xlights layout issue

[David_K]

Hi Guys
This is the first year we have changed to the falcon controller F16V3.

I was hoping if someone could tell my why my matrix setting seems to be spread all over the place when I have a look at visualise in xlights.? As you can see in my screen shots the matrix is 15 strands vertical and there are 10 nodes per strand 450 pixels using rgb strip 30 leds per metre. from everything I have watched online red is not good.
I did a test sequence check and it says there are no errors. Any help is appreciated thank you.
Dave

 

[AAH]

I don't know how you planned on making the matrix but on the layout2 pic you have 15 strings which is where your problem will be. The 15 strands equates to 15 outputs of the controller. Instead of 15,10,1 I would say you potentially should have 1, 150, 10.

 

[David_K]

I don't know how you planned on making the matrix but on the layout2 pic you have 15 strings which is where your problem will be. The 15 strands equates to 15 outputs of the controller. Instead of 15,10,1 I would say you potentially should have 1, 150, 10.

Hi AAH
thank you for your help excellent as always, this is not a new matrix we have been using it for around seven years and they were the settings that always worked. There seems to be a lot of changes in xlights which is a little frustrating at times for an old guy .

Do you know of any updated tutorials on xlights the ones we find seem to be very old?

thanks again for your help.

 

[David_K]

We fixed that issue now we have another
I have attached a picture of the lights I have a video but can’t upload it.
It’s supposed to be a scrolling text left to right saying “santa claus is coming to town”
We tried setting the zig zag to 10 as we remembered from a fee years ago with advatek but is it different with the falcon? I also tried 150 and 450 and then left it as 0. The strips start at the bottom left corner and there are 15 strips across and 10 pixels/nodes up
Ps the extra light strip is just hanging on it lol
thanks

 

[franky_888]

Dusting off some year-old knowledge here:

# Strings = Number of physical connections to controller
Nodes per string = number of nodes per physical connection to controller
Strands per string = number of ups/downs or lefts/rights per physical connection to the controller
Starting location = as expected.

So judging by your description you should have the following in xlights:

# Strings = 1
Nodes per string = 150
Strands per string = 15
Starting Location = Bottom Left

 

[AAH]

Part of your confusement could be the fact that it looks like you are using 12V strip which is 3 leds per pixel and has a tendency to look odd in matrices.
Are your strips all running bottom to top or do they snake from bottom to top, top to bottom etc?
Go into Tools>Test>Models and on your matrix turn on and off segments of it to see what is responding to what.

 

[David_K]

Part of your confusement could be the fact that it looks like you are using 12V strip which is 3 leds per pixel and has a tendency to look odd in matrices.
Are your strips all running bottom to top or do they snake from bottom to top, top to bottom etc?
Go into Tools>Test>Models and on your matrix turn on and off segments of it to see what is responding to what.

Yes vertical zigzag pattern. I have done tests with models etc all seems ok. This issue started last year it is very strange it only seems to be text and images that are distorted. We have done the model tests, tested all strips physically, tested them with falcon, yet the mega tree and candles work fine which are matrix as well. if you do say a colour wash test with falcon all works fine, if you do say a chase test with xlights all works fine. We did what you said this morning with the xlight layout numbers 1/15/10 that fixed the scattered strings. we have tried numbers in the zigzag section in falcon still the text is illegible. In ten years of doing light shows I have never encountered a problem like this. Either we can work problems out or with the help of you good folk we have always sorted problems out but this one is like banging your head against the wall, and it is starting to hurt. Thanks again for everyone input. One other thing I thought of is I dont believe the problem is in the hardware output settings as we were using advatek last year and falcon this year.

 

[BAZMick]

Sorry Dave I have to say I think your string setup is still not quite correct. As Franky said you have 1 string connected to the F16 on port 2 and that string is 150 nodes in total with 15x strands up and down giving you 150÷15= 10 nodes per strand. Re-render the sequence and try again. Silly question but you are uploading the layout config changes to the F16 after each change?
Cheers Bazzy

 

[David_K]

Sorry Dave I have to say I think your string setup is still not quite correct. As Franky said you have 1 string connected to the F16 on port 2 and that string is 150 nodes in total with 15x strands up and down giving you 150÷15= 10 nodes per strand. Re-render the sequence and try again. Silly question but you are uploading the layout config changes to the F16 after each change?
Cheers Bazzy

Thank you so so so much guys yes changing that to 15 has solved this damn problem we are so grateful. I had to tweak zigzag but yes you can read the writing again!!!!!! Thank you Franky,AHH and Bazmick. The strange part is for years it worked fine under the settings 1,15,10. Anyway thanks to you guys and this great forum the show may just go on.

 

[franky_888]

The strange part is for years it worked fine under the settings 1,15,10. Anyway thanks to you guys and this great forum the show may just go on.

It sounds like you may have had an xlights layout issue all along, which you somehow managed to work around with the Avatek controller (at least that's my theory).

You shouldn't need to be messing with the controller configuration at all - if you set it up properly in xlights and sync that to your falcon it should configure the string layout in the falcon for you.

Glad to hear it's working as expected!