scanlime/fadecandy

Easy to use open source hardware to drive WS2811 LEDs with high-quality color

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler thanks I'll try it!

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

just to be clear, int index is your LED index number & int count is how many LED's are on a "strip"

you could have "extra" LED's to account for depending on how the OPC server is setup

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler ok thanks for the tips. The "extra" leds set up on the OPC server may be way I'm having diffictuly getting everything aligned correctly...

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

so you may need to have to do as focal intent said with the index locations but you would still keep the 54 as the striplength

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

Great I finally got it thanks to ur help @M-I-Kessler and @focalintent > here is the code that works: // Map one 54-LED strip to the center of the window
for (int i = 0; i < 8; i++)

opc.ledStrip(0, 54, width/2, height/4 + 15, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(64, 54, width/2, height/4 + 25, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(128, 54, width/2, height/4 + 35, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(192, 54, width/2, height/4 + 45, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(256, 54, width/2, height/4 + 55, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(320, 54, width/2, height/4 + 65, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(384, 54, width/2, height/4 + 75, width / 54.0, 0, false);
opc.ledStrip(448, 54, width/2, height/4 + 85, width / 54.0, 0, false);
}

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

no problem

Are you going to be using multiple PDE documents with this?

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler looking at your frame set up for the Blob file I'm wondering where is the missing 5th LED strip?

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

the top row is split into two "strips"

Its for an infinity table i made. it actually only uses two 60 led chains and the initial index of 0 is at the top center

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler Ok thanks for clarifying. I bet that looks nice with the infinity effect!

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

It does! And adjujsting the frame rate has some pretty interesting and beautiful effects (depending on what I'm running) because of the dithering.

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler @focalintent So as you can see I'm new to the Art of addressable LEDs.. I was wondering about the best resources for learning about that stuff. I've checked the Open Pixel Protocol on the GitHub page, The Processing site for recommended books about processing and the Examples attached to the Fadecandy file and have done a lot of searching the web.. I'm just not sure where to start to learn about coding LEDs for Fadecandy. Can you pass along any valuabl. links or books recommendation about that? I know the blinky lights are getting to my head.., Yes but also I'm inspired so I want to learn! thanks for the help and support

George Profenza

@orgicus

Quick question: Using WebSockets, I can send a '{"type":"list_connected_devices"}' message. Can I do the same with the TCP socket connection in Processing using OPC as well, or not ?

Micah Elizabeth Scott

@scanlime

You'd need to speak websockets to send those commands; the OPC protocol doesn't know about multiple devices, it just sees an abstract space of channels and pixels

(It's still the same TCP socket, the fcserver detects protocol based on whether you start sending HTTP or OPC packets)

George Profenza

@orgicus

Got it, Thank you Micah !

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler @focalintent @scanlime Has anyone tried to play different .png images on different LED strips connected to the Fadecandy ?

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

I have. Any specific questions? Also sorry, haven't responded my old computer crashed and my hard drive burned up, literally.

@alexthevdwp Also I just searched around online and just kinda figured out the coding stuff. There is a guide for a LED curtain that had some stuff on it on adafruit.com. However some of the stuff wasn't a best method in my opinion.

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

@scanlime do you know if there has been any javascript stuff written for fadecandy?

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

Nevermind I foundsome in the examples.

George Profenza

@orgicus

@scanlime I had some issues with some FadeCandies and I've provided details here: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/fadecandy/U9bLwlr-oMU Any hints/tips on what I might be missing/doing wrong ? Thank you

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

If that's FB2 frying, that would imply a lot of current flow to ground. What's your physical wiring/setup look like?

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

(I guess that's technically "flow across ground")

George Profenza

@orgicus

That is the FB2 frying indeed. I've just uploaded some images of the wiring setup. I am now noticing I haven't attached the power supply of the USB hub itself. Could that cause problems ?

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

At worst that will just make USB not work. looks at pics You need to tie the grounds of the individual power supplies together, I think. It looks like you've got the power supplies connected to the fadecandies and pixel strings, but not to each other. Connect the output grounds all together. (Don't connect the output 5v together, though). I thiiiiiink that could cause what you're seeing.

George Profenza

@orgicus

Thanks @elfchief ! I'll run a test with the grounds connected.

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

(The output of the power supplies are all isolated, so unless the grounds are tied together they potentially float at different levels, and then end up equalizing those levels over the only common ground, which is the USB bus).

I'm assuming those fadecandy distribution boards tie power ground and signal ground together? (and/or do you have a schematic?)

George Profenza

@orgicus

Regarding the distribution board, I think that is correct and there should be some resistors and a capacitor as per NeoPixel Uberguide best practices (https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-neopixel-uberguide/power)

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

I boldly run my pixel strings without those capacitors. I am ... brave.

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

Also note, for clarity, that the output ground is not the same as the earth/safety ground. ;)

George Profenza

@orgicus

Not a whizz with electronics, so I appreciate pointing this out.

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

(On my power supplies the output ground is labelled "-5V", I don't know how others are labelled. Can't see the labels on yours. :) But yeah, the one not labelled +5V :)

George Profenza

@orgicus

Hotswapping is super nice and works well with one fade candy but in a layout with 5 of them I need to specify the serial for the led mapping. As far as I understand the config can only be passed once as an argument fcserver when launching and not changed at runtime ? I have a server_config.json / websocket protocol question: if I have a layout with 5 devices and their serials but later I need to swap one device out, but keep it's mapping, is there any way to do that at runtime rather than editing the config and relaunching the server ? (can a new config be passed at runtime ?)

J. Grizzard

@elfchief

@orgicus I don't see anything in any of the example clients that supports it, so my guess is 'no', but I haven't looked at the actual server code, so dunno for sure.

@orgicus Did tying together your grounds let you stop frying your fadecandy boards?

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler Sucks for the hard drive burn ;- That happened to me once with an electrical surge that completely fried mine too. The reason I'm asking about playing different .png images on up to 8 LED strips connected to the Fadecandy is to play have various image/light patterns on each side of this interactive installation my wife and I created: www.TheMetamorphosisProject.com . We would very much appreciate your code findings or suggestions about how to go about doing this!

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

yeah you can depending but how to do it depends on what you need. I'm guessing you want two image on the same time playing on different loactions?

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler Yes 2 different images on 2 LED strips playing at the same time would be a great start!

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

your doing this in processing

This message was deleted

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

instead of

PImage im;

then something like this

PImage im1;
PImage im2;

void setup()
{
  size(800, 200);
  // Load a sample image
  im1 = loadImage("first_image.jpeg");
  im2 = loadImage("second_image.jpeg");
  // Connect to the local instance of fcserver
  opc = new OPC(this, "127.0.0.1", 7890);
  // Map one 64-LED strip to the center of the window
  opc.ledStrip(0, 64, width/2, height/2, width / 70.0, 0, false);
}

I maybe wrong about the PImage part. I don't really use Java that much

Alex Andre

@alexthevdwp

@M-I-Kessler Yes in Processing, sorry for not mentioning that. Thanks for the code I will try it tonight when I get back and let you know how it goes, thanks again Matthew!

Matthew Kessler

@M-I-Kessler

no problem, also you can loop through pictures if you want to do that too.
https://processing.org/examples/sequential.html

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