ericg2000 Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 I will have the pixie outside plugged in. The pi will be inside plugged in. I will have the pi and pixie conected with cat5. Im sure I have it set up wrong I just don't know what is wrong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 8 minutes ago, ericg2000 said: I will have the pixie outside plugged in. The pi will be inside plugged in. I will have the pi and pixie connected with cat5. Im sure I have it set up wrong I just don't know what is wrong are you using a switch? If it were me I would have the Pi to switch, switch on my network, switch to Pixie (location doesn't matter). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 No switch. I have the pixie plugged into the rj45 on the picap. It's my understanding the picap takes the place of the lot USB dongle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 7 minutes ago, ericg2000 said: No switch. I have the pixie plugged into the rj45 on the picap. It's my understanding the picap takes the place of the lot USB dongle. I could be wrong but I don't think it works that way. PiCap doesn't take the place of the dongle, DMX mode doesn't require a dongle. Only RS485 requires a dongle. Try it my way and then adjust to your way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 depending on the PiCap you should be able to plug a strand of something smart into the output. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 Time Out! If he is talking about a Pixie - that is RS-485 - NOT Ethernet. All Pixie controllers are RS-485 only, and except for the Pixie 2D (I think), they are LOR protocol only. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 The picap has two outputs for 800 pixels each. But that requires an additional power supply to power the strips. I am trying to avoid that if possible. I would like to use the the pi with fpp and the picap then use the pixie 2 to power the RGB sting. I have the picap and pixie 2 set to DMX not lor. I thought doing this would illeviat the need for the lor rs485 dongle. I read somewhere that when set up like this and with the correct configuration fpp could run the fseq file and the picap would send the signal to run the lights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 15, 2019 Share Posted March 15, 2019 2 minutes ago, ericg2000 said: The picap has two outputs for 800 pixels each. But that requires an additional power supply to power the strips. I am trying to avoid that if possible. I would like to use the the pi with fpp and the picap then use the pixie 2 to power the RGB sting. I have the picap and pixie 2 set to DMX not lor. I thought doing this would illeviat the need for the lor rs485 dongle. I read somewhere that when set up like this and with the correct configuration fpp could run the fseq file and the picap would send the signal to run the lights. as in power to the PiCap? IMO you have to have power on the PiCap to drive the lights, lights need power and data not just data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 19 hours ago, caniac said: as in power to the PiCap? IMO you have to have power on the PiCap to drive the lights, lights need power and data not just data. this is correct is i am using the two rgb outputs on the picap (it has 2 outputs and power input). i saw a video here the guy used the rj45 on the picap to run lor controllers with a fseq file. so my guess is, i have it set up wrong, or the pixie 2 can't be controlled like this. he used lor cbt16 controllers. so now my new question is can i use the fpp with or without the picap to drive a lor pixie control similar to how an mp3 director works? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 4 hours ago, ericg2000 said: this is correct is i am using the two rgb outputs on the picap (it has 2 outputs and power input). i saw a video here the guy used the rj45 on the picap to run lor controllers with a fseq file. so my guess is, i have it set up wrong, or the pixie 2 can't be controlled like this. he used lor cbt16 controllers. so now my new question is can i use the fpp with or without the picap to drive a lor pixie control similar to how an mp3 director works? I could be wrong but I don't think it works that way. What PiCap are you using? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 In my configuration I am using the RS485/DMX output on my Falcon F16 to drive my LOR controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 If you are using the Falcon PiCap it has jumpers with three settings, Renard, DMX, and LOR. Have never tested that but would be worth a chat with David Pitts to see if that's how it should work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 my mistake... i called it a pixie 2 because i read that somewhere, but LOR calls it a cosmic color controller 2 (CCC2). it's the little controller you get with the plug and play packages. i lost the hard copy of the user guide, but i just downloaded it off the lor website and i'm looking through it. my question, can this little controller even be used in what i am trying to do? or is it to limited in functionality. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 i think i got it to work... i went back to fpp outputs and set up a lor output on the pi usb, then in xlights set it up as an lor channel, made a small animation sequence and moved it to fpp. i was able to test the pixels and play the sequence. one of the effects didn't work, but at least the pixels worked. so i'm moving in the right direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 26 minutes ago, ericg2000 said: i think i got it to work... i went back to fpp outputs and set up a lor output on the pi usb, then in xlights set it up as an lor channel, made a small animation sequence and moved it to fpp. i was able to test the pixels and play the sequence. one of the effects didn't work, but at least the pixels worked. so i'm moving in the right direction. if it's twinkle or shimmer then those are proprietary to the LOR dongle but if you can live without them then you should be golden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericg2000 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 it was a xlights effect that didn't work. the entire ribbon is not lighting up, only the first 17 nodes. i have it set for 150, is that the right amount for an entire strip? gotta love new equipment... i've been lor for 7 years (ac controller), added a few pixels last year, now adding a lot more plus trying out the pi. it's like starting all over again. what controller do you recommend i get, wait for the lor mad grad and get lor pixel controller or move over to a falcon? can lor control a falcon or would that be a complete move out of S5 and into xlights? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caniac Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 1 minute ago, ericg2000 said: it was a xlights effect that didn't work. the entire ribbon is not lighting up, only the first 17 nodes. i have it set for 150, is that the right amount for an entire strip? gotta love new equipment... i've been lor for 7 years (ac controller), added a few pixels last year, now adding a lot more plus trying out the pi. it's like starting all over again. what controller do you recommend i get, wait for the lor mad grad and get lor pixel controller or move over to a falcon? can lor control a falcon or would that be a complete move out of S5 and into xlights? 50 pixels per strip, 150 channels. If only 17 are showing up then it sounds like a config issue with xLights or the PiHat. One place or the other you have it thinking you only have 17 pixels on that connection. IMO dollar for dollar the Falcon is the better controller, way more options than anything else. Bought a F48 this year because I like the idea of being able to run 250 feet from the controller to a receiver where I may need the lights to be (receivers are cheaper to build than adding yet another controller). As far as software S5 wasn't an option when I made the change and I was adding something that LOR didn't support (P10 (think jumbotron)) at the time. My wife wanted video in the show but we lived in a college town so putting a projector in the yard was NOT an option. Haven't fully evaluated S5 but xLights to me is written the way I like to think ("do a color fade and strobe on model/prop A" as opposed to "color fade light strand a thru z then twinkle"). Everything is at the model/prop level instead of strand, ten times easier than visualizer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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