J1SYS P12R Controlling WS2811 LED Need Config Help

oneday

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Nov 10, 2012
Messages
9
Hello,


I have a J1SYS P12R controlling WS2811 Flex LED light strands. I have researched my way all the way up to this point (I thank all you for the forum posts with all the information it is awesome) and it's been a long day at trying to get everything put up and hooked up. I got half the house covered and went to do some test runs a couple minutes ago and I cannot figure out the exact Speed Kpbs needed in the String Config for the P12R board.


I tried 1000, 3000, 3600, 4000 and sometimes they light up sometimes they do nothing, and some various other sporadic stuff. Does anyone know the right speed for the WS2811 lights on the P12R? Or is there a way to tell? So I can figure it out per line or is it always the same.


On my Main Page I just noticed some issues with the universes they are.


Effects Overlap and Error - Exceeds Buffer Pool


Any help would be much appreciated.


AG
 

burner

Full time elf
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Nov 2, 2011
Messages
315
The speed seems to vary immensely with this device. In my case, I am running it all at 2400 and my show is now flawless of any flickering and it's doing everything I want.


What state/suburb are you in? Perhaps a fellow ACL member may live nearby.
 

Kaden

Pixels! I need more pixels!
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Jan 10, 2012
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Gold Coast
The speed changes depending on the distance from the controller (in my experience).

The strings closest to my controller (say 30cm) run at anything in the 3000-3500 range (I settled on 3250).

The strings that are 4 meters from my controller only worked at 2500.

The strings that are 8ish meters from my controller only worked at 2000.

In all cases it was trial and error. :)
 

oneday

New elf
Joined
Nov 10, 2012
Messages
9
Thank you all~! I just got up. I will try all your speed suggestions now and let you know what works. This has been really the only frustrating part of this. Mainly because there is no rime or reason it seems. I am just arbitrarily trying different speeds. I wish there was a calculation / chart that said X meters from controller requires Y speed to run them or something.


I am in Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati OH in Summerset Farms if anyone wants to stop over and see the display. I am hoping to complete it in the next week. The rain is putting me out today so we will see.


OK off to bang my head on my desk and tweak the P12R config :)
 

oneday

New elf
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Nov 10, 2012
Messages
9
Update:


Here is what I found wrong so far:


my distance to my first pixel was a big problem. ( I am still not sure how far it can be for ws2811 but I shortened them all and seems to have fixed a lot of issues I was having.) I will have to put in dummy pixels next year or get the pixel extenders from J1SyS so I can hide my wires better. I sacrificed nice and neat for functionality this year.


P12R config - Effects Config, I did not know what I was doing in here and I had checked all 4 check marks on the channel and set them to do all the same things on the same pixels. Once I unchecked the other 3 boxes things started working better and the error on the main page went away "Effects Overlap" which I could not find what this meant before I figured it out.


then there was the Speed Kbps I have speeds set now ranging from 1200 - 2400 each string seems to be a unique game of "guess" even though some of the distances are the same to the first pixel.


all in all I have the lower half of my house complete. This week I will get the top half done. But top half means longer runs to the first pixel. I am hoping to make up some dummy pixels using the scrap from previous runs.


I do have one nagging issue left that I cannot figure out. I will create a new post for it as it may be a distance thing or something else.


Thank you all for replying to my post much appreciated.
 

fasteddy

I have C.L.A.P
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Im wondering if temperature also has an effect. I had one strip on my tree start to get stuck on, when i powered down and up again the strip would work and then after a while would stay all white again, I then backed off from 2200 to 1800 speed and now its working well. But this strip had worked with all previous tests before hand at 2200

No the effects config onnly needs to be used if you need to add an effect for a particular channel range, like the RGB orientationm, addition of nul pixels, setting channels in reverse order, if you dont need to do any of these then best to leave unchecked and not used.
 

oneday

New elf
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Nov 10, 2012
Messages
9
ah thank you for the tip on the effects page.


also has anyone else had issues with the strings not taking the new settings unless they power down the board? I tried rebooting via the webpage but my strings sometimes do not pick up the new settings. I have just made it a point to power cycle it after every change.
 

David_AVD

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ɟɐsʇǝppʎ said:
I had one strip on my tree start to get stuck on, when i powered down and up again the strip would work and then after a while would stay all white again, I then backed off from 2200 to 1800 speed and now its working well. But this strip had worked with all previous tests before hand at 2200

I have seen WS2811 strip appear to "lock up" when there is too much cable resistance for the DC feed. This happened when I set them to max level (all white) and only a power recycle would get them going again.

My theory (educated guess) is that the voltage drop in the 0V line gets to a point where the data no longer has a stable reference. Using thicker power cabling saw the issue disappear completely.
 

David_AVD

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Slite said:
David_AVD said:
Using thicker power cabling saw the issue disappear completely.

Define "thicker" please. :)

I think I used 0.75mm (CSA) cable for the power on the 8.1 metre length of strip and 1.5mm (CSA) cable for the 10.3 metre length.

I also injected power approx every 4 metres using 0.75mm cable that ran in parallel with the strips.
 
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