Author Topic: Teach me the ways of SS  (Read 7926 times)

Offline tbone321

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #30 on: February 16, 2015, »
That is really going to be a matter of opinion since both have their advantages and disadvantages.  The primary advantages of the ATX supply is their durability and warranty that they have.  They supply all of the voltages that the hub or Zeus requires without the need of adding those regulators to the device.  The disadvantages are that the big ones can get a bit expensive and they tend to have a lot of connections that are not used by our equipment and seem to just get in the way.  You also can't adjust the 12V output which can lead to issues with some of the poorly designed nodes out there.

The primary advantages to many of the 12V only supplies is cost and the ability to adjust their 12V output.  I have seen many 40A 12V supplies selling for around $20.00 which is less than many ATX supplies with similar power outputs.  They also don't have any wires coming out of them so there are no extra cables to get in the way.  The disadvantages are that they don't have many wires coming out of them which includes the power cord.  IOW, you need to supply your own.  You also will need to add the extra components to the hubs and Zeus to supply them with the 5V and 3.3V that they also need.  With many of these, quality is not the #1 concern and they have no warranty to speak of but for that price, what do you really expect.  You also need to use some heavy gauge wire between the supply and the device, especially is there is any distance between them or you can expect some substantial voltage drops.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline NickWaka7

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #31 on: February 18, 2015, »
Thanks for all of the replies! It is all making sense and I am currently working on a nice setup.

One more quick question. This year I decided to use a USB Pixelnet dongle since I am not using a lot channels yet. I noticed that Vixen 3 does not support this dongle yet since most people use ETD. I have been looking into the LOR software. I like what it has to offer, plus I really like the new star program that you can also get. I was wondering if the LOR software works with our products, especially the pixelnet dongle.

Offline tbone321

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #32 on: February 18, 2015, »
If you are looking at LOR and especially Star, you may want to taka a closer look at XLights and Nutcracker.  LOR is good software but is not free and Star IIRC, is a rather expensive add-on.  Nutcracker has the abilities of the Star add-on and more and costs nothing.  Being that it is so early in the year, you have the time to experiment a little and IMHO, it is better to experiment with the free options first.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline NickWaka7

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #33 on: February 18, 2015, »
How can i sequence my effects if vixen 3 doesnt support usb pixelnet

Offline tbone321

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #34 on: February 19, 2015, »
I believe that you can convert your Vixen 3 sequences to XLights which does support the USB dongle.  I would go into the XLights and nutcracker forums here and post this question. 
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline bartels

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #35 on: February 19, 2015, »
I'd highly recommend using the Falcon Pi Player (FPP) on a raspberry pi for your show PC.  I successfully outputted sequences from both XLights and Vixen3 to the FPP.  My show ran without hiccups this year because i purchased the raspberry pi.  The previous year I had issues with my show PC freezing the sequence half way through the night. Or had issues with the scheduler not starting on other nights.  The FPP was the best investment I made last season.  :)

Offline tbone321

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #36 on: February 19, 2015, »
While FPP is a good setup, it really is just a PC replacement and still needs an output device which in this case, would still be the USB dongle. 
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline CaptainMurdoch

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #37 on: February 19, 2015, »

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How can i sequence my effects if vixen 3 doesnt support usb pixelnet

Sequencing and playing are really two separate things.  Most sequencers can also playback or you can use a player like xLights or FPP to play your sequences.  xLights also has Nutcracker built in so you can sequence there as well.

I believe that you will probably see Vixen 3 supporting the Lynx USB dongle with PixelNet firmware this year sometime.  There was a conversation a few weeks ago over on diychristmas.org where we talked about the protocol requirements to talk to the USB dongle because there was interest in adding support.

Offline Gary

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #38 on: February 19, 2015, »
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I believe that you will probably see Vixen 3 supporting the Lynx USB dongle with PixelNet firmware this year sometime.  There was a conversation a few weeks ago over on diychristmas.org where we talked about the protocol requirements to talk to the USB dongle because there was interest in adding support.

+1 to that. "Some Guy" over there posed the question. "Some Guy" is my alter ego over on that board, since the uncreative name of "Gary" was already in use when I signed up over there. I prefer to channel my creative powers towards my sequencing instead.  ;D  The Vixen 3 team seems to be working very hard on improving the software.

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Offline tbone321

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Re: Teach me the ways of SS
« Reply #39 on: February 19, 2015, »
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I believe that you will probably see Vixen 3 supporting the Lynx USB dongle with PixelNet firmware this year sometime.  There was a conversation a few weeks ago over on diychristmas.org where we talked about the protocol requirements to talk to the USB dongle because there was interest in adding support.

+1 to that. "Some Guy" over there posed the question. "Some Guy" is my alter ego over on that board, since the uncreative name of "Gary" was already in use when I signed up over there. I prefer to channel my creative powers towards my sequencing instead.  ;D  The Vixen 3 team seems to be working very hard on improving the software.

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LOL, that's why I use the name tbone321 instead of just tbone which has been used in a few forums already.  I find it easier to use the same name on multiple forums, especially if they are based on the same subject matter.
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving