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2/4/8/24 license question


cgenheimer

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Hello,

I have searched and can't really find a straight up answer to this.

What I have a question about the different licenses and how they work for just plain old lights and the Instant sequencer.

I am currently running 128 channels of various light strands with zero CCRs.

I have imported my LOR visualization file into the SS demo version and it makes what appears to be a usable "quickie" sequence. I have used 8 to 10 detection lines for my visualization.

My question comes when SS is "processing" the instant sequence, it says something quickly in the processing diolog box to the effect of "8 or sometimes 9 ribbons created" When the final product is done, I have the little black radio buttons checked for the TCM groups 1, 2, 3 and sometimes 4, (or at least I can manually check one in the 4th and they will go out 8 or 9 across. Is that just corresponding to the "detection lines" or is that an indication of how many "ribbons" the program is using to make the sequence? Does one have anything to do with the other? (I obviously don't have a good grip on what is going on at this stage of the game but can't really find the answer).

So the bottom line is, I have seen that the 2 ribbon license will support I think it was 300 channels, BUT if my "instant sequence" is 8 or 9 "ribbons", do I need to buy a 8 or 24 ribbon license? Even though I'm only using less than half of the capability for channels in a 2 ribbon license?

By what I have read on here, the demo mode will allow you to make up to the full 24 ribbons but will only let you export what your license is for. I just don't want to find that the "instant sequence" that I'm seeing in the "demo mode" looks okay but the license for 2 CCRs won't get me what I'm seeing on the export ot LOR because the program used more "ribbons" to sequence my visualization.

I hope I have explained this well enough to have someone answer.

Thank you in advance for your understanding of my non-understanding!

Best,

Craig

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That is a good question. Especially since last year I didn't have that all working right and the 2 CCR license was limiting you to 2 sequencing rows.

However, that has been fixed. The 2 CCR license supports 300 channels and can be any combination of CCR channels or channels from 16 channel controllers. And it does not matter how many sequencing rows it gets mapped to, if you have 300 channels or less it will let you export the sequence.

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Thanks Brian for the quick response!

That being the case I'm jumping on now to buy the 2 CCR license.....I hope at some point to really do CCRs, the vids are amazing. They are just not in the budget for now.

However with the instant sequencer. I think it will be great for throwing some extra stuff in to the show line up, in a hurry, might not be as tight as I might do it after 4 or 5 hours a song but being able to mix in 4 or 5 or even 10 or 20 new songs with the push of a button when I haven't had time to sequence even one this year is awesome!

Best,

Craig

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  • 5 weeks later...

Sorry for repeating the question, but I want to make sure of a purchase before I buy things -- is the CCR limiation only on auto-sequencing? Can I still program on more than 2 CCRs if I don' use auto-sequencing, or is it just that simple.. 6 CCRs in my display means I must buy the 8 or 24 licence....?

Also, is it possible to auto-sequence 2 CCRs and export to the SE, and then paste in to my other 4 CCRs?

Thank you for the clarification.

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The limitation applies to any time you export a sequence. It does not matter if the sequence was created manually or created by Instant Sequence. And it is really a "channel" limitiation. That is, the 2 CCR license allows the export of 300 channels. Those channels can be any combination of CCR channels or channels from a 16 channel controller.

So if you have 6 CCRs you must have the 8 CCR license to export the 6 CCRs.

As for auto-sequencing 2 CCRs and pasting them into another sequence, yes, you can do that. In fact you could build 3 separate 2 CCR sequences and paste them each into a 6 CCR sequence.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Brian,

This was my first year doing this, and used 2 controllers and have the Advanced Lic.. I plan on getting two more controllers for next year. I was also thinking of making a 16 string CCP mega tree. I just discovered the Instant Sequence in the Super Star and was wondering which Lic. I would need to get to export eveything into my sequence editor.

Thanks

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The SuperStar license levels are:

2CCR (300 channels)

4CCR (600 channels)

8CCR (1200 channels)

24CCR (3600 channels)

A CCP string of 50 pixels uses 150 channels (same as a CCR). If your CCP mega tree is made of 16 full strings of CCPs, then you will need the 24CCR license. If you CCP mega tree is made of 16 half strings of CCPs then you could use the 8CCR license.

Note that a full string of CCPs is 25 ft long, a half string is 12.5 feet long.

Last year I made a tree out of 24 half strings of CCPs with a globe at the top, here is a video of a test sequence I did:

At the time of the above video, "SuperSpeed" was the name Light-O-Rama had for their fastest network speed and the speed in the video was about 300K. The speed that was eventually released with v3.9.0.0 was 500K. What used to be called "Short Range (faster)" is now called 115K. So the 500K speed is more than 4 times faster than that. This means you should be able to run up to 24 CCR or CCP strings on one network!

But my real question I want to bring up is that if we could establish some "standard" sizes for mega trees made for CCPs or CCBs then it makes it easier to share sequences. I came up with the 24 half string tree with the idea that it only uses 12 strings and 6 controllers for the tree and ends up being about 12.5 feet high.

For those that want a larger tree, a 24 full string tree would use 24 strings and 12 controllers and be 25 ft tall.

The other popular sizes of mega trees is 16 strings, or 32 strings. What do you think is a good size to "standardize" on?

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That was a very noticeable difference in smoothness. It even liked like a little bit of lag to me. I ran mine in super speed this year but only had 2 CCPs per dongle. I plan on 4 CCP sets on one network next year. Thanks Brian for all your help.

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What a difference superspeed made!

I went the other direction and ran my tree (12 strings of 50 pixel Ray Wu pixels) on E1.31 and has no problem with network speed. For next year I might run my CCPs on superspeed.

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k6ccc:

What do I need to get set up for a 16 string mega tree using ccp's? I'm trying to wrap my head around the items that I need. I'm afraid I'll get the wrong componts and they won't be compatable.

Could you give me the name and numbers of all the items I need to buy to get started? I would like to get from Light O Rama, but they are more expensive that what I see on Ray Wu's website. I have also looked on Sandevise, but I am lost on what to buy.

Thanks

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I only have experience with CCRs and CCPs. Others on the forums may be able to comment on the products on Ray Wu's website. If you use CCPs, the first question is, do you want a 12.5 ft tree using half strings, or do you want a 25 ft tree using full strings?

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I would be using 12.5 trees. I guess this means half strings. Man with all the things I've been reading (DMX, E1 3.1, clusters,channels,IP addresses) I may have to rethink this whole thing. Sounds like this is going to be way over my head.

Thanks

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To go the non-LOR route you will need to talk to some of the other folks on the forums. If you buy CCPs you will need to buy 4 controllers and 8 CCP strings to make your 16 string mega tree. You can run them all on one network using the new 500K speed. So the things you need from LOR are:

4 sets of CCPs (4 controllers, 8 strings)

1 USB485 adapter

1 long cat5 cable

3 short cat5 cables

To make the mega tree structure you need:

1 mega tree hook head - I got mine here: http://store.3glightingcreations.com/mega-tree-hook-head-threaded-16-peg/

1 pole

1 star or some other kind of tree topper - I made a globe:

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Brian does one controller control two 50 pixel strings. You said,

4 sets of CCPs (4 controllers, 8 strings)

1 USB485 adapter

1 long cat5 cable

3 short cat5 cables So if I purchased this it would be 16 each 12 1/2 ft. strings is that correct.

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Brian other question, I am assuming you did the video above with superstar, so let me get this right one string starting at bottom going up is pixel 1 to pixel 25 then going down is pixel 26 to 50. So how did you set that up in S.S. with pixel 1 and 50 both on the bottom.

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I only have experience with CCRs and CCPs. Others on the forums may be able to comment on the products on Ray Wu's website. If you use CCPs, the first question is, do you want a 12.5 ft tree using half strings, or do you want a 25 ft tree using full strings?

If I do this I would want the 12.5 tree.
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I made my tree with the controllers at the bottom. Each string starts up from the bottom, goes to the top and then comes down to the bottom again. The tree wizard in the Visualizer will draw a tree this way for you. In the Tree Wizard dialog box set the following:

Set "Type of Channel Bundles / Fixtures" to "CCR Edge to Center/Center To Edge"

Set "Pixels per Bundle (CCR)" to 25

After saving the visualization in the visualizer, launch superStar and click on the File menu and select "Import Visualization"

SuperStar will get the location and unit ID information from the visualization file.

Note that in the visualizer you pretend that CCPs and CCBs are CCRs. And when you configure the CCPs or CCBs configure them as "Dual Normal" and then they will behave like CCRs as far as the visualizer and SuperStar is concerned.

As for the controllers, a CCP controller controls 2 strings, for a total of 100 pixels.

As for the cat5 cable, you need a long one to go to the first CCP controller, and then a short one to daisy chain to each controller thereafter.

In conclusion, to make my tree I used 6 controllers (12 strings) for the tree, and 1 controller (2 strings) for the globe. I bought them during the summer sale for $210 each so that comes to 7 x 210 = $1470. To just do the 6 controllers for the tree would be 6 x 210 = $1260.

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Brian one more question, if you use 12 strings wasn't the strings attach at top a litte off because that head looked like 16 hooks. I know its just a bit off but I want to make sure that is what you did.

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Yes, they were a bit off at the top because all I had was a head with 16 hooks. I have since purchased a head with 24 hooks. I am going to set up the tree again in the coming weeks and experiment with a little bit different different way of attaching the strings to the 3/16 inch rope so I can get the pixels to line up better.

With my "test tree" what I found is that patterns look awesome on the tree but text isn't so great. To get text to be better would require the pixels to be closer together and to have more strings. That would be expensive.

The images I did on the globe looked very good. This of course is because the pixels are closer together. For the cost of just one more controller and 2 more strings I can make an 8 row globe and then I can do text and better pictures on the globe.

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