LOR and XLights

[ezimnow]

I have updated to the latest version of Xlights/Nutcracker and reviewing all the tutorials and had a few actually( many) questions but want to get started soon so here goes

First …I have 10 LOR controllers so 166 channels

And adding an RGB Mega Tree with 12 legs of 50 count ws2811 pixels that after watching Andy Harrison’s tutorial  I configured LOR as 3 legs of 50 cnt. So 450 pixels per Universe. My tree will be 4 Universes running off a JP12 for a total of 1800 channels

I want to use Xlights/Nutcracker to sequence my tree and I also own the latest greatest S3 24 if I can figure out how to use it. I did build a 12 leg tree in the Visualizer and played with that a little bit so still learning how to use both…

 

Some say to set up your RGB as Unicast and run on a separate network from your home network  which I plan on doing although when I watch the Xlights tutorial it looks like Stephen sets it up as Multicast. So what’s the best way?

Seeing as I am only running 1800 channels in RGB with the outside possibility of adding 3 strips for ARCH”S and 166 channels in LOR will I be ok continuing to run in LOR or should I run it thru Xlights?

I’m thinking that I have 4 Universes for RGB without the ARCH”S and 1 universe (166) channels in LOR

And the last question for now…When in Xlights  I have the latest update, I built my model and copied a song over from my LOR sequences and added it to the Xlights folder so I could play a music file while I tested out the different Nutcracker effects. It seemed to work well. Cant I just sequence my RGB tree this way and save that file back to LOR? I am confused as I hear you shold be doing the Musci file Via Audacity and setting timing marks in that or instead of bringing the file back to LOR just run in and Play/ schedule it thru Xlights.?

 

I just want to make sure I am on the correct path so far …I will have more questions to entertain all the pros here cause I have no idea what I am doing. I was going to attempt to get started with RGB last year and Ron Boyd was a huge help but I just didn’t have enough time to make anything work. So now I am starting fresh and want to put into action what he helped me with ….reading tutorials  as well as the Aussie forum , DIY and anything else out there.

Thanks in advance

EZ

[ezimnow]

Found this today on how to use Audacity with Nutcracker....

https://vimeo.com/64869234

[jlowe]

Sounds like you are on the right track with everything.

Multicast vs unicast: I'm not familiar with j1sys controllers, but I know for e682, by running unicast, you can run 12 universes instead of 7. Won't matter in your application. In addition, an argument could be made for less network congestion using unicast, although it would probably need to be massive channels before that would be a factor. Multicast allows you to set universes in the controllers rather than via IP, which means you could have multiple controllers respond to the same universes if you had a use for it. So, you're good either way, but I prefer unicast for reasons I mentioned above.

I believe LOR will play that amount of channels without issue. The concerns people have been expressing are with sequencing with massive channel counts, not the lighting output.

However, why bother doing that? Sequence regular channels in S3, sequence your pixels in NC, then run it all through xlights. I've done that for 3 years and have never had a crash or memory problem, and that's via an old laptop.

Use audacity to add music labels, use those in NC, and add/change rgb effects based on those timing points.

Edited March 18, 2014 by jlowe

[ezimnow]

Appreciate the input....and yes I'll probably go with Unicast myself for the same  reasons. I did read about a 4GB patch which I'll install  as well just to help alleviate any latencey when moving my files over. I used Audacity before and found the link that Steven had for timing marks so I'm good there. Finally after much reading its all starting to come together.

 

Thanks again for the feed back Jlowe, its good to know I'm on the right path.