House outline up, have some issues

ShellNZ

ShellNZ

Senior elf
Joined
Jun 17, 2012
Messages
892
Location
Karaka, Auckland, NZ
Over the last 2 days I put up all my house outline.

Consists of 2 x P12R's. Strip is WS2811 30p/m (10IC p/m).

Tested them tonight.

Here are my problem areas.
Problemareas_zps4970e4cc.jpg



Will list the problems as it looks like the above red writing cant be read.

1. Top left - multi-colored line. As soon as the controller plug is plugged in (without LOR on) the strip goes multicolors blinking. I dont think this one is data related as its a short'ish distance from controller. When LOR is working and colors/sequence tested it works fine. Its own universe/slot. Just had a thought, pretty sure this one is speed issue as I only have 1500 for speed whereas others are 2000.

2. Bottom left - Same as the above but the colors only appear infrequently after something has been played on it, it stops and starts. Again, only a shortish distance from controller. Its own universe/slot. This could also be speed as it too is set to 1500

3. Middle little blue line - end of 2nd line. This run consists of firstly a 6m (60px) going up to the middle of the house upper peak, then 5.5m(55px) down to the end, the last section turns blue. The next part is on the lower roof. When controller is plugged in (without LOR running) it stays solid white. You can see it kinda trying to go colors during sequence but doesnt. I assume its because of that last blue section up the top? All one universe - 132px

4. This is the 3rd house peak run. Consists of 3m + 3.1m (upper peaks) + 2.4m (lower peak). When controller plugged in majority of the first 3m section goes white, the other 2 lengths dont go at all. When sequence/color played you can see that first part trying to change color but the rest is continually not going at all. Long run to controller, data issue? All one universe - 91px

5. Last problem, randomly after color/sequence played this goes red with 1 section at top diff colors. Long run back to controller tho so data issue?

I think the issues are mostly data related, just not sure on how to fix them as I havent worked with null pixels yet so dont know how to 1. install them and 2. how to configure them in P12R.

Any help much appreciated as we will have to get up tomorrow while hubby still here and not at work. Some of these things could also be speed issue, I havent checked yet.
 
Update: I have solved first 1, 2 & 5 probs, speed in P12 setup.

Still looking at 3 & 4, dont think its speed tho.

Update to update ;)

I think problem #3 may need a null pixel.

Prob #4 - Definately still having issues. Gonna have to get on upper roof and look at where the problem is with that one as the colors end 3/4 through first 3m piece so its more than a nullpixel/speed issue I think.
 
I am also have problems with my pixels and setting the speed in the P12R. I have spent the last 4 hours changing the speed for my WS2811 pixels from 1800 to 3600 in steps of 20 but still can't get them to work properly. They keep flickering and randomly lighting up in all different colours. Can anyone tell me if thy have a quicker way of finding the right speed?

Going to bed now and will continue tomorrow.

Cheers
 
Danny, setting majority of mine to 2440 has always worked for me but these are long runs. The distance from controller to first pixel kinda determines it I think.

Last night in chat there were a couple of people that have all theirs set to 3200 and nothing else.

I tried that and everything comes on frozen so looks like thats not it for me.
 
Poor power cabling (too thin for the distance) can cause all sorts of issues with pixels; sections that flicker, wrong colours, etc.

Try the same type of pixel on nice short cables to get the speed issue sorted first.
 
Thanks David, its a bit too late to be testing them now with short cables, they are all up on the house zip-tied to death.

Figured out another problem, had ports 11 & 12 lights switched around hehehehe.

Gonna test again soon.

One thing I am finding, I am having to pull the power on the controllers quite a lot. Testing speed earlier and they would freeze at e.g white. Rebooting via GUI doesnt reboot it, doesnt turn lights off at all.
 
Righty, one more problem left.....wouldnt you know it, right on a very high peak which is difficult to get to.

1probleft_zps90049c60.jpg


6m + 5.5m + 1.7m.

The last pixel section of the 5.5m length is out and the 1.7m length goes all sorts of colors, mainly white, both when testing lights and when LOR control panel is off.

Its gonna be a nightmare figuring out what the problem is there on that peak :(
 
i have had strips at plug points go all white from that point forward, and it came down to some dodgy wiring in the plug itself, smallamounts of movement to the plug corrected the issue. however, total replacement fixed it permanantly.
Power up and give the plug a bit of manipulation, see if that makes any difference, if it does, replace it (preferably on the ground, we dont want a Supergirl in chat also
 
Thanks Matt, gonna have to do it up on the roof unfortunately as we cant really take it down easily at all. Hubby can easily reach the plug tho to give it a wiggle so will try that in an hour or so when we turn them on at night.
 
feedback on my problem. Make sure that you have the right types of pixels defined in the P12R. I had mine set as WS2801 whereas they were WS2811.

After I realised this (six hours later) I started making progress. I then narrowed it down to the cable length which was causing an issue. It plugged the lights straight into the controller and this worked fine. I then tried a longer cable and this worked fine also. However when I used the actual cable length that I will use for the display, the lights went haywire. The difference in cable length was only about an extra metre, but this obviously was right on the threshold. So I added a null pixel and it works like a dream.
 
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