Mega Tree Question

[James Shelby]

I have a mega tree with four colors of ac led lights a total of 64 channels, 16 channels per color. The tree is being replaced with a pixel tree, the controllers have 64 outputs, 128 strands total. How do I set up a pixel tree so I can copy and paste my old sequences straight across?

[TheDucks]

7 hours ago, James Shelby said:

I have a mega tree with four colors of ac led lights a total of 64 channels, 16 channels per color. The tree is being replaced with a pixel tree, the controllers have 64 outputs, 128 strands total. How do I set up a pixel tree so I can copy and paste my old sequences straight across?

Things are a bit more complicated. Your original has just 64 channels (think as 1 bulb each channel for this explanation) If your old tree interleaved 3 strings on a 'spoke' (something I have frequently seen) (I am guessing things got even worse. You have 4 strands (AC channels) per spoke.

OTOH A Pixel bulb is 3 channels and you now have 128 Strands (50 nodes?,each strand?) If you copied your dumb AC sequence channel  over, that is one color on the first node on a string

 There is a HU option for Pixies. That you can put them in DUMB mode (The port behaves more like a CMB24. just 3 channels, per (R,G,B) port .)

BUT Also remember, they will now mix light. R+B = Purple , and you don't have that 4th channel (white?) on the new spoke.  It is not simple if you turn on 2-4 strands on a tree spoke, you get a color shift, nor 2-4 strands of light

So now you need to also set the PORT ID (for what was the former 3 channel) AND the channels used, NOW become 1, 2, 3 for each PORT. (A Pixie 16 used this way would have 48 LOGICAL channels spread over 16 ID's

Hope you can understand what I was trying to convey here

 

[James Shelby]

I think the best option for the next few seasons is to double wrap the the tree, one the same as past seasons and one layer of pixels. Run the show as before and every few songs add an animation sequence with pixels maybe playing background music. 

[TheDucks]

Wow. No one else stepped in to help you.

I am far from an expert and expect  others to ad their Quarter (2cents inflated 😁 )

FWIW I started with a 9 spoke (half round-0,90,180 the those were divided and again) tree. + the topper

The next year, I added a strand of white to 0, 90, 180 for 12 channels all AC

Then I added 8 channels of Dumb RGB for 17 + AC topper

Next, the AC strands went and I replaced those with another 8 dumb and 1 Smart in (Pixie in Dumb mode)  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XssqectruJzV7RgB6YgUAjyPWDy9K_IY/view?usp=drive_link (there are 2 @ 400W supplies on the back) (this is where I discovered that I could no longer have White AND a color on the same strand. 

I like you transition idea. Just remember that you are adding weight and more wind load to your tree

[Jimehc]

I would do 16 Pixel strings and create 4 Motion Effect Rows for color - you can Blend or overlay the AC Colors onto the Pixel String..

You would have 64 Motion Effect Rows - 4 each x16...

Copy 64 AC Rows into the 64 Pixel Motion Effect Rows...

 

[James Shelby]

20 hours ago, Jimehc said:

I would do 16 Pixel strings and create 4 Motion Effect Rows for color - you can Blend or overlay the AC Colors onto the Pixel String..

You would have 64 Motion Effect Rows - 4 each x16...

Copy 64 AC Rows into the 64 Pixel Motion Effect Rows...

 

I am very new to the whole pixel thing, and I get so turned around by all the new terminology. I run into settings for ccr's, ribbons and many other things. I have no idea how to do what you just said. I have watched all the videos but nothing matches what I can come up with on my screen.

[James Shelby]

I have another question. I have a pixel mega tree in a preview it should be 128 strands but in the sequencer it shows 64, is something wrong? Never mind I found that problem. I did find the 150 by 128 and it looks like I can program to it.

 

Edited May 6 by James Shelby

[Steven]

On 5/5/2024 at 11:39 AM, TheDucks said:

Wow. No one else stepped in to help you.

Perhaps that's because (1) It's July; and (2) This was posted in the S3/S4 forum.

I would not recommend using S4 in a display with a pixel tree.

On 5/5/2024 at 2:14 PM, Jimehc said:

You would have 64 Motion Effect Rows - 4 each x16...

Copy 64 AC Rows into the 64 Pixel Motion Effect Rows...

James indicates he is using version 4.4.16. If so, this idea won't work. There's not an easy way to do what you need to do with S4.

If you need a reason to migrate to S6, this is it. In that case here's what you would do:

1. Create a Preview either by importing your layout from S4 or starting from scratch.
2. In the preview, create the old pixel tree and the new pixel tree as separate props.
3. For the new pixel tree, have a set of 16 Motion Effect Rows, each of which is one "slice" of the tree. These rows will not be used to create new effects, but only as a place to paste from the old pixel tree.
4. Import your sequences into S6.
5. For each sequence, copy and paste from the old pixel tree to the new pixel tree. The Sequencer will create a Colorwash effects of the correct color.
6. When you are done, the old pixel tree can be removed from the preview.