Connecting P10 LED panels to LOR?

[Ebuechner]

Yes you need one pi to drive a color light board. 

Of course you would also need a class 10 SD card as well as a thumb drive for each pi and power supply. 

You can never have too many toys to play with. 

 

[brichi]

i was going to order this - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01C6FFNY4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A30ZYR2W3VAJ0A&psc=1

 

I have plenty of SD and usb's around with this expensive hobby, LOL

[Ed K]

44 minutes ago, Ebuechner said:

I have 2 P10 panels running from raspberry pi's and they work beautifully, running the P10 from the beaglebone didn't come close to the performance that I get from the Pi's. 

Are you using SuperStar, by chance, to sequence the P10 panels?

[Ebuechner]

Remember you would need one pi per color light card so you'll probably want two of those to start. 

I'm not making any guarantees that this is the way to go. 

 

[Ebuechner]

1 minute ago, Ed K said:

Are you using SuperStar, by chance, to sequence the P10 panels?

No. 

[brichi]

2 minutes ago, Ebuechner said:

Remember you would need one pi per color light card so you'll probably want two of those to start. 

I'm not making any guarantees that this is the way to go. 

 

thank you, either way i want at least one being i can test the image quality and compare between the 2 even doing just half the screen. if it looks better then the BBB then i can order a second once i hear how you made out with the color card

[brichi]

4 minutes ago, Ed K said:

Are you using SuperStar, by chance, to sequence the P10 panels?

i ussed SS and S5 Beta Sequencer if you have any questions

[Ed K]

Sequence Editor?

[brichi]

I believe in S5 they now call it S5 Sequencer, they got rid of pixel editor and combined it all into one program... SS is still separate though

[Ebuechner]

My show is gotten big enough that Lor had performance issues so I was forced to go with another software. 

 

 

[Ed K]

When S5 is in production, I'll get it.  I use S4 only, and I use SS almost exclusively.  I do download and use any patches to SuperStar that Brian might make available.

Back to hardware:   I've seen one option to communicate with the P10s over LOR's network is through LOR's iDMX 1000.  I could try that, but I'd rather use my Ethernet network, which I use for most of my pixels (and E1.31 controllers).

The one way I've seen on this thread to communicate with the P10s over an Ethernet network is with a Pi.  So, I purchased a Pi 3, Model B, to test for myself.  I'll load it with Falcon Player, but it will be a few weeks before I can get to setting it up between my PC and the panels (I ordered some P10s from Crockett, but it will be awhile before I get them).  The part I'm still dense about is the exact hardware required between my PC an the first P10.    

[Ed K]

Brain freeze here:  The iDMX 1000 can be used for DMX moving heads on an LOR network, not the P10s (well, at least as far as I know).

[Ebuechner]

You need E1.31 protocol to communicate with the pi and P10 panels.

There is no other option at this time. 

Unless you plan on using the sender receiver cards designed for the P 10 panels but that's a whole other discussion. 

[Ed K]

6 minutes ago, Ebuechner said:

You need E1.31 protocol to communicate with the pi and P10 panels.

Excellent, I only want to use E1.31 protocol.    I do not want to use the LOR network for the P10 panels.  

In general, to drive P10s off of the Pi, I just need to treat the Pi as another E1.31 controller, correct?

I have  a couple of Ron's Holiday Lights matrix adapter boards (one is the kit, one is pre-assembled).  I will attach one of these boards to the Pi's GPIO header.

And, yes, I will assign the Pi a unique IP address, using FPP.  

[Ebuechner]

Yes you drive the pie just like it was another E1.31 controller.

And before you connect that board to the GPIO header find one of those little rubber stick-on feet that you get at the hardware store and stick it to the top of the HDMI connector on the pie opposite of the GPIO header. 

This should prevent the board from shorting out against that metal around the HDMI connector. 

[brichi]

in LOR i had to go into the network config and add 3 dmx universes per panel, then ethernet cable from my PC to a Beagle bone (or Pi in your case)

[Ed K]

3 minutes ago, Ebuechner said:

And before you connect that board to the GPIO header find one of those little rubber stick-on feet that you get at the hardware store and stick it to the top of the HDMI connector on the pie opposite of the GPIO header. 

Great tip!  I can see how the two devices might touch each other accidentally.

[Ed K]

4 minutes ago, brichi said:

in LOR i had to go into the network config and add 3 dmx universes per panel, then ethernet cable from my PC to a Beagle bone (or Pi in your case)

Perfect info, thanks.   Will do.

I saw in a much earlier post from k6ccc that Visualizer does not allow a RGB pixel to span universes.  Now, I finally understand what he was saying (I think).  The 171st pixel on the first P10 board would be channels 511 and 512 on the first universe, and channel 1 on the second universe.  Similar for pixel #342:  universe #2 - channel 512, and universe #3 - channels 1 and 2. 

Has someone solved this using Visualizer?  I use Visualizer for every prop, because I use SS for nearly every sequence, and it works great.

[brichi]

not sure, i know in S5 i had no issues at all (other then lag but they are waking on the issues there)  I went into preview manager where i created my layout of the house and added the matrix like normal and it laid out the 1-512 and so one for each panel with no issue 

 

here is what my LOR channel layout looks like https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1t0fcxxjn3u6ya/IMG_0721.JPG?dl=0

heres the FPP config on a beagle bone  - https://www.dropbox.com/home/Public?preview=IMG_0720.JPG

[Ed K]

16 minutes ago, brichi said:

here is what my LOR channel layout looks like https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1t0fcxxjn3u6ya/IMG_0721.JPG?dl=0

Very clear, thanks.  That's your setup in display for Pixel Editor, which I guess may be the similar display format used in S5.

I don't use PE nor S5.  I only Visualizer and SS.  (I used PE for one sequence only, but for all others, I used SS). 

I haven't seen a post yet of how to set up P10s in Visualizer.  Maybe Brian may break in with advise.  I believe k6ccc said that setting up a P10 in Visualizer may not be possible because two of the pixels on the 512-pixel P10 board will each cross two universes (pixels #171 and #342).