Answered SanDevices E6804 not driving new WS2811 pixels

Bendigo

Bendigo

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Hi all. I have just moved to Australia (Sunshine Coast QLD) and am setting up my house for Christmas.

I have just had a delivery of some new 5v ws2811 pixels from Ray Wu and some 5v WS2812B strips. I am driving them from a SanDevices e6804. I am seeing two different behaviors:

1. WS2812B strip will not run directly from the e6804. If I install a pixel (old one from home) in line the strip will work.

2. WS2811 strings will not run directly from the e6804 either. They also do not work if I put an older working pixel in line.

The outputs are on the 2811 protocol and I am running a test pattern.
I helped out at our local park at home in Canada and we used tons of e6804 and e682s with no issues - so not thinking it’s the board.
Has something changed in the way the chip is manufactured? What am I missing? The old pixels (a set from Ray WU and a cheap set off eBay) both work.
 
There was a change in the timing requirements a year or so ago. Most boards did not have an issue, but some did and required a firmware update. I don't use a 6804, so am not sure if this was one of the affected boards, but sounds like it may be
 
Firstly I need an explanation of the "Bendigo" nick from someone not from Bendigo. I saw the nick and thought you must be local to me.
As to what's happening with the E6804 and 2811 it's a change that WorldSemi made to their WS2811 protocol. I can't remember the exact change but they changed both the 0 and 1 data timings for the 2811 pixels. No idea why they did it or why they thought it would be a good idea to change the specifications on something that reduces compatability.
Every WS2811 chip re-generates the 0 or 1 timing that it detects in the incoming data stream. Regardless of what the pixel controller sends out the first pixel edits all of the data that it passes downstream. What this means in effect is that if you mix pre and post 2017 WS2811 pixels then in you can get weird compatibility issues. I can't remember which way it works but either new pixels won't work after old ones or vice versa.
A firmware update may fix the issue of new pixels not working. It won't however fix the issue that WorldSemi created that means that old and new pixels can't be mixed.
I did ask benbrown from ScottLed to go over to WorldSemi and to punch the engineer in the nuts. Totally stupid changing the spec on an existing product. Not the 1st time WorldSemi did it either. They also did it with the WS2803.
 
Thanks for the quick replies! Bendigo was an old nickname I had from way back when I was playing video games in my parents basement:) It just stuck.
Just checking into firmware now. I thought I had the most recent firmware, but I now see a note on the SanDevices website that the firmware numbering scheme was messed up. Will report my findings.
 
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Good evening, I'm trying to update the firmware on my e6804 because I'm having the same problem as the op with a new set of pixels from Ray. I keep getting a "timed out" result when I'm trying to update. I checked the items in "step 4" as instructed, but still can't seem to update. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 
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