Singing trees

[yffej151963]

I have been looking around and I have not found an answer. I have 2 lor singing trees that I bought a few years ago.

I see there are V2 trees with additional mouth movements but the actual trees appear to be the same and the movements seem to be software.  Can I use these new movements with my existing trees? If the answer is yes will that cause any issues with existing lor sequences that I purchased? 

Thanks

Edited April 1, 2023 by yffej151963

[Jimehc]

if you purchased the trees a few years ago - they are V1 trees

the Newer v2 trees have additional pixels use for the extra mouth movements

[dibblejr]

Since your question wasn’t specifically answered.

you purchased V1 faces and V1 sequences at the time that was what was available.

Now if you see a new sequence you like in the LOR store you will receive both V1 and the V2 sequence.

With that being said, if you purchase the new V2 faces to go along with your current V1 faces your old V1 sequences can be used in the V2 face however the V2 sequence cannot be used in the V1 faces.

It is a little more than software (sequence) changes, it’s changes within the controller firmware.

JR

[yffej151963]

Thanks. That seems to answer my question.  I wasn't sure whether or not there were physical changes to the prop itself or if it was updates to the controller fw. Sounds like both.

[Orville]

Out of curiosity, what are the V2 Mouth movements as compared to the original V1 Singing Trees?   And is there any way to use the unused pixels on the original V1 trees to modify them to be V2 by updating the Controller FW?   As I'm thinking that's where the additional mouth movements could have possibly come from, the unuaed pixels, or has the V2 trees been a totally redesigned system?

Would be nice if there were a way to just upgrade the existing V1 trees, but depending on how the V2 trees were done, that may or may not even be possible.  But would sure like to know the main differences between the two versions now.

 

[Box on Rails]

16 hours ago, Orville said:

Out of curiosity, what are the V2 Mouth movements as compared to the original V1 Singing Trees?   And is there any way to use the unused pixels on the original V1 trees to modify them to be V2 by updating the Controller FW?   As I'm thinking that's where the additional mouth movements could have possibly come from, the unuaed pixels, or has the V2 trees been a totally redesigned system?

Would be nice if there were a way to just upgrade the existing V1 trees, but depending on how the V2 trees were done, that may or may not even be possible.  But would sure like to know the main differences between the two versions now.

 

from what I understand, V1 uses the standard 8 RGB dumb RGB channels with 2 eye, 4 mouth positions with the Bow and tree outlines. V2 uses 14 dumb RGB channels with 2 eye, 10 mouth positions and Bow and tree outlines. V2 is much more detailed with the 10 mouth positions which would allow for the use of the Papagayo program for animating the mouth movements. I do not have either one of these props so I'm assuming the V2 prop has 14 dumb Strings and V1 only uses 8 strings.

[Jimehc]

Actually the LOR Trees use "Smart" pixels strings... The Smart Pixels are configured in the Hardware (Firmware) to act as if using 8 or 14 Dumb Pixel Strings (which is the Default LOR Prop Definition)

But, you could create a Custom Prop Definition using Smart Pixels and recreate Motion Effect Rows for the movements - which would not require the "LOR" Hardware/Firmware configuration

[Box on Rails]

10 hours ago, Jimehc said:

Actually the LOR Trees use "Smart" pixels strings... The Smart Pixels are configured in the Hardware (Firmware) to act as if using 8 or 14 Dumb Pixel Strings (which is the Default LOR Prop Definition)

But, you could create a Custom Prop Definition using Smart Pixels and recreate Motion Effect Rows for the movements - which would not require the "LOR" Hardware/Firmware configuration

I was unaware of That. Smart pixels are even better. All my animated characters for both Halloween and Christmas shows use all Smart Pixels and I create my own prop definition with ME rows as you described. I use a total of 5 different eye motions. 11 different mouth motions and 3 different effects rows for the outline.  I was under the assumption that they were dumb pixels on the LOR props based on the sequence I have seen from LOR that has both V1 and V2 set up in the preview Prop definition like Dumb pixels using each color Red, Green and Blue on it's own channel for each mouth position. It looked like dumb pixels to me. lol

So learning this, I have a question. Is the physical prop (LOR singing Tree) the same for both V1 and V2 with the firmware/hardware config being the only difference? 

[Orville]

So, what happens if you update the FW in an older V1 LOR Singing Tree to the newer FW for a Pixie2 that would control them?  Would this cause some serious malfunctions in the older V1 Trees?    I usually always update my controllers to the latest FW, but wouldn't want to do that, if this particular FW update would cause some serious conflicts in how the older V1 trees work.

And would these newer V2 LOR singing trees work in the older versions of the SE?  As I am still using 4.4.16 PRO.  And does the new V2 trees have more pixels than the original V1 and is it a completely new revamped design for the new mouth movements?  Last pictures I saw, they still looked like the old V1 original singing trees.   So I'm just trying to figure out what the new V2 trees look like, since they now have more mouth movements, which I would think would have required an entirely new rewiring of the nodes or an addition of more nodes to accomplish this?   I'm going to go take another look at the singing trees and see if anything has changed since the last time I viewed them.

[yffej151963]

Is it easy to create a custom shape prop for my trees? I assume that breaks compatibility with purchased sequences? 

[Jimehc]

Your Custom Prop can use Face Sequences - depending on the custom mouth movements you layout or configure...

AC and Pixel mouth movements are interchangeable (except AC props will not change color like the pixel props can)

Will your custom prop be compatibility with purchased sequences? Depends...

But you can copy the movements from Purchased Sequence to your Custom Prop...

[yffej151963]

Is there a wiring diagram for the singing trees for download? I dont have access to my trees. I haven't seen it available online.

 

I should be able get the shape setup as dumb pixels. 

[Jimehc]

I received a paper with the wiring diagram, with the tree purchase(s)

[LORAdmin]

On 4/5/2023 at 2:31 AM, Orville said:

So, what happens if you update the FW in an older V1 LOR Singing Tree to the newer FW for a Pixie2 that would control them?  Would this cause some serious malfunctions in the older V1 Trees?    I usually always update my controllers to the latest FW, but wouldn't want to do that, if this particular FW update would cause some serious conflicts in how the older V1 trees work.

And would these newer V2 LOR singing trees work in the older versions of the SE?  As I am still using 4.4.16 PRO.  And does the new V2 trees have more pixels than the original V1 and is it a completely new revamped design for the new mouth movements?  Last pictures I saw, they still looked like the old V1 original singing trees.   So I'm just trying to figure out what the new V2 trees look like, since they now have more mouth movements, which I would think would have required an entirely new rewiring of the nodes or an addition of more nodes to accomplish this?   I'm going to go take another look at the singing trees and see if anything has changed since the last time I viewed them.

There are physical differences between the V1 (4 Mouth) and V2 (10 Mouth) trees. New holes have been added for new mouth movements and pixels have been rewired compared to the V1 faces. V2 singing faces require version 5.3.0 or above for use, as well as the latest firmware for Pixie controllers. Changing a V1 face to use the new firmware and using V2 sequences would result in significant loss of displayed effects per sequence due to the rewiring and missing movements.