Delay in Coop - Adding PixelNet Support

[TexasStingray]

Ok, Sorry of the delay in getting the Coop going. Made a mod to my DMX Player V1. It can run a PixelNet test sequence that is programmed in the chip. Now I have to test to see if I can get it to read the Sequence from a SD Card. And YES, for those of you that have the V1, I will be providing instruction on how yo can mod your V1 to make it support PixelNet as well. There will be a different firmware for DMX vs PixelNet.

Scott

[tbone321]

I guess that my question would have to be .....WHY?  Don't we already have a PixelNet player more commonly known as the Conductor

[TexasStingray]

The conductor is for playing shows and is very good at that and it has a lot more capabilities. But, what if you only want to control a small item and don't need any sound. What about expense the Panther runs around $27 plus an SD Card.

[Steve Gase]

I love it, and also the option of reusing the HW for DMX or PixelNet!
 
Thanks for doing this!

[tbone321]

Then I guess that my question would be  What "small" item uses Pixelnet?  Don't get me wrong, it's your device and you are free to do with it as you will but time is running out for this year and it seems strange to further delay what seems like a pretty cool device to add a feature that serves very little purpose for it but either way, good luck with it.

[TexasStingray]

I made a mod to the board which I believe will allow it to be used for both dmx and pixelnet. I'll do some more testing and go forward with the coop as the hardware would now be the same. The mod to the board is just swapping of 4 of the pins. no new components. As for timing, the Panther is not really desighed for shows but for controlling individual devices. at $27 dollars per panther you can have a item that runs upto 4096 channels out aways and without having to have a cat5 cable runnning out to it. Anyways I should be able to do the coop within a week or 2 tops as I am ready just need to be made a coop manager.

[CaptainMurdoch]

Then I guess that my question would be  What "small" item uses Pixelnet?  Don't get me wrong, it's your device and you are free to do with it as you will but time is running out for this year and it seems strange to further delay what seems like a pretty cool device to add a feature that serves very little purpose for it but either way, good luck with it.

A small item could be a single SSC connected to the Panther with a 12V power supply to inject the necessary power.  That'd give you 100+ pixels.  Or if you need more, just get a PixelNet splitter to both inject the power and give you up to 4 SSC's off the Panther.

[PJNMCT]

Great idea Scott. I always wondered a little why you hadn't attempted this from the beginning. Seemed like an interesting feature for a small hardware investment.

-Paul

[JonB256]

Output to a Zeus

That's a lot of standalone output.

Galaxy Note II

[TexasStingray]

So, If you have a mega tree which to my understanding you don't/can't or may not want to sync to music but just play sequences with say 16  SSC or a Zeus. Then by my calculations nut using the hybrid feature of the controller then you can get 4096 channels / 3 colors per node / 16 SSC = 16 strings with 83 nodes.

[TexasStingray]

Scratch that 4096 Node Idea. My Testing was with 21 nodes. If I try to push the full 4096 there is just not enough power in this chip to read the SD Card and Send it out fast enough. So I'm going to have to limit it down on a combination of nodes and speed. Sorry if I got your hopes up.

[therealbigjim]

great for running my landscape ather 2 lighting.....

[twooly]

So are you planning pixelnet but maybe 512 channels?  I ask because of a landscape lighting project I'm working on will use ssc to drive it.

[TexasStingray]

512 pixelnet works at speed of 50ms. More that that it seems to be slow reading the SDCard. So pixelnet is coming. It may not be ready for the first coop but I will want some testers of the pixelnet firmware. They will need a programmer.

[einstein2883]

I'm not sure where I read this (might want to check with RJ) but I think you will need to send all 4096 channel's of pixelnet.  I think it has to do with how RJ's SSC works.  A solution might be you send 512 of data from the SD card and the rest zeros.