PixieLink first year review and Pixie16 V2

[ItsMeBobO]

This year I have two PixieLinks in my show.   Finally I have everything working the way I want!  

In 2020 my show was falling apart.  I had too many pixels and not enough speed even with 10 networks.   3200 pixels on my tree was sapping everything else.  The tree sequences stumbled and the singing faces were a step behind 95% of the time with frequent stalls.  For years I had been adding networks on my main show but I still had slowness.   Pixel tree had two networks, one for each Pixie16v4.   My panels of CCP had four networks across 1200 pixel.  CCRs had two networks blah blah.   The only thing I did for the 2021 show was move 3200 pixels to DMX and use two ports of the pixieLink for them.   Reducing my networks to 8 from 10.  This made so much difference!  The pixieLink has its own network card I added to the show computer.  Now the tree responds well all the time!  And the rgb face panels snap on the words while using the four red adapters as it did last year.  I am very pleased with the show now.  The pixieLink is set to its fastest speed.  

 

My story for the other show computer for the sign is not as good.  My roof sign has four pixie16 5V 50/string with latest firmware.  Last year, this year and two before, it would go black/blank for a second or two when displaying data.   All four of the controllers have their own network.   I tried every speed I could and each speed would work!  Until a complex pattern came along and all the strings for a panel would go dark.    This year I had high hopes the PixieLink would fix it with better speeds!  Nope... Changed all the sign stuff to DMX.  Using four ports, I tried every speed the pixieLink offers.   The pixels would 'work' at all the speeds but I still had frequent (2 -3 times per minute) blank panels ruining the effect except at the slower speeds.  The pixieLink made no difference at all over the prior year.     Desperate, I thought maybe too much power draw and the boards were resetting, so I ran another power cord to the roof.  But that failed/no impact.  Then I decided it had to be the four Cat5 in a bundle which was longer then needed at 100ft.  I rebuilt that with shorter 50ft cables and let the cable be more visible and ran it up to the roof.   This too failed.  Still getting the black outs.  

Then last week one panel was black all the time.  I went up on the roof in the dark and found it had stopped communicating.  This is one I had purchased used. It had a serious amount of corrosion in about four spots.  I think it had gotten wet some time ago in the past and was attacking more dust over time.   The electronic cleaner spray made no difference, the V2 board was abandoned.   Lucky for me I had a brand new pixie16V4 12V still in the box which I never had time to mount the pixels.  It was not in the show for this year.  The failed board was a V2.  When I swapped it, that panel seems to be working better!  I checked the other three in the sign and found they were all V2!  Not sure how many years in age they are.  Years of frustration had me order V4 board only replacements which were in stock and shipped.(Thanks LOR)   Yesterday I was able to change out the boards in place (controllers remained mounted where they were) to get remaining three Pixie16s to V4.   NOW there are no black outs!   This problem which I kept thinking was network speed was not that at all.      While I wish I could attribute the good result to the pixieLink,  I can not.  Instead I attribute to the upgrade to V4 boards.   I am good with the PixieLink running the sign and would recommend for V4 pixie16s.

[ItsMeBobO]

Three times in one night my pixel tree went dark.  As I said in the prior post, for my main show the only thing on this pixieLink is the pixel tree using two ports with 1600 each.    I had the pixieLink status page up and it was frozen.  There were no packets going by as is usual.  On the first black out I made the mistake of thinking something went wrong with the networks because the pixcon and falcon were also down at the same time.   Now I think this was a coincidence.   Anyway..  on the second and third outage only the pixieLink was frozen.  I cycled the power and it resumed.   Lights on in a few seconds and the status page resumed showing packets.    At this time I dont know what is causing this.  Maybe a particular song but I have not determined which if any. 

The other pixieLink for the sign has had no outages. 

[ItsMeBobO]

I had two nights where the pixieLink worked for the entire show.   I thought I was home free but not so fast.  I was outside talking to people and the pixel tree goes dark again. Its making me hyper vigilant which I hate because I wont know its down unless I personally observe it. 

I drop the conversation to run inside and unplug to cycle power and it resumes working.   Now I am saying it happens zero to three times a night with the most common being one time. 

[k6ccc]

Confirming it's the PixieLink that needs the reset?

 

[TheDucks]

Can the Pixlink respond to a Ping? That may help narrow down the issue (Ethernet connectivity or other)

[ItsMeBobO]

Yes    I pull the plug on the pixieLink and push it back in 5 seconds later.  Then 2 seconds later the lights are on.   The pixie link has a browser status page which I have always up.  It shows the number of packets moved for each port.  This page is frozen when I find the lights are off.