Jump to content
Light-O-Rama Forums

Sequence Editor / Add more ports to existng program


mlswayze

Recommended Posts

I am running Pixie 8 / Sequence Editor v4.3.26 Basic Plus

I have a existing program set up from last year using 4 ports.  I am wanting to add more channels to my program / show and I am not able to see where to add RGB channels so that I have Port 5 through 8 with 100 each available.  Any assistance would be GREAT!  Thanking you in advance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You won't be able to add any RGB items in your license level, you need a PRO license to do RGB lighting, you also need at a minimum a High Speed USB Adapter port (USB-RS485-HS red dongle} to set up a 2nd network from any standard controllers you have.  Basic Plus also only supports a maximum of 4 LOR AC Controllers, like the CTB16PC types, you also need to use the Enhanced protocol{500K speed}, only available with the High Speed adapter to RGB controller{s}.  As well as if you want to use any of the "Pixel motion effects for pixels and Cosmic Color Devices", they are only available in the PRO license level

But to add RGB channels you're going to need at a minimum the Advanced license, but PRO license is what you're really going to need and not have any limitations and would be the best option for when you continue to add more RGB lights and want to do special motion effects.  There are quite a few things that are only available in PRO over the lower license levels.

Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear, but I know how it is, when I started, there wasn't really RGB stuff like now and I started with Basic Plus and in less than a month I had to upgrade to the highest license level at the time, and that was Advanced.  I just moved up to PRO this year myself, mainly because of the RGB lights I'm adding to my display this year.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a little confused as I am already running 4 channels with 100 each (400 RGB pixels) and ran flawless last year.  As stated, I have a Pixel 8 controller which I run as StandAlone after programming my sequence. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, mlswayze said:

I am running Pixie 8 / Sequence Editor v4.3.26 Basic Plus

I have a existing program set up from last year using 4 ports.  I am wanting to add more channels to my program / show and I am not able to see where to add RGB channels so that I have Port 5 through 8 with 100 each available.  Any assistance would be GREAT!  Thanking you in advance.

What my friend Orville said.

Also, once you upgrade your license level you will want to add the pixie8 or other RGB controller the correct way. Not by simply adding RGB channels.

You decide where in the controller order you want it. It will be easier on you to add it below any other controllers so you will not have to modify anything else.

The pixie series automatically assign the unit ID's after you determine the starting unit ID.

Use HU to set the pixie unit ID , It will use 8 consecutive unit ID's. So if you have 2 AC controllers units 1 &2 and wish to add it below them your first available unit ID for the pixie world be 3 . If you use 3 it will assign 3,4,5,6,7,8,9 and OA (do not interfere with the unit assignments in SE, wont turn out good). Of course that is depending on your additional controllers, the numbers will change if you have more or less.

Once assigned in HU

Open your sequence with last years config or your MAster Config and right click on the channel button where youd like to inset it.

"Insert Device" "above or below"

In the next box

Name (if you wish) perhaps the prop it will be controlling

Add as group

Device type Pixie 2/4/8/16

Dropdown pixie16

Pixels per port 50 or 100

Starting Unit ID

Network (Regular)

Next you will have to open Network Preferences NP and set the network

LOR Tab

Network = Regular whichever comm port your show is using, speed set to 500K LOR Fastedt comment if needed, enhanced (ensure to doubleclick and enhanced should appear in the box

Apply - don't worry about the warning

then OK

You should be good

JR

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, mlswayze said:

Just a little confused as I am already running 4 channels with 100 each (400 RGB pixels) and ran flawless last year.  As stated, I have a Pixel 8 controller which I run as StandAlone after programming my sequence. 

Without the pro license you will not be able to control 8 RGB ports. You may get away with it with advanced since you could control 4 with a basic plus. I didn't know you could control RGB's with anything other than pro but again I started with pro.

http://www1.lightorama.com/sequencing-suite-levels/

Also you can probably skip some of the above since you already run the controller but you will have to add the pixie8 as whatever unit ID it was originally assign. It will auto load the last 4. Or if you upgrade it may already appear depending on how you added it the first time.

 

JR

Edited by dibblejr
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, dibblejr said:

Without the pro license you will not be able to control 8 RGB ports. You may get away with it with advanced since you could control 4 with a basic plus. I didn't know you could control RGB's with anything other than pro but again I started with pro.

You can run RGB with a Basic level - you're just really limited as to what you can do and how many controllers you can run.

You need a Standard (or higher) level license to control eight controller IDs (all outputs from a Pixie 8 for example).

1 hour ago, mlswayze said:

Just a little confused as I am already running 4 channels with 100 each (400 RGB pixels) and ran flawless last year.  As stated, I have a Pixel 8 controller which I run as StandAlone after programming my sequence. 

Correction, you are running 1200 channels.  Please get out of the habit of calling an output from pixel controller as a "channel".  It's an output that will have many channels.  Calling it a "Channel" only add confusion.  Your Basic Plus license will only handle four controller IDs - which you maxxed out last year.  You will need to upgrade to at least Standard to use all eight outputs of your Pixie 8 controller.

Also, please update your forum profile with your LOR license level and software version.  Almost all questions require knowing what both of those are (particularly with some people running S5 and a lot of people running S4 or even S3).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My purchase of Basic Plus was over a year ago.  will I still be able to upgrade to standard by paying just the "upgrade" fee (30.00)?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, the upgrade to Standard is $30, but you should ask yourself why. Standard only gives you a tiny bit more. The Pixie8 will be the only controller you can use. The Standard license only allows eight unit IDs and the Pixie8 will use all eight of them. I would highly recommend upgrading to at least Advanced so you can use an unlimited amount of controllers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, mlswayze said:

My purchase of Basic Plus was over a year ago.  will I still be able to upgrade to standard by paying just the "upgrade" fee (30.00)?

I want to clarify something just to make sure there is not a mis-understanding.

Upgrading from a Basic Plus to Standard level license is an upgrade and has nothing to do with the "one year".  A license level upgrade is immediate and permanent.  And yes, the upgrade of license level from Basic Plus to Standard is $30.  If you chose to upgrade instead to Advanced, it would be $70.00 and an upgrade to Pro would be $120.  Note that there is no cost advantage or disadvantage to upgrading in steps vs jumping all the way to Pro in one shot.  My general recommendation is to bite the bullet and go for either Advanced or Pro so that at least you get unlimited controller IDs.  Pro adds Motion Effects and Enhanced networking.  Personally I initially bought an Advanced license when that was as high as it got, and I upgraded to Pro within the first hour of it being available.

The "one year" refers to software version updates (also sometimes referred to as upgrades).  Any time you purchase any software (initial purchase, or upgrade, or SuperStar initial purchase or upgrade), in addition to whatever software license you purchased, that also gives you software version updates for one year.  During that year, you can update to newer released software versions - for example, moving from 4.3.34 to 5.1.2.  After one year, you can no longer update to newer software versions without a "Software license Renewal".  However your software will continue to function forever without a renewal - you just wont be able to update to newer versions.  There are several ways to renew your license.  The first is to simply purchase a renewal - which is currently $29.95.  This will give you another year of software version updates, but does not change your software license level.  The second way to get a Software License Renewal is to upgrade your software license level (either LOR or SuperStar).

Note BTW.  Although at the consumer level, multiple levels or software licensing and renewals are not all that common, at the profession / commercial world (what your IT department at work deals with) it is very common.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Without the pro license you will not be able to control 8 RGB ports. You may get away with it with advanced since you could control 4 with a basic plus. I didn't know you could control RGB's with anything other than pro but again I started with pro.

http://www1.lightorama.com/sequencing-suite-levels/

Also you can probably skip some of the above since you already run the controller but you will have to add the pixie8 as whatever unit ID it was originally assign. It will auto load the last 4. Or if you upgrade it may already appear depending on how you added it the first time.

 

JR

I thought it was advanced and above myself J.R.  due to the high channel counts, especially if using smart RGB pixels and you can't use Enhanced except in Pro.    Before I upgraded, would grey that option out.  According to the license level checks Enhanced is strictly Pro license only.  

And I had to go to Pro because I was getting severe lag times with other standard lights on CTB16PC controllers.  Now my CTB16PC controllers ARE NOT Gen3 which, Gen2 controllers can handle the Enhanced Network and 500K speeds.  Mine were Gen 2 and can't go above the 57.6K, so I had to add a 2nd network and higher speed for the RGB lights.  

Also it requires Pro if you want to use intensity files in controllers that support them.

And if you would require multiple networks, Advanced is the lowest license level that supports them. 

Me, I'd just go Pro and be done with it and have all options within S4 or S5 open to me, {which is what I did when I upgraded}.  

Having it all accessible EXCEPT SuperStar, that's a different program altogether, made sequencing a little easier since I didn't encounter areas I was locked out of due to my license level not supporting it.  Which I did on lower license levels, including Advanced!

Again, just my preferences, but most will agree, go with the highest license {Pro} level if you can, in the end of things, you'll be very glad you did.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Native DMX and E1.31 requires at least an Advanced license, but there is nothing to prevent you from running one or more CCP / CCR / Pixie contoller for pixels or CMB24D for dumb RGB.  You are however limited to controller ID count based on license level.  Granted it would not make much sense to try to run a Pixie 16 with a Basic license (limited to controller IDs 01 & 02), but at least for a couple outputs, it would work...  You could not run a Pixcon 16 controller with a Basic, Basic Plus, or Standard license because the Pixcon 16 requires an Enhanced network (Pro license required) or E1.31 (Advanced or higher license required).

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok....  I upgraded to standard and I appreciate all of the suggestions to go higher but I have a extremely tight budget for this kind of stuff.

NOW

back to my original question.  HOW do I add 4 more ports to my project??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, mlswayze said:

ok....  I upgraded to standard and I appreciate all of the suggestions to go higher but I have a extremely tight budget for this kind of stuff.

NOW

back to my original question.  HOW do I add 4 more ports to my project??

Follow my instructions above. If you added the pixie8 correctly it may already be there and unlocked during the upgrade.

If not just follow my instructions on how to add the pixie8 the correct way. 

JR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, mlswayze said:

If I start a new sequence it does show 8 but once again, how to I add 4 more to the existing sequence?

 

If that is the only controller and it has 8 ports and you only used 4 last year and just upgraded why are you now needing 12? 

Please expound on that a little. Im just trying to figure out what you are trying to do.

JR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have a Pixie 8.  Last year, I created a sequence using the 1st 4 "channels".  I just upgraded to Standard which says I can use all 8 now.  What I want to do is load my sequence from last year (which uses only 4) and add 4 more ( 6-8) so that I can add more LED's to my existing sequence.  My sequence only shows "ports" 1 to 4.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, mlswayze said:

I have a Pixie 8.  Last year, I created a sequence using the 1st 4 "channels".  I just upgraded to Standard which says I can use all 8 now.  What I want to do is load my sequence from last year (which uses only 4) and add 4 more ( 6-8) so that I can add more LED's to my existing sequence.  My sequence only shows "ports" 1 to 4.
 

Sending you a pm

JR

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The easiest way is take that new sequence you created with the 8 ports and export the channel config. Then import the channel config into existing sequences. The problem is you had a Basic plus license which only supported four unit IDs so since the software automatically assigns ID's to Pixies it only assigned four. Now that you have a Standard license the software will assign all eight IDs to the Pixie8.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for your patience with me.  I seem to have a brain lock on remembering how I built my sequence last year.  When I create a "NEW" 8 port sequence it does not look like what I am used to.  Please referr to the pics I have attached so you can see what I am talking about.  I also am wanting to confirm that I can "export / import" all of my work from the pre-existing work when I only had 4 channels to work with. 

One again..  thank you thank you for your patience with me!

 

1355479077_SequenceEditorSequence.thumb.JPG.7e984d983b995d8362575040c6fb264b.JPG104564002_SequenceEditorSequence-2.thumb.JPG.e795034c314c1d1b6c1bb4068a2d543a.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...