2160px Addressable LED Pixel Wall + Pixelator Mini

[nighthawkgraphics]

Hi guys,

Had a new project in and before I go splash out on the kit I wanted to run a couple of things by you to see if I'm missing anything:

Workflow:

Resolume > Cat5 > Pixelator Mini > Plink Injector > Strips

The plan is to have 18 2m tubes each with 60 led/m strip in running straight out of Resolume, effectively making a 2160px pixelwall.

Now having never used the Pixelator before, I want to super double check that I can come straight out of ethernet on a laptop into it, and then Resolume will see it and allow me to allocate independent artnet universes that tally up with the universes I configure in the Pixelator (or vice versa)?

This would be about 13 universes running consecutively all address individually in resolume and artnet.

Am I missing anything obvious about the above workflow that won't work?
Do I need another interface between the control laptop and the Pixelator?
Can the Pixelator handle that many universes?

From the reading I've done this works, but it's quite the outlay if then I realise I need a different bit of kit.

[Arvol]

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels. 512 Channels on 16 Universes on 16 Subnets.
Keep in mind, if your fixture uses RGB LED's your channel/LED Chip count is 43,690 (131,072 / 3 [3=R,G,B])

Your setup of 2,160px (Assuming they are RGB) comes out to 6,480 DMX Channels (2,160 x 3 (Assuming your pixels are RGB, with RGB = 3 [R,G,B]). There are 8,190 DMX Channels per Subnet, so you are using less than 1 Subnet.
You are using 13 universes.

All you need to do is connect a Cat6 cable from your machine going into your Artnet DMX device.

The more fixtures you add and the higher DMX refresh rate you have will determine your performance. So having a computer with decent hardware spec's will help.

As far as the "Pixelator" goes, I don't know how many DMX channels it can accept on the incoming side of it? That would be a question for the manufacture of that device. I assume they specify it on the product web page and user manual.

Just make sure you computers NIC has it's IP address set to the same scope as your receiving device. Class A,B, or C
I personally set my DHCP router to 2.0.0.1, then set my Computers to 2.0.0.10 , 20,30,40,50,60,70,80,90 (Typically I only use 2 or so, so it's just 10, and 20)
Then set my receiving devices (Typically eNode8's) to 2.0.0.100 ,110,120,130,140,150,160,170,180,190
etc. etc. etc.....

In advanced output you will need to setup what lumiverse goes to what universe and subnet.
You can also broadcast the output or send it to a specific IP address.

Give this page a glance if you haven't already

https://resolume.com/support/en/dmx

[nighthawkgraphics]

Perfect, lots of the info I was after dude and confirmation on the other half.

The Pixelator, as far as my understanding goes, is a direct artnet device that with then split along to your universes though 16 ports.

https://www.enttec.com/products/drivers ... ontroller/

A mighty neat bit of kit if it does what I suspect it does.

Luckily with Entec's stuff they have a handy NMU (node management utility) program that allows you to fully set addresses etc

I think their default is 10.10.10.100 or something.

So my remaining question is do you need an interface between your computer and the pixellator, or will it happily eat up the artnet signal sent by resolume over cat5.

I think its a yes from their documentation, but there was this diagram that threw me: as it has the "artnet" bubble at the top. I'm 99% certain that it doesn't need anything else in the chain, but before I sink the cash and also design a whole budget around this I'd like to know for certain.

Anyone that's used a Pixelator I'd love to hear from you.

[Joris]

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels.

Per IP address

[Arvol]

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels.

Per IP address

Yes, Yes

---------------------------------

In regards to other hardware, As Joris just brought up a fantastic point. I would throw a gigabit switch in place if you plan on using more than the 16 universes the Pixelator has on board. This way you can add a second networkoutput device from your machine and send it to the other Pixelaros (if applicable)

Otherwise, no, you can go direct. kust make sure your IP's are on the same Class and that your subnet mask's match (255.0.0.0)

[nighthawkgraphics]

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels.

Per IP address

Lol. Ridiculous.

Great guys, thats really helpful.

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels.

Per IP address

Yes, Yes

---------------------------------

In regards to other hardware, As Joris just brought up a fantastic point. I would throw a gigabit switch in place if you plan on using more than the 16 universes the Pixelator has on board. This way you can add a second networkoutput device from your machine and send it to the other Pixelaros (if applicable)

Otherwise, no, you can go direct. kust make sure your IP's are on the same Class and that your subnet mask's match (255.0.0.0)

So you're saying if I wanted to use multiple pixelators at the same time it would be best to throw a switch in?

[Oaktown]

Resolume can output 131,072 DMX Channels. 512 Channels on 16 Universes on 16 Subnets.
Keep in mind, if your fixture uses RGB LED's your channel/LED Chip count is 43,690 (131,072 / 3 [3=R,G,B])

Your setup of 2,160px (Assuming they are RGB) comes out to 6,480 DMX Channels (2,160 x 3 (Assuming your pixels are RGB, with RGB = 3 [R,G,B]). There are 8,190 DMX Channels per Subnet, so you are using less than 1 Subnet.
You are using 13 universes.

If you are using RGB tape, you can only have 170 per universe so the count is slightly less since you lose 2 channels per universe (170*16*16=43,520). Now if you use RGBW tape, you can use every channel and get 128 RGBW pixels per universe for a total of 128*16*16=32,768.

If you use the Plink hardware, the Pixelator will let you use the 2U mode which lets you merge two universes and get 340 pixels in a row (1st universe is 1-170 and 2nd universe is 171-340). When you use the 2U mode, you can get 48 universes with the Pixelator and 16 universes with the Pixelator Mini but you only get 24 and 8 respectively if you use them in 1U mode with Plink or ArtNet Stream for straight IP.

So you're saying if I wanted to use multiple pixelators at the same time it would be best to throw a switch in?

Not best but absolutely necessary unless you have more than one network card in your rig!

[nighthawkgraphics]

If you use the Plink hardware, the Pixelator will let you use the 2U mode which lets you merge two universes and get 340 pixels in a row (1st universe is 1-170 and 2nd universe is 171-340). When you use the 2U mode, you can get 48 universes with the Pixelator and 16 universes with the Pixelator Mini but you only get 24 and 8 respectively if you use them in 1U mode with Plink or ArtNet Stream for straight IP.

Great, so 8 ports, with 8 plinks means I can achieve 16 universes from a pixelator mini.

Amazing stuff guys.

Are there any alternatives to the Entec kit? I've had strong results with them before and they're pretty reasonable for the power they deliver. I'm just would be curious what else is out there.

[Oaktown]

Great, so 8 ports, with 8 plinks means I can achieve 16 universes from a pixelator mini.

Yep, but don't forget that you'll need PSU's as well.

The main limitation is that with the Plink system, you'll be limited to L or RGB pixel tape and it seems that RGBW is becoming more and more prevalent.

[nighthawkgraphics]

Great, so 8 ports, with 8 plinks means I can achieve 16 universes from a pixelator mini.

Yep, but don't forget that you'll need PSU's as well.

The main limitation is that with the Plink system, you'll be limited to L or RGB pixel tape and it seems that RGBW is becoming more and more prevalent.

So the PLink Injector doesn't support rgbw tape? Seems odd considering all their driver hardware does?