6 Strand Star shows only 1 strand in Preview S6

[Obejohnknobe]

Greetings everyone!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas show this past year!!!

I am just getting to this after a hectic last year.  Have a 6 strand star purchased from Holiday Coro and it works well in the show.  I want to start doing better motion action on the 6 strand star for 2023 show.  This past year the programming S6 on the star was an all in one action with no special effects. 

So here goes........ 6 strand star has all pixels with each strand programmed with different IDs and shows the 6 strands in preview design but will not show in the main preview even after zooming it in on the prop. The motion action needed for parts of sequences is star lighting from the inside out and showing it in visualizer.  Like an explosion.

Can someone assist with either an explanation or suggestion on how to view the 6 strands on the visualizer where I can make more accurate decisions on motion effects in S6.

Thanks a big bunch!!

John

 

 

[Box on Rails]

1. S6 has a preview, not a visualizer 2. I think most of us who use Motion effects learned by experimenting. Just load an effect and start tweaking it until you find something cool. The ripple effect and the firework effect will produce a center out explosion effect you mentioned. also you can do the same thing by creating custom motion effects rows of each string of the entire star prop. I have a 3 string star that I set up at first where each string had it's own Unit ID/prop and then grouped them on a single prop group. I thought this would allow for more flexibility. I was way wrong. over time through trail and error I found that the entire star as a single prop gave me way more flexibility and with unlimited possibilities using Motion effects I have had no problems creating any effect I can think of. Most of us on here are more then happy to share how we created curtain effects. Now since your star is already set up with pretty much 6 separate stars just group them into one group and use the fireworks effect on the group with the parameter set to "once at the beginning" and the mess with all the other parameters until you find that explosion effect you want. It's that simple. The good thing is you got a few months to experiment. Have fun with it. attached is a 6 layer star that might work for you or show you how these props are designed.

Kenny

Boscoyo ChromaStar 46 6 ring.lpeprop

Edited January 21, 2023 by Box on Rails

[Jimehc]

14 hours ago, Obejohnknobe said:

6 strand star has all pixels with each strand programmed with different IDs

Smart or Dumb Pixels? (I would assume they are dumb if using six Unit ID's) which would only allow a ring color change through the six rings...

[TheDucks]

50 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

Smart or Dumb Pixels? (I would assume they are dumb if using six Unit ID's) which would only allow a ring color change through the six rings...

Dumb use 1 LOR ID (a CMB has 8 ports per ID) OTOH A Pixie uses 1 ID per port

The star has 270 nodes. Avoiding PI it could be 3 ports if 12V or 6 ports if 5V on a Pixie or 6 ports (1 ID) if dumb nodes on a CMB24

[Jimehc]

Thank You for clarifying my assumption in regards to Dumb Pixels using six Unit ID's... Would seem to be a waste of controller ports to have each ring of the Star on a port...

Although I broke the "HolidayCoro-6 Row Star" down as a 140 Pixel string (Ring 1-4) and a 130 Pixel string (Ring 5-6)

Edited January 21, 2023 by Jimehc

[TheDucks]

12 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

Thank You for clarifying my assumption in regards to Dumb Pixels using six Unit ID's... Would seem to be a waste of controller ports to have each ring of the Star on a port...

Although I broke the "HolidayCoro-6 Row Star" down as a 140 Pixel string (Ring 1-4) and a 130 Pixel string (Ring 5-6)

I sure would do Dumb (CMB 24) using 6 ports . You want to be able to treat each ring independently.

FWIW Every one of my DC controller boxes has a CMB24 and a Pixie. That way, I can mix types (smart and dumb) in a prop for fun effects.  (I use HC easy plug3 and 4 connections so there is no chance I will goof up.) All my LED and some mini (chopped up 120V strings)  are 12V. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xrWf6DqDsp48J6Ynm_mz9Vixo5Vzoiv7/view?usp=share_link

 

[Obejohnknobe]

Good points everyone but trying to figure out why S6 preview shows only 1 strand not the 6 strands (smart pixels WS2811 each strand has a separate hex id) as programmed in.  My 16 strand 75 smart pixels shows all 16 strands in preview.  In my Halloween show, have Spiders, cats showing everything from the tails to eyes on cats and legs, eyes on spiders all showing each individual leg strands if needed.  Have trialed and errored different stars in getting the 6 strands to show up but I must be missing something.  When zooming out on the prop preview still shows only 1 strand.  Have the latest update to S6 Pro with SS 24_CCR

[TheDucks]

17 minutes ago, Obejohnknobe said:

Good points everyone but trying to figure out why S6 preview shows only 1 strand not the 6 strands (smart pixels WS2811 each strand has a separate hex id) as programmed in.  My 16 strand 75 smart pixels shows all 16 strands in preview.  In my Halloween show, have Spiders, cats showing everything from the tails to eyes on cats and legs, eyes on spiders all showing each individual leg strands if needed.  Have trialed and errored different stars in getting the 6 strands to show up but I must be missing something.  When zooming out on the prop preview still shows only 1 strand.  Have the latest update to S6 Pro with SS 24_CCR

I have a Halloween Bat with flashing eyes, and aircraft style wing tip and tail lights . I'm still using S4 (I do have S6) as I am able to do stuff without a 'preview' or defined prop. 

[k6ccc]

2 hours ago, Obejohnknobe said:

Good points everyone but trying to figure out why S6 preview shows only 1 strand not the 6 strands

Export the prop and post it either here or some other website and post a link to it here.

Another option is if you have TeamViewer on your computer and would like me to remote in and work with you on it, I'm happy to do that.

 

[Jimehc]

Even the Nested Star show as Rings

[Box on Rails]

I just made this prop in S6 and I have all 6 star layers showing in my preview correctly. I tested it with ME row with the Fireworks effect and it looks OK but not good. I'm not happy with the way certain effects are acting. So I opened up a motion effect row to edit it and I did not like what I saw. it was not a star but 6 stacked lines with the each line spread out with the number of pixels in each layer in the star. that will never work. I will look at some custom props for that 6 layer star and see what will work. 

 

[Obejohnknobe]

5 hours ago, Jimehc said:

Even the Nested Star show as Rings

Want to thank you as this is the exact star I was looking for!!!! 

Tested this out on a sequence after programing this in and everything is there!!!  Pulled my star and card out of storage and tried both the Star strands programmed before versus the Nested Star and what a difference.  Apparently when looking at this, I must not have seen the slide bar on the right to add more strands in.  Also the 6 strands (just the star portion) had what I thought was 6 stars within the star but was 1 strand all the way round.  It is a simple case of not paying attention to the software selections.

I feel like a novice again due to hastily programming, setup and not paying attention to ALL the props during playback!!!!!!

Thank you everyone for helping as well as your tips to assist!!!!

[Box on Rails]

Ok I just loaded the prop file I linked to earlier in this thread and that has everything you need. It already has 6 custom Motion Effects rows one for each layer and I had to add 2 regular ME rows for the entire star for whole star effects. It worked great in the preview and I ran a number of effects through it and they all looked great. Download the linked file in my first post "Boscoyo ChromaStar 46 6 ring.lpeprop" into the S6 folder tilted "ImportExport". once it's imported open the SE and load your preview file by clicking the ADD tab then click import an S5 prop file. find the file then add it. from there customize the unit ID's and network. Open a sequence and start trying out Motion effects on the new star prop. I think this will allow you to do what you want. 

[Jimehc]

Each row in the layout is a star - I added 2 effects and then sub-divided the prop into 6 rows (to get each star)

[Obejohnknobe]

All I did was go to the 6 strand star in Preview Design and changed out the star with nested star with the 6 strands, the program set in 6 separate Hex IDs for them.  All I had to do was set each strands number of pixels and save.  Hex ID did not change on the sequence and had 2 M.E. rows for the whole star group.  The one thing it does not do is break the star down to 6 separate strands for channels.  This is also true for my mega tree and would love to know how to separate each strand out either in channels or groups.  Want to control the outside strands of the mega tree for an effect but must be done via strands as it over rides group M.E.

BTW Jimehc, I am originally from Kentucky, Menifee county for 20 plus years before joining the Air Force..............

John

 

[Jimehc]

4 hours ago, Jimehc said:

sub-divided the prop into 6 rows (to get each star)

go where you add motion rows - but click Sub-Divide instead of add

for tree you would sub divide by 16 columns to get the 16 strands

Edited January 22, 2023 by Jimehc

[Box on Rails]

 

5 hours ago, Jimehc said:

go where you add motion rows - but click Sub-Divide instead of add

for tree you would sub divide by 16 columns to get the 16 strands

So when I went to add a Motion effect row to this 6 layer Star Nested Design here is what I got and the issue. This Picture shows the Motion effects row editor. it is the 6 separate layers of the start with the 70 ring pixels on top and the 20 pixel ring on the bottom row, simple just create 6 custom rows one for each layer. the problem is this prop definition shows the 6 layers of the star as 6 straight straight lines. With this set up, when I use the ripple effect or even a blender bars in any direction over the entire prop it move's the effect across the straight lines and not a star pattern, so on the actual star prop, the blender bar starts on one leg of the star and moves around the entire star leg by leg in a circular motion not as a bar across the entire star. where as the Custom prop from Boscoyo shows the star in the preview as a star and all motion effects work as intended. In addition, the Boscoyo prop come with 6 custom motion effect rows already created that break down the star into the 6 separate star layers. with all that said, My question is How would you make the motion effect work with the "Star Nested" design to get an effect like the Ripple effect to start in the center and move out evenly through all of the star' legs?

[Box on Rails]

Here is the Boscoyo prop ME row editor edit. 

[Jimehc]

the Grid is using the Advance Layout - thus a smaller grid (Less Rendering).. Very common with LOR designed Props...

I have the HC123-36 Star in a Custom Layout, same as your Boscoyo...

Edited January 22, 2023 by Jimehc

[Obejohnknobe]

Jim,

This seems to work after subdividing as I want to control the number 1 and number 16 string for effects.  Will update on the tree later when I play with it more.

Thanks!

John