P12s setup help.

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logandc99

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So, last night i attached 4 of my 5m WS2811 strips to my megatree and wanted to take them for a test run with my P12s and LSP.
After some fantastic help from Matt, I had LSP talking to the P12s and could run some macros on the the strip lights.
However, i do have a few clitches to work through and hence the request fro some more help.


1) I could only get the strip on the megatree to light up if i deleted all the other controllers I had setup. When I clicked the output button, I got an error message telling me there was an output config error but once all the other controllers were deleted, it worked.
- So I am guessing that maybe one of the other controller setups is conflicting (although everything looked to be ok).
- Or, as Matt suggested, that as I had a DMX universe setup (where i want to use dumb elements from last years display using LOR boards and AVD's DMX boards), I might have to have the LOR dongle plugged into the computer (even though the LOR boards weren't connected to the system at the time). Does anyone know if the dongle has to be connected to the pc to allow the output to work and stop the error message occuring or shouldn't it matter.?
We also had to setup the P12s to use unicast or the lights wouldn't work. I thought multicast over local area network was the usual setting but it didn't work when we tried that.


2) My strings light up with the wrong colours (i.e I choose red but it comes out green etc). Do I go into the "string effects" page of the P12s and choose one of the effects to rearrange the RGB sequence (i.e RGB to GBR) until I get the colours out the right way, or should i change this in the controller setup in LSP?


3) When I ran the macro effects on the strings through LSP, the effects didn't run smoothly. So for eample, the vertigo macro was very jerky and jumpy and a colour slider effect didn't flow smoothly along the length of the strips but just lit up big sections in a jumpy fashion so I couldn't do any smooth-ish sweeping effects etc. The computer I was using is one of the new (and pretty fast) Macbook pros but I was running Windows in Paralells (Windows otherwise seems to run pretty quick in Paralells and LSP generates the macros quite fast as well so wasn't thinking that it should be a PC processing issue). Is there something in the LSP or P12s setup that might be causing this?


Sorry in advance for the multiple, long winded questions ???
 
Not that my knowledge is great but,

1. i would suspect that the LOR dongle needs plugging in also as it would be trying to output to a device that
doesnt exist.

2. if you use something like DA-E1.31 to drive specific colours you should be able to find out what drives each colour, from there you would select the colour eg GRB or BRG etc in the p12 setup screen.

3. how many frames did you get the macro effects to create and what time period have you got setup eg 1 sec or .25sec? if the period is too big that would be why its not smooth.

Cheers,
Coz
 
logandc99 said:
1) I could only get the strip on the megatree to light up if i deleted all the other controllers I had setup. When I clicked the output button, I got an error message telling me there was an output config error but once all the other controllers were deleted, it worked.
- So I am guessing that maybe one of the other controller setups is conflicting (although everything looked to be ok).
- Or, as Matt suggested, that as I had a DMX universe setup (where i want to use dumb elements from last years display using LOR boards and AVD's DMX boards), I might have to have the LOR dongle plugged into the computer (even though the LOR boards weren't connected to the system at the time). Does anyone know if the dongle has to be connected to the pc to allow the output to work and stop the error message occuring or shouldn't it matter.?
Click to expand...

My guess is that it could cause issues as it's talking to hardware. When using e1.31, it just bounces the data over the network and forgets about it - but using a dongle it has to talk to the device (and perhaps it waits for ACK signals or something).

This sort of a query is one you can diagnose by trial and error - remove the controllers that use the DMX dongle, and see if it works. Put them back in, see if it breaks it. You'll answer your own question pretty quickly, but that being said - someone else may have a definitive answer (although most people here that use LSP actually don't use USB dongles - they use DR4's or similar)


logandc99 said:
We also had to setup the P12s to use unicast or the lights wouldn't work. I thought multicast over local area network was the usual setting but it didn't work when we tried that.
Click to expand...

It should support both Unicast or Multicast, so that is interesting that it didn't work with Multicast.. All my controllers are setup for Multicast, and although I don't have a p12s (I only have pixad8's and p2's), I don't have any issues.. Perhaps it's a limitation of the early p12s firmware - only supporting unicast??


logandc99 said:
2) My strings light up with the wrong colours (i.e I choose red but it comes out green etc). Do I go into the "string effects" page of the P12s and choose one of the effects to rearrange the RGB sequence (i.e RGB to GBR) until I get the colours out the right way, or should i change this in the controller setup in LSP?
Click to expand...

It's your choice - doesn't really matter too much. For myself, I do it in the controller, as that means that in LSP, I always do RGB. (and also if I use something else to send e1.31 data to the controllers, that will also work without modification)


logandc99 said:
3) When I ran the macro effects on the strings through LSP, the effects didn't run smoothly. So for eample, the vertigo macro was very jerky and jumpy and a colour slider effect didn't flow smoothly along the length of the strips but just lit up big sections in a jumpy fashion so I couldn't do any smooth-ish sweeping effects etc. The computer I was using is one of the new (and pretty fast) Macbook pros but I was running Windows in Paralells (Windows otherwise seems to run pretty quick in Paralells and LSP generates the macros quite fast as well so wasn't thinking that it should be a PC processing issue). Is there something in the LSP or P12s setup that might be causing this?
Click to expand...
How does the effect look in the visualiser - does it reflect the output, or is it smooth? This is probably one for Eddy to chime in on, but it could be the number of frames settings of the macro etc
 
Thanks Kane and Cozbert for the fast replies.


I have my laptop with me here and just tried clicking the output button with the DMX controller included and had the error, then removed it, clicked the output button and there was no error message so certainly seems to the problem. The P12s boards are supposed to be able to allow DMX boards plugged into them but now I come to think of it, I think I read a post somewhere that this part of the boards software hasn't been fully configured yet (I think)


The effect generation interval is set at the default of 30ms so not sure why it is so jerky and slow. The effect in the visualise runs smooth.
for example if I try doing a fast run of blue down the strings, it shows on the visualiser nicely but the strings don't light at all. They will only light up with quite long effects which appear slow and jumpy.


I'll try changing the megatree controller RGB settings when I get home to whatever combination of RGb or BGR or GRB etc works so that red = red, green = green etc. I thought setting it to RGB would give the right settings but are the colours coming out differently because the chips in the strings are setup differently?
 
logandc99 said:
Thanks Kane and Cozbert for the fast replies.


I have my laptop with me here and just tried clicking the output button with the DMX controller included and had the error, then removed it, clicked the output button and there was no error message so certainly seems to the problem. The P12s boards are supposed to be able to allow DMX boards plugged into them but now I come to think of it, I think I read a post somewhere that this part of the boards software hasn't been fully configured yet (I think)


The effect generation interval is set at the default of 30ms so not sure why it is so jerky and slow. The effect in the visualise runs smooth.
for example if I try doing a fast run of blue down the strings, it shows on the visualiser nicely but the strings don't light at all. They will only light up with quite long effects which appear slow and jumpy.


I'll try changing the megatree controller RGB settings when I get home to whatever combination of RGb or BGR or GRB etc works so that red = red, green = green etc. I thought setting it to RGB would give the right settings but are the colours coming out differently because the chips in the strings are setup differently?
Click to expand...

Logan,

I made some enquiries after we got you lights bouncing, Yes you do require the dongle to be connected to the computer as the software requires a port IOT output the data. (in this case, DMX via the usb dongle)

So re-adding the controllers and ensuring it is setup with the dongle insitue will solve that issue.

As for the wrong colours coming on, you will need to determine the order of the strip. Whilst we always say RGB (Red Green Blue), unfortunately this doesnt always equate to how the strip is configured.

To remedy this, we utilise software to determine the order. Best bet is to utilise David_AVDs e1.31 proggie, available at the AVD website (check vendors area) Basically with the software open, setting up the output IP, you can turn on each of the colours individually, and determine what order to set up.

The order can be adjusted both inside LSP or the p12S web interface. It is easier IMO to do this within the controller. You just make the selection in the string config or effects config page (cant remember off hand, currently at work).

You can set it for certain amounts of pixels, then change it to another orientation for subesquent pixels etc etc.

Let us know how you go with that and if needed I can log in again and give you some guidance.

*edit* IRT the slow jerky movments of your effects, there are a number of reasons this could occur, check the baud rate you have set for your 2811's, you may need to increase it. The main thing I would look at however is the Framerate you have set for the transition. The Frame box, will split the total frames over the total time of the transition. Default I believe is 6 frames, so if the transition is 6 seconds long, you are only getting 1 frame a second, so you wont see much of a blend. I myself aim for 10 frames per second, so for that 6 second transition, i would enter 60 in the frame box. getting my 10/second

Food for thought
 
Fantastic. Thanks Matt. Will try all that tonight.
Only now need to sort out why the effects in the strips are so slow and jerky. Might try using a laptop with just windows running ( no windows within parallels ) and see if that makes a difference.
Or should I try changing the string speed from 2400kbps to something higher or lower or should 2400 work fine?
 
Just saw your edit after my last post.
Will look at those settings you mentioned for the frame rates for the macros.

However, I did try using a simple sweep of blue down the pixel strip by using the chase effect (didn't use macros or transitions) and no light came on at all. Showed in the visualiser ok but didn't appear on the strip lights.
 
logandc99 said:
The P12s boards are supposed to be able to allow DMX boards plugged into them but now I come to think of it, I think I read a post somewhere that this part of the boards software hasn't been fully configured yet (I think)
Click to expand...

That's right - forgotten about that feature of the P12s - it's got two DMX outputs on it (so effectively it's a supercharged P12 combined with a D2).. Very nice. So once that firmware is done, you'll be able to get rid of the USB dongle and go direct from the P12s



cozbert said:
is the output button on the top selected?

i have had that problem a few times :)
Click to expand...

And always right click the spectrum audio audio and choose optimise entire sequence before previewing ..
 
Good thought but yes the output button was on. I was getting the macros and transitions to appear on the strip (although slow and jerky but i think as suggested, I have the frames/sec set way too low).
But i still thought a simple chase would work.
In the meantime, I will sort out all my other issues :eek: discussed above and then see if I need to fiddle around with other settings to get the chases etc to appear.
Lots more time to be spent in the garage sorting out me lights I think :D
[SIZE=small](Last year the neighbours wondered what the hell was going on at our place with all the flashing colourful lights coming from the garage [/SIZE] 8) night after night [SIZE=small]).[/SIZE]
 
Ok, didn't think about the optimise sequence button. Will do
 
Yes I got it working with multicast. Also had all the transitions, macros and chases running smoothly so pretty happy.
Only thing I couldn't get to work was to change the RGB order of the string in the string effect page of the P12s. No matter what I changed the order to ( needed to be RGB to GBR) and saved the setting, strip still came out wrong. Had to change it in the controller config in LSP which worked ok.
 
This maybe more of a LSP question than a P12s question but thought I would just tack this onto the end of this thread.
I have my twelve 5 m strips of WS2811 connected to the P12s, each strip using one of the P12 outputs and therefore 12 universes. But what I wanted to do was to have a star on the top running 20 pixel modules (the rectangular WS2811 modules) and have those pixels running off the end of strip number twelve. I set output 12 to run 70 pixels on the P12s ( 50 for the strip and 20 for the modules).
I have setup the modules for the star as a separate controller in LSP as I want the star to act independently of the strips. I have also set the star up in LSP as a separate layer.
Now, when the strips are lit up, I can get the modules of the star to light up if i do a twinkle or chase etc, but it won't light up if I put a macro or a transition on the layer. I have linked the modules to the layer but it just won't light up. I can't figure why it works with a simple chase or on or twinkle but not a macro.
Any ideas what I am missing here?
 
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