These videos just saved my whole christmas show! THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Our internet got updated and I also ended up getting a new Linksys router and my whole network got flipped upside down and if I had not come across this tonight I was about to burn everything to the ground! You explained everything SO well, really appreciate all the time and energy you put in to this and actually all your other videos as well, I spent hours watching your lights tutorials in previous years.
Haha I'm so glad the video was able to help you out! I've been there before in other situations, you just have so much stress and can't figure out "WHY THE HECK ISN'T THIS WORKING?!". But I'm glad the video helped you out :)
Thank you for this upload. This year will be my first Christmas light show and the method you discussed in this video is exactly what I plan to use. I have no doubt I’ll be referencing this several times to help set up everything network-related. Thanks again and please keep the tutorials coming.
Glad the videos are useful! As to recommend a good book on pixels, I'm going to be 100% honest, I don't know of any. I'm not a huge book worm so I can't really help with your question, sorry.
Great videos! I'm not a network guy. And I was thinking about a separate network for my show also (I think I'm at about 10k pixels this year - not sure) But I didn't want to run more cables (Cat5) to all the controllers since I have my 4 controllers and my RPi4 wireless. I also used a second router hooked up to my home network. It took me a while to get things up and talking to each other, but I was successful. Had a problem setting up controller IPs in XLights to get access to them and being able to upload files and open the fpp instance though. XLights never gave me the little green light at the bottom?! So - I played with all sort of setting on both routers and did this ---> Instead of the port designation on the show router, I did static routes on the home network router and now I can go to a browser and just type in the IP of the show network controllers without any : or port numbers and I get the fpp instance even though my PC has a home network IP. AND in XLights I get the little green light at the bottom and when I click "Open", I get a new window in my browser with the fpp instance that was selected in XLights. Hope this makes some sense to some - works great for me Are there any network vulnerabilities with a setup like this???
That's a really good way of setting it up! Thanks for letting me know about this! Now to answer your question, no, there shouldn't be any vulnerabilities to your network with this setup. As long as you didn't turn off any security settings or the firewall on your main home router, you will be fine. The main router protects every device on it and connected "behind it". So technically, your second router is behind the main router since you have it connected to that main router.
No, if you just add more strands or lights to the tree and don't drastically change it, everything will be fine. If you have any sequences programmed with the old tree, you will just need to re-render them and Xlights will put the effects on the new design of the tree.
Great video and easy to understand, thank you. Is there a way to connect the two routers together, wireless instead of using an ethernet cable on the wan port? I see on the show router there are multiple internet connection types, "Dynamic IP", "Static IP", "PPPoE", "L2TP", and "PPTP".
Sadly, there isn't really any way to do that. The different protocols you saw are different ways you can have the second router communicate with the main router, or whatever is on the other side, but it must be done over ethernet. If you're looking for a way to set up a light show network without having to run a super long ethernet cable, I'd recommend possibly using the bridge method. I've also thought about what might happen if I attached a router to the ethernet port on a Raspberry Pi that was set up for the bridge method. Would this technically allow there to be a separate light show router that can communicate wirelessly with the main router? I'm not quite sure right now but I plan on doing some testing.
@@How2Pixel Let me know how your testing goes. That is exactly what I need. Home router wifi to PI wifi, PI ethernet to wan port on show router, and show router wifi to controllers. My sequences reside on my espixelstick/quinled controllers, so my PI(primary) is just sending timing packets to my controllers(Remotes).
Question I have 4 smart receivers, one is for small mega tree 8ports but on xlight it take up 8ports trying to figure out on how to add the rest when that smart receiver take up 8ports iam little confused I have falcon f16v5,4 SRX1,1 SRX2
I'm a little bit confused so I have a question. Do you have all 4 SRx1 receivers and the SRx2 receiver on one chain? Or are they separated across multiple chains? The SRx2 receiver is technically 2 normal receivers put onto one board. So when you set it up in xlights, the SRx2 receiver should look like 2 receivers, and they should be receiver A and receiver B unless you have other receivers before it on the chain.
@How2Pixel I have two SRx1 chained together, but my tree copies the same sequence as my matrix/arch. I have 4 ports going into the matrix and 1 port going into the tree PORT 17,18,19,20A INTO MATRIX/ ARCH and 17B INTO my small mini tree does that make since or iam I doing something wrong
Ok that makes a little bit more sense, so you have 2 receivers, one is going to the matrix/arch and all 4 ports are being used there. Then you have another receiver for your tree but only 1 port is being used there right? And you said on xlights your tree is trying to take up 8 ports correct? If you only want the tree to use 1 port, then you need to go into the model settings on the layout tab, and set the string count to 1. You'll then have to increase the strands per string, that way your tree is the same size still. Did this help or am I still misunderstanding you?
How do you communicate with the display matrix (panels) and Raspberry Pi?LEDVISION is on my Windows Computer FPP is on my Raspberry Pi 4 with X Lights how,how,how??Thank You everyday I’m learning the steps and I’m waiting on my board so I’m using a temporary card!!
Have you happened to see my video I made about the colorlight card and how to set it up? I made a video last year all about setting the colorlight card up on FPP and setting LEDvision up on a computer
Would it work?: Instead of bridging raspberry pi’s to my home network WiFi (one to control colorlite card on P4 matrix and one to control F16v4) I am going to create a separate light show network. I will use a separate router for this. I was Thinking I could connect a switch to my light show network router (the router itself doesn’t have enough ports) and run cat6a cables to connect the Pi’s to the switch and then also connect the F16v4 and the colorlite card to the switch. Would everything talk to each other and work? I had some freezing and glitching in last years show and I think is was caused by all the traffic on my home network and the distance my Pi’s are from my home networks WiFi modem. I am running a smaller light show with about 7000 pixels.
Yes, that should work as long as everything is setup to keep the data separate, and you use unicast instead of multicast for your PIs to communicate with the devices. Unicast will send the data only to the IP address you put in whereas multicast sends it everywhere and hopes the right device finds it.
Fantastic! Thanks! In previous years I was running a master/remote type setup. I am looking forward to give this separate light show network method a try this year. Also this will be my first year splitting some stuff up and running some differential receivers. Your videos have helped tremendously! Keep up the great content!
From my experiences I would have to say no. I tried to use one pi to control my 5,000ish lights on my F16v5 and also used it to control my 56 P5 panels. However, everything started glitching really bad and the screen would freeze, the lights would freeze, and it would just stop communicating with the controller. So I'd recommend using 2 PIs if you can.
@@How2Pixel The Colorlight card does not play well connecting it to a switch. It does not use the Ethernet protocol, so should be connected directly to the gigabit RJ45 on the RasPi itself. The Colorlight card uses its own protocol which FPP can use to communicate with the Colorlight card.
These videos just saved my whole christmas show! THANK YOU THANK YOU!! Our internet got updated and I also ended up getting a new Linksys router and my whole network got flipped upside down and if I had not come across this tonight I was about to burn everything to the ground!
You explained everything SO well, really appreciate all the time and energy you put in to this and actually all your other videos as well, I spent hours watching your lights tutorials in previous years.
Haha I'm so glad the video was able to help you out! I've been there before in other situations, you just have so much stress and can't figure out "WHY THE HECK ISN'T THIS WORKING?!". But I'm glad the video helped you out :)
Cheers mate your videos have helped me get this hobby up and running this year. Hopefully your teachings have got through to me!!
Thank you for this upload. This year will be my first Christmas light show and the method you discussed in this video is exactly what I plan to use. I have no doubt I’ll be referencing this several times to help set up everything network-related. Thanks again and please keep the tutorials coming.
Awesome! I'm glad the video was helpful!
Thank You so much for this awesome info!! 👍👍👍
Thank you for this video. This is all new to me and it is very interesting.
That presentation was awesome here in Lone Star Texas, thank you so much
Nice video. I haven't seen this method done before. I always wondered if it could be done. As always, very informative. Thanks!!!
No problem, glad you learned something new!
Thank you! Great information
thanks for your videos. always helpful
Thank you. 👍🏻👍🏻
I like your videos and i have learned alot,i was hoping you could recommend a good book on pixels and controllers and how to set them up. Thanks
Glad the videos are useful! As to recommend a good book on pixels, I'm going to be 100% honest, I don't know of any. I'm not a huge book worm so I can't really help with your question, sorry.
Great videos! I'm not a network guy. And I was thinking about a separate network for my show also (I think I'm at about 10k pixels this year - not sure) But I didn't want to run more cables (Cat5) to all the controllers since I have my 4 controllers and my RPi4 wireless. I also used a second router hooked up to my home network. It took me a while to get things up and talking to each other, but I was successful. Had a problem setting up controller IPs in XLights to get access to them and being able to upload files and open the fpp instance though. XLights never gave me the little green light at the bottom?! So - I played with all sort of setting on both routers and did this ---> Instead of the port designation on the show router, I did static routes on the home network router and now I can go to a browser and just type in the IP of the show network controllers without any : or port numbers and I get the fpp instance even though my PC has a home network IP. AND in XLights I get the little green light at the bottom and when I click "Open", I get a new window in my browser with the fpp instance that was selected in XLights. Hope this makes some sense to some - works great for me
Are there any network vulnerabilities with a setup like this???
That's a really good way of setting it up! Thanks for letting me know about this!
Now to answer your question, no, there shouldn't be any vulnerabilities to your network with this setup. As long as you didn't turn off any security settings or the firewall on your main home router, you will be fine. The main router protects every device on it and connected "behind it". So technically, your second router is behind the main router since you have it connected to that main router.
hi there what if i changed my mega tree for more lights would i have to change all my setup in xlights
No, if you just add more strands or lights to the tree and don't drastically change it, everything will be fine. If you have any sequences programmed with the old tree, you will just need to re-render them and Xlights will put the effects on the new design of the tree.
Great video and easy to understand, thank you. Is there a way to connect the two routers together, wireless instead of using an ethernet cable on the wan port? I see on the show router there are multiple internet connection types, "Dynamic IP", "Static IP", "PPPoE", "L2TP", and "PPTP".
Sadly, there isn't really any way to do that. The different protocols you saw are different ways you can have the second router communicate with the main router, or whatever is on the other side, but it must be done over ethernet. If you're looking for a way to set up a light show network without having to run a super long ethernet cable, I'd recommend possibly using the bridge method. I've also thought about what might happen if I attached a router to the ethernet port on a Raspberry Pi that was set up for the bridge method. Would this technically allow there to be a separate light show router that can communicate wirelessly with the main router? I'm not quite sure right now but I plan on doing some testing.
@@How2Pixel Let me know how your testing goes. That is exactly what I need. Home router wifi to PI wifi, PI ethernet to wan port on show router, and show router wifi to controllers. My sequences reside on my espixelstick/quinled controllers, so my PI(primary) is just sending timing packets to my controllers(Remotes).
Question I have 4 smart receivers, one is for small mega tree 8ports but on xlight it take up 8ports trying to figure out on how to add the rest when that smart receiver take up 8ports iam little confused I have falcon f16v5,4 SRX1,1 SRX2
I'm a little bit confused so I have a question. Do you have all 4 SRx1 receivers and the SRx2 receiver on one chain? Or are they separated across multiple chains? The SRx2 receiver is technically 2 normal receivers put onto one board. So when you set it up in xlights, the SRx2 receiver should look like 2 receivers, and they should be receiver A and receiver B unless you have other receivers before it on the chain.
@How2Pixel I have two SRx1 chained together, but my tree copies the same sequence as my matrix/arch. I have 4 ports going into the matrix and 1 port going into the tree PORT 17,18,19,20A INTO MATRIX/ ARCH and 17B INTO my small mini tree does that make since or iam I doing something wrong
@How2Pixel my first show has 5k pixels, one main controller, and 5 smart receivers
Ok that makes a little bit more sense, so you have 2 receivers, one is going to the matrix/arch and all 4 ports are being used there. Then you have another receiver for your tree but only 1 port is being used there right? And you said on xlights your tree is trying to take up 8 ports correct? If you only want the tree to use 1 port, then you need to go into the model settings on the layout tab, and set the string count to 1. You'll then have to increase the strands per string, that way your tree is the same size still. Did this help or am I still misunderstanding you?
How do you communicate with the display matrix (panels) and Raspberry Pi?LEDVISION is on my Windows Computer FPP is on my Raspberry Pi 4 with X Lights how,how,how??Thank You everyday I’m learning the steps and I’m waiting on my board so I’m using a temporary card!!
Have you happened to see my video I made about the colorlight card and how to set it up? I made a video last year all about setting the colorlight card up on FPP and setting LEDvision up on a computer
Would it work?: Instead of bridging raspberry pi’s to my home network WiFi (one to control colorlite card on P4 matrix and one to control F16v4) I am going to create a separate light show network. I will use a separate router for this. I was
Thinking I could connect a switch to my light show network router (the router itself doesn’t have enough ports) and run cat6a cables to connect the Pi’s to the switch and then also connect the F16v4 and the colorlite card to the switch. Would everything talk to each other and work?
I had some freezing and glitching in last years show and I think is was caused by all the traffic on my home network and the distance my Pi’s are from my home networks WiFi modem. I am running a smaller light show with about 7000 pixels.
Yes, that should work as long as everything is setup to keep the data separate, and you use unicast instead of multicast for your PIs to communicate with the devices. Unicast will send the data only to the IP address you put in whereas multicast sends it everywhere and hopes the right device finds it.
Fantastic! Thanks! In previous years I was running a master/remote type setup. I am looking forward to give this separate light show network method a try this year. Also this will be my first year splitting some stuff up and running some differential receivers. Your videos have helped tremendously! Keep up the great content!
@How2Pixel could I use 1 Pi and FPP to control both the P4 matrix and the F16v4?
From my experiences I would have to say no. I tried to use one pi to control my 5,000ish lights on my F16v5 and also used it to control my 56 P5 panels. However, everything started glitching really bad and the screen would freeze, the lights would freeze, and it would just stop communicating with the controller. So I'd recommend using 2 PIs if you can.
@@How2Pixel The Colorlight card does not play well connecting it to a switch. It does not use the Ethernet protocol, so should be connected directly to the gigabit RJ45 on the RasPi itself. The Colorlight card uses its own protocol which FPP can use to communicate with the Colorlight card.
Just use clans as looks like your double natting or violating other networking standard. You never plug a router to a router
I'm struggling to see the problem of plugging a router into another router, could you please explain to me what's wrong by doing that?