Can I split a port on Pixie 2 across two props?

[lzimmerman]

I am creating an animated pixel "North Pole" prop to go next to our Santa's Workshop for this year - Boscoyo ChromaPole with a Boscoyo Spinner topper. Unfortunately, when I decided how tall to make the ChromaPole, I ended up needing 108 pixels (6 columns x18 pixels). I tried just adding 8 more pixels to the Pixie2 port, but it seems to be hard wired to only support at most 100 pixels no matter what I tell it in the Hardware Utility configurator and in my preview. The good news is that the spinner is only 33 pixels, so there are plenty of extra pixels in a 50 pixel string on Port 2 of the Pixie. What I can't figure out is how to set up Preview so that it knows that the first 8 pixels on that string are part of the ChromaPole and the next 33 are the spinner? 

My best guess is to create a little 1x8 custom prop that finishes out the last column of my matrix and then group that with the rest of the matrix that is the pole, but I think that is going to make for some weird pixel effects across the matrix. I would just rebuild the prop with shorter rows so it uses less than 100 pixels, but it took me hours to push the pixels into the strips and I really don't want to pull them all out and start over again. Any ideas?

Lee 

[lzimmerman]

So, for anyone else following, it turns out there was  a hardware solution to the problem. The Pixie 2 comes with a jumper installed (on the JP5 block) that overrides any settings you make in the Hardware Utility. With that removed I can configure the Ports on the Pixie to have 108 pixels and the extra 8 pixels light up just fine. 

Thanks to TheDucks who replied to my post in the hardware forum and sent me down the right track to solve this.

[Aubrey]

If you ever want a software solution in the future, you could definitely make that 8 pixel custom piece of your matrix, then just add that section and the rest of the matrix together in a group so that your effects turn out right. When building your spinner, you would just indicate in the prop definition window which channel that prop starts on (channel 25 if you're starting on bulb 9), or higher if you need to skip bulbs because your props are farther apart. 

[lzimmerman]

Thanks Aubrey, good to know that I was on the right track