Problems with Ray Wu p5 panels & colorlight card

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Danno

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Hey all, I am in the process of building a p5 matrix and run into some issues, I'm after any pointers or tips to understand what I am doing wrong.

I have 30 of these P5 Ray Wu panels (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32667937844.html) set up as 6 panels (384 px) wide and 5 panels (160px) high. They are plugged into a single Colorlight 5a-75b card (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32867408303.html). Each port of the colorlight card powers 6 panels (1 row each)

I have loaded the Screen Parameters from the file Ray gave me into LEDVision, and when I do that I can't change the width past 129 or the height above 128. I notice the brightness is set at 50% and the refresh rate is at 1920 with a multiple of 32, which is what I expected to see. The issue is I can't set the cabinet settings to match my setup. See 'IMG_8919-Default.jpg' below:

IMG_8919-Default.jpg

If I try to change the width and height to that of my matrix, I get the following error. Notice the Refresh rate has gone to 0, and interestingly the brightness has gone down to 0 as well. See 'IMG_8920-Default_mychanges.jpg'.
IMG_8920-Default_mychanges.jpg


I noticed on the Ray Wu product page for the colorlight card that the card says "Control area of every card: Full color 256x256 Pixels, for special applications the column can be extended to 1024 pixels". So I then unplugged some panels so I had 5 rows of 3 panels (making a 192 x 160 matrix) and this changed the Refresh rate to 960 with a Multiple value of 16. This changed the brightness to 42%. See 'IMG_8921-Half_Matrix.jpg'.
IMG_8921-Half_Matrix.jpg


I then changed the setup to be 5 rows of 2 panels (128 x 160 matrix) and this allowed a refresh rate of 1920 with a multiplier of 32, with 50% brightness. This is what I expected to see, though only 2 panels in each row is not what I want. See 'IMG_8923_2x5.jpg'.
IMG_8923_2x5.jpg

The only way I can get the entire 6 panel (384 px) wide and 5 panels (160px) high matrix to display is if I lower the Refresh Rate & Multiple values in LEDVision... Right down to Refresh rate of 120 and Multiple of "Refresh x 2". This also lowers the brightness down to 30%. See 'IMG_8918-All_Panels.jpg' below:
IMG_8918-All_Panels.jpg


Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can change my setup for the 1920 refresh rate with a multiplier of 32 & at least 50% brightness?

Cheers
Dan
 
Hey Ben, yes I did get that file from Ray and loaded that in before changing anything
 
Thanks Ben!
@Cranzy shared screenshots of his setup and I found that the Clock/Frequency on his was significantly higher than the same value in my setup (he does have different brand panels though). Cranzy had a clock/frequency value of 15.6, whereas mine is 8.3.

I manually increased the clock/frequency value to 12.5 from 8.3 and it seems to work and the higher resolutions are now available.

Reading a page on the Colorlight site (http://www.colorlight-led.com/new/colorlight-5a-product-series-software-parameters-setting.html) it states that "Serial frequency: It refers to the serial clock frequency to control the driver chip on the display panel, with the maximum of 41.7MHz. (If the serial frequency increases, the gray level, brightness level, refresh rate and other parameters may be appropriately up to higher values, the maximum serial frequency is subject to the display panel wiring and driver chips, and full-color screens generally use 17.9MHz)."

So now the question is, is there a problem increasing this value from the one supplied with the 'rcvbp' file? Is it like overclocking a computer? Will it cause issues down the track if I change the value to higher than what the Ray Wu p5 panels come shipped with?
 
I am working with a similar concern. My P5 build (currently running from a BeagleBone/Octoscroller) is 6 panels wide (384 pixels) and 8 panels tall (256 pixels). If I bump the clock frequency up (to 25mhz) and refresh down to 960, I could theoretically drive the whole array from a single Colorlight, but Brightness is calculated to 30% (and by theoretical, I mean that I won't be able to live test until I take Halloween apart).

Since I have 3 ColorLight boards, I am also looking at using 2 of them so I can get all refresh and brightness values higher.

I purchased these P5 panels from a US vendor (WiredWatts) and didn't get an rcvbp file, so I'm guessing some things.
Anybody want to share an rcvbp file they know works with these?

I know that most of videos recommend using LEDVision version 5 but version 8 seems a bit friendlier.
 
Push your panel supplier to supply the rcvbp file.
 
Travisty can fix if you have issues. Best via a Zoom Room session
 
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