Whole House of Pixels

[cliftonneff]

Sorry new to the forum so I might just not be finding the correct past post.

I’ve set up my house with 21 strings of 21 SMX LED RGBs outlining the significant portions of the house, i.e. windows, doors, rooflines, walls. I would like to be able to import the pixels into the pixel editor for the sake of applying effects over them treating them like they were essentially a matrix with a lot of holes in it. It seems to me that the best way to approach this is to import them as a single custom prop with their relative locations noted on the spreadsheet.

I have two questions about this:

1. Is this the best way to approach this?

2. I’m having trouble with the channel assignment window. When doing this I’m not getting multiple strings listed, only one with “carry over” pixels. Is there something I am doing wrong? The attached shows what happens when I hit 24 pixels as I start to import my layout. I would like each line to be a separate string if I understand the software correctly. Is there more documentation for the channel “tab” somewhere?




 

Edited November 23, 2015 by cliftonneff

[MattBrown]

Actually the best way is to create them as individual pixel strings. Once you get that done, select Prop > Create Group from the Preview Design menu. Name the group "Whole House". Click the Select All button at the bottom to select all of your RGB strings. Set the "arrangement" to "Use Preview". Move the resolution slider up a bit (maybe half way - may require some trial and error). Click the Save button to create the group.

 

Now this group will show up as an element that can be sequenced in the grid. Apply effects to your "Whole House" group and they will work as you describe above.  And if you make any changes to your preview, the sequence will instantly adjust accordingly.

 

Good luck!

 

Matt

[cliftonneff]

Thanks Matt that helps a lot.

Can you explain the carry over?  I'm still getting that when I set them up as individual strings.

[MattBrown]

In the prop definition window, the carryover column shows the number of circuits/channels that exceed the max circuits/channels setting. The carryover will be assigned to the next unit id/universe in sequence. After the prop is created, you can verify this by selecting Prop > Layout from the Preview Design menu.

Matt

[Powers_Ronald]

My setup is almost all pixels, including the house. I may be wrong, but shouldn't the DMX max channel be 510 instead of 63? I may not understand the setup, but all my pixel controllers (14 Sandevices) are set to channels 1 - 510, which is how I have them defined in the props. 

[MattBrown]

My setup is almost all pixels, including the house. I may be wrong, but shouldn't the DMX max channel be 510 instead of 63? I may not understand the setup, but all my pixel controllers (14 Sandevices) are set to channels 1 - 510, which is how I have them defined in the props. 

 

Good catch! Yes, it should probably be 510. There are a few DIY controllers which require 512.

 

Matt

[Powers_Ronald]

If I read the setup correctly, there are 21 stands of with 21 pixels on each of them. That would be 441 pixels, or 1,323 channels. That would normally span 3 DMX universes. I have a spread sheet that I use to track of my channels. Using 510 as the max for each universe, I came up with this:

 

Which of course did not come over correctly, so here is a PDF of it. 

 

 

DMXCount_Template.pdf

Edited November 24, 2015 by Powers_Ronald

[cliftonneff]

Thanks for all of the responses. 

I think part of the confusion is that I was trying to manipulate the software to do what I wanted it to rather than its intent.  The way that I have things set up I have not filled the entire universe, rather put Strings 1-8 on Universe 1, Strings 9-16 on Universe 2 and Strings 17-21 on Universe 3.  It had to do with the way that my controller is configured as I'm running one universe off of each of the output leads and power limitations.
 
In a perfect world I would want to have the custom prop pixel editor be able to have the following input parameters:
 
Grid RGB # 1 - Universe 1 - Starting Channel 1
Grid RGB # 2 - Universe 1 - Starting Channel 4
Grid RGB # 3 - Universe 1 - Starting Channel 7
Grid RGB # 4 - Universe 1 - Starting Channel 10
.
.
.
Grid RGB # 169 - Universe 2 - Starting Channel 1
.
.
.
Grid RGB # 336 - Universe 3 - Starting Channel 1
.
.
.

So what this really comes down to is that I would want to treat each pixel as an individual rather than a string. Then input the location of that pixel into the grid. (I'm a control freak so I was trying to game the system) The pixel editor is just automating the process that I laid out above but doesn't allow me to make breaks between universes (and in reality there are intermediate pixels that I want to leave off entirely as I didn't like where they landed on a ridge or eave).

 

The advantage I see in this is that I would be able to better control the location of the pixels than dragging a point on the visualizer.  Basing their relationship on the grid rather than my precision with a mouse.

Edited November 24, 2015 by cliftonneff

[Powers_Ronald]

So you only go up to channel 504 without having any carry overs.  That would be like this?

DMXCount_Template_2.pdf

[Powers_Ronald]

I would think it becomes hard to enter each pixel, instead of using 21 strings, or a matrix array of 21x21. 

 

[cliftonneff]

Yes Ronald, that is essentially what I have going, the problem is that the custom prop won't let me do that.  In order to create items in a single prop they all must be sequential channels.  They pretty much didn't envision anyone using it to the extent that I'm attempting.  The way it is currently set up  that one annoying pixel that doesn't work with your layout could be turned off as well.
 
At this point the thread is more of a "feature request" than it is a "how can I".  Mostly an issue of control vs. automation.  They are making the life of most users easier, but restricting the full extent of the ability of the software.  Its a classic problem to have in software development.
 

I would think it becomes hard to enter each pixel, instead of using 21 strings, or a matrix array of 21x21.

I agree it would be harder to input each pixel, but something that could be easily done in excel in a few minutes and with more versatility.

[cliftonneff]

Actually, I think I found a way for it to work.  I can modify the XML file that contains the props and input each of my bulbs as a single prop and then do the group as a full prop.  It will take a little time and some coding but in the end will generate what I'm looking for.

[Powers_Ronald]

I have a 10ft snowflake on my roof that is composed of three rectangles 33x20. The layout has pixel 1 at the bottom center and ends with  pixel 153 on right center. Each one of the fixtures look like an H. Using the custom pixel designer, I could put the pixels anywhere I needed them to go.  Once I had it in the correct order, I was able to remove the pixels I will not be using in the snowflake configuration. They are used when I have them configured for a pumpkin.

Edited November 24, 2015 by Powers_Ronald

[cliftonneff]

Yeah, I can lay them all out in the custom prop designer and that was my original goal/plan.  The problem that I had was how the channels worked when assigned to those pixels.  I had some pixels that I wasn't using (which it wouldn't let me skip) and I had strings that ran across 3 universes without filling those universes.

[Powers_Ronald]

Make three props to cover your three universes and then add them together as a group? This sounds just like my snowflake. I have fixtures 1, 2 and 3; which are grouped together as a snowflake. Even though I have 153 pixels on each of the fixtures, they are not all included in the prop. After I defined the base fixture (153 pixels) for the snowflake I removed pixels 1-10, 42-62, and 93-102. Everything works as I hoped. When I turn on all the group, I get the expected snowflake, not a hexagon.  

Edited November 24, 2015 by Powers_Ronald

[cliftonneff]

I guess I could do it with 3 props.  I will try that.  Thanks

[MattBrown]

Yeah, I can lay them all out in the custom prop designer and that was my original goal/plan.  The problem that I had was how the channels worked when assigned to those pixels.  I had some pixels that I wasn't using (which it wouldn't let me skip) and I had strings that ran across 3 universes without filling those universes.

You should be able to skip pixels in a custom prop. What error were you getting?

[Powers_Ronald]

I think I understand what was meant by skipping pixels. Do you actually mean skipping DMX channels, since you are only going up to 504 channels on each controller? If this is correct, could you do something like this?

[cliftonneff]

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. 

 

I'm generating the props by modifying the XML rather than using the menus since it will speed things up for the repetitive process.  Does anyone know if the apparently random alpha numeric identification number is really random?

[SPaschall]

I just completed a house that had 32 CCB's and we had extra pixels that were not used. All you have to do is use a horizontal matrix and change it to one string. Let's say you have a string that has 50 pixels so that would be 150 channels. lets say now that you are only going to use 40 of the 50 pixels on a roofline and the rest are dead on the other side of the roof. Just have the first pixel at 1 the end pixel at 120 and your are done.The next string in the Universe will start at 121 and go from there until you max out at 510-512 whatever your controller allows.

 

SPaschall

[cliftonneff]

Wanted to give a quick update and describe how I ended up making it all work. Full disclosure I'm an engineer so I probably did it the most difficult way but the most scientific.

I ended up loading each of my 405 RGBs in as individual bulbs. I did this by modifying the XLM file that props are stored in for Pixel Editor via Excel scripting.

A quick summary:

1 - AutoCAD drawing of Front of House.

2 - Position lights on front of house as blocks with tags indicating Universe and Channel

3 - Export light block coordinates and tags to excel

4 - Script into correct XML format to match pixel editor file format

5 - Load into pixel editor

6 - Group lights into "Whole House" "Window 1" "Window 2" . . . . using the "Use Preview" selection so that they use their relative possition to each other.

7 - Program

That being said I ended up with the attached and I'm really happy with the results. This option gave me a lot of flexibility to be able to modify the lights to get them layed out in just the right way that they appear on the house, with corners at the right locations, bulbs being turned off. I'm also set up for if I change their locations slightly when they go up next year.

I finished my first sequence last night and the neighbors are already blown away so that is the real win. It's my first year doing animated lighting (or really any lighting) at all so I'm thrilled with the results.  Thanks for all of the help.

Edited December 2, 2015 by cliftonneff

[MattBrown]

Congratulations on getting your show going!

Matt