Basics of getting started

[dibblejr]

37 minutes ago, Sam house said:

So I made the switch to s5 and I’m unsure about me doing so at this point. Spent a couple hours last night trying to figure it out and def feels more time consuming and not as intuitive.   Mabey it is up front but you make up for that down the road.  Trying to set up preview. Is it best to add a pic with all my lights and props or add a basic pic then draw in all the props and lights?   From what I’m gathering once I creat the first purview it will be alit easier to swap songs in and out using the same preview?  Every time I add a new prop or lights I need to assign which channel is powering this correct?  Is there a good how to vid out there on this part. I wasn’t finding much?.

I would just add the pic without lights and place your props (lights) where they go as you build.

Most props are already built somewhere. If you have a prop file or animation file they could be imported and used with your channel assignments.

Adding and assigning props Is easy just use the “green +” to add a prop to the preview. You can test them as you build.

Aubreys videos would get you off to a great start. Here is a link to one from there you can find the others.

JR

 

 

[Sam house]

On 1/22/2021 at 10:00 AM, tlogan said:

I am using S5. Once I made the transition, it's been fine. They run easier in S4 because you don't need the preview. Once I created my preview and channel config for my house and props, I was able to add 5 more new WOW sequences in a matter of minutes, each. I wasn't too far along the S4 path anyway, so the transition for me was not that hard. To anyone starting out, I HIGHLY recommend starting with S5.

My mini trees are 100 multi colored lights. Actually 2 strands of 50 so that if one craps out you only have to replace half the string. My mega tree is 2 strands of 50 white tied together the way WOW recommends. I am really considering adding the two more controllers (or a single dumb controller, whichever works out cheaper) to the mini trees and going to  Red, Green and a third color (blue? white? Something else? I don't know yet).

And, as our friend @dibblejr says WHEN you expand and get into RGB, S5 will be your friend, indeed.

Been setting up my preview on s5 getting it all dialed in. Little confused though. On s4 it was automatically telling you what channels were doing what in the song. I know I need my mini trees connected to the same channels they use for there sequences for it to line up correctly. Do I just look in Wows website to determine which channel they are using for what and then allocate the correct one in the sequencer?

[KYHI]

That is what I did... As I found more commonality for my Preview layout with WOW sequences..

[Sam house]

Dumb question. In the preview design  is start circuit the actual channel?  Thought it was the first row but can’t get that number to ever change?

[KYHI]

The AC control ports all share same unit ID

on an AC circuit it is a single Channel / Port

Start 1 - End 1 -> Start 2 - End 2 -> Start 3 - End 3

--

The RBG Controllers are assigned a different Unit ID per Port

On a Dumb RGB circuit it is 3 Channels / Port

Start 1 - End 3

On a Smart 50 RGB circuit it is 150 Channels / Port

Start 1 - End 150

you can also split that 50 RGB Port into 2x25

Start 1 - End 75 -> Start 76 - End 150

So easier to say "Start" is first channel - "End" is last channel

 

 

 

Edited January 24, 2021 by KYHI

[k6ccc]

2 hours ago, Sam house said:

Dumb question. In the preview design  is start circuit the actual channel?  Thought it was the first row but can’t get that number to ever change?

The start channel is the first channel for that item - be that a single channel, a dumb RGB or a pixel string.  Here is an extract from the "Channel Conflicts & Bulk Changes" (the pink underline) tab in the Preview Editor for my Christmas show.  I have selected Show: All Props (the golden oval).

The channels in Red are single channel devices, so you can see that each item takes one channel.  The channels in Green are dumb RGB so the Start Channel is the first (normally Red) channel of that RGB, so you can see that Address sign starts on Unit 13, channel 4 (and uses channels 4, 5, & 6) and the next is AC Column which starts on Unit 13 channel 7 (and uses channels 7, 8, & 9).  The channels in Blue are pixel strings.  In the case of the Arches, each arch has a separate controller ID (and it fully use all 50 pixels of these original CCPs).  The Candy Canes each use 48 channels (16 pixels).  And no, you can't tell from this listing how many channels are used for each prop, but you should know what your props are, and how many channels each uses.

As usual, if YOUR browser does not show the image, there is a link to it below.

http://www.newburghlights.org/images/Preview_Start_channels.png

Does this answer your question?

 

 

[Sam house]

Great, super helpful. Thank you!!

[tlogan]

16 hours ago, Sam house said:

Do I just look in Wows website to determine which channel they are using for what and then allocate the correct one in the sequencer?

 

16 hours ago, KYHI said:

That is what I did... As I found more commonality for my Preview layout with WOW sequences..

Yes, that's what I did as well. Makes it MUCH easier to add WOW sequences.

As far as building the Preview, I realized it was much easier to build the preview WITHOUT even thinking about the sequence. Open the PREVIEW DESIGN window and maximize it. Add your picture and your props to the picture. You don't even need to think out channel config at this point., You may get warnings but get all your props added first. Then, you can go back and straiten out all the channel configs. String will be your friend. It will be a better friend if you have Excel and copy to Xcel so that you can sort and filter. It would be an even better friend if you could do that right in the window, but you can't everything (where would you put it?).

[Sam house]

On 1/24/2021 at 8:22 AM, tlogan said:

 

Yes, that's what I did as well. Makes it MUCH easier to add WOW sequences.

As far as building the Preview, I realized it was much easier to build the preview WITHOUT even thinking about the sequence. Open the PREVIEW DESIGN window and maximize it. Add your picture and your props to the picture. You don't even need to think out channel config at this point., You may get warnings but get all your props added first. Then, you can go back and straiten out all the channel configs. String will be your friend. It will be a better friend if you have Excel and copy to Xcel so that you can sort and filter. It would be an even better friend if you could do that right in the window, but you can't everything (where would you put it?).

Hi again,

hope youve had a good summer circling back here as its getting closer to the season. I have my preview all built up.  Cant quite undestand the labelling of channels though. If im using the same channel to power multiple strings how do i label that versus just dedicating 1 channel for 1 string. 

[dibblejr]

1 minute ago, Sam house said:

Hi again,

hope youve had a good summer circling back here as its getting closer to the season. I have my preview all built up.  Cant quite undestand the labelling of channels though. If im using the same channel to power multiple strings how do i label that versus just dedicating 1 channel for 1 string. 

Prop def. upper right hand corner - check “use same channel as”…. Select the channel

JR

[Sam house]

Thanks that was super helpful. I’ve managed to get everything cleaned up and basics of my preview done.  

 

Trying to run the preview in the sequencer now from a song I downloaded from wowlights but can’t get the preview to run.  The song plays but nothing else. What am I doing wrong?

[Sam house]

Happy fall guys,  Getting back to my project here now that the sun is back in hiding.  Trying to put together just a basic first show using one controller.  I believe i assigned all the proper channels etc as there are no error messages showing on my preview.  I originally started using S4 and was able to get the preview to work  After being persuaded into going with S5 by many on here i started over, and now I cant get the new preview i created to work with the already done sequences i purchased from WoW lights.  I included a screen shot of my channel allocation and what im seeing when trying to run the preview.  Am I missing something simple here??  Thanks in advance for your help

[Don]

From what I can tell the channel configuration looks correct, there are no errors, etc.

What's not working?

[k6ccc]

It looks like several of the props share channel assignments.  There are no channel conflicts or warnings, so I am assuming that is correct and you are using the "Use same channel as" function.  I realize that with only 16 channels, duplicating stuff is far more needed than if you have more controllers available.

As Don said "What's not working?"

 

[dibblejr]

In his previous post I informed him of using the “share same channel”. He replied that it worked.

I am assuming he has copy paste issues from his Wow lights sequence , just a guess though.

In that pic, there appears to be no sequence.Unless my eyes fail me.

JR

Edited September 19, 2021 by dibblejr

[Don]

Threads Merged.

[Sam house]

Yes I’ve used the share channel feature suggested by JR.

 

I can’t get the preview to play when running the sequence?

[dibblejr]

1 hour ago, Sam house said:

Yes I’ve used the share channel feature suggested by JR.

 

I can’t get the preview to play when running the sequence?

Are you trying their WOW sequence or are you copy paste in to your sequence?

It must match up to your Config to play.

Easy way to verify your sequence will play is to 

Right click on one of your channel grids

Scroll down to “select”

Next “row”

Right click inside the yellow boundary and select “turn on” at the top

Then open your play back window and play.

JR

[tlogan]

Sorry, was out of town Saturday so, just catching up here. I don't get how the share same unit/circuit works, unless you want to props on different units to do the same thing.

If he (the OP) is using a single 16 AC controller and has multiple props sharing the same channel (there are 7 on Unit 1 circuit 2!), how do you connect up all the other props to that one dangle? If they are all doing the same thing, I just run multiple extension cords using triple taps (although I 've never had more than two on a dangle) and don't even try to sequence a prop that is doing the exact same thing. MAYBE it's worth it if the plan is to move to RGB or smart pixels in the future. But starting out, it seems to me like it will REALLY confuse things. 

[Don]

3 minutes ago, tlogan said:

I don't get how the share same unit/circuit works

Example: You have 16 total channels. The way your display is set up you have two wire frame trees that bookend your display, and you want them to do the same thing.

In Preview you create the first tree, and assign it to Channel 15. You then create the 2nd tree and tell it to Share Same Channel as the first tree you created.
Every prop has to have a channel assignment that doesn't duplicate. Share Same Channel allows you to have multiple props on the preview connected to the same channel.