Hey all,
Rather than get into it with the no doubt busy tech support I wanted to put this out to the hive mind. I am programming a large number of pixels with the PixLite 16 controllers. What I have is a series of panels made up of 2812 pixel strings and they will all be controlled by an ArKaos Media Master Pro media server and that will be driven by a Road Hog 4 lighting control console. So that's the hardware setup.
What I have is a need to bridge the gap between the very smart way the PixLite controllers work (automatically filling the gap between two DMX universes- 512 is not evenly divisible by 3, so one ends up with two channels "left over") so that the strings can run consecutively for 340 pixels.
(Hmm, I guess technically a single PixLite 16 output can run 341 pixels in a string...But I digress.
The trouble starts when one gets into standardized control gear for DMX control...they don't know how to do anything so fancy. The ArKaos LED Mapper (used for making the pixel map for Media Master Pro) won't make an individual pixel map larger than 512 channels total. One can make, say, two pixel panels (Panel 1 and Panel 2) of 170 pixels each and patch each of them into a separate universe (U1 and U2, say) but without a way to insert some kind of interstitial channel offset (those two pesky channels, 511 and 512) between the two of them the Pixlite will start the first pixel of the Panel 2 at channel 511. And then all the colors will be offset on second panel because the only piece of gear smart enough to 'join' two universes together is the PixLite 16.
The plot thickens further....so what I've just described above is one long string, the two channel gap between the two universes creates a color offset.
NOW, just because there's no way anyone found that a brain teaser and everyone likes a challenge, let's talk about this: What if one has 150 pixels on Panel 1 and 150 pixels on Panel 2. So, two 450 channel panels. Ok, so we patch Panel 1 at Universe 1/Channel 1. (or U1:1) We can't patch Panel 2 at U1:451, we'll get a color offset as it crosses over to Universe 2. And if we patch it at 453 there will be a discolored/dead pixel at the beginning of the string. AND if we patch it at U2:1 there are 20 dead pixels at the beginning of the string as PixLite is dutifully following its consecutive pixel count and leaving the pixels between U1:451 and U1:512 at 0. It hits U2:1 and everything is golden.
Anyone have any ideas about how to insert null pixels in the middle of a string, maybe, or patch into a specific address of the second universe of the two universe outputs on the PixLite? Something to bear in mind, though- I have 15,258 pixels on almost 100 different panels of varying sizes. So simpler solutions are the better ones...I'm already swamped in the morass of addressing, what, 70+ universes.
Yours,
Dave
Rather than get into it with the no doubt busy tech support I wanted to put this out to the hive mind. I am programming a large number of pixels with the PixLite 16 controllers. What I have is a series of panels made up of 2812 pixel strings and they will all be controlled by an ArKaos Media Master Pro media server and that will be driven by a Road Hog 4 lighting control console. So that's the hardware setup.
What I have is a need to bridge the gap between the very smart way the PixLite controllers work (automatically filling the gap between two DMX universes- 512 is not evenly divisible by 3, so one ends up with two channels "left over") so that the strings can run consecutively for 340 pixels.
(Hmm, I guess technically a single PixLite 16 output can run 341 pixels in a string...But I digress.
The trouble starts when one gets into standardized control gear for DMX control...they don't know how to do anything so fancy. The ArKaos LED Mapper (used for making the pixel map for Media Master Pro) won't make an individual pixel map larger than 512 channels total. One can make, say, two pixel panels (Panel 1 and Panel 2) of 170 pixels each and patch each of them into a separate universe (U1 and U2, say) but without a way to insert some kind of interstitial channel offset (those two pesky channels, 511 and 512) between the two of them the Pixlite will start the first pixel of the Panel 2 at channel 511. And then all the colors will be offset on second panel because the only piece of gear smart enough to 'join' two universes together is the PixLite 16.
The plot thickens further....so what I've just described above is one long string, the two channel gap between the two universes creates a color offset.
NOW, just because there's no way anyone found that a brain teaser and everyone likes a challenge, let's talk about this: What if one has 150 pixels on Panel 1 and 150 pixels on Panel 2. So, two 450 channel panels. Ok, so we patch Panel 1 at Universe 1/Channel 1. (or U1:1) We can't patch Panel 2 at U1:451, we'll get a color offset as it crosses over to Universe 2. And if we patch it at 453 there will be a discolored/dead pixel at the beginning of the string. AND if we patch it at U2:1 there are 20 dead pixels at the beginning of the string as PixLite is dutifully following its consecutive pixel count and leaving the pixels between U1:451 and U1:512 at 0. It hits U2:1 and everything is golden.
Anyone have any ideas about how to insert null pixels in the middle of a string, maybe, or patch into a specific address of the second universe of the two universe outputs on the PixLite? Something to bear in mind, though- I have 15,258 pixels on almost 100 different panels of varying sizes. So simpler solutions are the better ones...I'm already swamped in the morass of addressing, what, 70+ universes.
Yours,
Dave
