hybrid mode why use other modes

[lineman]

Hey DLAers , I am trying to wrap my head around the reason for use of the different modes before setting up controllers in LSP. here is what I think is right.
                String mode - controls whole string only
                pixel mode -  controls individual nodes ( lights ) on a string
                hybrid mode - controls whole string and individual nodes on a string

If this is correct why would you not just program SSC to Hybrid mode and have the best of both worlds ( String mode & Pixel mode ) at your hands? I am sure I am missing something here.

[frankr]

Just a matter of preference.  With LSP or LOR I can collapse a controller that represents a string and treat it as 1 channel.  So I run everything in pixel mode.  I also have one string run up and back down my Mega Tree but want to treat each segment (the up and the down) as individual segments.  My solution with software allows this with ease, Hybrid mode would not.

So really it is just a matter of personal preference and what you want to do.

Frank

[rrowan]

I would think using LSP you would want to use pixel mode only.

Since like frankr said you can collapse the channels for each item. RJ added hybrid mode when you started testing the SSC using Vixen 2.1 and saw a reason to be able to use both string and pixel modes at the same time which he called hybrid mode.

just my 2 cents

Rick R.

P.S. Since I only use Vixen 2.1 so far, all of my SSCs are in hybrid mode.

[Steve Gase]

If LSP 2.5 is truly better this year with memory and performance, then hybrid is not likely needed by LSP users.

Last year I didn't use hybrid, and with a high channel count I think some of my songs would have benefited from a simpler string-control approach.  With lots of channels, even the simplest song can get tedious because the channel counts add baggage. 

If 2.5 doesn't work well, then I'd define some songs (and the underlying channels) to use just the hybrid channels. 

When I want to get fancy with the megapixel tree, then I'd use another channel configuration that ignores the hybrid channel and uses all of the other channels for individual control.

[tbone321]

The primary reason is channel count confusion.  The original two modes were string and pixel modes.  RJ added the hybrid mode was added later (before we saw them) due to request.  The only real problem with hybrid mode is that it ties up channels.  If you only need string mode for a string that has 50 nodes, why waste 150 channels that cannot be used for anything else.  If you have 10 strings that will always be used in pixel mode, regardless of length you will be wasting 30 channels setting them in hybrid mode.  Hybrid mode comes in handy when at times you want to light up the entire string in one color but also intend to set pixels separately at times, then hybrid mode is the answer.  While it has its advantages in certain situations, it's not the answer for everything.

[Steve Gase]

The issue is configuration.  When you put together your string with the SSC, you are locked into that decision that you stick with for the life of your show that year.  You won't be reconfiguring the SSC between songs.

String mode loses the ability to individually control pixels in ANY song.  (Some might ask, why pay for smart strings -- just get dumb strings if that is all you want to do.)

Pixel model gives you individual pixel control, but all songs need to have each pixel defined and controlled.  It is work to program each pixel in each song.

Hybrid gives you the choice.  You lose 3 channels per SSC for that flexibility, but it allows you the flexibility of using either method across songs, and even within songs.

[JonB256]

For many, it comes down to Channel Count at programming crunch time.

If I was putting flex strips around a window but just wasn't ready to go over 1000 channels or use E1.31 or multiple DMX dongles, I'd buy the Smart String strips, program my SSCs in single channel mode, get to programming.

NEXT YEAR (famous last words), I could get the software setups and E1.31 all ironed out, reprogram my SSCs and go with pixel mode.

[RJ]

For many, it comes down to Channel Count at programming crunch time.

If I was putting flex strips around a window but just wasn't ready to go over 1000 channels or use E1.31 or multiple DMX dongles, I'd buy the Smart String strips, program my SSCs in single channel mode, get to programming.

NEXT YEAR (famous last words), I could get the software setups and E1.31 all ironed out, reprogram my SSCs and go with pixel mode.

Jon is dead on,

remember when SS was introducted the softwares had not got this advanced so we needed all the help we could get. And for those wanting to say simple at first but have the ablilty to be complicated then this gave them both.

I used a already seqence that year and most of it was not changed just mapped to the hybird channels to control the whole string.

But I need to show off what SS stuff could do so I added hybird to keep the ability to show of in parts of the show.

RJ

[lineman]

This is GOOD stuff , I knew you guys ROCK keep it comming. OK I set up a controller in lsp and named it Hybrid string mode and then click on CH.1 and drew channel  image (single line of C-9) and did not split channels and then click on CH.2 and drew channel image over CH.1's image and SPLIT the channels between CH.2 and the last Ch. leaving out channel 1 , And then I cloned the controller and named it Hybrid pixel mode and expanded controller and removed CH.1 also did this with the hybrid string mode controller only this time I removed all channel EXECEPT CH.1 . What I am thinking is now when I sequence when I expand either controller their is only the channels that are in that perticular mode controller ( string mode controller only shows the 1st channel and pixel mode controller only shows CH.2 down) Can yall see any reason why not to do it this way?Also I see yalls point about the use of the other Modes

[chrisatpsu]

hybrid mode works well in programs like vixen, where you can't simply just collapse the controller and provide an effect.

hybrid mode isn't really needed for programs like lsp that can handle the entire string as one long string, and a bunch of individual nodes, or as segments.

[tng5737]

This is GOOD stuff , I knew you guys ROCK keep it comming. OK I set up a controller in lsp and named it Hybrid string mode and then click on CH.1 and drew channel  image (single line of C-9) and did not split channels and then click on CH.2 and drew channel image over CH.1's image and SPLIT the channels between CH.2 and the last Ch. leaving out channel 1 , And then I cloned the controller and named it Hybrid pixel mode and expanded controller and removed CH.1 also did this with the hybrid string mode controller only this time I removed all channel EXECEPT CH.1 . What I am thinking is now when I sequence when I expand either controller their is only the channels that are in that perticular mode controller ( string mode controller only shows the 1st channel and pixel mode controller only shows CH.2 down) Can yall see any reason why not to do it this way?Also I see yalls point about the use of the other Modes

When I do my hybrid pixel nodes in LSP, I simply add two pixelnet controllers.  Controller #1 has one (1) RGB node (3-chans) So if this is string over my porch I'd call it porch-h and it will control the whole string.  The second controller I'd define as x RGB nodes (if my string is 100 nodes long then x would be 100) and is callled simply porch.  I use the prefix function so that each node is called porch-###  (### is the node number).  The reason I do this is that when I do multiple splits and have to select the range it is much easier to determine the mapping since my second controller nodes start at 1.  When I want to operate on the whole string (which is most of the time) it is more efficient to to just handle 3 channels instead of 300.

[taybrynn]

I also found that hybrid mode had the advantage that if you got crunched on time (while sequencing) that you could program something as a single RGB channel a lot quicker than you could complete the true pixel level programming.  The other thing which I believe in, but nobody seems to talk about (so maybe its not true?) is that there appears to be some lag associated with controlling the entire string at the pixel level vs. with just 3 channels ... so to me, its less data and thus potentially less laggy.  I did collapse things using LOR groups last year, but again programming the first three channels was still easier somehow, or at least to me.

[tbone321]

String mode loses the ability to individually control pixels in ANY song.  (Some might ask, why pay for smart strings -- just get dumb strings if that is all you want to do.)

There are reasons for that.  One would be consistancy.  You might want all the nodes to look thesame and have the same color and as we all know, that seldom happens when nodes come frm different manufacturers.  Another might be that you just don't have the time to sequence in multiple colors for 10,000 nodes that year so you just set them to string.  A third might be that after setting them up in your show, some areas just look better if kept to one color at a time so again, string mode for those as well.

Pixel model gives you individual pixel control, but all songs need to have each pixel defined and controlled.  It is work to program each pixel in each song.

And if that's what you need then you can set the controller for that mode.

Hybrid gives you the choice.  You lose 3 channels per SSC for that flexibility, but it allows you the flexibility of using either method across songs, and even within songs.

And if that's what you need then you have that option but it's not the answer for everything.  The three modes give you the flexability to configure the controller for what works for you without wasting channels and if you are using LSP, that may be important to you.  If you are comfortable or feel the need to configure all the controllers to hybrid mode, go for it.  That's the great thing about DIY, it's always your choice.

[CW]

Here are a couple of examples for each.

Last year I built a fireworks tree with SS and I used SS strips for the burst in 8 spokes.  I set the SSC to pixel mode because to me I do not see why I would have the spokes light up at once.  It is best to chase the pixels from inside to out like a firework burst.

This year I am adding another element that is a Merry Christmas sign spelled in script.  Each letter has it's own SSC and I set them up in hybrid mode and separated the channels so the string channels are grouped together and then the pixel channels.  This way I can spell out Merry in whole letters with the string channels or chase out from node 1 to node 122 in Merry.  I am using S3 to sequence with.

[Mickpat]

This year I have been converting some of my incandescent lights to RGB and plan to use hybrid mode.  This will allow my old sequences to work without much modification until I have time to upgrade the sequence to RGB.