning the max pixel output per port is 341 pixels and not 1024. Unless you change your pixel port groups to suite.

@Derf Where this port groups can be adjusted?
This post got me re checking the F48 basics as possibly some of my videos are promoting false information.