P5 Panels - Octoscroller or ColorLight card (or something else entirely) and why?

I could not get my 5 x 2 panels working with a octoscroller, and even though I got heaps of help, it just wouldn't work for me. Ended up going with a colourlight card, and my panels work great.
 
darylc said:
I don't consider a 25 panel matrix 'smaller'
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Again, that's fair enough but the Octo can handle (according to documentation) 8 X 8 = 64 P10 panels. They way I understand it, with P5 that halves because of the scan rate, so 32. That's well above the 25 I want to run. Dan didn't give specific numbers above so my question is why couldn't the Octo run 25 P5 panels. I appreciate that you have more experience than I do with this stuff. I would like to know the technical explanation.
 
In my mind Octo's are good for a P10 tune to sign, beyond that it can get hit and miss if FPP will support your panels (especially with outdoor or other sized panels panels) etc.

It's been a while since I used an Octo, so no doubt things have changed but when I made the switch away from Octo the refresh rates, colors etc were significantly better with receivers.

Most people who make a 25 panel matrix use Colorlight receivers from what I see around the place. If you buy your panels from a vendor who will supply you a colorlight configuration file, then this is the best way forward as you know it will work.
 
For P5's, if you can balance the panels across all 8 ports, then I'd recommend no more than 4 panels per port or 32 panels. Thus, 25 should work fine if you can use all 8 ports so the longest chain is 4 panels. The octo can do 5 panels per port (or even 6), but the refresh rate is going to drop significantly and you'll also likely have to drop to 7 bit color.
 
dkulp said:
For P5's, if you can balance the panels across all 8 ports, then I'd recommend no more than 4 panels per port or 32 panels. Thus, 25 should work fine if you can use all 8 ports so the longest chain is 4 panels. The octo can do 5 panels per port (or even 6), but the refresh rate is going to drop significantly and you'll also likely have to drop to 7 bit color.
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Thanks for chiming in...
Does your OctoPlus work with any panel using the HUB75 connector, or is there a caveat to this?
 
It will work with any of the indoor 1:16 scan P5 panels. Those are all very standard. The outdoor 1:8 scan and 1:4 scan panels are the ones people have issues with. At this point, it works with all the panels I have encountered. Any panels I haven't yet encountered I can normally get to work within a day or two if I get one in my hands.
 
#my2cents
I have managed to get 5x5 P10 indoor panels working fine on a Pi with Octo. My 2x2 P5 indoor panels also work flawlessly on another Pi & Octo.
As per above feedback, the thing that stuck in my mind when researching earlier this year was anything larger than maybe 6-8 P5 panels, the Pi/Octo combo would probably struggle so would need to look into the other card options.
 
I think I am going to buy 4 panels and see if I even like working with panels. I am still not entirely convinced that I like the looks. There comes this point where you have to wonder do I want to build lo-res televisions or do Xmas lights...
 
Jay.S said:
I think I am going to buy 4 panels and see if I even like working with panels. I am still not entirely convinced that I like the looks. There comes this point where you have to wonder do I want to build lo-res televisions or do Xmas lights...
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So you want peoples help with panels then you bag everyone out that has panels. That is not a wise thing to do
 
Benslights said:
So you want peoples help with panels then you bag everyone out that has panels. That is not a wise thing to do
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You are a bit short fused today mate. I am not bagging anyone. I have seen displays where panels look great, I have seen displays where panels look stupidly out of place. Sometimes the combo works, sometimes it doesn't and I for one can't really tell where that point is, so I have to try it out (as does everyone else). And yes a P5 panel is a low-res TV, there isn't really any other way around it...
 
Jay.S said:
I think I am going to buy 4 panels and see if I even like working with panels. I am still not entirely convinced that I like the looks. There comes this point where you have to wonder do I want to build lo-res televisions or do Xmas lights...
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My vision: A matrix (panels) of sufficient size can mimic ANY 2D prop, making it one of the most versatile, if not the most versatile part of a light show.

The avenue that I'm persuing is node mapping the prop onto the matrix as sub-models.
 
Jay.S said:
I think I am going to buy 4 panels and see if I even like working with panels. I am still not entirely convinced that I like the looks. There comes this point where you have to wonder do I want to build lo-res televisions or do Xmas lights...
Click to expand...
I had similar thoughts in the past... Panels are one small component of the display, they dont make or break my display. The exception is people knowing where to tune the radio to as the majority of Tune To 107.1 is on the panels... Panels have their uses, just need to figure out what works for you. If you have enough else going on people don't really focus on them
 
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