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N4-G4-MP3 Director Documentation


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29 minutes ago, LightORamaJohn said:

The PixieLink adapter is not a pixel controller. It maps 192 E1.31 universes to its six RS485 ports. If we were to go the route of using an additional universe just to target the remaining 30 pixels/string, it would have to handle 384 universes. This probably isn't possible, but even if it is, it would mean that the LAN bandwidth consumed by a fully loaded PixieLink device would jump from 32+Mbps to 65Mbps because I have only seen full DMX payloads regardless of the configured pixels/string. It seemed to us to be the wrong way to go, especially since almost no one does power injection to get above 150 pixels/string anyway. Using multiple universes to target one pixel string is an artifact of the higher cost of LAN based E1.31 pixel controllers. The Pixies were designed to make it possible to distribute the controllers rather than use null pixels and power injection. LOR users typically build props like trees, faces, arches, or outline something. If you are just doing a huge matrix, you are probably better off doing it with an E1.31 Pixel controller.

There is a new protocol in Pixies specifically for the PixieLink device. You should not use ELOR when using a PixieLink adapter to talk to Pixies. When the PC transmits ELOR, it compresses across pixel strings and across controllers. This is impossible because the PixieLink adapter does not know what Pixie controllers are hanging off its ports. An even if it did, it would have to compare all the universes destined to a port to recreate the compression. This would delay transmission, and I don't think there is enough processor power to recreate the compression in real time. Also, it would be really hard, so I'm tapping out on this.

ELOR has a maximum speed of 1Mbps, and usually this speed along with the compression works well. But, I felt that in order to make the Pixie viable for any user (meaning non-LOR too) of E1.31 pixel controllers, it would not be good enough to say your display will probably work well. I wanted guaranteed bandwidth to the Pixies. The new PixieLink protocol that Pixies with 1.05 firmware understand runs up to 8.5Mbps. This allows me to send uncompressed intensity data with guaranteed delivery regardless of complexity.

With as many pixies I have and as many faces as I am converting o RGB I cant wait. Means more faces per controller.

John, any hint of a release date? I would still volunteer for Beta testing, if needed.

JR

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9 hours ago, dibblejr said:

With as many pixies I have and as many faces as I am converting o RGB I cant wait. Means more faces per controller.

John, any hint of a release date? I would still volunteer for Beta testing, if needed.

JR

The device has been ready for a while. We've had them in stock for at least 6 months.  So, we've been using them for a while and have had no problems -- of course, people using them in real displays will likely expose something(s). We're confident in the hardware. However, we wanted distribution of new firmware to be easy for customers...

There were two problems, one was releasing it right before Christmas, which would have incurred a support load we didn't want, and the other was the bootloader. Dan wrote the bootloader in all our devices in LOR year 0. So, as devices became more complicated, bootload times started creeping up. They finally became ridiculous with the N4 director and PixieLink adapter. So, the bootloader has been re-written for these devices. To take advantage of this, we have to distribute a new Hardware Utility. We will merge that into the next PC software release, which we hope isn't more than a month off.

There is another minor problem in that we are just being allowed to restart our operation. We have the PixieLink boards, the cases, and the firmware, but they have to be assembled,  programmed, & packaged. So, that will happen after we recover from the Mad Grab Sale.

Since the PC software and hardware assembly are done by different groups, these should both be ready in a month or so. I hate giving dates, because as we just experienced, the universe has been particularly uncooperative lately. If we are going to miss this date significantly, I will get some of these out to beta testers so that any problems can be resolved well before Christmas.

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11 hours ago, LightORamaJohn said:

The PixieLink adapter is not a pixel controller. It maps 192 E1.31 universes to its six RS485 ports. If we were to go the route of using an additional universe just to target the remaining 30 pixels/string, it would have to handle 384 universes.

Ah, got it - it's an almost zero config device.  I am gathering that it is something like:  Universe n maps to output 1 Unit ID y, Universe n+1 maps to output 1 Unit ID y+1, etc

I was making the assumption that like essentially every E1.31 controller out there, you could configure the channel arrangement - to varying degrees.

11 hours ago, LightORamaJohn said:

It seemed to us to be the wrong way to go, especially since almost no one does power injection to get above 150 pixels/string anyway. Using multiple universes to target one pixel string is an artifact of the higher cost of LAN based E1.31 pixel controllers.

Although I personally do not like using really long strings (mainly because a pixel failure will have a far greater impact on your show), there are LOTS of people out there who think that strings of up to at least 1,000 nodes is the way to do it...  Power injection is a very common topic on the various forums (including this one from time to time).

 

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1 hour ago, LightORamaJohn said:

The device has been ready for a while. We've had them in stock for at least 6 months.  So, we've been using them for a while and have had no problems -- of course, people using them in real displays will likely expose something(s). We're confident in the hardware. However, we wanted distribution of new firmware to be easy for customers...

There were two problems, one was releasing it right before Christmas, which would have incurred a support load we didn't want, and the other was the bootloader. Dan wrote the bootloader in all our devices in LOR year 0. So, as devices became more complicated, bootload times started creeping up. They finally became ridiculous with the N4 director and PixieLink adapter. So, the bootloader has been re-written for these devices. To take advantage of this, we have to distribute a new Hardware Utility. We will merge that into the next PC software release, which we hope isn't more than a month off.

There is another minor problem in that we are just being allowed to restart our operation. We have the PixieLink boards, the cases, and the firmware, but they have to be assembled,  programmed, & packaged. So, that will happen after we recover from the Mad Grab Sale.

Since the PC software and hardware assembly are done by different groups, these should both be ready in a month or so. I hate giving dates, because as we just experienced, the universe has been particularly uncooperative lately. If we are going to miss this date significantly, I will get some of these out to beta testers so that any problems can be resolved well before Christmas.

Thank you, I really look forward to this. Much needed as I transfer my faces over to RGB with all of my huge inventory of pixies. Please keep me in mind for the Beta release if needed.

JR

Edited by dibblejr
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2 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Ah, got it - it's an almost zero config device...

Exactly, you can configure it in a couple minutes:

image.png

2 hours ago, k6ccc said:

Although I personally do not like using really long strings...

The Pixie is based on a 16-bit processor which only has enough RAM to support 3,200 pixels. So the max is 200/port. The idea was to provide users who wanted only 10 to 20 thousand pixels with an inexpensive, easy to configure and cable up solution. We sell a lot of these, so we think we've guessed correctly. As an engineer, it's easy for me to understand and use null pixels and power injection, but as an intrinsically lazy person, it's just too much of a nuisance to setup, configure and then repair displays built that way. I think most commercial users believe this too. It's just so much easier to replace a prop, or pull out a defective pixel string and replace it. It's nice to have a prop that's self-contained, so it's not attached to a bunch of other props.

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Got it.  Thanks for the explanation John.  Understand the KISS principle!  Same here for understanding the details of E1.31 - I have been running E1.31 since before LOR had any E1.31 hardware (almost immediately after LOR software started supporting it).  I also understand how hard it is for many people to understand the networking parts, so the KISS principle makes sense.  Yes, the Pixie series of controllers is in my opinion, and highly valued addition to your product line - I do have one...

As for long strings, my longest is 100 pixels, but I am running power injection in several places (in part because of lot of my pixels are 5 volt).

 

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I'm going to be THAT guy.

This is a great discussion of the PixieLink but the title of the thread is N4-G4-MP3 Director Documentation.  It seems to me it would make sense to create a new thread that indicates it contains discussion about the PixieLink and copy/move the discussion there.  I suspect there could be a number of people that would enjoy seeing the discussion but might not notice it due to the title of the thread.  Had I not been curious about the N4-G4-MP3 Director I would have missed this very interesting topic.

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4 hours ago, basis21b said:

I'm going to be THAT guy.

This is a great discussion of the PixieLink but the title of the thread is N4-G4-MP3 Director Documentation.  It seems to me it would make sense to create a new thread that indicates it contains discussion about the PixieLink and copy/move the discussion there.  I suspect there could be a number of people that would enjoy seeing the discussion but might not notice it due to the title of the thread.  Had I not been curious about the N4-G4-MP3 Director I would have missed this very interesting topic.

Totally agree.  

And I came in here because I was LOOKING for the ACTUAL DOCUMENTATION for the N4-G3 MP3 Director {G4 Director} and I have yet to see a link to access said documentation that is supposed to exist somewhere.  

I bought one of these and the documentation I got was for the 2 Network G3 MP3 Director which is NOT the same as the N4-G4 {G4} Director, which has 4 ports and supports a larger SD Card and possibly added features. 

But you wouldn't know that by the current documentation supplied with it, since it's for a PREVIOUS version of the Director units.

And it seems this part of this topic got hijacked for the PixieLink device.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/27/2020 at 1:34 AM, Orville said:

Totally agree.  

And I came in here because I was LOOKING for the ACTUAL DOCUMENTATION for the N4-G3 MP3 Director {G4 Director} and I have yet to see a link to access said documentation that is supposed to exist somewhere.  

I bought one of these and the documentation I got was for the 2 Network G3 MP3 Director which is NOT the same as the N4-G4 {G4} Director, which has 4 ports and supports a larger SD Card and possibly added features. 

But you wouldn't know that by the current documentation supplied with it, since it's for a PREVIOUS version of the Director units.

And it seems this part of this topic got hijacked for the PixieLink device.

Still waiting for the link to the G4 Documentation you stated should be around here somewhere DevMike and stated you were going to give us that link to it.

Did the N4-G3 MP3 Documentation disappear like folks props are disappearing in S5 with no return?

Edited by Orville
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On 6/5/2020 at 6:51 PM, Orville said:

Still waiting for the link to the G4 Documentation you stated should be around here somewhere DevMike and stated you were going to give us that link to it.

Did the N4-G3 MP3 Documentation disappear like folks props are disappearing in S5 with no return?

 

On 5/22/2020 at 1:01 PM, DevMike said:

I just learned that we don't have an N4 G4 manual made yet.  Dan said "We have not made the G4 manual yet. Will get it done shortly. "

The N4 G4 works pretty much like the G3 MP3 director, but instead of 2 networks, it has 4 (or 3 + Director Link).  The help file for Hub describes how to use Director Link.

http://www.lightorama.com/help/index.html?differences_between_mp3_direct.htm

http://www.lightorama.com/help/how_to_use_director-link.htm

http://www.lightorama.com/help/advanced_sd_card_wizard.htm

Etc.

When it's done, we will post it.  Until then this should get you going:

If you are not using Director Link, the N4G4 can be considered the same as the G3MP3 except it has 4 ports instead of 2.  You can use all 4 ports, and Hub makes it clear what is going to happen.

If you ARE using Director Link, the help file has what you need to use the director link features of the N4G4.

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4 hours ago, DevMike said:

  

When it's done, we will post it.  Until then this should get you going:

If you are not using Director Link, the N4G4 can be considered the same as the G3MP3 except it has 4 ports instead of 2.  You can use all 4 ports, and Hub makes it clear what is going to happen.

If you ARE using Director Link, the help file has what you need to use the director link features of the N4G4.

Thank you DevMike.  At least I now know where to look for help on it.

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  • 5 months later...

Newest documentation is now posted on LOR web site. I am using the N4-G4-MP3 this year. Main show not quite ready, but my pre-Thanksgiving show is working just fine.

As far as I can tell E1.31 is not supported on the N4-G4-MP3 director. Not an issue for me since I don't use E1.31

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9 hours ago, BillB said:

Newest documentation is now posted on LOR web site. I am using the N4-G4-MP3 this year. Main show not quite ready, but my pre-Thanksgiving show is working just fine.

As far as I can tell E1.31 is not supported on the N4-G4-MP3 director. Not an issue for me since I don't use E1.31

Sorry to inform you, but that is the G3-MP3 manual that I got with my N4-G4 MP3 Director.   That label you click may state N4-G4, but it's not included in the manual as the N4-G4 uses 4 ports and up to a 32GB SD Card, the previous version only has 2 ports and uses an 8GB SD Card according to that manual and the one I have a hard copy of that came with my G4 Director{both are identical, but I did get an inset with some added info with my G4 Director}. 

My manual and the on-line manual linked on the MP3 Director LOR site both show December 6, 2012 as the date.   The N4-G4 Director manual that has yet to be released I'm sure would have a newer date than that on it.

So that's definitely NOT the newest manual.   When DevMike states he will post an announcement when the manual is completed and ready for download, we'll see it posted just as he does with the updates to the LOR software.   And when he finally does, then I'll download it to be sure I have the latest info on my G4 Director.

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You are right. G3-N2-MP3 documentation is still linked to the G4-N4-MP3 page. BUT if you go to the LOR documentation page, you can find the G4-N4-MP3 manual. I wonder if LOR will send the new manual to everyone who purchased the new Director.

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21 hours ago, BillB said:

You are right. G3-N2-MP3 documentation is still linked to the G4-N4-MP3 page. BUT if you go to the LOR documentation page, you can find the G4-N4-MP3 manual. I wonder if LOR will send the new manual to everyone who purchased the new Director.

Thanks for the info.  Went to the documentation page and downloaded a copy of it.   Wonder if LOR will send a printed version if requested to those of us that bought the N4-G4?  As I have no way to print a manual at this time and I'd really like to have a hard copy printout so I can refer to it at times if the need arises.   Kind of a bit more difficult on the computer.

They need to update the links that refer to the N4-G4 so they go to the correct documentation for it online, as some folks may not think to look in the documentation area for it, just click the link and get the wrong manual.   Although you need both the G3 and G4 manual since the G4 manual refers you back to the G3 manual in some areas.

But I believe there are two mistakes in the G4 manual:  #1. it says 8 show total, which you can have 9, not 8.  #2. It also says to access some features of the Director requires version 5.5.10 to use the Hub.   I'm using S4.4.12 and been using the Hub for several of the S4 versions prior to the one I'm now using.   So as far as I am aware, I've been able to access every feature of my Director via the Hub thus far.   So not sure if S5.5.10 is actually correct on accessing all features of the G4 Director.   Just a couple of my observations when I read through the G4 Director manual.

BTW: last time I had looked in that area the G4 documentation wasn't there.  Never saw a message it was avaialble,  So I was unaware it was even there.  Not sure when it was added, but at least glad to have some form of documentation for my N4-G4 Director.

 

Edited by Orville
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I think that if you want to use the wireless feature to link 2 or more N4-G4s together, you need the S5 version of LOR Hub. Otherwise, I have no problem with S4 and the N4-G4.

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5 hours ago, BillB said:

I think that if you want to use the wireless feature to link 2 or more N4-G4s together, you need the S5 version of LOR Hub. Otherwise, I have no problem with S4 and the N4-G4.

I think you're right about using and linking multiple directors or the new pixielink device.   Although I really do not see why these couldn't have been added to the S4 Hub version of the software?   Not sure what would make such a big difference in being able to do this in both the S4 or S5 Hub.

Hope DevMike sees this and can chime in on why this is the way it is.  I'd think this would just be a simple addition of code to do the same in the S4. Hub.

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The documentation also states "The director is normally powered by the nearest Light O Rama controller or a USB485B PC adapter." but when only connected to a Pixcon 16 it doesn't seem to get any power from that LOR controller.  Is that true or am I missing something?

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1 hour ago, BluMan said:

The documentation also states "The director is normally powered by the nearest Light O Rama controller or a USB485B PC adapter." but when only connected to a Pixcon 16 it doesn't seem to get any power from that LOR controller.  Is that true or am I missing something?

Correct.  The DC controllers do not supply power for things like Directors.

 

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