Trying to chain renard controllers for the first time

[Irrumater]

I am trying to use a renard 64 chained to a px1 and something isnt right. I have the px1 first in line and it works fine. When I try to output to the Ren64 I get nothing.
In vixen 3 I have the px1 setup with channels mapped to my rgb floods, I then have another renard controller setup with 64 outputs and channels needed.
Both controllers are set to the same comport and baudrate of 57600.
What am I missing?
Thanks

[angus40]

Does your firmware match your Vixen and controller configuration ? Have you tried the 64 first ?
Is your cable between controller 1 and 2 correct ?

[MartinMueller2003]

If you are chaining the renards, then in Vixen you create a SINGLE renard controller with a total number of channels = PX1 channels + 64 ren chanels. Also, I would always put the ren first on the line followed by the PX1. Keep in mind that 56Kbps can not support a lot of channels so you might get good performance on the first 25 pixels

[Irrumater]

Ah, well there is at least one thing I was doing wrong. I will recreate my control for 64 ren channels and 18 px1 channels and try again.
I think I have an issue with my floods also. I had 3 working fine last night with just the px1 controller set up. I tried to add the final 3 with power injection i. The middle ( Using rob g floods with 2 150w meanwells) and now nothong works.
I finally got tired of going in and out to checking if working, so I tore it all down and brought it into the workshop. I was able to get the 64 to work by itself tonight, so I know its good.
For baud rate, do I have to run both controllers the same? I only have 6 floods(18 channels) will 57600 be ok for that? I dont have a programmer to change the 64.
Thanks for the help.

[MikeKrebs]

Without a firmware tweak, both controllers need to be set the same as well as the com port.
Less than 100 channels total should be fine at 57K down to 25ms. Here is the standard chart from the wiki:

Total Renard Channels Capable
for a given Baud Rate/Refresh Interval*
Baud Rate Refresh Interval
100 ms 50 ms 25 ms
115200 1150 574 286
57600 574 286 142
38400 382 190 94
19200 190 94 46

[Irrumater]

Great Thanks! Not going to hit 142 channels any time soon. I have another 64 I can add later and the floods right now so total possible of 142. I may gwt a pic and figure out how to program/ipdate the 64s after Christmas. Rhanks again for the info, going to aetup one 82 channel Renard in Vixen tomorrow and go from there.

[Irrumater]

Progress, but something is still off.

I created a single Renard controller of 82 outputs. I patched my AC channels to the first channels, then skipped to Channel 65 and patched my floods. Now I can see the channels workging correctly on the Ren64. I connected the output of Ren64 to input on PX1 and connected a couple of floods. As soon as my sequence hits the floods they turn on full power white, and the second one kind of flashes a bit but thats it. And they stay on after the sequence ends. No change when starting up again.
I tried reprogramming the PX1 with the setup app to confirm on same com port and baud rate as Vixen. I am not 100% sure what settings to use in the setup app, but I have Group size as 3 ( for RGB) and Groupcount as 6 ( for 6 floods). I have also tried start channel 1 and 65. Any thoughts on what I am missing?
Also on the PX1 I have power light on until I connect the data cable then the RX and FE light come on solid and stay lit until I unplug data, this doesnt seem to match what I read online.
Thanks

[MartinMueller2003]

Your group size and count should be set to one, but that would not affect your outputs the way you are describing. The first issue is that the FE light comes on. That means the data arriving at the PX1 is corrupted.

Did you set the cable terminator properly?
Are you using a straight through CAT5 cable from the Ren64 to the PX1?
When you connect the PX1 directly to the serial output of your computer, does the FE light go out?

[P. Short]

The FE LED indicates that the PX1 is seeing something wrong with the incoming serial data (specifically, the STOP bit at the end of an incoming serial character has the wrong polarity). The most likely user-level causes are that the PX1 is configured for a different baud than what it's receiving, or that something is wrong with the cable between the Ren64 and the PX1.

In any case, do what Martin suggests.

[Irrumater]

Your group size and count should be set to one, but that would not affect your outputs the way you are describing. The first issue is that the FE light comes on. That means the data arriving at the PX1 is corrupted.

Did you set the cable terminator properly?
Are you using a straight through CAT5 cable from the Ren64 to the PX1?
When you connect the PX1 directly to the serial output of your computer, does the FE light go out?

I think I am using a cable I had previously used between Ren64 and SSR, but I guess it is possible I got a hold of a bad one. I will check the fe light this evening when I get home connected directly to the PC. I had these floods working 1 time, then I started messing with adding the 64 and it all went to crap.
If the FE light goes out I will try another/remake the cable.
Thanks for all the help