Mapping SSS to a DMX segment display

[Rabeiler]

I have a bunch (and I mean a bunch) of LED tape that was used in a concert stage and when the show was over the LED tape was removed and given away. Each segment is 3 RGB LEDs (addressed as one pixel). My thought was to create an LED 2 line display using line segments. Something like the following (where each "--" and "|" represent a segment:

 

--  --  --  --

| |  | |  | |  | |

--  --  --  --

| |  | |  | |  | |

--  --  --  --

 

This 4 character string would consist of 12 horizontal segments and 16 vertical segments for a total of 84 DMX channels (28 x 3). 

 

What I want to do is use SSS to map a text value to the segments. Is this possible? I can have up to 170 segments or 24 letters (12 per line). Can anyone point me in the right direction?

 

Thanks much,

Ross

[BrianBruderer]

Well this is an interesting one. In a perfect world, I assume you would like to type in a string in the Text dialog box and have it display on your 7 segment LEDs?

[Rabeiler]

Yes - in a perfect world, that is exactly what I would like. 

[Rabeiler]

If you used a standard 7 segment LED mapping (a,b,c,d,e,f,g) in the sequencer and then allowed the user to define the number of characters you could do something pretty cool. In my case, each segment would consume 3 dmx channels in a single universe.

[BrianBruderer]

Well, I was able to do it, but it took some wrangling. Attached is a zip file that contains:

 

7SegmentLED.sup

8_character_7_segment_display.lee

6-5x6_Thin.custom.font

 

copy the .sup file into:

c:\ <your lightorama folder> \ SuperStar \ Sequences

 

copy the .lee file into:

c:\ <your lightorama folder> \ Visualizations \ Editor

 

copy the font file into:

c:\ <your lightorama folder> \ SuperStar \ fonts

 

When you open the file, it may say it can't find the visualization file. This is because your lightorama folder is probably different than mine, so if you get that error, do the following:

 

click on the File menu and select "Import Visualization"

In the Import Visualization dialog box set Sequencing Grid "Max Length" to 28

          Select "Horizontal"

          Click on "Ok"

Open up "8_character_7_segment_display.lee"

 

If it successfully opens the visualization file and the font file is in there, then when you play the .sup file you should see numbers appear on the visualization of the 7 segment display.

 

I redefined the numbers 0-9 in the customer font. You could modify the letters also, but it is confusing, because you have to edit the characters in the font in vertical CCR mode, and then you want to use them rotated 90 degrees in horizontal visualization mode. It would take a while to explain exactly what I did, but take a look at it and you may be able to see what I did.

3files.zip

[Rabeiler]

Brian - thanks for this. I was able to get this working in my environment for the numbers. I took a look at the font file and I think I can somewhat follow what you have done. Can you explain what the xoffset, yoffset, width, height, cellwidth and saved index mean? Why do some of the numbers have fewer pixels in the font file? Also, what segmet do you start with? Not sure why some have offsets and some have different widths. If you can explain, I think I should be able to do the capital ascii characters.

Thanks again. Ross

[BrianBruderer]

It sounds like you are looking at the font file directly with notepad. You don't need to do that. You can edit it from SuperStar.

 

1) launch superstar

2) open the .sup file I sent you

3) click on one of the effects in the sequence, the Text dialog box should appear

4) click on the Tools menu and select Layout

5) click on CCR mode, nbr of CCRs = 12, orientation = Vertical

6) Click on "Font character entry" in the left middle of the dialog box

7) Scroll down and highlight the character "0"

8) notice the character cell has been changed to 7 and only the bottom row of pixels is used for the character

    the segments are numbered top to bottom, left to right.

    highlight each number and look at the pattern

9) It might help to draw a diagram on a piece of paper showing the segments, and what number they are, then you can figure out which of the pixels on the bottom row to turn on to get the appropriate segments to turn on.

 

For example, scroll down to "A"

change the width from 6 to 7

turn on pixels 1,2,3,4,5,6 on the bottom row.

use right mouse click to turn off all the other pixels

REMEMBER TO CLICK ON THE MODIFY BUTTON JUST BELOW THE CHAR LIST

 

go to the next character and define it

when you are done modifying characters, click on the SAVE button below the font list

 

Click on the Text Action Entry button

Click on the Tools menu and select Layout, go back to Visualization mode.

You can now add text effects using the numbers and letters you have defined

Be sure you are always using the "6-5x6 Thin-Custom" font.

[Rabeiler]

Thanks - that helped a lot. Got "A" "b" "C" "d" to work. Very much appreciated. I hope I can pull this off!! 

Ross