Conductor - Does the firmware support addtional Smart String Hubs?

[peteandvanessa]

Folks,

I did some limited testing on the conductor with the 16 Port Active Hubs.

I have the conductor installed onto the Etherdongle and channels 1 - 4096 are working fine with the first 16 Port Active Hub. The DMX output from the first 16 Port Active Hub is also reponding correctly.

But if I look at the second 16 Port Active Hub, channels 4097 to 8192 are not outputting to the lights via the conductor/Etherdongle. They were working fine when LSP was outputting via the scheduler. The only things that have changed is that I flashed the Conductor firmware onto the Ethedongle, and installed the Conductor onto the Etherdongle and set up the Conductor to play my test sequence.

It maybe something I've missed, any ideas?

[rrowan]

I thought RJ said that the conductor sends out 16384 channels no matter what the seq is using.

Wondering if the file conversion is working correctly

What software are you using to convert the sequence?

If xLights do you have all of the channels setup in xLights

Rick R.

[peteandvanessa]

I'll have to do some further investigation this week.

The file is a direct export from LSP 2.5 to conductor format, then I loaded it into the conductor and set everything up.

Channels 1 - 4096 are fine, anything above 4096 isn't.

[rrowan]

I'll have to do some further investigation this week.

The file is a direct export from LSP 2.5 to conductor format, then I loaded it into the conductor and set everything up.

Channels 1 - 4096 are fine, anything above 4096 isn't.

Did you ask anybody at LSP is there is a limit ?
I know you paid for the amount of channels and maybe that is the limit and or a bug

Rick R.

[Mickpat]

Using a hex editor which you can download for free from the web, check the conductor file and verify you have data for all of your channels.

For each 50ms, LSP will output 16k of data.  That has to be working or you would be seeing gaps in the output when running the conductor.  ie, channels 1 - 4096 would only be updating every 200ms and your sequence would end early since you would have only 25% of the data.

50ms     12345678 .... 16k
100ms   12345678 .... 16k

Double check all of your jumper settings on the hub.  Also, what happens if you set the hubs to be all hub 1.  Channels 0-4096 should light on both hubs then.  This would tell you if the second hub is working.

[peteandvanessa]

Using a hex editor which you can download for free from the web, check the conductor file and verify you have data for all of your channels.

For each 50ms, LSP will output 16k of data.  That has to be working or you would be seeing gaps in the output when running the conductor.  ie, channels 1 - 4096 would only be updating every 200ms and your sequence would end early since you would have only 25% of the data.

50ms     12345678 .... 16k
100ms   12345678 .... 16k

Double check all of your jumper settings on the hub.  Also, what happens if you set the hubs to be all hub 1.  Channels 0-4096 should light on both hubs then.  This would tell you if the second hub is working.

I'll take a look tonight when I get home. The second Hub is known to be working, since if I flash it back to the Etherdongle Pixelnet firmware the lights respond correctly from LSP on hub 2. But as soon as I flash the conductor firmware to it, the lights connected to hub 2 stop working. I have the correct jumper set on hub 2, I'll try tonight and move the hub 2 jumpers to be the same as hub 1 and see if that changes anything.

I'll also take a look at the hex file output to see if there is anything strange in there

[frankr]

Hi Pete,

Since you have the setup mind testing my conversion process as well?

Second, I would reinforce Mickpat's suggestion.  Take a look at the seq file with a hex editor.  to make that easy I would say make a sequence that alternates at 50 millisecond timming on channels 1-3 and channels 4097-4099. using the same pattern (i.e. when channel one is on channel 4097 is on, 2 same as 4098 and 3 same as 4099).

the first four bytes in the seq file will be channels 1,4097,8193,12289 and the next four bytes 2,4098,8194,12289.

So if channel 1 and 4097 are on in the first time frame bytes 1 and 2 should be the same value in the seq file.  If they are not then the conversion is errant.

To look at the next time mark you will need to go to byte 16385 (4001 in hex). The bytes there follow the same pattern as mentioned above (i.e. 16385 = channel 1, 16386 == channel 4097 etc...).

This should validate if LSP is putting data in the right places during the translation.

Frank

[peteandvanessa]

Hi Pete,

Since you have the setup mind testing my conversion process as well?

Second, I would reinforce Mickpat's suggestion.  Take a look at the seq file with a hex editor.  to make that easy I would say make a sequence that alternates at 50 millisecond timming on channels 1-3 and channels 4097-4099. using the same pattern (i.e. when channel one is on channel 4097 is on, 2 same as 4098 and 3 same as 4099).

the first four bytes in the seq file will be channels 1,4097,8193,12289 and the next four bytes 2,4098,8194,12289.

So if channel 1 and 4097 are on in the first time frame bytes 1 and 2 should be the same value in the seq file.  If they are not then the conversion is errant.

To look at the next time mark you will need to go to byte 16385 (4001 in hex). The bytes there follow the same pattern as mentioned above (i.e. 16385 = channel 1, 16386 == channel 4097 etc...).

This should validate if LSP is putting data in the right places during the translation.

Frank

I'll investigate further tonight to see if I can track down the issue.

[peteandvanessa]

I did some further testing tonight.

If I change the jumpers on Hub 2 to 1 and 1, the lights connected to Hub2 respond to the Hub1 commands, so Hub 2 is working correctly. If I then set the Hub2 jumpers back to 2 and 2 the lights on Hub2 don't respond to the test sequence.

So I exported another sequence into conductor format and loaded it into the flash card.

Set the schedule on the card, plugged in the conductor, all channels are working correctly on both Hubs. So something is wrong with the first export of the sequence that isn't working correctly.

Awesome to pull out the cable out of the PC going to the Etherdongle and conductor and watch the Conductor start up the lights. So far in my testing it's rock solid.

[Mickpat]

I wonder if you just didn't select all of the controllers in the export wizard when exporting in LSP.

[peteandvanessa]

I wonder if you just didn't select all of the controllers in the export wizard when exporting in LSP.

I can try again, but I'm pretty sure I checked them all to be exported

[peteandvanessa]

I exported the sequence again and double checked that all the controllers were checked.

Loaded the exported file into the Conductor and all channels are working now.

So it looks like a case of user error 

[rdebolt]

I exported the sequence again and double checked that all the controllers were checked.

Loaded the exported file into the Conductor and all channels are working now.

So it looks like a case of user error 

Been doing that A LOT lately myself!  Glad to hear that you got it up and running!