Question about F16V3 FPS across expansions

XerxesDGreat

New elf
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Dec 26, 2020
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I'm looking at picking up a Falcon F16V3 and am a little confused about how the number of pixels per output is calculated when using expansions. Assuming a bare 16 ports, I get that getting up above a certain number of pixels (unclear if that number is 600, 680, or 800, but that's immaterial here) means that 40fps is no longer available due to specification restrictions. I also grok that adding expansions reduces the max number of pixels a single port can drive. However, where the manual and other information is unclear is how the fps is going to function.

To illustrate: assume I add one expansion. Also assume that I split the pixel count for the on-board and expansion ports evenly, so they each get 512. If I plug in 500 pixels into port 1 and 500 pixels into port 17, would I be able to get the full 40fps because that's less than 600/680/800 per port, or would I end up being stuck with the lower fps because it's more than 600/680/800 per port group?

Thanks much for the help!
 

Mark_M

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Welcome to ACL!
The current F16v3 is 680 pixels at 40FPS per port. When you use expansions it splits that between the main board and expansion.

These images I started off making with the F48 but they relate to the F16v3.

On the side you'll see the sliders add to a total of 1024, this is referencing to 20FPS mode.

You can see that bank 1 is set for 344 pixels, bank 2 would be expansion board 1 on the F16 and bank 3 would be expansion board 2.
slider_f48.PNG


Here Bank 1 (mainboard of F16v3) is set for 344 pixels, that means each of the 16 ports has a maximum of 344 pixels.f16v3_bank1.PNG
slider_f48_2.PNG
 

Mark_M

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Just wait for the F16V4 that is coming this year. 700 per port @ 40FPS, no splitting with expansions.
Looks like I ran out of room..? As I wrote at the bottom of that post:
Katekate is correct. The new F16v4 and F48v2 will have 700 pixels at 40FPS per port, it does not have sliders to configure.
This does mean that you have to buy expansion boards to get the full 33,000 pixels out of it.
 

XerxesDGreat

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Dec 26, 2020
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Thanks for the welcome and responses!

I'm already going to be using remotes already, so buying expansions is in the plan :)

So, to make sure I understand correctly, let me repeat what I heard you say:
- v3 has 680 per port at 40fps, but that is split into banks. Thus, if I want to stay at 40fps, I will have to keep it to, say, 340 on port 1 and 340 on port 17 (or however the ports are split)?
- v4 sounds awesome! I'll have to look into that, then.
 

Katekate

Senior elf
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Jan 1, 2020
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Portland, Vic
yes. so if you have one expansion, you can do 340+340 or 200+480 or whatever you need.

If you exceed the limits anywhere, the whole board will drop to 20fps
 

XerxesDGreat

New elf
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Dec 26, 2020
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Cool, thanks! That info will help a lot. I guess the next question is whether or not I have it in me to be patient and wait for the v4 or if I want to plan around the v3 :)
 

i13

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Jul 5, 2013
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1,172
For a Falcon F16v3 with one expansion, you mention that you can have 340 pixels on port 1 and 340 on port 17 in order to maintain 40 frames per second. This is correct but I want to add to it. You need to add the maximum number of pixels on any port from 1 to 16 to the maximum number of pixels on any port from 17 to 32 and keep this equal to or below 680. For example, if you have:
  • port 1: 200 pixels
  • port 2: 400 pixels
  • Port 17 (on the expansion): 400 pixels
  • Port 18 (on the expansion): 200 pixels
  • Nothing on any other port for the simplicity of this explanation
The maximum number of pixels on any port from 1 to 16 is port 2 with 400 pixels. The maximum from ports 17 to 32 is port 17 with 400 pixels. Adding these up gives a total of 800 pixels so 40 frames per second isn't possible.
 

XerxesDGreat

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Dec 26, 2020
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ah, yeah thanks for the clarification. I'd seen one of the xEssentials videos by Jonathan DePlanche (S3E13) which goes deep on explaining how the f48 works, how to find the max number of pixels which could be controlled, and how to rearrange the props to best allocate those . The part that I was missing was whether the fps limitation still applied and scaled down the max pixel count accordingly; y'all have been really helpful on that point.
 
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