Addressable Led for dummies?

[truegamer25]

Hey there,

I’m hoping this isn’t a loaded question and someone can give me a quick “here’s what you do, dummy” …

I have two 144/m Ws2812b strips for my sides, and will be getting a prebuilt panel for the back of my cab tomorrow at some point. I’ll be wiring them up via an LEDWiz. The back matrix is going to be a 8×64 led, basically two of these 8×32 panels: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01DC0IPVU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My question for y’all – in the dof configtool, what will I want for actually configuring the port assignments for the side strips and back matrix to be sure I get the amazing effects I’ve seen? Do I choose combine toys? I’ve tried going over all the information on the directoutput r2 github but can’t seem to piece the information together.

And one more question, for the letters and whatnot that are on all the table configs, do those adapt to the size of a matrix or will i need to edit them table-by-table during this process too?

Any help on this’ll be greatly appreciated!

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[randr]

Sizing and scaling is all depending on your matrix size and is all automatic. Combining is for making your matrix emulate the 5 flashers as example. I’ll do some screen shots of my setup for ya… give me a few min and will post them

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[randr]

Here you can see my combinations which include 5 bar flasher, beacons and strobes in the matrix.

And here is port assignments for your ws2811 device

this is where you setup your account so make sure you choose “Number of WS2811 Devices”

 

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[truegamer25]

1. Awesome – thanks! One more question to clarify, i have an ledwiz that i am going to be using for these and undercab rgb complex, so would i just set the ws2811 as higher ports on the ledwiz, keeping it a separate interface set as your pics have?

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[randr]

Correct I have (2) ledwiz’s each has own set of ports to configure. I’ll do another screenshot for ya.

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[randr]

ledwiz 1

ledwiz 2

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[gtxjoe]

LEDwiz can not control addressable RGBs, you need a teensy controller is my understanding.  The LEDwiz can control non-addressable RGB flashers and led strips, like the 5050 led strip

 

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[truegamer25]

gtxjoe wrote:

LEDwiz can not control addressable RGBs, you need a teensy controller is my understanding. The LEDwiz can control non-addressable RGB flashers and led strips, like the 5050 led strip

Can anyone confirm if thats true? I switched to working on my solenoids while i wait for an answer – i thought the ledwiz could handle addressable’s, that’s the main reason i had bought one

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[randr]

Ledwiz cannot do addressable rgbs. Did you see my screenshots showing ws2811 device and ledwiz’s? You need teensy for addressable or equivalent and ledwiz controls everything else

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[truegamer25]

…so, any advice on which teensy to get then, that doesnt need soldering? Sucks i bought the ledwiz, i guess I’ll have to repurpose it somehow

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[randr]

You need ledwiz for solenoids, shaker, rgb leds, knocker, fan, beacons, chimes and whatever else you want to add. The teensy is only for addressable rgb’s

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[truegamer25]

randr wrote:

You need ledwiz for solenoids, shaker, rgb leds, knocker, fan, beacons, chimes and whatever else you want to add. The teensy is only for addressable rgb’s

Is there a teensy that doesn’t require soldering?

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[randr]

No. Not that I’m aware of it’s a diy deal

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[truegamer25]

Thanks for all the information thus far, i’m disappointed the LEDWiz isn’t the interface for the addressable led’s but now I know :)

Anyway – for the purpose of understanding, and to be sure I’m getting what is needed – here are the items i just ordered:

-Teensy 3.2 w/ Pins: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015QUPO5Y/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=A2GTSJRNFEVVSP&psc=1

-Teensy Octo Adapter: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00SK6LYO2/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?smid=A2US04V23QMFLQ&psc=1

-For “quick connect” from teensy to the teensy octo: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AN7AQRG/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

I have pretty much zero experience soldering (i tried and failed to solder a led strip matrix, that is all i have soldered), so hopefully this will be relatively easy to tinker with and solder properly. If I didn’t order the right items for the led’s, if you could let me know what else to get?

I figure this thread will also possibly help someone in the future too – and when all is said and done I hope to compile a complete and thorough “for dummies” type guide to all these nuanced parts of building a vpin – in the meantime, again many thanks for all the input/help! :)

 

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[truegamer25]

Hokay – so guys, over the course of the weekend I made a slight whoops & burned out a teensy/octo, got a second pair that I managed to set up and configure a “successful” test with this evening – I had the back matrix working in the Adaftuit_Neopixel test, but only at approx. 20% brightness – it seems any brightness higher makes the display “crash” and show only about 1/3 of the led’s, in red, with sporadic led’s lit through the rest – like the signal isn’t getting to the far end. I also tried the strips at 100% and that’s painfully bright, so I’m aiming to configure at only 20% brightness anyway, for all of the strips. Out of curiosity has anyone else run into this issue and/or will I be able to configure only 20% brightness?

As for the main/more important part of this message, I followed the screenshots above identically for the dof configtool, downloaded the configs and put them in my \DirectOutput folder, but of course the led’s aren’t working yet. I am sure randr’s configuration is different than mine, but I am at a loss as to where I need to put in my specifics for the matrix, and eventually the led strips – I know my matrix is 512 led’s (8×64), and the wiring of the matrix is in a up-down configuration, but I just can’t find any info on what I need to enter and where. If any of you could lend me some input on that, it would be much appreciated – I’m so close now I can taste it! …Though I should probably stop licking the matrix while it’s lit, huh…

-James aka truegamer25

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[outhere]

I put my dof configtool files in my Config Folder —> C:\DirectOutput\Config

Post your GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml and Cabinet.xml

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[truegamer25]

outhere wrote:

I put my dof configtool files in my Config Folder —> C:\DirectOutput\Config

Post your GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml and Cabinet.xml

I only have the examples – both of those files are blank otherwise (see below). I thought the configtool generated everything needed, is this part done by hand/manually entered?

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[Westworld]

run into this issue and/or will I be able to configure only 20% brightness?

my guess is your power supply is not strong enough.

To calc max power need, multiply number of LED’s with 0.06. (60 mAh per LED when all 3 of them are on =white).

Let’s say you have 100, so you need 6 Ah power supply. 1000 = 60 Ah. Oops, that’s a lot? Yes.

But in a pinball, you never have all on white, else you get blind very soon (or at least loose the ball). I used a 20 Ah for 1000 LEDs. And I’ve limited (using DOF) to 50%, else it was simply too bright to play.

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truegamer25

[truegamer25]

Westworld wrote:

To calc max power need, multiply number of LED’s with 0.06. (60 mAh per LED when all 3 of them are on =white).

Let’s say you have 100, so you need 6 Ah power supply. 1000 = 60 Ah. Oops, that’s a lot? Yes.

Ironically, I have a 60Ah power supply for my build. If I need to I’ll pick up a second one for my side strips, but I added power at multiple spots on my matrix with the same low-power issue – I noticed the matrix gets brighter right at the interconnect – it’s two panels, so I think it’s just the integrated wiring. Anyway, glad to hear I can limit via DOF – I’ll want 20% power anyway. Still trying to understand and or see an example of what I put into what files though – there isn’t a configurator or anything for the fields I need to enter for DOF is there? Any chance I could get a screenshot or copy of your configs to try and sort that out?

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[truegamer25]

Ok – so after a bit of hunting, I managed to find the WIP for DOF, seems to cover a lot of the info I was missing: http://pinball.weilenmann.net/docu/DirectOutputWIP/configexamples.html – and for dimming, if I’m correct, the change I made on the dof config tool to custom brightness should take care of that – brightness settings in the top-right of the config tool. I’m going to test and see if it’s finally working – here’s hoping!

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