ebrown1972 Posted June 8, 2018 Share Posted June 8, 2018 I ordered an 8 panel P10 kit from diyledexpress the other day. I have to say that everything was much easier than what I thought it would be. Beaglebone black was easy to setup and so was the matrix itself. FPP was easy to configure. S5 controlled the P10's with no issue. Now I just need to build an enclosure for it. My plan is to mainly use the matrix to replace my pixel matrix sign. If any of you are thinking about building one go for it. Not a bad build at all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 I pieced together my P10 panel a few months ago. Had some growing pains with FPP and the ColorLight card, but it is working fine in Bridge mode from LOR. Yesterday I got the pieces for my P5 matrix. Assembled everything, and having an issue with FPP, but that will get resolved soon I expect... I like you need to build the enclosures. I am planning on using them primarily to replace my Tune To signs. Agreed, that although there is a learning curve, there are plenty of people both here and on the FPP forum that will help out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mpageler Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 So you guys are running your P10's from LOR sequences? I know there was lenthy thread last year with question about this and indication were that most were running from xlights? So is the FPP basically the a panel(s) configuation file? Is this kind of similar to setting up a e1.31 controller for universes, channlel, etc.? What's involve with the "bridge" when using the p10 with LOR? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted June 9, 2018 Share Posted June 9, 2018 Yes, essentially when operating a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone on FPP in Bridge mode, it is acting as an E1.31 controller (in simple terms). As far as LOR is concerned, that is definitely the case. Within FPP, you set up the outputs to drive the P10 panels. There are a couple ways of doing that. One is to use a daughter board on the Pi or BBB that translates Input/Output (IO) pins of the Pi or BBB into the pinout that is required for the P10 panel. The Pi or BBB running FPP does all the computer processing. The other way to do it is to use a card called a ColorLight. This is a card specifically made for the driving large panel arrays (such as electronic billboards). The Pi or BBB drives the ColorLight via ethernet, and the ColorLight card does all the processing to drive the panels. I have done both, and like the results of using the ColorLight card better, so that is what I'm using. Because of the large number of channels involved, you largely don't even get down to the channel level, and really only deal with universes. Yes, the channels are there, but you largely ignore them. Remember that a singe P10 panel has 512 pixels or 1536 channels which is three universes. A single P5 panel is 2,048 pixels or 6,144 channels which is 12 universes. My P5 matrix which is quite small is 12,288 pixels or 36,864 channels or 72 universes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrown1972 Posted June 9, 2018 Author Share Posted June 9, 2018 3 hours ago, k6ccc said: Yes, essentially when operating a Raspberry Pi or BeagleBone on FPP in Bridge mode, it is acting as an E1.31 controller (in simple terms). As far as LOR is concerned, that is definitely the case. Within FPP, you set up the outputs to drive the P10 panels. There are a couple ways of doing that. One is to use a daughter board on the Pi or BBB that translates Input/Output (IO) pins of the Pi or BBB into the pinout that is required for the P10 panel. The Pi or BBB running FPP does all the computer processing. The other way to do it is to use a card called a ColorLight. This is a card specifically made for the driving large panel arrays (such as electronic billboards). The Pi or BBB drives the ColorLight via ethernet, and the ColorLight card does all the processing to drive the panels. I have done both, and like the results of using the ColorLight card better, so that is what I'm using. Because of the large number of channels involved, you largely don't even get down to the channel level, and really only deal with universes. Yes, the channels are there, but you largely ignore them. Remember that a singe P10 panel has 512 pixels or 1536 channels which is three universes. A single P5 panel is 2,048 pixels or 6,144 channels which is 12 universes. My P5 matrix which is quite small is 12,288 pixels or 36,864 channels or 72 universes. Jim what is involved in setting up the colorlight card? Is it simple and straight forward? You now have me interested in checking one out. Also where did you purchase yours from? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted June 10, 2018 Share Posted June 10, 2018 2 hours ago, ebrown1972 said: Jim what is involved in setting up the colorlight card? Is it simple and straight forward? You now have me interested in checking one out. Also where did you purchase yours from? Sorry for all the questions. Thanks, Eric The ColorLight cards are not overly difficult to hook up. Configuring them is not difficult, but totally non-intuitive. You will almost certainly require some assistance to configure it, but once you set it up, you never need to touch it again. The ColorLight card connects to the Pi or BBB with a gigabit ethernet connection. Since the Pi 3B does not support gigabit, you use a USB to gigabit ethernet adapter (ask which one to use if you go that route). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrown1972 Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 On 6/9/2018 at 12:12 AM, k6ccc said: I pieced together my P10 panel a few months ago. Had some growing pains with FPP and the ColorLight card, but it is working fine in Bridge mode from LOR. Yesterday I got the pieces for my P5 matrix. Assembled everything, and having an issue with FPP, but that will get resolved soon I expect... I like you need to build the enclosures. I am planning on using them primarily to replace my Tune To signs. Agreed, that although there is a learning curve, there are plenty of people both here and on the FPP forum that will help out. Jim, most likely my P10 will be used to replace my tune to sign also. I plan on using the p10 in standalone mode which by the way looks so much better than bridge mode. From my understanding FPP will only output fseq files. If this is the case it looks like I will need to learn a little more about xlights at least to program my show information on the P10. I plan on using S5 but do not see how to convert S5 files through xlights. I don't think that can be done at this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 On 6/9/2018 at 11:02 AM, mpageler said: So you guys are running your P10's from LOR sequences? I know there was lenthy thread last year with question about this and indication were that most were running from xlights? So is the FPP basically the a panel(s) configuation file? Is this kind of similar to setting up a e1.31 controller for universes, channlel, etc.? What's involve with the "bridge" when using the p10 with LOR? Thanks it's easier with xLights but can be done with LOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 4 hours ago, ebrown1972 said: Jim, most likely my P10 will be used to replace my tune to sign also. I plan on using the p10 in standalone mode which by the way looks so much better than bridge mode. From my understanding FPP will only output fseq files. If this is the case it looks like I will need to learn a little more about xlights at least to program my show information on the P10. I plan on using S5 but do not see how to convert S5 files through xlights. I don't think that can be done at this time. xLights 2018.15 now supports S5 thru pixel editor import. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 Can I assume xLights can't do much with SuperStar files? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted June 15, 2018 Share Posted June 15, 2018 13 minutes ago, k6ccc said: Can I assume xLights can't do much with SuperStar files? funny you should ask, oh yes it can. You can import a .lms (requires mapping), .sup files, and now pixel editor files. When I want to bring over something from LOR I will first import the AC only lms file and then I will import the sup file for each pixel item I am bring over. I tried bringing over the lms with rgb stuff in it but that made for one huge file to render (LOR does things by the individual pixel when importing, so you have to map pixel for pixel, the SUP files is "effects on a prop" which is much smaller). Generally takes me ten minutes or less to import, render, test, and save as a FSEQ file per song. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebrown1972 Posted June 15, 2018 Author Share Posted June 15, 2018 1 hour ago, caniac said: xLights 2018.15 now supports S5 thru pixel editor import. More than likely I will probably just use xlights for my P10 matrix since I will be running it in standalone mode. I already made a few sequences for it and tested it out. All works as expected. It is nice to know that pixel editor sequences can now be imported into xlights though. I have played around with xlights quite a bit in the past so it didn't take me too long to get the feel for it. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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