Setting up CCBs in SE, Vis, & PE

[mcnamara9]

Bought an RGB Flood and a set of CCBs (2 50-pixel strands w/controller) during the sale to experiment with the world of RGB this year on a smaller scale.  I'm trying to set them up in SE, Visualizer, and PE.   Attached are the settings I chose.  Can someone tell me if I did it correctly?  What is Base Unit ID Mode?  For String 2, should I also click continue with base Unit id?  Not sure I know the difference.  I plan to just daisy chain this one set of CCBs into existing LOR network (not create a 2nd network because I don't know how to).  Eventually, if I add more pixels, I know I'll need to learn how to set up a 2nd network.

I plan to have the pixels go along the roof from left to right with the controller in the middle.  That is why i checked flipped numbering for String 1.

Assuming I set these channels up correcting in SE, how do I add them to the Vis (draw light string or pixel string?  pixel string automatically applies it to DMX universe which I'm not using).  After I figure out the proper setup in the Vis, if I import the Vis into the PE, do I need to do anything else in terms of set up within the PE?  The plan is to sequence the CCB in PE and keep my sequencing for the other non-RGB channels in SE.  

Any links to videos or documentation would be great.  I searched the help index, this forum, and watched some of the tutorials online without any luck.  

Thanks in advance.

[k6ccc]

CCBs and CCPs consist of two strings of 50 lights on a single controller.  In the Hardware Utility, they can be setup in several ways.  In one way, the two strings are treated as if they are on a single controller and have one unit ID and 317 channels.  This is called "Normal" mode.  In the second, each string uses 10 unit IDs (one for each 16 channels), so the single controller would be addressed as 20 Unit IDs.  This is called "Legacy" mode and is a leftover from really old LOR software that only supported 16 channel controllers..  The third way is called "Dual Normal" mode and each string is treated as if it had it's own controller.  This is the mode I use and recommend.  When set to Dual Normal mode, you give the controller a Unit ID, and it will use both that ID and the next one.  So for example, my first CCP controller is unit ID 21.  the result is that the first string is Unit ID 21, with channels 1 - 157, and the second string is Unit ID 22 with channels 1 - 157.  This has the advantage that it is more interchangable with CCRs should you desire to swap from CCBs to CCRs or vice versa somewhere down the road.

However the CCBs are set up in the Hardware Utility is how you need to set up the Add Device in SE.  So using the numbers of the example I gave above, I would set the Unit ID to 21, and for Base Unit ID mode, select Native mode, then for Unit ID for CCB string 2, select "String 2 has own Unit ID".  The bottom section allows you to flip one or both strings.  Because the cable distance from the controller to the first pixel is fairly short, many times the controller will be in the middle of some display elements.  For example in my case, each CCP controller with two strings is driving two arches - one string on each arch.  The controller is in the middle.  Since normally the first pixel is closest to the controller, that would result in the left arch have pixels 1 - 50 in a right to left orientation, and the right arch would have pixels 1 - 50 in a left to right orientation.  to avoid that, I select the Flipped for the string 1 orientation, and on string two have channel 1 near the controller.  that results in both arches having pixel 1 at the left end.

 

[mcnamara9]

Thank you Jim for taking the time to explain that.  I understand it so much better now.

As for adding the CCB's to the Visualizer, do you add it as a "light string" or a "pixel string"  if I'm running the CCB's inside my existing LOR network?

[SVO4Turbo]

I had a similar question.  Moreso related to getting visualizer to work correctly, but I will put i here as it could help the OP. 

I have never used the Macro functions and wanted to try doing so this year to simplify a smaller lighting commitment I agreed to help out on.  I initially set my CCB up in the sequence editor to be 1 unit ID with the 317 channels.  I did it this way because some of the macro effects say they can fill a string from left to right or right to left and I want the effect to go across all 100 bulbs.  If I have different unit id's, I believe that I'd only get the effect across half of the bulbs I have connected to the controller.  In order to see it work, however, I discovered that I have to use the Visualizer instead of the Animation window I've always used as the animation window won't support display of the macro effects.  OK, no problem, time to learn visualizer. 

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get a CCD to have 100 pixels in there.  The max option when adding a device using the CCR Draw Wizard is 50.  Is there any way to get around this limitation so I can assign 100 pixels to a single unit ID? 

[tomsusie]

On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2016 at 6:20 PM, SVO4Turbo said:

I had a similar question.  Moreso related to getting visualizer to work correctly, but I will put i here as it could help the OP. 

I have never used the Macro functions and wanted to try doing so this year to simplify a smaller lighting commitment I agreed to help out on.  I initially set my CCB up in the sequence editor to be 1 unit ID with the 317 channels.  I did it this way because some of the macro effects say they can fill a string from left to right or right to left and I want the effect to go across all 100 bulbs.  If I have different unit id's, I believe that I'd only get the effect across half of the bulbs I have connected to the controller.  In order to see it work, however, I discovered that I have to use the Visualizer instead of the Animation window I've always used as the animation window won't support display of the macro effects.  OK, no problem, time to learn visualizer. 

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get a CCD to have 100 pixels in there.  The max option when adding a device using the CCR Draw Wizard is 50.  Is there any way to get around this limitation so I can assign 100 pixels to a single unit ID? 

I too am having difficulties figuring out how to get my 100 pixel bulbs in visualizer.   I have it set up as native (normal) running 2 strings. 

Thanks for any help on this.

[ItsMeBobO]

On 11/27/2016 at 5:20 PM, SVO4Turbo said:

I had a similar question.  Moreso related to getting visualizer to work correctly, but I will put i here as it could help the OP. 

I have never used the Macro functions and wanted to try doing so this year to simplify a smaller lighting commitment I agreed to help out on.  I initially set my CCB up in the sequence editor to be 1 unit ID with the 317 channels.  I did it this way because some of the macro effects say they can fill a string from left to right or right to left and I want the effect to go across all 100 bulbs.  If I have different unit id's, I believe that I'd only get the effect across half of the bulbs I have connected to the controller.  In order to see it work, however, I discovered that I have to use the Visualizer instead of the Animation window I've always used as the animation window won't support display of the macro effects.  OK, no problem, time to learn visualizer. 

For the life of me, I cannot figure out how to get a CCD to have 100 pixels in there.  The max option when adding a device using the CCR Draw Wizard is 50.  Is there any way to get around this limitation so I can assign 100 pixels to a single unit ID? 

I dont think there is a way to have a 100 pixel device be controlled by a macro channel but I will check and make another post.   My many CCx devices are all set up with macro channels which I use a lot.  All are set up in SE as two unit ids of 50.  Same in Viz which has no option for 100.