Author Topic: troubleshooting pixels  (Read 3036 times)

Offline mmciver

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troubleshooting pixels
« on: February 21, 2015, »
Hello smart people:)

I have an issue where I have 75 rectangular pixels on a SSR3.  I have a couple of pixels that are not functioning correctly but only part of the time.  If I run solid colors the work properly most of the time.  I cannot figure out a patern, but in certain parts of the sequence from LSP 2.8 the are either the wrong color or off.  when it transitions to the next color sequence they are working.

Any Ideas?

Mike
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Offline jnealand

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #1 on: February 21, 2015, »
Sounds like hardware and software channel confusion.  You will need to post a lot more info on your configuration of hardware and software in order to provide more clues.
Jim Nealand
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Offline Steve Gase

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #2 on: February 21, 2015, »
I have 84 rectangular nodes on a SSC.


The rectangular nodes consume a lot of power, and they need power injection in my case.  Some pixels do not light and many are pink at the end of the string when I remove the power at the end of the string.
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Offline mmciver

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2015, »
According to the WIKI I should be able to run 80 rectuangular pixels per SSC, but......  I split it into 2 SSC's and it seems to be working much better!

Thanks for the assistance!

Mike.
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Offline twooly

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2015, »
I suspect just like the nodes they are using more power than when the wiki entry was created.  I bet if you power injected on the string of 73 you would be fine.  I had to power inject on rectangle modules and I was only using 40 modules.  They worked without the extra power just strange colors towards the end of the string.
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Offline tbone321

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #5 on: February 25, 2015, »
I think that some of these issues are being created by using CAT5 cable for combined power and signal distribution.  Cat6 was simply not designed to handle this much current.  We are trying to get around it by tying three pairs together do handle the load but all you need is one broken wire or a bad connection on one pin of the 485 connector (also not designed for this) and now the full load is being carried by 2 pairs or perhaps even 1 if corrosion issues get bad and other pins fail.  Up to 5A on one pair of 24G wires will have one hell of a voltage drop.  While going to 12V was a great idea to help combat voltage drop, I still think that a different wire and connector needs to be put into place.
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Offline mmciver

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Re: troubleshooting pixels
« Reply #6 on: February 25, 2015, »
Interesting Tbone.
I thought RJ worked thru all those issues back when he came up with the concept.  I do know however, that the Pixels are now brighter and pulling more current so the old numbers may be off a bit.

Currently I am just testing in my shop with some good 25 foot lenths of either cat5e or cat6 but when I split it in two everything seems to be working alright.  I have both SSC's running less than 40 pixels.

as far as cabling, my plan is to use cat6 but use the watherproof connectors on the element and have the RJ45's all in a protected encloure.  Since this one element needs 3 SSC's, I am thinking of using a 4 port passive hub for this element and have it supplied by its own power supply.  That will leave my SmartHub for elements that have less pixels but more of them.

We will see how it all turns out here soon!

Ultimately I will have either 2 or 4 Fasteddy candles (22 pixels each), my merry Christmas sign (which is turning out pretty cool), 4 fasteddy candy canes, and some acrylic globes or coroplast shapes with 3 or 4 pixles a piece for my trees.  I am also building 5 RGB arches using HDPE 2 inch pipe.  They are turning out pretty cool too.

When I get them closer to complete  I will post some pictures!

Mike

(Wow, no that I count them up, it will be a lot of pixels and a whole lot more channels)  :)
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