Pulling my hair out.. need some help

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Detroit
I need a little help here as I'm going crazy trying to get this years stuff set up. The problem I'm having is that all of my RGB strip (http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/5m-led-digital-strip-DC12V-input-WS2811IC-256-scale-10pcs-IC-and-30pcs-5050-SMD-RGB/701799_568458133.html) will only light up the red pixels. I initially thought it was a wiring issue, but it is happening with ALL of my strips, I have ten of them. I'm using the new ECG-p12s and no matter what settings I try (protocol, baud rate, color effect) I get nothing but red, the other channels simply won't turn on. Could this somehow be an issue with the controller? My technicolor pixels work fine, it's just the led strip. Has anyone else ran into an issue like this?
 

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Detroit
grb as far as I can tell, though with only the red lighting up I can't be sure. Mapping the effect in the p12 config to rgb->grb at least puts red as the first slider when using xlights to test, if I switch it to rgb->brg it puts red as the last slider.
 

burner

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Nov 2, 2011
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315
Are you able to connect a multimeter to see what voltage is getting to the lights? Try to minimize everything, and just connect 1 RGB section and see if you can get any other colours from it. Also, check (and double check) that the data and ground wires are in their correct locations.
 

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Yes, power is fine, checked with a multimeter coming off the p12 and have also tried with them powered directly from a 12v power supply. Also tried different wiring combinations as well. I have the same results on every port of the p12 with every strip I've tried. I really don't know what else it could be.
 

burner

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Nov 2, 2011
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I have a P12R and there is a dipswitch on it to allow it to push a test pattern through each channel. Does the P12S have the same things, and if so can you try that?
 

Charl Marais

For my twins was the excuse I started with.
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Jun 27, 2013
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Post some screenshots of your config screens and perhaps we can see something from there.

Kind regards

Charl
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
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If you have a test program like da_e131 i'd try turning on 1 pixel "colour" at a time. I haven't heard of it being done but there is a super slight possibility that they may be red only 5050 chips instead of rgb. By turning on 1 colour you should be able to see a 3 to 1 increase in red brightness if they are red only. It is sometimes also possible to physically see the 3 leds inside the 5050as they light up.
 

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Here are some screenshots of the config.. I've tried just about everything I can think of, including wiring configurations, power from the board/direct, and every possible setting in the config screens and nothing works.. all I get is red for every strip. To see if it was possibly the board I connected some 5v 2811 strip w/ 1 ic per LED, and it worked just fine, though I can't be sure because my P2 is dead so the P12 is the only board I have to run them at the moment. The only thing I can think of is that it's something to do with the 3 LEDs per IC that's somehow causing the problem..
 

tjames

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Another thing I just noticed is that no matter the power source, all of these strips are nowhere near as bright as my working 5v 2811 strips, they are maybe 1/4 the brightness, even if I plug them both into the same port (w/ different power sources of course).
 

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Yes.. I've checked, re-checked, and then checked again all connections. I've also tried switching the wiring in case something was mislabeled, and instead of wiring up all the strips, I cut off one of the factory connectors and connected it directly to the p12 so I could test all of the strips without having to wire anything else up. Still just red.
 

Charl Marais

For my twins was the excuse I started with.
Joined
Jun 27, 2013
Messages
187
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Secunda
The speed seems a little lower than what I use but that should not cause your problem.

Are these new strips or have you used them before?

The only other thing I am wondering about is the fact that you tested power at the supply but not on the strip self (although I might have misread). If you have a problem in the connections or even the power cables or on the strips and you lose a lot of volts you might only see red as that requires the least power to drive.

Can you test on the connections on the strip itself?
 

tjames

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Nov 27, 2012
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Detroit
I've tested voltage coming off the board, at the strip and when powering the strips directly from 2 different power supplies and only running data from the board. Same result in all cases. At this point I really don't know what else to try, I've spent almost 15 hours trying to diagnose this problem and have hit nothing but dead ends.. I just don't know what else it could be.
 
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