Adding pixie 16 to CTB16PC existing show

[Akabigred]

Hey everyone. Looked through a tons of posts and couldn’t find my exact problem. I’m new to pixels. Ordered pixie 16 and pixels 12mm strings. Set up stand alone by itself like booklet said to do. I can see unit pixie 16 ver 1.10 ( I did assign to unit 2) tried to plug in and test lights and nothing. I’m lost. 1st - do I need the pro license first to even text them in HU ? 2nd I am using just the black standard 485 usb connector (I ordered the red ) help as I am lost. 

[TheDucks]

2 issues pop out to me.

A Pixi16 uses 16 ID's, so BASIC seriously does not cut it.

Pixies want a Fast network (500K-1M) and enhanced mode for anything with rapid changes. That is Pro territory

If you do not have a Gen3 AC controller, it can't do 500K or enhanced, so a separate network is needed because they need to be on different networks.

Tested? Did you use the white button on the Pixie to run a self test pattern?  

What was the LED on the Pixie doing? 

[Akabigred]

Thank you for the response. Yes I know about the pro license I just literally haven’t upgraded it yet. Wanted to make sure everything works first. I do have the hen 3 AC unit. And have ordered the high speed adapter although some places say you don’t need it but adding more in the future I think I will need. The red led flashed until I found on network. Then solid red. The white button did not illuminate the leds though. 

[Orville]

15 hours ago, Akabigred said:

Thank you for the response. Yes I know about the pro license I just literally haven’t upgraded it yet. Wanted to make sure everything works first. I do have the hen 3 AC unit. And have ordered the high speed adapter although some places say you don’t need it but adding more in the future I think I will need. The red led flashed until I found on network. Then solid red. The white button did not illuminate the leds though. 

You have to hold down the white button(also the Pixie16D reset button) for 5 seconds, then the Pixie will run the self test and will repeat until you press the white button again (short press, just press and release), which will stop the self test. 

In HU, a Pixie16D can only turn the pixels ON and OFF, to test effects like shimmer, fade, twinkle you have to create a "test sequence", a simple animation sequence will do.

But as was stated, to do this REQUIRES a PRO License for a Pixie16D and Pixels programming.  As the PRO License OPENS UP EVERYTHING in the LOR software suite, and will be your best option. 

Most folks UPGRADE to PRO when they buy, and start using Pixels in their display, due to the very limited to none for Pixels ability in the lower license levels.

Edited November 24, 2023 by Orville

[Akabigred]

Perfect. I will do that today or tomorrow. I appreciate the help and will update on progress. My high sped adapter will be here tomorrow as well. 

[Akabigred]

Well still waiting on the high speed adapter. But in the meantime I have upgraded to pro and registered license. Still can’t get lights to illuminate. Not with test button and not in HU. 
 

was thinking maybe the unit isn’t talking with the software. Can’t find it it network either but in HU I can refresh and find the unit. I’m still lost 

Edited November 26, 2023 by Akabigred

[Jimehc]

the onboard Test button when tapped > should chase the bulbs slowly through all the ports - for about 5 minutes...

If lights connect to port 1 - then they will light right away... If lights connected to port 16, it will take a while to get there...

Either way they should light with the brief tap of the white test button

[Orville]

19 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

the onboard Test button when tapped > should chase the bulbs slowly through all the ports - for about 5 minutes...

If lights connect to port 1 - then they will light right away... If lights connected to port 16, it will take a while to get there...

Either way they should light with the brief tap of the white test button

Brief tap?  I have to hold it down for a bare minimum of 5 seconds, then release before my Pixie16D will cycle through the light test pattern.

[Orville]

When you find the unit in HU can you control (On/Off) any lights on any port?   

Will it run the rgbw test,?  The rgbw test lights one bulb at a time, when each bulb lights it cycles red, green, blue, white, then moves on to the next bulb and repeats all the way down the string. But only on the port selected, if you select All Ports every string will run this test pattern on all 16 ports at the same time.

Did you configure the Pixie16D in the HU, you need to set the IC type, and string total bulb count you're using (usually defaults to 100 bulbs), unless you change it, and it affects all 16 ports to whatever you set.  If you click the Advance button in the config area, you can set each port for IC type, # of bulbs or pixels per port.

You also have to keep in mind some props will use 2 ports, like the LOR Singing Trees use 2 ports, but they have to be defined using the Cosmic Color Config area.  So my singing trees use 4 ports, Ralphie uses ports 3 snd 4, Zuzu uses ports 5 and 6, and even though each of those ports use 100 channels, these use only 8 channels in dumb rgb mode, the 2nd port on the singing trees never receive any lighting commands.

So, I'm thinking you haven't got your Pixie16D completely configured and set up fully via the HU, and why you aren't getting your lights to work.

P.S. hope this didn't confuse you further.

Edited November 26, 2023 by Orville

[Akabigred]

Here’s what I get when going to HU / config / advanced config 

[TheDucks]

You are using the wrong configure button for Pixies. You want the COSMIC COLOR button on the first screen. Page 15 in the Pixie manual

[Akabigred]

Already set that as listed above. All on RGB 

[Akabigred]

Here is what I have 

[Jimehc]

3 hours ago, Orville said:

Brief tap?  I have to hold it down for a bare minimum of 5 seconds, then release before my Pixie16D will cycle through the light test pattern.

When is it never about you...

[dibblejr]

On 11/24/2023 at 7:10 AM, Orville said:

You have to hold down the white button(also the Pixie16D reset button) for 5 seconds, then the Pixie will run the self test and will repeat until you press the white button again (short press, just press and release), which will stop the self test. 

In HU, a Pixie16D can only turn the pixels ON and OFF, to test effects like shimmer, fade, twinkle you have to create a "test sequence", a simple animation sequence will do.

But as was stated, to do this REQUIRES a PRO License for a Pixie16D and Pixels programming.  As the PRO License OPENS UP EVERYTHING in the LOR software suite, and will be your best option. 

Most folks UPGRADE to PRO when they buy, and start using Pixels in their display, due to the very limited to none for Pixels ability in the lower license levels.

No, do not hold the test button down that long, it may make problems.

They just have to quickly press the button to get it to do a test pattern.

For a “reset” it’s a different  procedure.

Just wanted to clear that up.

JR

 Jimehc is correct! 
 

That could be a cause of some of your issues. I see a lot of messed up switches when I fix them.

Edited November 27, 2023 by dibblejr

[Orville]

2 hours ago, dibblejr said:

No, do not hold the test button down that long, it may make problems.

They just have to quickly press the button to get it to do a test pattern.

For a “reset” it’s a different  procedure.

Just wanted to clear that up.

JR

 Jimehc is correct! 
 

That could be a cause of some of your issues. I see a lot of messed up switches when I fix them.

When I just press and release it does nothing.  Last time I did the test, I timed it with a digital watch, pressed for 1 second, release got nothing, released after 2 seconds, still no rest run, finakkt after holding it down for 5 seconds, test ran.  Anything less than 5 seconds and it did nothing. 

This was a brand new Pixie16DV4 card I purchased last year in late(?) 2022(i think, may have been early 2023, I honestly don't recall.)

So, I was going on by experience with how mine worked, which apparently it shouldn't require to get into the test pattern.

I'll have to recheck it, now that it's been in use for quite some time now, and I'm not having any issues with it, working perfectly fine.  But I'll check it later and see if it'll start the test pattern using just a press and release.  So, I believed it required a 5 second press fo access the test pattern.

[Orville]

4 hours ago, dibblejr said:

No, do not hold the test button down that long, it may make problems.

They just have to quickly press the button to get it to do a test pattern.

For a “reset” it’s a different  procedure.

Just wanted to clear that up.

JR

 Jimehc is correct! 
 

That could be a cause of some of your issues. I see a lot of messed up switches when I fix them.

JR, just went out to test my P16V4, pressed button to test, didn't start test.  Didn't hold button down for the 5 seconds either.

So I just did a full reset on the P16DV4, tried the test again.  This time it started the test immediately, as you and Jimhc had said.

Perhaps when I updated the FW or made some changes to the PORTS in the HU or something got skewed along the way somewhere that I was unaware of. 

Thought it was normal to hold for that 5 second interval to start the light test pattern.  Glad I had only done that twice since I got the card and installed it (replaced card you had sent me) originally, as a note, I never tried running a test pattern on that card, didn't know anything about it until it had stopped working and couldn't access it. 

And you told me to try that, but nothing was working, just a red blinking L.E.D.  Still have the card you sent, and thought maybe the com chip went bad, but that wouldn't affect the test pattern would it?  If not, still no idea what happened that caused this card to quit functioning.

Glad I reset my new card, sure didn't want to create any problems that would damage the new card.

From now on, if I make any FW updates or any big changes to the P16D, I'm going to make sure I do a reset afterward, and then make sure my settings are still set, then run the test pattern as described.

Edited November 27, 2023 by Orville
Posted before I had finished the response. Had put channels when I meant Ports! Duuhh-uh.

[dibblejr]

3 minutes ago, Orville said:

JR, just went out to test my P16V4, pressed butoon to test, didn't start test.

So I just did a full reset on the P16DV4, tried the test again.  This time it started the test immediately as you and Jimhc had said.

Perhaps when I updated the FW or made some changes to the channels in the HU or something got skewed along the way somewhere that I was unaware of.  Thought it was normal to hold fir that 5 second interval.  Glad I only did that twice since I got the card and installed it (replaced card you had sent me) originally, as a note, I never tried running a test pattern on that card, didn't know anything about it until it had stopped working and couldn't access it.  And you told me to try that, but nothing was working, just a red blinking L.E.D.  Still have the card you sent, and thought maybe the com chip went bad, but that wouldn't affect the test pattern would it?  If not, still no idea what happened that caused this card to quit functioning.

Glad I reset my new card, sure didn't want to create any problems that would damage the new card.

From now on, if I make any FW updates to the P16D, I'm going to make sure I do a reset afterward and then mak

Every version of pixie form my beta test pixie16 in 2016 to present is only a quick press and release. 

The pixie16 I built for you I never recall you telling me it had problems. Its been a few years and I only recall you saying there was a lot of water damage to a lot of your controllers. If you asked me about a pixie controller problem you may not have told me it was the one I built.

Also there is no reason to do a reset after a firmware update. Most people do not know that a reset is only clearing the eprom, it does not affect anything else. Only time a reset is even mentioned is if things go wrong.

In most cases if a comm chip fails, nothing works. No test lights, no HU functions and it will not be able to be found in a HU search.

JR

[Orville]

3 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Every version of pixie form my beta test pixie16 in 2016 to present is only a quick press and release. 

The pixie16 I built for you I never recall you telling me it had problems. Its been a few years and I only recall you saying there was a lot of water damage to a lot of your controllers. If you asked me about a pixie controller problem you may not have told me it was the one I built.

Also there is no reason to do a reset after a firmware update. Most people do not know that a reset is only clearing the eprom, it does not affect anything else. Only time a reset is even mentioned is if things go wrong.

In most cases if a comm chip fails, nothing works. No test lights, no HU functions and it will not be able to be found in a HU search.

JR

The water damage was only to the older CCB100D 5V controllers, but only 2 of them had thst issue.  The ones I lost (totally fried) were due to a lightning strike, actually had 2 lightning strikes that took out a total of 6 of the older 5V CCB100D units and 5 strands of 5V C9 strawberry strings.

The Pixie16 just quit working, and yes, I did discuss the problem with you and said it was the one you had sent me, the P16D was the one I got from you and was the only P16D I had at the time.  I still only have 1 P16D, I bought a new P16D card(card only) and swapped out the bad, non-working card for the new one.

Since I didn't know much about it, you walked me through how to reset the unit, how to access the test light pattern, I didn't even know it had a test pattern before you told me about it. 

 Only thing it will do when powered is a Blinking RED LED, HU couldn't find it, no test pattern, nothing worked connected to any of its ports.  So I just purchased a new card and replaced it to get things working again.  Since we couldn't determine what its problem is.

From reading here, it sounds like the com chip may have gotten fried during one of our violent lightning storms we get here in Florida, when the 2nd one hit my ramp and took out a few older 5V CCB100D units and light strings, it probably cooked the P16D com chip.  I suppose I should see about ordering one, then replace the current one, to see if that will get that card working again.

You help a lot of folks, so it probably just slipped your memory.  I know I can't recall everyone I've ever helped with things either, not just here, but in other things to, not even related to this hobby.  Happens to all of us at some point.

[dibblejr]

3 hours ago, Orville said:

The water damage was only to the older CCB100D 5V controllers, but only 2 of them had thst issue.  The ones I lost (totally fried) were due to a lightning strike, actually had 2 lightning strikes that took out a total of 6 of the older 5V CCB100D units and 5 strands of 5V C9 strawberry strings.

The Pixie16 just quit working, and yes, I did discuss the problem with you and said it was the one you had sent me, the P16D was the one I got from you and was the only P16D I had at the time.  I still only have 1 P16D, I bought a new P16D card(card only) and swapped out the bad, non-working card for the new one.

Since I didn't know much about it, you walked me through how to reset the unit, how to access the test light pattern, I didn't even know it had a test pattern before you told me about it. 

 Only thing it will do when powered is a Blinking RED LED, HU couldn't find it, no test pattern, nothing worked connected to any of its ports.  So I just purchased a new card and replaced it to get things working again.  Since we couldn't determine what its problem is.

From reading here, it sounds like the com chip may have gotten fried during one of our violent lightning storms we get here in Florida, when the 2nd one hit my ramp and took out a few older 5V CCB100D units and light strings, it probably cooked the P16D com chip.  I suppose I should see about ordering one, then replace the current one, to see if that will get that card working again.

You help a lot of folks, so it probably just slipped your memory.  I know I can't recall everyone I've ever helped with things either, not just here, but in other things to, not even related to this hobby.  Happens to all of us at some point.

Yes, its a comm chip. If you put a HD ticket in requesting a comm chip they charge either $2 0r $4 i cant recall.

JR