Splitting xLights models across controllers

JNewans · Saturday at 8:20 AM

I am trying to understand whether xLights is capable of certain behaviours, how to achieve them, and which models it can do it on.
I have a few different things but it mostly boils down to two examples.

Let's say I am outlining a rectangular roof section and I would like it to still conceptually be a single strand in xLights so that I can do chase effects etc. around the whole circuit.

Perhaps this is where I should just give up, split it into separate models, and use something like a fan effect - let me know if that is the answer!

If there are too many lights for a single port, let's say 1500 lights and I am limited to 750, I know I can split a polyline into two strings (although not a window frame) and have them take up consecutive ports on a controller.

My two questions are:

If I had both ports starting at one corner, is there a way to reverse one of the segments as it is seen by the controller? (By default it would expect to continue on the opposite corner where the first segment ends)
If I had controllers located at opposite ends of one roof, is it possible to split the different segments across different controllers?

I get the impression that with custom models and manual channel addressing this might be possible, but not simple.

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

I realise I am mixing up strings and segments in my post, I think I understand the difference but the xLights controls do seem a bit confusing about when it lets you manipulate each.

Thanks

Gmick · Saturday at 11:19 AM

Not sure if I am reading correct. On my house eves, I jaded two strings 500each and they meet in about the middle. Two ports. One sting is normal direction the other is reversed. I created. Group , that contains both strings and the chases work perfect. I also created sub models so I could break the eves into three sections, creat a group for each. So it is working great with the eves on two ports and one is reversed. Grouping is what I used. I hope this helps.

Johnnyboy · 2025-10-26T21:17:45+1100

You can do it any way you like.

I have a number of props that i split over two ports, or even over two controllers. For this shape shifter, i have the first 600 on one port and the last 513 on the next port. Xlights is very configurable.

Skymaster · 2025-10-27T08:56:32+1100

JNewans said:
My two questions are:

If I had both ports starting at one corner, is there a way to reverse one of the segments as it is seen by the controller? (By default it would expect to continue on the opposite corner where the first segment ends)

If I had controllers located at opposite ends of one roof, is it possible to split the different segments across different controllers?

I get the impression that with custom models and manual channel addressing this might be possible, but not simple.

Options
1. Yes - If you do it as two models, + group, rather than just a single model across two ports. To reference your diatgram. you'd draw the two polylines in the conceptual order. Green (first pixel) in the top left for the upper and right side polyline, and Green (first pixel) in the bottom right for the lower and left line.
On the second model (lower & left side) you'd set the string starting location to "Blue Square" rather than the default "Green Square". This tells xLights it's wired in reverse.
Then group them. Sequence on the group. For the render style, select "Single Line" and it will mimic the single line rendering of the whole model.

2. Yes. Using shadow models you would create 3 models. First would be your 4 line polyline, with 1500 nodes, in the physical location of the real model, and what you'd sequence on. Then you'd create two separate single line models, at 750 nodes each.
You would then link the two single line models to the controllers. These controllers would need to be in-order on the xLights Controller tab.
Then the "rendering" model, you would go in and set the start channel to "Start of Model" and select your first Controller model.
Essentially model 1 would get say channels 1-2250, and model 2 would get channels 2251-4500.
Then when xLights renders for the big polyline, which consumes channels 1-4500, it'll map across to these two ports.
Your limitation would be that the two controller ports would need to be consecutive. If you've got 2 small controllers, like the ones in my example below, that's straightforward.
If you're using something like 2x Falcon F16s, you'd want to run the first one Physical model on the last port of the first controller, and the second model on the first port of the second controller.

Start Channel configuration for Rendering Model