Looking for Help Diagnosing xLights not communicating Correctly with Pixels

[Max Kabilafkas]

Hi all

I did my first pixel light set up about 5 years ago and then had a four year break while I was moving houses and renting. I'm back this year with my set up but I am rusty with understanding how everything works and am struggling to diagnose an issue with xLights correctly controlling my pixels.

For referencing I am using a Pixlite 16 MKII controlling a combination of 5V and 12V ws2811 bullet pixels.

I have set up my lights and have tested them using the default testing sequence that comes baked into the Pixlite controller and they all light up and change colours accurately, confirming that all the strings are connected, receiving data and have adequate power injection. However when I then plug xLights into my controller and try to run a test sequence, everything goes a bit screwy. A bunch of the strings don't light up correctly, and a bunch more don't light up at all. There is clearly some miscommunication between xLights and my controller, but I am too rusty on how it all works to know what the problem is. Any advice in pointing me in the right direction would be helpful

I have a bunch of pictures and screenshots of my setup included for reference.

Some potential thought starters that may be helpfull...

1 - The models that are connected to channel 1 of my controller seem to work well, and a lot of the subsequent channels are behaving odd. So maybe there is an issue with how the channels on the controller are assigned?

2 - I have a few strings that have a few at the end of the chain that I dont intend to use. I could cut them off but was intending to just not light them up in xlights. I havent yet created the model for these unused pixels in xlights so maybe that's part of the problem?

 

[christmasdave]

I remember your posts about your first show and it was awesome, I also started the same year!

Quick question as you didn't mention it in your post, have you uploaded outputs from xLights to your controller? (It's just near the visualiser button). I would also tick 'full xlights control' before you upload.

Once you do that, go into Advatek Assistant, click advanced on the controller tab and check that the channels etc have uploaded properly, plus you can reduce your brightness as the Advatek will default to 100% every time you upload (unless your managing brightness elsewhere), and that could potentially be causing issues too if your not setup to run at 100%.

As for the unused at the end of the chain, that's not an issue. I do that with a few props, as long as there's nothing chained after them no need to cut them out. For example My rosa wreath is 696 and no prop connected after it. I've used 7 string of 100. I just tell xlights its 696 and those last 4 don't light up.

If there are props between though, then yes, you will need to cut them out or model them so that the channels are accounted for. (easier to cut them out personally)

Happy to share some pics of my pixlite 16 MK11 long range long range setup if you want to compare.

OH! and don't forget to render before you run a sequence, especially if you've made any changes