DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Smart String => Topic started by: lorajoslyn on December 11, 2012,
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I have my sequence up and running but periodically will have a lag on 4 strands of my mega tree - the only ones on hub #2.
You can see what im talking about here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3cjMrP4TTw&feature=g-crec-u
Im having a challenge trying to isolate whether its a hardware, firmware, software, or user error.
Using LSP ver 2.5 but 2 revs preious
Etherdongle, verified firmware is v2
Smartstrings all ver 3
Hubs haven't verified version but didnt think the firmware changed.
Exporting LSP to xlights via light elf.
The practical person in me is saying to just leave it be, but my obsessive compulsive personality is winning.
Anyone else having similar issues?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
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I have noticed a slight lag on the second hub after updating to etherdongle v2 firmware. I am using xlights with v1 controllers. I am planning to add the constantly updating data in the first 512 channels. I am also going to try to turn off unused channels at the end off sequences to see if it helps.
Update:
Looks like the added data on the first 512 channels helped make the lag go away for everything but my star which is on the second hub with 8 strings from the back of my tree. The back of the tree seems to be moving fine but the star is lagging.
I don't feel like taking the star down again, but it may be related to the v3 mod that I did to those controllers. I had trouble and couldn't get them to work so I had to change them back to v1. I have to work a lot the next couple of days but this weekend I might try switching them to hub 1 to test if it is hub related or possibly swap the controllers.
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Which Pixelnet Out port are you using on Hub #1 to feed Hub #2?
The direct output one or the RS485 regenerated one?
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Does it make a difference if you go into hub 2 first and then hub to 1? If it does then
What if you went from the ED to a splitter. Then from the splitter to each hub?
Rick S
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Which Pixelnet Out port are you using on Hub #1 to feed Hub #2?
The direct output one or the RS485 regenerated one?
both Pixelnet output jacks are regenerated
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What addresses are you using for the lagging ssc?
If the start address + 3 * number of nodes programmed > 4096, that could be your problem.
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If the start address + 3 * number of nodes programmed > 4096, that could be your problem.
Help me understand this one - are you thinking that it's due to crossing over the universe boundaries?
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either that,or the start address was programmed to match the sequencer channel number
example
programming a controller to start on the second pixelnet universe with a start address of 4097, instead of channel 1
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Very interesting. I could have this very issue - and your example is exactly what I have.
On my second hub, I have it set for pixelnet universe 2 using jumpers. In LSP I have the channel set to 4097. In the programming utility, I programmed the SSC with 4097.
Did I miss a post somewhere where I should have programmed that SSC as 1?
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SSC's are only programmed with a start address of 1-4096
and you need to tuck in that last node on the string under the 4096 also.
universe stops counting at 4096, (or else you wouldn't need another universe)
the next universe is exactly that, a new universe, so the channel counts starts over at 1
so a pixelnet etherdongle would be...
universe channel count for the ssc sequencer software
uni1 1-4096 00001-04096
uni2 1-4096 04096-08192
uni3 1-4096 08193-12288
uni4 1-4096 12289-16384
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as a side note... when you program your DMX stuff, you can only program it for channels 1-512 or it doesn't work
pixelnet is the same, except you're working with blocks of 4096 channels, instead of 512
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SSC's are only programmed with a start address of 1-4096
and you need to tuck in that last node on the string under the 4096 also.
universe stops counting at 4096, (or else you wouldn't need another universe)
the next universe is exactly that, a new universe, so the channel counts starts over at 1
so a pixelnet etherdongle would be...
universe channel count for the ssc sequencer software
uni1 1-4096 00001-04096
uni2 1-4096 04096-08192
uni3 1-4096 08193-12288
uni4 1-4096 12289-16384
I have three hubs
I programmed them 1 to 11,000 using the v3 ssc's,
I got lag on the first hub.
I then went back and programmed them 1to 4096 on each of the three hubs. I got lag on hubs 1. And 2
I am using ver c of xlights.
My first channel on the first hub was 497. This is in the end of the first universe.
I then added one string for a fire stick and set it for channels 1 to 384 on the first hub,
All lag disappeared,
Because it is easier, I am again programming the three hubs as channel 1 to 11,000
No lag, all effects are as expected.
I have the pix lent and Dix jumpers set to
1 and 1 on the first hub
2 and 2on the second hub
3 and 3 on the third hub
A side note, I did not get lag when I ran the show directly from vixen, only xlights.
But adding a string from channel 1 to 384 so,ved the xlights lag.
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true but if you have a channel in the 2nd, or 3rd universes, the ssc needs to be programmed with the smart string utility with a channel between 1 and 4096 with the string not exceeding channel 4096
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once you hit channel 4097, the information for that channel is coming across the next pair of wires in the cat5 cable from the etherdongle.
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SSC's are only programmed with a start address of 1-4096
and you need to tuck in that last node on the string under the 4096 also.
universe stops counting at 4096, (or else you wouldn't need another universe)
the next universe is exactly that, a new universe, so the channel counts starts over at 1
Amazing - I'll re-program my SSC's to take note of this, but it appears that most of my SSC's on that second hub didn't care, except I did have some rainbow nodes that I always assumed were due to a V2 vs V3 SSC fix issue. I wonder if the team was smart enough to have the SSC addressing utility automatically drop it back to 1 if I try programming for 4097....
Sorry to hijack the thread. Carry on!
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true but if you have a channel in the 2nd, or 3rd universes, the ssc needs to be programmed with the smart string utility with a channel between 1 and 4096 with the string not exceeding channel 4096
This apparently is not true. Used the ssc's utility and programmed channels 4097. To 11,000. Everything works correctly.
It would be a one line change to the utility to just modulo the channel entered by the user with 4096. Now 4097 willbe a 1, 8193 will also be a 1. Maybe the ssc's utility has a modulo operation in it already?
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Perhaps RJ needs to address this. I also heard the ssc needs to be channels 1-4096 only.
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The actual address of the SCC must be between 1 and 4096 because that is all that the data streem will allow for. RJ may have made a change to the utility to "make it easier" for people to set the start channel in a multi-universe setup using the same channel number that the sequencer would use instead of the user figuring out the math to set the controller to the correct address for the proper universe.
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I had erroneously programmed my sscs >4096, and they did work, and with the same lag. Re-programmed to the <4096, and no real change, which was a bit odd.
Did change out pixelnet output port, no difference.
I will try to have the input into hub 2 first - hadn't tried that. WIll try that after show is completed tonight.
Did the ramp down thing on a spare channel (channel 99, so i think that's ok) and no change on the lag for those strings. Did i have to alternate up and downs, or anything specific?
I was going to try and swap different strands on different hubs on Saturday morning, but that will take a bit more maneuvering than i can do while a show is running/people watching.
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did you make sure you have strings in the first universe? This is what fixed my lag.
It was very severe.
My first universe was
1-496 empty
497 to 4000 and something full of pixels = severe lag
changed it
1-384 a single rgb string
497 to 4000 something = no lag.
the channels being reprogrammed did nothing to fix the lag i was seeing.
Matt mentioned that he knows what this is in x Lights and he would work on a fix. That was late November. RJ mentioned somewhere about being sure the first universe has strings on it.
i am not sure how many i really needed, i just added one string and the problem got solved.
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The SSC utility "will" allow programming over 4096 but will shift by 6 channels (and who know what else). At least that's what it did for me. That's when I remembered not to use it over 4096.
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My first string is at channel 101 in universe 1, hub 1. So, I have my 5 LEs and my 4 RGB floods on Channels 1 -96. used Channel 99 for my ramp downs.
The rest of Hub 1 has SS 1-10. Hub 2 has SS 11-14 (rest of mega tree) and SS 15-18 (4 arches)
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I experienced similar lag on the 2nd hub during setup using xLights. When I used Vixen it went away, so I haven't gone back to xLights to try and figure out what was going on. Reading about putting channels in the first 512 fixing the problem, it got me thinking. I have about 300 channels in the first universe of the first hub, but the 2nd hub does not have anything in first 512 channels. Could it be possible that there needs to be activity in the first 512 channels of each hub?
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Hmmm... I think you might be getting somewhere... I DID notice that when I had my arches on only (so, later strands on Hub #2), the lag was HUGE. It seemed to be reduced when I had my mega tree on AND the arches (lots of hub 1 going with channels <512 along with hub 2 activity at the <512 mark).
I'll see if i can use a fake channel early on for Hub #2 to verify this.
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I have a total of four hubs in my setup. I noticed that the furthest hub in the chain was experiencing a very similar lag to what you are describing. I switched out the first universe in my xlights setup to use a pixelnet dongle (this hub was using universe 1) and everything was fine after that.
Interestingly I am now never sending any data on the first 8 universes on the etherdongle and I have no lag in my show whatsoever.
I would suspect that you may be having issues with the signal quality getting to your second hub. If you have not tried using the cable between the etherdongle and hub 1 to drive hub 2 I would recommend starting there. If that is not working then I would start looking at the software side of things. You may also try using a different cat 5 between the hubs in case you just have a bad connection.
If you have a pixelnet dongle you may try the method I used as well... I did not have to change anything in my sequences to make this solution work. I just changed my xLights network setup.
Frank
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Interesting... What's the propagation delay in going from 1 hub to a second hub via the regeneration? I bet it's minimal...
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My uneducated guess from what I saw was more that this is a signal integrity issue rather than a data delay issue. Certain patterns, at least for me, did not show this behavior while others did.
Frank
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My uneducated guess from what I saw was more that this is a signal integrity issue rather than a data delay issue. Certain patterns, at least for me, did not show this behavior while others did.
Frank
My setup
Laptop+Etherdongle => 100' pixelnet => First Hub => 6' => Second Hub => 50' => 3rd hub
my severe lag was in the first hub, 2nd and 3rd seemed ok.
After adding channels 1-384 in first hub, my lag disappeared.
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I have similar specs as smeighan - ~100' to the first hub, ~4' to the second hub.
I ended up adding a channel on the 2nd hub with tons of ramp downs (<channel 512) and my lag on the rest of the mega tree went down significantly (not perfect, but acceptable now).
I did swap out the cable between the 2 hubs, no effect. At this point, I think I'll be leaving this for the rest of the season, since its within my personal toleration range.
Smeighan, I'm glad to see you also resolved it, even with 3 hubs. Obviously I'm planning on adding more hubs next year, so that was a concern as well.
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Is lag only noticed with Active hubs? or has anyone had it with Passive hubs (16 port or 4 port)?
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Is lag only noticed with Active hubs? or has anyone had it with Passive hubs (16 port or 4 port)?
I have 2 active and one passive hubs
Lag was on the first, active hub.
Funny thing is if I ran my show through vixen there was no lag,
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By the way xlights 2012d fixed my lag. I added the fades on lower 512 channels and it got better, but the new version has it gone now on my star with fast movements.
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By the way xlights 2012d fixed my lag. I added the fades on lower 512 channels and it got better, but the new version has it gone now on my star with fast movements.
same for me, i had almost no lag with version C as long as i had stuff on the first channels.
With version D, all lag is gone.
thanks Matt!