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Pixie 2D box not holding the RGB order


Richard Hamilton

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First of all, apologies if this information is in another thread.  I didn't find it if there is.

Rarely do I run into something I can't solve on my on .  This is probably the 2nd time in 10 years, but I'm stumped.  When doing my test setup this year, I noticed 2 of my Pixie 2D boxes show different color patterns than the other 5 boxes.  I see from running the hardware utility that it has to do with the order of the colors sent to the controllers.  All of my other 5 boxes show a color order of BRG. However the 2 boxes showing wrong colors on my CCR strip have a setting of RGB.  Ok, simple to change, right?  I change the order in the Cosmic ColorPixie config dialog and even try changing the number of pixels per port, yet the controller is not saving the values in eprom although the hardware utility replies that the values were accepted.  I refresh and see the old values are still there as shown in my photo.  Baffling.  In the hardware utility, I set a test color to one color, but the color on the CCRs is a different primary color (as expected because it is wrong).

I see in the manual something about a jumper on J5 in the box needs to be removed so the values can be accepted by the hardware utility (if I understand that correctly).   There is no jumper on J5.  I try resetting the controller during power up and it seems to reset according to the LED, yet still same results.  I thought maybe I could cheat the process by changing the "channel order" in my prop definition, yet that seems to have no effect either.   And yes, I'm using the correct speeds and high speed communicator.  All communications work fine.   Just that these 2 controllers are not holding their values.

Suggestions are appreciate.  I am out of ideas.

 

2018-11-14_084735.jpg

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Try changing the strings to one of the good color order pixies and see what happens.

If they are the same strings the results should be correct colors.

I do not think the string itself can cause the color order to not change and save. In the hundreds I have assisted I have not ran into that. Along with my slew of pixies controllers.

My spider Webb strings are a different mfg than other props connected to one of my pixie16’s so those colors are not the same.

I put it up in a hurry and purchased the wrong color order lights by mistake. Luckily it was only the 4 strings for the Webb.

JR

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19 hours ago, TheDucks said:

A WAG

RGB order might be tied to the Pixel chipset.  All my strings are ws2811 and RGB order

Hmmm, interesting thought.   I will check that out when I get home tonight.  thanks for the idea.

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17 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Try changing the strings to one of the good color order pixies and see what happens.

If they are the same strings the results should be correct colors.

I do not think the string itself can cause the color order to not change and save. In the hundreds I have assisted I have not ran into that. Along with my slew of pixies controllers.

JR

Another good thought dibblejr. Sorry I didn't mention this earlier, yet I performed that experiment although I agree with you that I didn't think it would make any difference as the CCRs were all similar.   So the result is the same.   If I swap a good color string from another controller, I still get colors out of order on the same controller that has colors out of order.   And just for giggles, when I move the CCR from the controller where colors are out of order to a controller where colors are in correct order, then the other controller still shows proper order.   Thus, concluding the issue is in the configuration of the hardware.

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I’d look at the LOR documentation and ensure all jumpers are correct.

Or if it’s new submit a HD ticket and see if they wi replace it under warranty. May take a while though.

JR

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1 hour ago, dibblejr said:

I’d look at the LOR documentation and ensure all jumpers are correct.

Or if it’s new submit a HD ticket and see if they wi replace it under warranty. May take a while though.

JR

dibblejr, sure, maybe I did not make it clear in my post above, but I have looked at the documentation and forum postings.   There is only one jumper that seems to be relevant.... J5 which should not be installed.  It isn't.

Since this morning I am confident I have found the issue and it involves a problem with the software (Hardware Utility & Sequencer combination settings) that I think needs to be fixed and appears to have been there a LONG time.  I will give details later after I complete my testing and confirm my suspicions.   Hardware seems ok.

And on a completely different note, I am inspired by your funny prop of the guy appearing to fall and hand from the roof.  I've always liked it, but didn't want to steal your idea 😁

 

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PROBLEM SOLVED.  I got colors in sync across all controllers.  

Here is what I concluded after a couple of hours testing controllers one at a time in my living room with the hardware utility and sequence editor.  For reference, all of my Pixie 2D boxes and CCRs (over 10 of them) are relatively new and running firmware 1.03. Some were bought last summer and some bought this summer.    Software is 5.1.4 Pro.  All these on the same network.

Apologies for along post.  Trying to give detail info. It's complex to describe.  The issue is software related.  It's not network or speed related, not jumper differences, etc.   If you understand all of below, then you probably haven’t had any alcohol today 😊

Using the hardware utility, a couple of Pixie2D controllers always show the color order as RGB in the dialog regardless of the order I set.  However, controllers were actually accepting the color order changes.  I could confirm it by running the 3 primary colors in the same utility after I made color order changes.

Problem 1:   When clicking “refresh” in the hardware utility or restarting, it wrongly defaults to show color order as RGB in the Cosmic Color/Pixie Config dialog, regardless of what I previously set.  The controller actually has the correct order in EPROM.  The dialog is not initializing the “RGB Order” list box with the correct value; thus misleading me.  The same thing happens with the “number of pixels per port” list box.

Of interest is my Pixie2D controllers from last summer display the correct color order in the HU dialog when I change the order.  Those controllers were originally set to BRG.  Thus the dialog is initializing properly for those controllers.  It’s only 2 controllers I bought this summer that don’t give the same result.

It’s best to set the hardware utility config to the color order that shows the same string colors when testing each primary R, G, & B color in the utility.

I attempted to correct color mismatches for the newest controllers in the sequence editor by setting the prop definition to the same color order indicated in the hardware utility.  It’s a nice feature to set the color order of props for devices in the sequence editor.

Problem 2:   There is a mismatch between the color orders in the hardware utility and the sequence editor.  See this table:

Set RGB in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to RGB.
Set RBG in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to RBG.
Set GRB in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to GRB.
Set BGR in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to
BGR.

Set BRG in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to GBR   !!!
Set GBR in Prop definition if hardware utility is set to BRG   !!!

Notice the top 4 settings are in sync, but the bottom two are reversed.  Not sure why it is this way.
If all of my devices in the prop definition of the sequence editor at set to RGB, then a couple Pixie2D controllers are out of sync with other controllers.

I figured out as mentioned above, if I set each controller to a color order that displays the proper color in the hardware utility, and experiment to set the color order in the sequence editor prop definition to get correct colors, then all is well.   It just seems strange that a couple controllers need to be set to RGB, but other similar controllers default to BRG.  I never changed them as they recently arrived from the summer sale.  I expected they would all come set the same way.

Bottom line is although I was reluctant to change color order in the hardware utility from factory settings (worried to mess up something), it was the way to fix the colors. So if a developer is listening, someone might want to look at why the above two color orders don’t sync up between the hardware utility and the sequence editor.   Secondly, why does the hardware utility properly initialize the dialog with correct values from EPROM on some Pixie2Ds, but not on others?

Gee, I need aspirin now.   😊
No, this is not a complaint…. Just information of what I found.  Maybe I am just confused or perhaps this info is in the manual, yet I didn’t find it.

Edited by Richard Hamilton
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