I’m using LED pixel tape as part of a stage set. The pixel tape self-addresses from the driver down the length of the tape in use - pretty standard stuff.
The issue I’m coming up against is that some of my runs are longer than 170 pixels, so the tape is expecting to be addressed as follows:
Pixel 170:
R - U1, 508
G - U1, 509
B - U1, 510
Pixel 171:
R - U1, 511
G - U1, 512
B - U2, 001
Obviously I understand why Onyx’s general logic is to not allow a fixture to bridge over a universe break, but in this case, it’s what the tape expects.
Does anyone have a good solution to this? Open to official options that I don’t know about, or good ideas to hack a bit of a solution together.
I wander how the driver is handling that universe jump?
What driver do You use for that?
On the side note: You can patch a single color fixture to any channel. That way You can run Red on Univers 1 with address 511 and green on 512, and then patch blue on U2 address 001.
But Blue color of the same LED will need a second driver for only that one color, right…?
Its WS2812 strip with a NetPixel-Quad Artnet driver (NetPixel-QUAD - SmartShow Lighting) - it’s a pretty neat solution! The NetPixel Quad outputs 4 consecutive universes worth of data on each of its 4 outputs (total potential 16 universes worth of LED).
Single colour fixtures is a good idea, especially when driving with Dylos you wouldn’t even notice once you stacked the fixtures up in the map. I hadn’t thought to look for single colour fixtures, my head was stuck in trying to split one fixture across universes - that’s why it always pays to get other people input!
Typing that reply also made me wonder about whether there was some configuration possible in the driver and a quick look yielded that there is some sort of ability to set the size of universes, so I’ll have a look at that tomorrow and put the results back here in case anyone else encounters this issue.
Yes, the abilities of the driver in this situation are most important. If driver can send out more than one universe of data for the strips on one output…? That needs to be checked.
Dylos is a great tool for that, I would also use it for any pixel mapping situation.
As for Generic single color channel fixtures, You will find them in Generic Colors.
If these will not work, You can always use the Fixture editor and make Your own simple fixtures for this purpose.
The WS2812 strip has its own control protocol, that the driver is generating, capable of controlling far more than 170pixels - so the driver aggregates the multiple DMX universes in from artnet and spits out the WS28xx protocol.
If this works like my pixel drive just patch your total number of LEDs and ONYX will jump the universe gap (same as the pixel controller).
So as an example…say you have 300 pixels. I would recommend using the generic colors, RGB with the virtual dimmer enabled. You’d select the fixture type, quantity (300) and then your starting address. Lets say Universe 1 Address 1. When you click auto patch / apply. ONYX will patch fixtures 1 through 170 on universe 1 address 1 through 510. Then for fixture 171 it will start on Universe 2 address 1. (This should be the same for your pixel controller, it is for mine). And the ending pixel / fixture 300 should be on Universe 2 address 136. (Fix 300 R=136, G=137, B=138).
Usually when pixel controller have multiple universe on a single output port, they know to “jump the gap” and only put a full pixel address according to the DMX profile. At least that is what I have found. So the pixel controller will have a configuration that you say what pixel type (WS2812) how many pixels (300) and the starting address of the output port.
I’d recommend just playing with the patch in ONYX to get a feel for it with a test file.
Thanks for your help Mike and Watson - I may not have been clear, but the set is built and operational already, so it was definite that by default this driver does not recognise the universe break
With your help to kick-start my brain however, I’ve discovered that it is possible to manually set what they call ‘universe size’ for each artnet universe in - setting that ‘size’ to 510 creates the expected behaviour of pixel ‘171’ taking it’s data from address 1 of the following universe.
Thought I’d report back in case anyone else uses this driver in future - it’s actually pretty nice; good value and very compact - apart from this one quirk in the default settings!
the abilities of the driver in this situation are most important. If driver can send out more than one universe of data for the strips on one output…? That needs to be checked..
