P12 is works thru Xlights but not LOR

[ezimnow]

I can get my P12 to play fine with Xlights but not LOR.I set up DMX multicast in the network configuration but its not recognizing the pixels.

What am I missing? I have the channels set up in LOR and imported the config over from xlights

 

Thanks for any ideas..  

 

Eddie Z

Edited August 3, 2014 by ezimnow

[Dennis Laff]

Before you exported the file from xlights did you covert the file to lor

[ShellNZ]

They both cant be on at the same time.

[ezimnow]

Yes the files converted  over as LOR files....As far as Xlights being on...I don't know for sure.....checking that again.....

 

thanks for the ideas  

[dgrant]

You have to start the LOR control panel too and if the LOR network preferences is configured, you will see the LOR Listener program launch on the taskbar. If its not there, LOR will not talk to the pixel controller.

[Jeff Messer]

dgrant and ShellNZ hit the nail on the head. +1

[ezimnow]

Under network configuration I have 12 universes configured under the DMX tab as multicast. I did not have the control panel turned on, I have it on but its says disabled...?

[ezimnow]

in the control panel box it says connected to the DMX listener but disabled ...the light bulb is red

[ezimnow]

Now I see a comms 3 error

[dgrant]

The control panel "can" be disabled and the listener program will still fire up and run. The listener program is what sends commands to the P12S, assuming you have the network preferences set in the SE

 

need to add: The comm error might be if you don't have the LOR USB/RS485 apapter plugged in and yes, it needs to be plugged in while testing, IF, you are running any standard LOR controllers in your show, as configured in the SE. If your show has no standard LOR controllers and you are only running E1.31, LOR has a specific set of instructions on how to setup the preferences to make it run without the USB/RS485 adapter.

Edited August 3, 2014 by dgrant

[ezimnow]

Yes I am running regular LOR and did not have the USB485 connected. I'll try that next...Thanks dgrant and all the rest who replied. Glad I started this now!

[ezimnow]

So for those following this post...the Pixels are now talking to LOR!!!!!
A special thanks to all those who replied to my S.O.S and a huge thank you to Jeff Messer for taking the time to call me to review the settings on my PC, Controller as well as making sure my Pixels worked. Jeff covered everything. Thanks again .
Scenario:  12 pixel Mega tree with WS2811 square nodes 12v (50cnt). Effects for the tree configured in Xlights/Nutcracker and exported to LOR. My P12R controller has the default configuration 10.10.10.10 and my PC is configured to 10.10.10.50. Wireless was disabled on the PC. I had a  usb/rs485 adapter connected and the control panel was open (disabled) and the DMX listener was working. I was able to ping my controller from the command prompt and control lights was checked from within the Sequence editor.
Earlier test patterns from the controller worked as well as running a sequence from xlights/nutcracker. The only time I could not get the pixels to work was when I ran it from LOR sequence editor.
My P12R was set up as Universe 1-12 and each Universe had 50 Pixels as I am only using the controller for the Mega tree this year. My baud rate was set to 3200 but Jeff later tweaked that back to 2500 per .
When He checked my Pixel configuration on my sequence in LOR was when he found the problem.
In LOR I had 4 universes set up as follows:
Leg) 1  1-50
Leg2) 51-100
Leg3) 101-150   This was universe 1 .So each Universe I had 3 legs of 50 pixels, which is fine in of itself but it did not match what I had set up in the controller.
So in the Controller Jeff changed what I had to universe 1 ) 1-50/ universe1) 51-100/universe1 101-150
And so on ….He made the change in the controller for each universe and BINGO the PIXLES work fine from LOR!!!!!!

 

Eddie Z

[dgrant]

That would have commanded the first 50 pixels on strings 1, 4, 7, 10 and left the others off under the consideration you were running each string of 50 through each of 12 universes on the card. Surprised you saw no lights unless the configuration issues caused it to jam up or whatever. Maybe it was also a case of the "Act" check blocks too or the controller hanging trying to communicate with pixels that didn't exist. In my head, I'm picturing you having run each 50 pixel string on each of the 12 universe outputs therefore the channelization in the firmware wouldn't work but it should have appeared in xLights too.

 

On mine, same WS2811 pixels, same controller. I'm only using 4 universes but I'm running 3 strings together, in series. But, in the firmware, I reverse the direction of the channel addressing on the first and third string of each set of three and I inject power between the 2nd and 3rd strings to insure they all light up evenly.

 

Do be careful on some simple things between xLights and LOR. One I found which is really strange, I did a simple snowfall effect from xLights and exported to LOR and imported into the LOR sequence. When I play it, the snow falls "Up" instead of down. Taking a wild guess that its an issue with xLights's export program.

 

Glad you got it working!

Edited August 5, 2014 by dgrant

[ezimnow]

When you played the snowfall effects in the Xlights window it appeared the correct way but in LOR it reversed? Great, something else to look out for!  

How long have you been running  the  ws2811's and have you noticed any odd issues such as early burn out and the like. I thought I rememebr "ryebread" saying he received a bunch from Ray Wu one year, not sure if they were 12v or 5v and had an unusual amount of pixles burn out. I got mine from Todd (DIY) during the pre sale this year and since I finally got aound to testing them I found 1 set that has a bad pixel. I'll see if I can trade that in for a new set.

 

EZ

[dgrant]

Forum member "Ryebred" helped me a lot earlier this year! This is my first year coming up with the pixels and RGB. Mine all appear to be working although I did see one pixel behaving slightly strangely so I suspect I have one slightly bad. Mine are all 5Volt pixels because I wanted to use the supply to power the card as well as run the lights...so a 350Watt supply for both on 6 universes. If I use the other 6 universes, then I could use a 12volt supply for those.

 

Yes, there was one other thing I noticed too...when I was connected directly from the 1Gb switch to the P12S, things were fine with xLights. But, when I went to wireless via a bridge and router, the sequence of packets or something else, reversed so the lights were suddenly reversed when playing a sequence from LOR. I had to change the P12S firmware again to reverse the strings from the original configuration that worked. Weird...still learning here.

[Steven]

They both cant be on at the same time.

This happened to me, and I thought I had a hardware problem until I figured it out. Unlike the RS485 USB dongles, two programs can both send E1.31 (UDP) at the same time. When I was testing using xLights, the LOR control panel was still running, so was sending zeros on all universes while xLights was sending pixel colors. This made the lights flicker as the pixel controller was getting data to turn them on, then off, then on, etc...