E682 Configuration Help

[ChristmasCanada]

I had my E682 configured for 3 x 5m 2811 for my Halloween display and worked great.

I'd like to change my config to allow 16x 5m 2811 strips that are 50 pixels each..

Here's my config that was recommend for 16 strips.

When I configured the controller for the 16 strips, I get random flickering of the lights. I have only 1 strip connected to cluster 1 channel 1. When I ran a test pattern #4 only half of the strip would light.?

I'm thinking I don't have the DMX addresses correct.? The controller worked flawlessly when I only had configured for 3 x 5m strips.

[Tim Fischer]

I'm sorry, that pic is too small, blurry, and dark for me to review it for you. Could you copy the text from the screen and paste it in another post?

[ChristmasCanada]

My configuration...

This is my screen shot....

Cluster#.  Strings.  Chip.  Pixel. Grp. Strn Len. RGB.  DMX. ADD. RANGE

1.               4.     1804f.   50.    001.    0050.    BRG S1-001

thru S2-90

2.               4.     1804f.   50.    001.    0050.    BRG S2-091

thru S3-180

3.               4.     1804f.   50.    001.    0050.    BRG S3-181

thru S4-270

4.               4.     1804f.   50.    001.    0050.    BRG S4-271

thru S5-360

[ChristmasCanada]

Here is my full screen shot... The controller works great when I have it config for 3 strips per cluster.? When I test with 4 strips per cluster I'm getting only 1/4 of the strips to light. I only have 3 5m 2811 strips for testing connected right now...I remember someone saying something about overlapping channels into cluster #2 when you have the controller config set to 4 strips per cluster.?

SanDevices E1.31 Pixel Controller Model E682-6

CPUs Used: Main E1.31 TIMER Array PixA1 PixA2 PixA3 PixA4

Current Network Mode is: FORCED DHCP FAILED

IP Address: 169.254.074.073 Subnet Mask: 255.255.000.000 Gateway: 000.000.000.000 DNS Server: 000.000.000.000

DHCP Server: 000.000.000.000 Mac Adrs: 4A:49:4D:34:51:E9 DHCP Lease Time Remaining: 0000:00:00

System Up-Time: 0000:05:01 Firmware Version: 2.040 Web Timeout in: ---

E1.31 Packet Statistics:

Socket s1 Socket s2 Socket s3 Socket s4 Socket s5 Socket s6

Universe Number 1 2 3 4 5 6

Packets Received 7,479 0 0 0 0 0

Sequence Errors 15 0 0 0 0 0

Invalid Packets 0 0 0 0 0 0

Global Configuration:

Static Network Information:

IP Address: 192.168.010.206 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.000 Gateway: 192.168.010.001 DNS Server: 192.168.001.001

WEB Server Socket: 8 (DEDICATED) Last Firmware Update Status: None Tried

Default IP Mode: STATIC Web Srvr Mode: Boot+Auto No Data Timeout: Disabled Test Pattern: 00

Pixel String Configuration:

Cluster# Strings Chip Pixels Grp Str Len RGB DMX Address Range Reverse Zigs Null Pixels Refresh Gamma

1 4 1804(F) 050 001 0050 BRG s1-001 thru s2-090 NNNN 0000 0-0-0-0 0245

2 4 1804(F) 050 001 0050 BRG s2-091 thru s3-180 NNNN 0000 0-0-0-0 0245

3 4 1804(F) 050 001 0050 BRG s3-181 thru s4-270 NNNN 0000 0-0-0-0 0245

4 4 1804(F) 050 001 0050 BRG s4-271 thru s5-360 NNNN 0000 0-0-0-0 0245

Current Page is: 0

Command:

Any help would be great.

[Tim Fischer]

Hmmm. According to that, you're only getting packets on Universe 1, but you need to be using 5 universes to control everything. Are you sure your LOR config is correct?

[ChristmasCanada]

Can anyone tell me where to find the (fwloader_1_0.py) on Sandevices web cite.? Jim has told me to do an update on my 632 and I can't seem to find that link.? I checked the downloads section.. No luck

[Tim Fischer]

Can anyone tell me where to find the (fwloader_1_0.py) on Sandevices web cite.? Jim has told me to do an update on my 632 and I can't seem to find that link.? I checked the downloads section.. No luck

It's on the downloads page as "Update via LAN software"

Right-click this link and save the contents as "fwloader_1_0.py": http://sandevices.co...fwloader_1_0.py

But to your original problem: If the E682 isn't seeing packets on universes other than 1, it's totally understandable why you're seeing only some pixels work. I'm guessing that Jim wants you to update the firmware to take care of the flicker issue.

Edited November 11, 2012 by Tim Fischer

[ChristmasCanada]

Thanks Tim... Got it working.. I only had the strips connected to cluster 1, so I'm thinking that's the reason for packets only showing on the one universe. After the firmware update, the controller worked perfect.

When I used 3 strips on the first cluster for my Halloween show, I had the sequence editor add 1 universe of 150 RGB channels using up 450 DMX channels. So when I'm using 4 strips per cluster how do I enter that into the LOR sequence editor.? Im confused on how to set this up.?

[Tim Fischer]

Thanks Tim... Got it working.. I only had the strips connected to cluster 1, so I'm thinking that's the reason for packets only showing on the one universe. After the firmware update, the controller worked perfect.

When I used 3 strips on the first cluster for my Halloween show, I had the sequence editor add 1 universe of 150 RGB channels using up 450 DMX channels. So when I'm using 4 strips per cluster how do I enter that into the LOR sequence editor.? Im confused on how to set this up.?

Your 4th strip will be DMX IDs 451-510 on Universe 1 and 1-90 on Universe 2. I don't know if there's an easy way to auto-assign that in the SE other than lots of manual channel setup in the channel config dialog.

[ChristmasCanada]

Thanks for the help Jeff. The update fixed my problem.. I'm overwhelmed with sequencing this many channels. I may have to purchase the Superstar 24 CCRs to speed things up a bit. Has anyone with the E682 had any problems exporting the Superstar sequence into the DMX universes in LOR.?

[k6ccc]

To anyone interested in the issue related to why Jim asked him to update the firmware... Some recent batches of WS2801 and WS2811 are not functioning within the guidelines of the datasheets and the timing had to be adjusted. There's a discussion about it here. He is only suggesting an update to untested Firmware for those people having the random flashing issue. <snip>

Jeff, thank you for posting that over here :D

I had noticed the evening before (Sunday) when testing a light diffusion method with a new pixel strip that there were some issues at the end of the strip. Assuming that the one strip (of 12 that I had recently received) was defective, I was planning on doing a detailed testing of all 12 strips Monday evening, but read this post. Followed the link and did Jim's test procedure. Sure enough, I have the problem and my strips were working fine when I told the E682 that it only had 3 or less strings. I have a request into Jim at SanDevices for the firmware upgrade...

You saved me a bunch of trouble.

[jim st john]

If anyone is interested this is the reason for the flicker. The 2811 looks for a pause in the data transmission to mark the end of a full frame of pixel data, and when it sees that pause it latches the new data into it's outputs and goes into the mode of waiting for the next data frame to start.

According to the data sheet, you need a pause of 50 us or more to do this. On the original 1804s (which the 2811 is a clone of), the actual time was more like 10us, so the firmware in the E68x controllers was configured to not pause any longer than about 5-6 us during a frame. This complicates things a bit because there is a lot to do between pixels to be able to get the proper data values for the next pixel when you take into consideration the options such as null pixels, reversing, grouping, RGB re-ordering, etc.

Anyway, these new 2811s appear to interpret anything > about 5us as a frame break. The time the E68x takes between pixels depends on how many pixel strings there are on that cluster, since the data for the next pixel sor all strings is fetched, then they are sent simultaneously. The more strings that are active in a cluster, the more time it takes between pixels to fetch the channel values for the next pixels. It just happens that with 3 or fewer strings on a cluster the gap is small enough to keep the 2811s happy. With 4 strings it's just a hair too long.

[Tim Fischer]

Just to be clear - the new firmware allows 4 strings per cluster? I'm currently using 1804's but considering a project with 2811s for next season.

[jim st john]

Yes.

[Tim Fischer]

Yes.

Great - thanks!

[k6ccc]

From the testing I did a few weeks ago, yes, four 50 pixel strings of 2811s worked on a single cluster. After this weekend I should have a pixel tree up that will use all 12 strings in the first 3 clusters, and most likely a few days later I will have four 70 pixel strips on the last cluster. I will report here (as long as I remember it) how well it works.