New to the pixie

[~DOC~]

To start off. I need to say I know very little about circuit boards. And I am a bit intimidated at the moment. 

I bought something small to have the smallest amount invested.

I bought 2 strings of pixels and a pixie 16. I was going to buy the pixie4 but 40 bucks more for the pixie16 was a no brained to me. Now I see I should have stuck with the Pixie4

As far as power supply I have a meanwell 12volt 150w already purchased from a different project. 

With the above  I wanted to figure this all out before investing any more money. 

Can I use the 150w power supply to run the board temporarily. I know this cannot run all the 16 ports. Only have two strings anyway. I just want to power two strings. And play with sequencing those strings to see if Pixels are for me. 

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2018 by ~DOC~

[TheDucks]

Yes, Just run the Main Bank only (the one that also powers the electronics) AKA Logic power. the + terminal on the Right (bottom)

150W  will run 4 strings (200 nodes) ALL white, you might squeeze a 5th one in, but limit the  (boards) All white use

[~DOC~]

I wish the instruction for the pixie concentrated only on the pixie you bought. You have every model old and new.

I am asking question with out hooking it up. I really don’t want to get going and get stuck mid way. 

 

More ???

Just clarifying I can power this board with out powering ports 9-16? 

I am still a little cloudy on jumpers. But if I am right I don’t have to worry myself with any of them at this time. I don’t see me needing these features at this time. Is this correct?

Unit ID’s. I understand you set the first unit ID (port1) then ports 2-16 are all automatically named. My two AC controllers are named unit 1 and 2 and I also plan too add two more. Where I am cloudy is which unit ID I use. Are the AC unit IDs separate from the pixie?

I think  I will need to turn dip switch to 0 so I can change the unit ID to what I think should be 20 , then the other ports will be named 21-29 and 2A-2F. Or can I name the unit ID to 0B? 

 

 

 

[TheDucks]

20 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

I wish the instruction for the pixie concentrated only on the pixie you bought. You have every model old and new.

I am asking question with out hooking it up. I really don’t want to get going and get stuck mid way. 

 

More ???

Just clarifying I can power this board with out powering ports 9-16? 

I am still a little cloudy on jumpers. But if I am right I don’t have to worry myself with any of them at this time. I don’t see me needing these features at this time. Is this correct?

Unit ID’s. I understand you set the first unit ID (port1) then ports 2-16 are all automatically named. My two AC controllers are named unit 1 and 2 and I also plan too add two more. Where I am cloudy is which unit ID I use. Are the AC unit IDs separate from the pixie?

I think  I will need to turn dip switch to 0 so I can change the unit ID to what I think should be 20 , then the other ports will be named 21-29 and 2A-2F. Or can I name the unit ID to 0B? 

 

 

 

That is correct, Use only the lower  # ports

 

ALSO  KISS

Set the ID to an even break of 16 start   eg 10,20, 30 ... HEX     (remember, HEX we use is base 0. Your port ID's  would be 10, 11, 12...1E,1F     Just remember you can NOT use ID 00  (another reason to skip the bottom ID's  for Pixies)

You can have gaps in the Single ID assignments, only Pix*'s are assigned (consumed) by blocks

A Pixie4 would take 4 boards to use a full 16:  10,14,18,1B   

[~DOC~]

41 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

You can have gaps in the Single ID assignments, only Pix*'s are assigned (consumed) by blocks

By gap do you mean 03-0f that I am not using?

[TheDucks]

3 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

By gap do you mean 03-0f that I am not using?

Yep (At least NU  this week 😛 ) I have dumb controllers 01-06, and Pixie4s at 20, 30 At least 1 of those Pixies (locations) is going to be a Pixie8 next year  and the old one moved.  (I use CG1500 enclosures: 2 have a Pixie4, and a CMB24 +700W's of PSU's, the other 2 have just a CMB24  and a space   and only 350W PSU) I have already ordered a 3rd color of CAT5 for the 3rd network .

Spring sale  Spring sale  Spring sale  Spring sale  (pixie8, 2 more 10W floods and another CMB24)

[~DOC~]

3 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

Yep (At least NU  this week 😛 ) I have dumb controllers 01-06, and Pixie4s at 20, 30 At least 1 of those Pixies (locations) is going to be a Pixie8 next year  and the old one moved.  (I use CG1500 enclosures: 2 have a Pixie4, and a CMB24 +700W's of PSU's, the other 2 have just a CMB24  and a space   and only 350W PSU) I have already ordered a 3rd color of CAT5 for the 3rd network .

Spring sale  Spring sale  Spring sale  Spring sale  (pixie8, 2 more 10W floods and another CMB24)

Ok I am reading back and forth between forum, LOR site and the directions.

In dibblejr post for setting up pixie ID he states 

“Any number that has a nine the following 7 unit ID's will be alpha numeric. Based on the pixie model you may have.”

Isn’t that suppose to say 6 (A,b,c,d,e,f)

[TheDucks]

11 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

Ok I am reading back and forth between forum, LOR site and the directions.

In dibblejr post for setting up pixie ID he states 

“Any number that has a nine the following 7 unit ID's will be alpha numeric. Based on the pixie model you may have.”

Isn’t that suppose to say 6 (A,b,c,d,e,f)

Forget anything else.Single digit  Hex counts this way:   0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,A,B,C,D,E,F

The next significant bit bumps the GROUP of 16 by 16  (which is why I suggested Base of 10 20... Hex  )

That is 16 counts

[dibblejr]

23 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

Ok I am reading back and forth between forum, LOR site and the directions.

In dibblejr post for setting up pixie ID he states 

“Any number that has a nine the following 7 unit ID's will be alpha numeric. Based on the pixie model you may have.”

Isn’t that suppose to say 6 (A,b,c,d,e,f)

Yes, you are correct. There are a couple errors in that - that being one and then the step #’s being another that I know of. 

Rught after creating I had asked admin to correct but they only stickied it at the top.

Hey, I never said I was perfect. With the hours spent creating that to save many more hours it made it all worth it

JR

Edited December 29, 2018 by dibblejr

[~DOC~]

Just now, dibblejr said:

Yes, you are correct. There are a couple errors in that - that being one and then the step #’s being another that I know of.

Rught after creating u had asked admin to correct but they only stickied it at the top. 

Hey, I never said I was perfect. With the hours spent creating that to save many more hours it made it all worth it

JR

I did not mean no offense JR. Your information is outstanding. Me seeing that just means now I know I understand Unit ID’s. I been think up until now I might have made a mistake, trying pixels. Biting of more than I can chew.......

[dibblejr]

If you have questions in where to buy affordable power supplies ect feel free to ask me.

I have built 30+ pixies so I may have sources.

As well as any questions. I could build, configure a pixie anything in my sleep.

JR

[dibblejr]

2 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

I did not mean no offense JR. Your information is outstanding. Me seeing that just means now I know I understand Unit ID’s. I been think up until now I might have made a mistake, trying pixels. Biting of more than I can chew.......

None taken, it sucked it posted but I proofed it after 5 or 6 hours of ensuring I didn’t miss anything I missed a couple.

Luckily they were not key. The admins/ mods were to busy to renumber the steps.

My apologies . I think I made not in that thread someplace.

JR

[~DOC~]

1 minute ago, dibblejr said:

If you have questions in where to buy affordable power supplies ect feel free to ask me.

I have built 30+ pixies so I may have sources.

As well as any questions. I could build, configure a pixie anything in my sleep.

JR

Yea power supply will be after I feel confident I understand the whole pixel setup. I will have more questions coming stay tuned. I am hoping to hook this up tomorrow......

[dibblejr]

500 will run the entire card.

I use 750’s on the 16’s and 500’s in 8’s and 350 in 4’s

I purchased commercial grade MW750’s for less than $30 each yep, a couple of us got in on that deal and after no issues we passed the info To others.

None of them that I know of have failed. And they are original MW.

That give plenty resudual power if PI is needed but I have pushed 160 pixels without PI

All of my pixels are controlled by pixies

I built all but 1 and that was the tree kit. Built my first two one way a Beta tester for LOR and the other were some that I purchased from a forum member who didn’t use them.

Any time just ask. I have not had a pixie problem I couldn’t resolve even helping a guy in Italy via google translator LOL

JR

[dibblejr]

8 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

Yea power supply will be after I feel confident I understand the whole pixel setup. I will have more questions coming stay tuned. I am hoping to hook this up tomorrow......

If I was you I would Want the correct power supply prior to trying to figure it out.

Once it’s operational everything else is simple. I wouldn’t build it unless it was 100%. That’s just me though.

I would rather learn on something 100%.

If you are like me and get busy you may put it aside and 6 months later forget you have a small- very small ps and then try to figure out why 3/4 of the lights don’t work.

JR

[dibblejr]

Shoot me a pm address, I’ll send you some things to help you out.

JR

[~DOC~]

1 minute ago, dibblejr said:

If I was you I would Want the correct power supply prior to trying to figure it out.

Once it’s operational everything else is simple. I wouldn’t build it unless it was 100%. That’s just me though.

I would rather learn on something 100%.

If you are like me and get busy you may put it aside and 6 months later forget you have a small- very small ps and then try to figure out why 3/4 of the lights don’t work.

JR

Yea this will be temporary. I am the type that gets obsessed and will not stop. But since we are talking PSU this thing is going to need relative big one. I can see me adding 100 pixels at least per port. So that would require 1152w PSU. The math says that but really?

[TheDucks]

44 minutes ago, ~DOC~ said:

Yea this will be temporary. I am the type that gets obsessed and will not stop. But since we are talking PSU this thing is going to need relative big one. I can see me adding 100 pixels at least per port. So that would require 1152w PSU. The math says that but really?

Your number is good.  You would probably run 2 @ 750's. 1 per bank

Also note. that is getting close to the limit for a 15A wall outlet (2 cords) ~11A using 80% PSU efficiency (might be a bit better, but not much). Personally, I might run that on 240V (I have a 6-20R in the garage for my Radial Arm) That would be a single 3 wire cord, just different plugs/outlet

[~DOC~]

2 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Shoot me a pm address, I’ll send you some things to help you out.

JR

Done any and all help is appreciated. I am thinking, I might have stepped into something I should have not. I liked to hook this up too see if I can even get it to work before buying anything more. I hope you can understand that. 

I have two PC one running my show and the other which I upgrade to S5. I used SE only to do everything in S4 (2 AC controllers). No use of visualizer no use of PE. I am learning basically everything as I go so I figured I might as well learn it all on S5. Might be biting off a heck of a lot more than I want to chew. I’ll try anything once. 

Edited December 29, 2018 by ~DOC~

[~DOC~]

2 hours ago, TheDucks said:

Your number is good.  You would probably run 2 @ 750's. 1 per bank

Also note. that is getting close to the limit for a 15A wall outlet (2 cords) ~11A using 80% PSU efficiency (might be a bit better, but not much). Personally, I might run that on 240V (I have a 6-20R in the garage for my Radial Arm) That would be a single 3 wire cord, just different plugs/outlet

Yea I figured I was going to have to add a couple more plugs to the house. Anytime I add a breaker to a house I usually go with 20 amp (12-2). Why construction companies use 15 amp is beyond me. The cost is negligible. 

Wait can LOR run off 220? I thought it was only 120....

Edited December 29, 2018 by ~DOC~