LOR New Singing Christmas Tree Visualizer file

[jwblazek]

Anxiously looking forward to retiring my old LED singing trees and using smart RGB singing trees as a replacement. Looks like LOR is selling them and the S5 SW has the opportunity to import from LOR the new Viz files. However, I believe the LOR files are for dumb RGB, not smart. Am I correct in that?

In S5, visualizer is there an easy way to change from DUMB RGB to Smart RGB easily? Having to redraw all those fixtures is a lot of work

[dibblejr]

1 hour ago, jwblazek said:

Anxiously looking forward to retiring my old LED singing trees and using smart RGB singing trees as a replacement. Looks like LOR is selling them and the S5 SW has the opportunity to import from LOR the new Viz files. However, I believe the LOR files are for dumb RGB, not smart. Am I correct in that?

In S5, visualizer is there an easy way to change from DUMB RGB to Smart RGB easily? Having to redraw all those fixtures is a lot of work

They are only 4 mouth movements. If you are looking for 5 youll be better off using the HC singing RGB bulbs imported in if you are looking for 5 movements. You can import a tree pic and move transpose the faces for 5 rgb movements.

They are smart pixels with the settings in the pixie 2 to make them act as dumb nodes. Saves ports. I believe if they were dumb the ME rows wouldn't work.

JR

Edited May 27, 2020 by dibblejr

[jwblazek]

Correct, only 4 mouth movements. I plan on retiring my 4 HC trees,  after using theme annually for the past 5 years. If you look at the prop settings of the Viz from LOR it is for RGB dumb nodes. I want to use smart pixels so I can change colors, just as I do with the 4 HC  singing light bulbs I have. Trying to save work as LOR has the .lee already done, but set up for dumb RGB . 

Edited May 27, 2020 by jwblazek
clarification

[dibblejr]

1 hour ago, jwblazek said:

Correct, only 4 mouth movements. I plan on retiring my 4 HC trees,  after using theme annually for the past 5 years. If you look at the prop settings of the Viz from LOR it is for RGB dumb nodes. I want to use smart pixels so I can change colors, just as I do with the 4 HC  singing light bulbs I have. Trying to save work as LOR has the .lee already done, but set up for dumb RGB . 

The settings are due to an internal switch that the user can get to and turn off. It is what makes the pixie2 think that it is talking to dumb nodes. I am not 100% sure of what nodes smart or dumb are connected to our trees. I never bother to look but. 

If you have the pixie2 controller set for the singing trees and you connect 2 strings of smart nodes to them without changing the internal setting you will still get the dumb node affect. You will have to manually go in and change the setting.

I posted a link here a couple weeks ago with the instructions from LOR on the process. Look for one of Orville  's threads within the past 2 weeks or so. I cant remember if I started my own thread but I may have.

JR

[jwblazek]

JR, we have a disconnect here. My question is simple, is there an EASY way to change the stings in a .lee file from dumb to smart RGB? LOR's new singing trees are pretty cool IMO and the .lee file they have is for dumb RGB strings. I have a surplus of smart RBG strings I was going to use up and use the smart RGB features. Controller I will be using for these stings is the HC Alpha Pix16

[dibblejr]

31 minutes ago, jwblazek said:

JR, we have a disconnect here. My question is simple, is there an EASY way to change the stings in a .lee file from dumb to smart RGB? LOR's new singing trees are pretty cool IMO and the .lee file they have is for dumb RGB strings. I have a surplus of smart RBG strings I was going to use up and use the smart RGB features. Controller I will be using for these stings is the HC Alpha Pix16

Gotcha, if you are talking S4 vis unfortunately you will have to manually recreate the vis. However it is not that difficult.

You just need the other lee or a pic and use it as a background, select draw RGB pixels - next to the last tool to the right , draw a line and depending on how many you need draw it in a way to get larger dots. The longer the line you can make the larger the dot.

Now drag and drop them where you need for your fixtures. After all done assign the channels/ universes and be done.

JR

[jwblazek]

Hey JR. Thanks again, I know how to do this, being lazy, hoping someone has already done this or LOR advertising their new trees with Smart RGB to offer a .lee

JBJ

[Orville]

4 hours ago, dibblejr said:

The settings are due to an internal switch that the user can get to and turn off. It is what makes the pixie2 think that it is talking to dumb nodes. I am not 100% sure of what nodes smart or dumb are connected to our trees. I never bother to look but. 

If you have the pixie2 controller set for the singing trees and you connect 2 strings of smart nodes to them without changing the internal setting you will still get the dumb node affect. You will have to manually go in and change the setting.

I posted a link here a couple weeks ago with the instructions from LOR on the process. Look for one of Orville  's threads within the past 2 weeks or so. I cant remember if I started my own thread but I may have.

JR

JR, if you use the default Pixie settings {in S4} and set them up as 2 unit ID #'s and 2 ports, each port will be numbered 1-100, they will become SMART NODES, as that is what the RGB nodes that come with the LOR Singing Trees are, they are SMART NODES, but they are set for the LOR Singing Trees to act as "DUMB NODES" for ease in using and sequencing the Trees.

Remember what I told you how I had set mine up initially, they were set as SMART NODES and I had to MANUALLY enter channel information of every single node, ALL 200 of them, and I had to change Port 2 from 1-100, to 101-200, and then I had to get the Tree Configuration files {Photo that shows what nodes are for what and which aren't used} and set them all up.   Took me hours upon hours to configure.

In my opinion, folks are better off using the DUMB MODE option and the Pixie2D Controllers they came with!

Much less work and less time getting the trees singing.  Otherwise instead of 4 channels in dumb mode, you will have a multitude of channels for each bulb for each section of the mouth.  Personally, after getting your help and configuring mine, I would not even try to use these trees as "SMART NODES" where each individual pixel could be controlled separately.  

It's just not worth all the extra work and hassle, mush easier they way you helped me set up mine, 8 channels and dumb node version with 24 circuits.   Sure a lot easier on both the eyeballs and sequencing them, as opposed to 1200 channels per LOR Singing Tree!

But to each his own, me I prefer the SIMPLEST METHOD to accomplish what I need a prop to do, just too complex to set these trees up in SMART NODE mode.  And the sequencing in Smart Mode is a nightmare the way you have to set them up in the Sequencer.   I do speak from experience on this one.  I tried it that way not knowing how they are actually set up before I got them, hours and hours later, I had them configured, but trying to sequence them in Smart Node mode was a horrible nightmare within itself.

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by Orville

[dibblejr]

57 minutes ago, Orville said:

JR, if you use the default Pixie settings {in S4} and set them up as 2 unit ID #'s and 2 ports, each port will be numbered 1-100, they will become SMART NODES, as that is what the RGB nodes that come with the LOR Singing Trees are, they are SMART NODES, but they are set for the LOR Singing Trees to act as "DUMB NODES" for ease in using and sequencing the Trees.

Remember what I told you how I had set mine up initially, they were set as SMART NODES and I had to MANUALLY enter channel information of every single node, ALL 200 of them, and I had to change Port 2 from 1-100, to 101-200, and then I had to get the Tree Configuration files {Photo that shows what nodes are for what and which aren't used} and set them all up.   Took me hours upon hours to configure.

In my opinion, folks are better off using the DUMB MODE option and the Pixie2D Controllers they came with!

Much less work and less time getting the trees singing.  Otherwise instead of 4 channels in dumb mode, you will have a multitude of channels for each bulb for each section of the mouth.  Personally, after getting your help and configuring mine, I would not even try to use these trees as "SMART NODES" where each individual pixel could be controlled separately.  

It's just not worth all the extra work and hassle, mush easier they way you helped me set up mine, 8 channels and dumb node version with 24 circuits.   Sure a lot easier on both the eyeballs and sequencing them, as opposed to 1200 channels per LOR Singing Tree!

But to each his own, me I prefer the SIMPLEST METHOD to accomplish what I need a prop to do, just too complex to set these trees up in SMART NODE mode.  And the sequencing in Smart Mode is a nightmare the way you have to set them up in the Sequencer.   I do speak from experience on this one.  I tried it that way not knowing how they are actually set up before I got them, hours and hours later, I had them configured, but trying to sequence them in Smart Node mode was a horrible nightmare within itself.

 

Yes, I said that on my first post. I was having a few conversations with my 10' singing tree when I was typing some of this. LOL He never did answer me back, that may have been a good thing.

You can get some really great affects with them in S5 adding Motion Effects to them. 

JR

[Orville]

6 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Yes, I said that on my first post. I was having a few conversations with my 10' singing tree when I was typing some of this. LOL He never did answer me back, that may have been a good thing.

You can get some really great affects with them in S5 adding Motion Effects to them. 

JR

Oops, meant 8 Channels, not 4 in my earlier response.  I was thinking "mouth only channels" at the time. LOL

If I can get my 2nd computer up and running, I plan on putting S5 on the 2nd one and start playing around with it.  That way I have S4 on one system that I will use for this year{2020}, but eventually hope to move over to S5 at some point in the hopefully near future.

[jwblazek]

Hear what you guys are saying, but like the effects smart RGBs have in some effects on the trees, particularly outlines and ability to have a smaertstring that is perhaps partially outline and partially eyes be smart colors

That's what I use on my 4 HC singing bulbs and really look fantastic

 

[jwblazek]

10 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Yes, I said that on my first post. I was having a few conversations with my 10' singing tree when I was typing some of this. LOL He never did answer me back, that may have been a good thing.

You can get some really great affects with them in S5 adding Motion Effects to them. 

JR

Don't understand tho changing the Pixie settings can change a  prop from dumb to smart RGB. Lets use a single string, for example. In Visualizer, if you look at the string properties, it will show 3 circuits, R,G,B. How can changing a controller setting change the sequence or prop properties from 3 circuits to 50? Or am I not hearing what your are saying?

[k6ccc]

Not what you are asking for, but in the settings for pixel controllers, you can set the group size.  What that does is group pixels together so that they appear as a single pixel.  For example if you have a string of 50 pixels and set the group size to 50, that means that all 50 pixels will behave as if they were one - and only take one RGB channel.

I am using that for the pixel strips in front of my roses.  There is about 2.5 feet of strip in front of each rose that  want treated as a single pixel.  I have the group size set to 11, which results in the actual 187 pixels appearing as only 17.

Back to your original question, since you are using S5, changing a string from dumb RGB to smart pixels in the Preview Editor (no Visualizer in S5) takes only a few seconds.  Just change the selection in the Lights section from "Dumb RGB" to "RGB Pixels", and in the Shape section, correctly enter the number of pixels.  Lastly, in the Channels section, give the correct channel assignments.

 

 

[dibblejr]

1 hour ago, jwblazek said:

Don't understand tho changing the Pixie settings can change a  prop from dumb to smart RGB. Lets use a single string, for example. In Visualizer, if you look at the string properties, it will show 3 circuits, R,G,B. How can changing a controller setting change the sequence or prop properties from 3 circuits to 50? Or am I not hearing what your are saying?

All pixies are smart controllers. The nodes that come with LOR singing faces are also smart controllers.

There is a setting in HU under advance tab that allows users to change that setting.

From the LOR factory for the Face Pixie2’s that setting allows the smart pixels to be used like dumb nodes allowing the controller to treat it as one string.

Im not the engineer but it is what it is and does what it does.

With the latest firmware update I believe all pixies can be set this way.

Ince you do this and set the nodes you will have 50/100 or whatever in the configuration.

You may need to build a new config but that a few clicks.

I did this while helping Orville and it’s documented under his thread as mentioned earlier.

JR

Edited May 28, 2020 by dibblejr

[jwblazek]

Unfamiliar with the Pixie controllers, so unaware of that  feature. Guess I'll just plop down and draw up new .lee files. Curious, are S5 viz files backward compatible to S4? Still running S4, doubtful if I'll be S5 ready this year