Pixels lighting up when they shouldn't

[christmasdave]

HI!

Still learning and not sure exactly how to describe this so will do my best.

I have setup my roof outline using a Pixlite 4 MKII. I have the roof in 3 sections using Ports 1, 2 and 3.

I am using TLS3001 strip with 140 led's in a 5m length, and as I understand is 2 leds per section(if I am using the right terminology). So the numbers I mention below are the total number of 'pairs' (if that makes sense hopefully). It's actually these: Link

On port 2, I have 5 strips with a total of 350 pairs, I only want 324 pairs to light up so in the controller I have set port 1 output to 324. When I turn it all on though, the pixels after 324 light up green. Running through the test mode all the pixels I want light up correctly with the ones I don't want being ignored, but they just stay green. Even when sending data from xLights they stay green. I am power injecting at 3 points (same PSU as the controller), with the last injection point at the start of the last strip.

On port 1 I have done the exact same thing. I have 140 pixels, but only want 81 to light up. In the controller I set the output to 81 and this one works without any issues. All pairs after 81 are ignored and do not light up. Tested in xLights and works perfectly. (no power injection).

I have set brightness to 30% (if that is a factor?) and attached a pic of the Advatek screen.

Any help is appreciated

 

[AAH]

If you have x physical pixels connected then you need to configure in your pixel controller that you have x pixels. If the prop doesn't use all of the pixels then the balance of the pixels just don't get assigned to a/the prop. The fact that you are getting green lighting up is potentially just a fluke.

 

[Slam]

Are you usign the test mode on the Advatek app or Xlights? Isolate if the controller config / lights are the issue by using the testing tab on the controller. I found I have had to manually configure all my Advatek ports in Xlights which has removed a lot of issues but created a more complicated configuration.

 

[Grozzy]

Your end channel for port 2 is not correct which has a knock on to port 3 and port 4. There is a lot of overlap.

 

[lytnin]

Your end channel for port 2 is not correct which has a knock on to port 3 and port 4. There is a lot of overlap.

Sorry, Grozzy you are wrong there. You need to also look at the End UNIVERSE.

Here's the math .....
Port 1 - 81 pixels
Port 2 - 324 pixels
Total = 405 pixels
multiply x 3 to get channels = 1215
subtract 2 previous universes of 510 each leaves 195 on universe 3.

 

[Grozzy]

Sorry, Grozzy you are wrong there. You need to also look at the End UNIVERSE.

Here's the math .....
Port 1 - 81 pixels
Port 2 - 324 pixels
Total = 405 pixels
multiply x 3 to get channels = 1215
subtract 2 previous universes of 510 each leaves 195 on universe 3.

Apologies, yes I see what you are talking about.
It's not like FPP where channels are absolute and match XLights channels.
He might need to post his XLights Channel assignment then.

 

[christmasdave]

Whoa! Lot's of great info here
I've double checked all the channels and they look good (but I am still learning so may have missed something).

I'm using the visualiser in xLights to auto-assign the channels/universes (is that the right terminology?) and everything seems to be working perfect with no issues while I've been testing, other that that 1 spot. I'm going to run a test tonight, so will record it then post a link and my xLights assignment. I have made some changes since my original post, so will repost the advatek screen aswell.

I do have some models not yet assigned to controllers, no overlap errors though, but could that be an issue? I've made sure that the channel assignment for those are well away form the the others.

Is there an easy to to extract the xLights channel info? or just screenshot the layout tab?

 

[Grozzy]

Whoa! Lot's of great info here
I've double checked all the channels and they look good (but I am still learning so may have missed something).

I'm using the visualiser in xLights to auto-assign the channels/universes (is that the right terminology?) and everything seems to be working perfect with no issues while I've been testing, other that that 1 spot. I'm going to run a test tonight, so will record it then post a link and my xLights assignment. I have made some changes since my original post, so will repost the advatek screen aswell.

I do have some models not yet assigned to controllers, no overlap errors though, but could that be an issue? I've made sure that the channel assignment for those are well away form the the others.

Is there an easy to to extract the xLights channel info? or just screenshot the layout tab?

In Xlights- Tools - Export Models, will spit it all out to a CSV

 

[lytnin]

Adding on to what Alan said above .... (as it sounds like it might be some random data leakage)

In xLights Layout;-
- For each output, create a model and call it NULL1, NULL2 etc, (or NOT USED output 1) or something similar that you'll remember, and give it the number of pixels connected to the port, but not used.

I have something similar for the extra pixels on some of my models, that I didn't want to cut off.

I then created a group and called it NULLS, and added all of the unused parts into that group. Lastly in my sequences I have the NULLS group at the very bottom of the Element list, and give this an OFF effect for the full duration of the sequence. (on a side note - you could use this with any effect to make sure you have the counts correct - then set them all to OFF)

Doing things this way will ensure the extra pixels are receiving good data, telling them to be off, rather than being in limbo picking up any stray data/static/interference etc.

- In Visualiser
Add those NULL models onto your outputs

So your Models would look like ...
Output 1 -> Roof Section 1 (81 pix) > NULL1 (59pix)
Output 2 -> Roof Section 2 (324pix) > NULL2 (26pix)
Output 3 -> Roof Section 3 (272pix) > NULL3 (8pix)

- On the ADVATEK
(if xLights can upload the configuration than do that)
Your new numbers for the outputs should look like


Using the test mode on the PIXLITE should light up the entire string, but testing the model in xLights should only light the ones you want.

Hope it helps.

 

[christmasdave]

Thanks everyone for your help. I played with settings based on the advice from @lytnin and the problem seems fixed Will keep my eye on it to make sure all is good. (It was the roof - far right bottom corner)

Here is a short video of the test I did with what I have setup so far (sorry for bad quality and audio, a few neighbours noticed and came to watch!)

 

[lytnin]

@christmasdave Glad it helped.