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P10 bridge mode


ebrown1972

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For those of you who ran a P10 in your display using S5 how did the P10 perform in bridge mode? Last year I ran my P10 using Falcon pi and Xlights. Everything ran fine that way but I am wanting to use my P10 with S5. Was anything lagging while using this setup? I had issues running my P10 in bridge mode but found out the issue was with the version of fpp I was using. Today I did a fresh install of the newest version of fpp and everything tested great in bridge mode.

Thanks in advance,

Eric

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Ed, I ran my 3w x 2h P5 matrix and my 4w x 3h P10 matrix in bridge mode just fine for the 2018 season just fine.  They were sequenced essentially only as my Tune To signs and I loved the way they worked and looked.  For each sequence, the matrix essentially cycled of about 30 seconds showing the artist, song title and radio info as seen in the first photo (taken during testing in my family room).  Then 15 seconds showing a more detailed radio info for the brain dead that can't figure it out as seen in the second photo.  Then back to the Artist, Title, & Tune for 30 seconds.  That was followed by about 15 seconds of MIIP information.  Those four were repeated for a second time, and if there was time, then I would add a segment with my website.  The times varied a little for the songs because in some of them it made sense to change the text at a certain place in the song.  I did not want the Tune To sign to be a distraction, so I used the same format and colors for all songs.

For each matrix, I was running a Pi 3B running FPP 2.4 driving a ColorLight card.  Yes, the ColorLight was overkill for such small matrixes, but I wanted to try them out early in 2018 while testing and I found that they looked better than the Pi directly driving the matrix with a Matrix PiHat.  Pretty sure I was using FPP 1.10 at that early testing stage.  My light show was running LOR 5.2.2. For 2018, I ran 108 E1.31 universes for the P5 and P10 and 27 universes for other stuff.   I ran My E1.31 LAN is a separate VLAN on my home network and the show computer has a Ethernet port on that network, so for the show, the network path to the P10 was:  Show computer -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Managed switch in garage -> Gigabit Ethernet Virtual LAN -> Managed switch in Family Room -> Gigabit Ethernet Virtual LAN -> Managed switch in attic -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Dumb switch in Pixel tree -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Raspberry Pi 3B.  The P5 was a little shorter as it was connected to the managed switch in the Family room.  Unfortunately that also meant that the matrix was in my family room instead of outside.  That was because I ran out of time to build the waterproof enclosures for the two panels.  The P10 got hung well under the eves of the house.  That put it a good 40 feet or so farther away from the people at the best viewing location, but it was readable at that distance.  Having the P10 at the intended location would have been better.

Matrix_panels_hanging_close-up.jpg

Front_of_House_2018-12-03.jpg

Satellite_view_showing_parking_and_Tune-

Street_view_showing_intended_P5_location

 

 

Edited by k6ccc
Fixed a spelling error
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1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Ed, I ran my 3w x 2h P5 matrix and my 4w x 3h P10 matrix in bridge mode just fine for the 2018 season just fine.  They were sequenced essentially only as my Tune To signs and I loved the way they worked and looked.  For each sequence, the matrix essentially cycled of about 30 seconds showing the artist, song title and radio info as seen in the first photo (taken during testing in my family room).  Then 15 seconds showing a more detailed radio info for the brain dead that can't figure it out as seen in the second photo.  Then back to the Artist, Title, & Tune for 30 seconds.  That was followed by about 15 seconds of MIIP information.  Those four were repeated for a second time, and if there was time, then I would add a segment with my website.  The times varied a little for the songs because in some of them it made sense to change the text at a certain place in the song.  I did not want the Tune To sign to be a distraction, so I used the same format and colors for all songs.

For each matrix, I was running a Pi 3B running FPP 2.4 driving a ColorLight card.  Yes, the ColorLight was overkill for such small matrixes, but I wanted to try them out early in 2018 while testing and I found that they looked better than the Pi directly driving the matrix with a Matrix PiHat.  Pretty sure I was using FPP 1.10 at that early testing stage.  My light show was running LOR 5.2.2. For 2018, I ran 108 E1.31 universes for the P5 and P10 and 27 universes for other stuff.   I ran My E1.31 LAN is a separate VLAN on my home network and the show computer has a Ethernet port on that network, so for the show, the network path to the P10 was:  Show computer -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Managed switch in garage -> Gigabit Ethernet Virtual LAN -> Managed switch in Family Room -> Gigabit Ethernet Virtual LAN -> Managed switch in attic -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Dumb switch in Pixel tree -> 100 BaseT Ethernet -> Raspberry Pi 3B.  The P5 was a little shorter as it was connected to the managed switch in the Family room.  Unfortunately that also meant that the matrix was in my family room instead of outside.  That was because I ran out of time to build the waterproof enclosures for the two panels.  The P10 got hung well under the eves of the house.  That put it a good 40 feet or so farther away from the people at the best viewing location, but it was readable at that distance.  Having the P10 at the intended location would have been better.

Matrix_panels_hanging_close-up.jpg

Front_of_House_2018-12-03.jpg

Satellite_view_showing_parking_and_Tune-

Street_view_showing_intended_P5_location

 

 

Thanks for the detailed information Jim. My P10 is mainly just a tune to sign also and it is a 4x2 using a begalbone black. I had it in standalone mode last year but would like to add song title and such this year as part of the sequence. Good to know that everything ran smooth for you. I did notice while testing the p10 out today it appears as though I have one pixel going bad. It is at the very bottom of the panel and not sure that I feel like taking everything apart just to fix one pixel. Maybe a small piece of black tape for this year as I am considering adding more panels next year and enlarging the matrix. Thanks again,

Eric

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2 hours ago, ebrown1972 said:

Thanks for the detailed information Jim. My P10 is mainly just a tune to sign also and it is a 4x2 using a begalbone black. I had it in standalone mode last year but would like to add song title and such this year as part of the sequence. Good to know that everything ran smooth for you. I did notice while testing the p10 out today it appears as though I have one pixel going bad. It is at the very bottom of the panel and not sure that I feel like taking everything apart just to fix one pixel. Maybe a small piece of black tape for this year as I am considering adding more panels next year and enlarging the matrix. Thanks again,

Eric

Eric,

I assume 4W x 2H currently.  If so, add the third row to the matrix.  I think having the artist and song title is really nice to have.  Without the third row, you may find it hard to make it all fit.  For one song, I had to use two rows of text for the song title ("All I want for Christmas, is you").  The two matrix panels were sequenced as Motion Effects in S5 rather than SuperStar simply because the two panels are 18,432 and 36,872 channels and I have a 12,000 channel SuperStar license.

 

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21 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Eric,

I assume 4W x 2H currently.  If so, add the third row to the matrix.  I think having the artist and song title is really nice to have.  Without the third row, you may find it hard to make it all fit.  For one song, I had to use two rows of text for the song title ("All I want for Christmas, is you").  The two matrix panels were sequenced as Motion Effects in S5 rather than SuperStar simply because the two panels are 18,432 and 36,872 channels and I have a 12,000 channel SuperStar license.

 

Yes correct. I usually scroll my text so hopefully it will be okay. If not I will more than likely just do without the song title until next year when I build a bigger one.

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Here's an idea for those P10 Panels. Our neighborhood really liked this feature and I'll do it again. Once I figured out the Beaglebone Black, the octoscroller cape, and Falcon Player, the rest was easy. I've ordered a Colorlight and Rasberry to compare and contrast. Please share any P10 weatherproof enclosure ideas. I had my power and cards in a weather-tight box but I had to disconnect and pull in the panels in case of rain.

Richard

 

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  • 8 months later...

Did you ever figure out the Pi/colorlight card combo ?  I am trying to set that up myself, got all the parts but not functional at the moment, I am most probably missing some infos

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2 hours ago, grouptcl said:

Did you ever figure out the Pi/colorlight card combo ?  I am trying to set that up myself, got all the parts but not functional at the moment, I am most probably missing some infos

great post on setting up the pi and colorlight(s).  Takes you through every step.. https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/multiple-colorlight-cards-with-fpp-for-p5-panels-guide.11762/

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