Newbie Post

[Guslim]

Hello,
I am new to this hobby. I've done a lot of reading, but really it's just making my head swim.
I am looking for someone who can guild me through the basics, like "why wouldn't you just make every universe the max size?" so I can hopefully get something up and running by christmas.

Thanks
Gus

[algerdes]

OK Gus. First off, "why wouldn't you just make every universe the max size?" can start a LOT of discussion.
There are so many different ways of setting things up. In fact, the group that allows xLights do the setup doesn't worry about Universes. Nor do those using DDP.

If you are indeed planning on using xLights for your sequencing, then the Zoom Room (accessible from the xLights.org website) is your friend. Quite a few guys hang out there and provide help to those needing it. They are experienced and they have helped many many many folks with their setup problems.

In addition, ask your questions up here if you have the time to wait for someone to answer. Some of us have been around the bend more than once and can tell you what we have run into, and how we fixed it.

And Welcome!

[MartinMueller2003]

Welcome and forget everything you ever learned about universes. The entire universe concept exists to fix an issue that most of us in the Holiday lighting world don't have.

I suggest you use DDP if you want to clog your network with data, E1.31 (universes) if you want to 'really' clog your network with data or FPP remote if you want to keep your network clean. I use a combination of FPP Remote and E1.31 (migrating to DDP) in my show.

Many controllers have the ability to act as an FPP remote. A few controllers are too old for that and I use an FPP running in remote mode connected to a network switch local to the controller (to limit the data clogging). That limits the interaction between controller data and keeps the network relatively clean. 100% of my WiFi devices are running in FPP Remote mode.

I suppose this means you need to figure out what FPP means. The FPP master device in your network is a single board computer of some sort (most popular are the Raspberry PI rPI and the Beagle Bone Black BBB) running a software package called FPP. The FPP remotes are a wide range of devices that understand how to interact with the master and convert locally (to the device) stored sequence data into a useable form for the lights connected to the remote device.

Yes read the AUS document. It has a lot of great information in it.

[mikeh65]

One simple answer, at least for me, there are multiple outputs on most controllers and each output uses at least one Universe. But sometimes what you connect to that output does not take up a full universe. It is a matter of controller limitations and need for connections to go to different places.

[MartinMueller2003]

And on the better controllers there is NO link between the concept of a universe and an output port.

[gingrbredman]

@algerdes brings up a good point about the zoom room. I think it is so valuable, at least in the beginning, to even just sit there and listen to what is being discussed. So much information you may not think you needed is passed around there and if you have time when you are sitting there pushing pixels, join the room and just listen to the chats.

[1pet2_9]

I have my own answer about why you don't cram the universes, but first off, everyone else was not wrong. It has to do with when you manually assign the lights' addresses. The reason why it likely won't matter to you is simple: because the software assigns the addresses for you. When you want to manually assign addresses, you want lots of swap space. If you're only using half the.channels, you can just slap down groups of lights together, no problem. But when it's crammed, it becomes like one of those puzzles where you have to slide over one piece at a time. .This can go there, but in order to put that there I have to first move this there,....brain gets tired. A computer can do that stuff in it's sleep.