Introducing Baldrick8

[domhodgson]

Hey folks, Dom here from the Baldrick team, we've had a LOT of questions about WLED and I've tried to answer them here - https://baldrickboard.com/docs/common-questions/is_this_wled

The board as it is now is locked to 750 pixels at 40FPS but by the time the @AAH edition arrives in AUS, you will be able to run more at lower FPS (we are doing more longer run testing on these before we give out a firm number)

 

[Skymaster]

Thanks for the update Dom. That's good info.
Out of interest, will the board support higher framerates than 40fps as well as lower?

 

[domhodgson]

Thanks for the update Dom. That's good info.
Out of interest, will the board support higher framerates than 40fps as well as lower?

We aren't limiting the FPS on our side, (a quick xLights test on one of our boards is right now outputting 50FPS on a smaller number of pixels but our main focus has been 40FPS as that is the xLights default and we are trying to focus on the majority of use cases.

 

[bpratt]

I am now distributing the Baldrick 8 port pixel controller (designed by iLightThat in the UK) here in Australia. It's an absolutely brilliant little controller that will do 8 WS281x

I don't suppose anyone has a stl to mount one of these Baldrick boards on to a Meanwell psu, like the smart controller mounts ?

I think they'd work really well as a standalone controller box with a meanwell psu, so keen to find a stl to print out one.

 

[AAH]

I don't suppose anyone has a stl to mount one of these Baldrick boards on to a Meanwell psu, like the smart controller mounts ?

I think they'd work really well as a standalone controller box with a meanwell psu, so keen to find a stl to print out one.

There's a few mounts shared on the Baldrick FB page. https://www.facebook.com/groups/3626858730963141

 

[domhodgson]

oh these would be a game changer if they had a 2 port eth switch for daisy chain

We considered it for this board but we really wanted to push to keep costs down (and technical development) however,once the Baldrick8 is launched and our feature backlog is at least mostly through, I would like to revisit this.

 

[thewanderingpine]

The speed of this delivery is awesome, we've also just pushed a new firmware update which introduces "BEST FRIENDS"

The Baldrick8 will look for other Baldrick boards and give them a bit of a health check, we also introduce Test Sync which allows you to synchronise test mode between the boards.

Given how impressed people were with the Falcon Test mode running on my pixels the first year -- synced test mode is such a clever idea. I love it.

 

[Skymaster]

Is there any way to install the firmware or do the initial installation offline, ie. never having the board connected to the internet?

 

[domhodgson]

Is there any way to install the firmware or do the initial installation offline, ie. never having the board connected to the internet?

Sadly not, it has to be connected to the internet only once but initially for that first firmware download, there is no SD card or other way of loading it onto the board.

 

[AAH]

Is there any way to install the firmware or do the initial installation offline, ie. never having the board connected to the internet?

You ask the guy who imports them and he can do it.

 

[SleighRider]

Got home tonight and found my nice new board waiting for me.
Completed the initial setup including firmware update. Connected to my network and set it up in xlights.
So easy and took less than 10min. Even ran a test sequence on my nice new 36in Star.
No problems so quick and easy.

 

[domhodgson]

Got home tonight and found my nice new board waiting for me.
Completed the initial setup including firmware update. Connected to my network and set it up in xlights.
So easy and took less than 10min. Even ran a test sequence on my nice new 36in Star.
No problems so quick and easy.

Glad to hear it, we've just got a cool new feature on our Alpha testing channel that should be pushed out to release early next week, let me know if you have any issues (or software / feature suggestions)

 

[domhodgson]

Just wanted to jump on and let you know about some features we added recently (I believe a few of you are picking up your boards at the upcoming mini).

• Added the 'I broke the network mode' inspired from a suggestion by Alan Hanson (look at that two mentions in two updates). When booting the board, if you press and hold button 1, it will reset all the network settings, go back to DHCP and completely forget that you tried to set a static IP address and got the gateway DNS wrong.
• When adding a model, the default test colour will now one of several preselected colours rather than just red, is this a laying the groundwork for a new feature coming soon.. who knows.. well, I do but I'm not telling you.
• The board connects to our update server periodically to check for updates, if it cannot do this, we let you know there may be an issue with your network settings. We will never admit that the problem could be on our side.
• ⁠Friend scanning - Baldrick will now look for other Baldricks on the network and let you know how they are doing, you can also syncronise your test mode with them.
• ⁠Add multicast sACN
• Additions to Artnet / E1.31 compatibility
• Pixels now start at 1 rather than 0.. causing developers worldwide to cringe but that appears to be the way "It's done"

The board should alert you automatically to update and the release notes are generally at - https://baldrickboard.com/docs/baldrick8/release_notes

 

[Skymaster]

The board connects to our update server periodically to check for updates, if it cannot do this, we let you know there may be an issue with your network settings. We will never admit that the problem could be on our side.

With the proliferation of segregated show networks, can this nag be turned off? Many people don't have internet accessibility for to their architecture

Likewise with the auto update feature... Can that be disabled? Or is it just a notification that there is one available? (perhaps a front end js query from the admins browser rather than from the devices itself, which is more likely to have internet access)

 

[AAH]

Just wanted to jump on and let you know about some features we added recently (I believe a few of you are picking up your boards at the upcoming mini).

• Added the 'I broke the network mode' inspired from a suggestion by Alan Hanson (look at that two mentions in two updates). When booting the board, if you press and hold button 1, it will reset all the network settings, go back to DHCP and completely forget that you tried to set a static IP address and got the gateway DNS wrong.
• When adding a model, the default test colour will now one of several preselected colours rather than just red, is this a laying the groundwork for a new feature coming soon.. who knows.. well, I do but I'm not telling you.
• The board connects to our update server periodically to check for updates, if it cannot do this, we let you know there may be an issue with your network settings. We will never admit that the problem could be on our side.
• ⁠Friend scanning - Baldrick will now look for other Baldricks on the network and let you know how they are doing, you can also syncronise your test mode with them.
• ⁠Add multicast sACN
• Additions to Artnet / E1.31 compatibility
• Pixels now start at 1 rather than 0.. causing developers worldwide to cringe but that appears to be the way "It's done"

The board should alert you automatically to update and the release notes are generally at - https://baldrickboard.com/docs/baldrick8/release_notes

Time for me to do another proof read to see if everything has made it into the manual. Not going to happen until next week as I'm prepping to go to the mini on the weekend. Will have some boxed up ready to run Baldricks there. Building up 1 of them may have involved me driving a screwdriver through my left middle finger into the left ring finger. No pain, no gain.