Pixel Controller networking basics needed

[Kotche]

I'm so far unsuccessful in lighting up strings of pixels from my F16v4 controller.

Well, that's partially incorrect; what I have is two strings of 125x 12V pixels that I've connected to the F16v4; the first 100x pixels on each string light up just fine when I put the controller into Test mode; the last 25x pixels in each string do not light up.

When I hook up either of my strings to my pixel tester, however, all 125x pixels light up without issue.

So I figure I'm not yet understanding something about how my F16v4 needs to be configured. In fact, I wouldn't even know where to begin on how to configure my controller, to be honest - I haven't managed to connect it to my computer (I can see it's wifi in my list of wifi network, but can't open the controller page using the IP address on the OLED).

Any how-to's out there that I could follow that would help? Anything else I need to consider? I've been googling for a while and I honestly don't know what I'm looking for, or haven't found what I think I need.

 

[LawrenceDriveLights]

The Falcon pixel controller is factory set to 100 pixels per output

You have a couple of options
1. Connect your computer to the ethernet port of the controller and open up the web user interface page using the displayed ip address on the controllers OLED (could be 192.168.1.50), ( update - sorry just re-read you post you probably have to tweak your computers ethernet ipv4 settings or similar, again maybe someone on zoom can provide you some assistance with this).

2. Within xLights (once you have setup the controller and props and assigned your props in the visualiser to each output of the controller) then use the upload to controller option (Tab near the bottom right in the controller page)

3. Or jump in the xlights zoom room for some assistance (to get to the zoom room, open xlights and select help-zoom),
Once in zoom raise your hand and hopefully one of the very helpful guys / girls hanging out can point you in the right direction.

 

[Kotche]

Thanks Lawrence. I tried hooking up my computer to the controller via an Ethernet cable but that also was unsuccessful. I’ll have to look further into that. Yes, seems I need to tinker with my computer’s ipv4 settings - all new territory for me.

Good to know that out of the box, the controller is configured only for 100x pixels. I thought that might have been the case.

 

[LawrenceDriveLights]

I would strongly suggest you try the zoom room for some assistance, some great people with heaps of knowledge are usually hanging out and willing to help.
If there is no one currently in zoom try again a bit later

 

[i13]

If you change your IPv4 settings, set the computer's IP address to one that is the same as the F16V4's displayed IP address except for the last number. This should be different and in the range 0-255. Subnet mask can be set to 255.255.255.0. You should then be able to access the F16V4's web interface.

 

[Kotche]

Am still not having much luck.

On my computer, I've manually configured the IPv4: xxx.nnn.1.30
Submask: 255.255.255.0

On the controller, a static IP: xxx.nnn.1.50
Submask: 255.255.255.0

Then on my computer's browser, am keying in the controller's IP.

(xxx.nnn are the same values for both IPs.)

 

[Notenoughlights]

Just throwing it out there; Do you have onboard wireless adapter on the computer, as well as an Ethernet adapter?
Are you setting the IP address for the correct adapter?

 

[Kotche]

My computer has no native ethernet port, so I'm using a USB-C to ethernet dongle. I've tried configuring the IP address on the dongle's connection; I know which one that is because it disappears from my computer's network list when I unplug it.

 

[ozzimadman]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vy7kugXvDM
i learned a lot from this guy i think the network needs to connect through a router not pc to falcon controller

 

[Merlin]

@Kotche,

A few questions for you-

1. Are you using a dedicated show network, or your home internet wifi router?
2. How are you currently connecting both the pixel controller and your computer to the wifi router? (Is it over wifi, or network cable?)
3. If over wifi, then how did you search for the wifi network and enter a password on the pixel controller? (You’d normally have to be able to access the pixel controller over http, no?)
4. Did your pixel controller get its IP address from the wifi router, or did you somehow set a static IP address on the pixel controller? does the pixel controller IP address start with either 192.168.xxx.xxx or 10.0.xxx.xxx?
5. Try pinging the pixel controller's IP address from our computer - what is the result? (I can advise on how to do it on Windows, but not sure about mac)

If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't manually set an IP address on the pixel controller yet (you'd only really need to do that if you need multiple pixel controllers on a show network that you need to orchestrate anyway).

I'd set both your computer and the pixel controller to take whatever IP address the router wants to assign (i.e. DHCP), and connect the pixel controller to the router using a cable in the first instance. Boot up the pixel controller and give it a minute or so to take a router assigned IP address (it should be a number starting with either 192.168.xxx.xxx or 10.0.xxx.xxx on your OLED -hopefully), and then I'd open my computer to ping that IP address.

For pinging, if you get something like the below, then you've successfully got a network connection to your pixel controller and you *should* be able to punch in the IP address in the browser and load up the pixel controller

Pinging 192.168.xxx.xxx with 32 bytes of data:​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=63​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=63​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=63​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=63​

If you get something like this, or something that reads "timed out", then either your pixel controller or your computer is not connected to the wifi router or it has some setting to make it "not talk" to other devices on that network... hence my recommendation to keep everything router-assigned for now.

Pinging 192.168.xxx.xxx with 32 bytes of data:​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: Destination host unreachable.​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: Destination host unreachable.​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: Destination host unreachable.​

Reply from 192.168.xxx.xxx: Destination host unreachable.​

Keith from here on ACL has an excellent video on networking - it's not a "how-to" but it explains the key concepts in an easy to understand way.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0fOZs6UgXw&t=32s

 

[BAZMick]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vy7kugXvDM
i learned a lot from this guy i think the network needs to connect through a router not pc to falcon controller

It used to be that to connect PC to PC you needed a crossover cable which was wired differently to the standard patch cable. These days the computer detects and swaps over the connections internally.
Like all things of this nature you just never really know, so I agree, connect a router between your computer and the Falcon and see if that makes a difference.

 

[Kotche]

Hey all - thank you so much for the responses.

I've connected successfully to my controller's interface after plugging it in directly to my router via Ethernet. Came up straight away.

Am now watching the videos y'all linked to (hopefully) better understand what I'm doing.

Only question now is: at what point can I connect to the controller's interface via it's wifi?

 

[ozzimadman]

Hi not sure if you know that wifi is for setting/config the controller, to run a show u need to connect via lan cable i have the ver 4 and the vid i linked tells you how to set up the universes on the 3 they changed it on the 4 so i have attached a screenshot of my setup as it took ages to work it out (the E1.31 settings) and how to set up pixel count on the output settings/pixels page (change to suit your display) hope it helps

 

[Kotche]

Still can't seem to manage to connect to the interface via Wifi. What's wrong with these settings?

Per the below, I'm keying in the Wifi network IP of 192.168.1.175 into my browser but the page fails to open. Do I need to set the Gateway and DNS for the Wifi connection and, if so, to what?

Edit: the SSID and p/w is my router's wifi. Should it be?

 

[richardd]

Do you have access to Zoom, you can either jump on the xlights zoom room for help, or I can send you my personal zoom link