HELP WITH MADLIGHT
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
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    HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Sat Feb 11, 2017 11:02 pm

    Hi everyone!

    Newbie here. I'm starting with Madlight so I will probably have a lot of stupid questions, so before we start. Thank you for your patience.

    I am trying to set up an installation. I have for now 4 Standard RGB 5050 LED Strip Light, 30/m, 10mm wide, connected to 4 different decoders. These Decoders are daisy chained via DMX. They all are controlled by an Enttec ODE through Madmpapper. Everything works and reads perfectly except one simple thing. On Materials, if I choose the Line Patterns default, Lights follow left to right accordingly, or if I flip them can go right to left. But if I rotate them and make them go up and down the LEDs don't follow...WHY? Left to right is fine but not up and down?

    I've gone to the Edit tab on the Fixtures Editor within Madlight and set up the Vertical and Horizontal Pixels. But it doesn't work Horizontally, it just turns on 1 strip al together or if I increase the number, it does the same thing as the vertical (left to right). Whats going on?

    1. First, I don't think I understand how the fixtures work.

    2. Could someone help me move the LEDs up and down?


    Thank you so much!

    R.
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Mon Feb 13, 2017 10:33 am

    When you create a DMX fixture in MadMapper, you have to select a fixture definition. By default MM assigns "Generic - Pixel RGB" which corresponds to a 1x1 single RGB pixel device. If you're working with strips and you have a line of 100 pixels RGB, you should create a custom fixture definition. Then only one DMX fixture will control those 100 pixels. If you have 100 lines like this, you put then on top of each other, then you have a 100x100 pixel grid. Then using a material doing up and down will work.
    For more details: http://www.madmapper.com/controlling-le ... madmapper/
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
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    Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:15 pm

    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Tue Feb 14, 2017 7:47 am

    Hi Mad-Matt,

    Thank you so much for responding! I understand more of how fixtures work thanks to your explanation. Unfortunately, I followed the steps and it didn't work. I do not know what I'm doing wrong. So here is exactly step by step what I am doing:

    1. I have 4 LED RGB with 18 pixels each. Each of them have their own decoder and are daisy chained via DMX cable. All of them controlled by the Enttec ODE. All this is within ArtNet 0/Subnet 0/Universe 0

    2. I open MM and set the Line Patterns Preset.

    3. I add 1 fixture in Madlight. (for now, I am just trying 1 Fixture since I need one strip to work, even though I have 4 strips and 4 decoders)

    4. I go to the Edit. (Here is where I believe I have to do the Custom Fixture Definition)

    In Pixels W: I set 1
    In Pixels H: I set 18
    Pixel type sets to Custom
    Pixel size: 3

    5. Nothing :( :oops: :x :?:

    I also tried to do a bunch of them and stack them on top of each other, but I didn't get the up and down either.
    (By up and down, I mean the LEDs, in one single strip, start from the top pixel and down to the 18th pixel and vice versa)

    When the Line Pattern preset is moving from left to right, the LED follows. But, when I rotate the line 90° (to go up and down), I get either a flash or the same thing as left to right.

    Why I can get this!!!????

    I've read this http://www.madmapper.com/controlling-le ... madmapper/ a bunch of times but....my brain.... :mrgreen:

    Sorry, I know you guys are experts at this, but I just don't get it.

    Thank you for your patience,

    R.
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Thu Feb 16, 2017 12:16 pm

    I think you misunderstand how MadMapper feeds the fixtures with pixels. First if you use a DMX line fixture, set it to width 18 / height 1, not the opposite. When the fixture is selected you can see the 18 squares corresponding to each LED. The color at the center of this square will be sent to ArtNet DMX. If your fixture is positionned horizontally, you should make your animation hozitontal. Look at what you see in the input preview.
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
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    Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:15 pm

    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Mon Mar 20, 2017 5:56 am

    Hi guys!

    So I'm back at this. My problem was the LEDs not being addressable. Now, I have the LED Strip RGB WS2812b to a DC5V - 24V 512 channels DMX rgb decoder controller. Everything works well, except two things.....

    1. I change in Madmapper the color and it does not change. I can only see white. Why is that? How can I get color? This wasn't a problem before with the other LED strip.
    If I only use the decoder, the test is ok. The LED strip is GRB and I can see every color. But with MadMapper and the Enttec Storm24, I only get white....any ideas?

    2. How can I get the fastest frame rate? It seems that the lights at a certain speed just don't react the same way. Is there anything I can do or buy that will make the LED strip and the decoder act as fast as I want? I need the lights to literally display exactly what the video inside MadMapper is playing. Even when I just do a line pattern and speed up the movement seems to not the the same thing. I think is too fast so the lights then do not react.

    Thank you for your response!

    Link to LEDs

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CDTEGGO?psc=1

    Link for decoder:

    :https://bincolor.en.alibaba.com/product/60127666491-215852202/DC5V_24V_ws2812b_LED_light_512_channels_DMX_rgb_decoder_controller.html?spm=a2700.7803228.1998738836.186.digQlt
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Mon Mar 20, 2017 11:28 am

    Hi,
    1. I change in Madmapper the color and it does not change. I can only see white

    What fixture definition do you use in MadMapper. Are you sure you set your "Pixel Type" to GRB ?
    2. How can I get the fastest frame rate?

    MadMapper will send a new DMX frame each time the content of the universe changed, with a maximum speed defined by the "Max ArtNet FPS" defined in preferences (default is 44 FPS which is ArtNet standard). However with some devices like Advatek Pixelite you can increase it to 100 FPS.
    But with the Enttec Storm, the FPS of each 24 DMX outputs can be set individually. By default it's 35 FPS I think, you can go up to 44 FPS there too. If you're using a 30 FPS movie I advise you to set the FPS to 30 for each storm output, you don't have to change any in MadMapper.
    Cheers
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Wed Mar 22, 2017 7:03 am

    Dear mad-matt,

    You are so good at this, man! The GRB did it and is reacting exactly with the color. That was amazing. Seeing light up and down with the same color was a revelation since I started with this. There are so many details to keep in mind.

    As far as the Frame Rate goes, I am very close but not quite there yet. Sometimes, when the video is too fast, it won't replicate exactly what is playing. My video is currently at 29.97 fps. I set up the Storm 24 to 30fps. That should be good right?

    Maybe is the decoder? When I bought it, I asked for the fps it could handle... they said 30fps. It should work right? :cry:

    I made a small video of what is happening, and I hope it explains it better that what I can do with words.

    Direct Link:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ps3 ... jdPd2NTZGM

    Again, thank you for all your knowledge. You've made this installation come to life. I am SO close, just this small yet crucial detail, and I am good to go!

    Cheers!
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Wed Mar 22, 2017 2:44 pm

    You should rotate your fixture 90 degrees to see the line going through your LEDs. In your case, the line is moving horizontally and your fixture is just fed by one vertical line, so sometimes, it happens that there's a refresh while the line is at the right place, but there's not much chance it happens. What you get is normal.
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
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    Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:15 pm

    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Thu Mar 23, 2017 5:34 am

    Thanks mad-matt!

    Interesting what you said on the refresh. The thing is that I will have 20 LEDs horizontally playing that video, so I am guessing I would have some refresh/restriggering if I do the installation like that?

    I did try it horizontally and it works fine, but the idea is to have 20 fixtures horizontally mapping exactly the line that runs from left to right. I wonder how it will look with the 20 fixtures? I was waiting on the test before buying all these lights.

    Any other ideas? Sorry to bother.

    Thank you!

    R.
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Fri Mar 24, 2017 11:48 am

    Ok I see. The correct way to handle this is: spread your 20 fixtures over the full input rectangle, so each fixture take 1/20th or the input media width. Your fixture will be wider. A you have to activate the "Antialiasing filter": instead of sending to the LEDs the value of the pixel at the exact center of the fixture pixel rectangle, it will make an average color value over 3x3 pixels inside the fixture pixel rectangle.
  • innerrevolt
    junior Member
    Posts: 6
    Joined: Sat Feb 11, 2017 9:15 pm

    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by innerrevolt » Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:11 pm

    Hi Matt!

    Well, I guess this is an endless thing... Horizontally works well and vertically it doesn't, even with "Antialiasing filter" on. I guess if I make the fixture wider, the fixtures will be oddly stack on to one another, which is no problem. But It still doesn't represent what's on the After Effects Video I made. So, I was wondering if it's a problem of being too fast.This question lead me into another problem.

    I want to know if what I am getting is normal. Either I have a slow Decoder or there are propagation issues within the LED strip?

    When a line crosses the fixture horizontally in a slow motion, it seems there is Aliasing or is just too slow to flow evenly. It just feels that the light doesn't replicate exactly what is on screen. There is no smooth transition between one pixel and the next. It seems that is jagged, robotic, staticky instead of natural line going down.

    I made a video (pardon my camera skills) so hopefully someone smart like yourself can understand what is the problem.

    Direct Link:

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B6ps3 ... jdPd2NTZGM

    Thank you so much for helping this project come alive, Matt!

    R.
  • mad-matt
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    Re: HELP WITH MADLIGHT

    by mad-matt » Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:10 am

    For you vertical stuff problem, you should export your video from After Effect in low resolutiojn, like 40x40 pixels if you have a 40x40 pixel grid.

    You have an FPS issue, which is the case in your video, you should take care of what's after MM. MM will send ArtNet packets at the max ArtNet FPS defined in preferences. You can also set MadMapper to send ArtNet packets in "Unicast" instead of default "broadcast" mode. I know broadcasting over some wifi networks is not great, at the office I also use a cabled network for ArtNet.
    If you're using an Enttec ODE for ArtNet->DMX, check it DMX output rate (you can set it to maximum 44 FPS)

    Let me know

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