Matrix Wiring Direction

[Kimbo3000]

G'day all, hope you's are doing well.

We're making 4 seed pixel matrices (matrixeses). I want to run the cables for data and power up the center pole and wire the RHS 2 matrices left to right and wire the LHS 2 matrices right to left (see attached quality illustration). If I group these all together, will effects on the group still work? When I add these matrices to the "whole house" group will the effects still work properly?

The reason I ask is when I first setup our arches I set them up similar (feeding from the center to the left and right) and the arches all appeared to work in xlights, but in RL (real life) the right to left wired ones displayed incorrectly. This could have been my fault due to an arch drawn in backward, or render styles setup incorrectly (it was a while ago.. I can't remember). Ever since then I have wired everything from left to right.

Given that I purchase all my sequences, I would prefer not to muck around with render styles for each effect to get it to work.. so if this is a possibility, I will just wire them all left to right.

For more info, there are approx. 7000 seed pixels in total over all matrices. The lower 2 matrices will be over 2 controller outputs each. The top 2 matrices will be over 5 outputs each. The seed pixels on the top matrices are spaced closer together. I will be zig-zagging the strings vertically and power injection will be made accordingly. The controller is a HE123 mk2 and programming will be done in xlights 2024.(what ever the latest version is)

Thanks
Kimbo

 

[Katekate]

Just set it up in xlights and see what it does?

I have a separate show folder just for playing with stuff like this.

 

[Godfree2000]

Xlights is great for flipping, reversing and changing to suit what you have in real life.
Just build it, power it up and then start swapping at xlights model level until you get it right, the sub menu for your model has all the available connections etc, bottom left, top right, you will work it out.

 

[Kimbo3000]

Don't get me wrong, I know how to set it up in xlights. And I will (today) do a test mock up in xlights to test the sequencing of the groups for the matrix.
Its just that in the past (with the arches) I'd also done in xlights testing and it all worked ok.. but testing in real life the arches acted backward left to right and also was wrong top to bottom in a sequence (which was super weird). This may have been a bug in xlights.. or more likely.. i may have drawn the arch right to left and then flipped it to make it right-side up. I know now that you can just change the starting green/blue square thing.

I Just wanted to make sure everything was going to work ok before cable tying 3.5k seed pixels onto the mesh (half the matrix).

Thanks
Kimbo

 

[merryoncherry]

You have two challenges.

One is making xLights know the wiring exactly how it is in real life. If xLights preview didn't match real life, it likely isn't a bug in xLights, much more likely that there was a discrepancy in what you told xLights vs. the real world, just a matter of figuring out what that was (green/blue square or whatever may have been the reason). If that sort of thing happens again, we can diagnose and fix it.

The second challenge then is getting it to look right in xLights. The issue you will have is that multiple matrix models in a group behave differently in some imported sequences than a single matrix. This is less a problem with whole house effects, much trickier with effects applied to the matrix. This will be a problem regardless of whether the sections are left to right or mixed. If it's off one controller though, you can make 1 custom model out of it instead of parts. Applying effects to that will work nicely, with submodels even single strand effect will work like a regular matrix.

 

[Kimbo3000]

If it's off one controller though, you can make 1 custom model out of it instead of parts. Applying effects to that will work nicely, with submodels even single strand effect will work like a regular matrix.

I never thought of doing it this way. The matrices are all off the same controller.

If I combine 2 or 4 of the matrices in a custom model, do they have to be connected to sequential outputs on the same controller?
ie.. outputs 1-10 for matrix 1 & 2, outputs 11-16 for other stuff.. then outputs 17-26 for matrix 3 & 4 (the controller has 48 outputs).. would this still work if I combine all matrices into a custom model to make 1 large matrix?

I was thinking of making a custom model (text on the matrix) so imported sequences can be assigned to the text custom model without having to edit the sequences individually myself. Would I have to make this custom model (text across all 4 matrices) within the custom model of 1 large matrix to get the text on the matrixeses that are wired backward to work correctly?
I guess I can just test this out myself.. if it doesnt work out, I wont do the text sub model thing.

I have some playing around to do in my backup xlights.. Thanks for the ideas
..
Kimbo

 

[Skymaster]

do they have to be connected to sequential outputs on the same controller?

Yes. It'll appear as a single prop in visualiser with multiple strings, you drag into the first port and then the rest follow.

 

[merryoncherry]

The ports have to be sequential (in a contiguous range), but there doesn't really have to be any relationship between which part goes to each port. Another thing is you can "skip" ports by not assigning any real pixels to them, which could be useful if you were using receivers (that get 4 ports each) or something like that. But overall, if you can assign it to a port range on a controller, it will work easily.

Since the wiring can't be captured by the "matrix model", you would make a "custom model". You'll only need one "custom model", which defines the physical grid, and that will cover all 4 parts of the matrix... it's just one matrix now with weird wiring, and you could run text on it no problem. I'm not sure what you may want for your text, but that could likely be a "submodel" if you are wanting to just use part of the matrix for it, or something like that. A little more description of what the goal is.

This is a really small version of what you might put in the model grid.

2	1	5	6
4	3	7	8
10	9	13	14
12	11	15	16

You'd have a lot more numbers, but you can see how the quadrants in your original image are just reflecting where the pixel numbers go.

Do not restrict yourself to thinking of "forward" and "backward". If you look at the matrix above, and think about having a lot more pixels, there's a big jump from 2->3 to start the next row. (Unless it is its own string.) So, you could just as easily zigzag them. This reduces the jump to just dropping down a row, and you can connect back on to power again at the center.

2	1	5	6
3	4	8	7
10	9	13	14
11	12	16	15

 

[merryoncherry]

Part 2 because the editor got stuck. This table will have to be bigger, but the other interesting wiring is "alternate nodes", where you skip every other hole, turn around and go back the strand to where you started. This keeps a nice data flow but physically returns to the start point (using 2x as much wire though). So you might do:

3	2	4	1	9	12	10	11
7	6	8	5	13	16	14	15
19	18	20	17	25	28	26	27
23	22	24	21	29	32	30	31

 

[Kimbo3000]

Thanks for the reply.. I understand now.

Just to note.. I will be zig-zagging vertically.
When I stated "forward" and "backward" what I meant by this is "left to right" and "right to left" with the zig-zagging. (I should have explained better).

I have used "alternate node" last year with some seed pixels attached to guy wires. The setup in xlights worked well.. the lights during the display.. not so much. But this is another story.. hopefully fixed in a week or 2.

Thanks again
..
Kimbo