Channel Setup with e682

[marsh28]

The directions on setting up the channels for the e682 or as clear as mud to me and I need a little help.  This year, my goals are modest and my E682 will only we controller 6 separate 2811 RGB strips.  The strips are as follows: Strip 1 (75 pixels - 225 channels), Strip 2 (75 pixels - 225 channels), Strips 3, 4, 5 and 6 (all have 50 pixels, 150 channels each).  Soooo, I want to connect each strip sequentially to the first 6 e682 ports (ports 1-1 through 2-2).  Strip 1 will be connected to port 1-1, Strip 2 will be connected to port 1-2, and strips 3-6 will be connected to ports 1-3, 1-4, 2-1 and 2-2, respectively.  With this in mind, what would be the recommended setup in terms of universes and pixel lengths?  Thanks. 

[Aaron Maue]

Is there a reason you want to connect from 1-1 through 2-2?  If you were to connect the 75 pixel strips to 1-1 and 1-2 and the 50-pixel strips to 2-1 through 2-4, the setup will be easier, as the e682 wants to see the same length pixel string on each connector of a given cluster.  You can make it work with different lengths on each cluster, but it's a little less intuitive.  In your case, you'd tell the e682 that each of the first four strips are 75 pixels in length and that the two connected to cluster 2 are 50 pixels in length.  You'd need to account for this when setting up your channels in SE.

 

Alternately, you can tell the e682 that you're using two connectors on the first cluster @ 75 pixels each.  And all 4 connectors on the second cluster @ 50 pixels each.  Then, you can set up all the channels within SE to be contiguous.

 

Since you only need 6 connectors this year, you don't need to worry about where you leave the open connectors.

 

One final thought...  You might consider using connectors 3-1 through 4-2.  If I'm not mistaken, the controller gets its power from the same power input as is used to drive pixels on that half of the board.  Then, you wouldn't need to provide power to the other half of the board at all.

Edited May 21, 2014 by Aaron Maue

[jstorms]

Keep in mind that although you have 16 connectors there are actually 4 ports. So this means that the configuration of the 4 connectors for a given port need to be the same.

 

So I'd put the first two strips on 1-1 & 1-2 with 75 pixels each. Then I'd put the others on 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, & 2-4 configured for 50 pixels each. 

 

The E682 is really great for configuring universes. Just start at 1-1, tell it how many pixels and it will tell you where it ends (universe # and channel #). Then for the next port just configure it for the next channel (Universe# and channel#+1) and it can span the universes across the ports just fine.