============PLEASE READ!============== I wanted to add a few important things I forgot to mention in this video. First, I show multiple different pictures of receivers in the video, and the colors of the receivers are different in some of the pictures. They are still the same receiver, but depending on where you buy them they may come in black or blue. So don't worry if your receiver is a different color, it still works the same. Second is on the V5 smart receivers, you can also reset the fuses if they're blown by pressing the test button instead of powering off the board or using the web interface on a V5 controller. Finally, just incase I didn't make it clear enough, when setting the mode/ID dial on an SRx2 or SRx4 receiver, the dial should be set to the FIRST ID the receiver would use. I know I talked about SRx2 receivers counting as 2 receivers, and SRx4 ones counting as 4, so you may have been confused on which ID to set it to since they use 2 IDs on the SRx2s and 4 IDs on the SRx4s. You would set the dial to the FIRST ID the receiver uses.
I used Wi-Fi to connect to all my equipment. So much easier than running cables to my computer. Have an Eero box inside my front door and one by my computer at the other end of my home and everything worked great. I have Frontier 2 gig 2,000/Mbps internet service. Small antenna on each board sends out the signal. Like your videos.
Oh nice! I'm glad that setup works for you. I've tried using wifi before but I don't have antennas for the boards and it's never been reliable for me. However, everyone has different situations and different setups work better for others!
Watching your vides which are very helpful and you have put a lot of time in learning these products. have a question Is there a flow chart/drawing that lays out how to setup the system. Example... PC is networked with xlights running, then connect a F16v5 Pixel Controller to network then a PI with a RPI-28D+ header on it running FPP then smart receivers the lights etc... it does get a little confusing also lets not forget the power-supplies... again thanks for your videos
I'm glad the videos have been helpful! I sadly don't really have any flow charts like that because every situation is unique, so there would need to be 1,000s for every setup. My recommendation is if you can, take some time to learn about how each device you have works and how they connect with others, and overtime you could make a flow chart just for your situation to help you remember how everything hooks up. Hopefully this is helpful!
Chaining V5 and V4 receivers ... the V5 receivers should be closest to the controller. If you put them after a V4 receiver then there is a chance the v4 receiver will interfere with the return signal as it was never designed for this. As the V4 receiver ports are essentially pas through it may work but i would not rely on it.
Great videos bud...quick question, I have f16v3, and I need to connect 2 of the SR 1 v4 (black) smart receivers, what "Variant" type do I select in xlights?
Are you planning on using a differential expansion to connect them? Or were you going to connect them to the one built in receiver output on the top right corner? If you're using an expansion board, then you'd select "One Expansion Board". If you're using the built in receiver output, then you'd select "No Expansion + Serial Port Remotes".
I wish you would stop referring to the differential receiver jacks as just RJ45 jacks! The Ethernet ports on the controllers are also RJ45 jacks. It might be better to just refer to the "Red" jacks as differential ports and the "Black" jacks as Ethernet ports. It's OK to say that both the differential ports and Ethernet ports can use Ethernet cables, but even better it would be best to refer to the cables as CAT5 or even CAT6 cables.
You know, I thought I heard that somewhere before but couldn't remember and for some reason I thought they had to be in order. Thanks for telling me though! I'll make sure to let everyone know about that in part 2 of the video.
============PLEASE READ!==============
I wanted to add a few important things I forgot to mention in this video. First, I show multiple different pictures of receivers in the video, and the colors of the receivers are different in some of the pictures. They are still the same receiver, but depending on where you buy them they may come in black or blue. So don't worry if your receiver is a different color, it still works the same. Second is on the V5 smart receivers, you can also reset the fuses if they're blown by pressing the test button instead of powering off the board or using the web interface on a V5 controller.
Finally, just incase I didn't make it clear enough, when setting the mode/ID dial on an SRx2 or SRx4 receiver, the dial should be set to the FIRST ID the receiver would use. I know I talked about SRx2 receivers counting as 2 receivers, and SRx4 ones counting as 4, so you may have been confused on which ID to set it to since they use 2 IDs on the SRx2s and 4 IDs on the SRx4s. You would set the dial to the FIRST ID the receiver uses.
I used Wi-Fi to connect to all my equipment. So much easier than running cables to my computer. Have an Eero box inside my front door and one by my computer at the other end of my home and everything worked great. I have Frontier 2 gig 2,000/Mbps internet service. Small antenna on each board sends out the signal. Like your videos.
Oh nice! I'm glad that setup works for you. I've tried using wifi before but I don't have antennas for the boards and it's never been reliable for me. However, everyone has different situations and different setups work better for others!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with these videos. You really put a lot of work into explaining this hobby. Great job!
Thank you! Glad the video was helpful!
Thanks for making this video!!!
No problem!
Thank you!! Super job on this.. great info to have!!
Watching your vides which are very helpful and you have put a lot of time in learning these products. have a question
Is there a flow chart/drawing that lays out how to setup the system. Example... PC is networked with xlights running, then connect a F16v5 Pixel Controller to network then a PI with a RPI-28D+ header on it running FPP then smart receivers the lights etc... it does get a little confusing also lets not forget the power-supplies...
again thanks for your videos
I'm glad the videos have been helpful! I sadly don't really have any flow charts like that because every situation is unique, so there would need to be 1,000s for every setup. My recommendation is if you can, take some time to learn about how each device you have works and how they connect with others, and overtime you could make a flow chart just for your situation to help you remember how everything hooks up. Hopefully this is helpful!
Chaining V5 and V4 receivers ... the V5 receivers should be closest to the controller. If you put them after a V4 receiver then there is a chance the v4 receiver will interfere with the return signal as it was never designed for this. As the V4 receiver ports are essentially pas through it may work but i would not rely on it.
Ok, thanks for letting me know! I tested it myself and found it worked for me at least, but I'll make sure to talk about that in the part 2 video.
Thank you Nicholas, this is great information 👌
When's part 2 coming out
The ports that connect the cables from your controller to the differential receivers are not Ethernet even though the connectors are RJ45.
Thanks for letting me know! I was aware of that and thought I referred to them as RJ45 jacks, but did I accidentally call them ethernet ports?
Great videos bud...quick question, I have f16v3, and I need to connect 2 of the SR 1 v4 (black) smart receivers, what "Variant" type do I select in xlights?
Are you planning on using a differential expansion to connect them? Or were you going to connect them to the one built in receiver output on the top right corner? If you're using an expansion board, then you'd select "One Expansion Board". If you're using the built in receiver output, then you'd select "No Expansion + Serial Port Remotes".
I wish you would stop referring to the differential receiver jacks as just RJ45 jacks! The Ethernet ports on the controllers are also RJ45 jacks. It might be better to just refer to the "Red" jacks as differential ports and the "Black" jacks as Ethernet ports. It's OK to say that both the differential ports and Ethernet ports can use Ethernet cables, but even better it would be best to refer to the cables as CAT5 or even CAT6 cables.
Receivers do not need to be connected in order ... regardless of the protocol.
You know, I thought I heard that somewhere before but couldn't remember and for some reason I thought they had to be in order. Thanks for telling me though! I'll make sure to let everyone know about that in part 2 of the video.