OptykMuse
Supporting Member
I've been looking for a less expensive pixel controller recently and came across the Baldrick8 (B8) by ILightThis. It's an 8-port controller based on an ESP32-WROOM microcontroller module. It has a webpage configuration accessed via its assigned IP address. So far it doesn't support WIFI, only a copper network connection which is what I wanted anyway.
I've been looking for others who have used this controller and Vixen users seem to be pretty sparse as I've not seen much of anything here other than my own posts. Guess that's probably ok since it's only been out a few months, so thought I'd post my experience so far with it.
I had some troubles getting my new megatree working properly, which turned out to be my own error in setting up the color handling in Vixen. Once I had that corrected (thanks to some thoughts from the facebook group that supports these) I was glad to see the pixels happily and obediently doing their pixely thing.
I looped a sequence and let it run on the bench for a few hours in it's weatherproof box to see how the temperature fared on the board. The status displayed on the board's webpage showed it stabilizing at around 32 degrees C in my warm lab room, which seems pretty ok. The box does have some vents on the side (with protection from rain) so not worried about it getting too warm, especially since it's at least 20 degrees colder outside at night (central coast California).
So it ran for a few hours and I stopped the sequence. When I started back up again there were no happy flashy lights and the status showed zero frame rate and nothing streaming, although the little amber data LED on the B8 board was flashing away same as it had been the entire time. Not sure what was going on with this, I rebooted the board (there's a handy reboot 'button' at the bottom of the webpage) and it began working again. So all was well again and I let it run for a while longer. About an hour later or so it did the same thing, so I rebooted the board again. Again, it resumed it's intended function... Well, then day two came and the manufacturer suggested trying the latest beta version and it appears to be working perfectly now... almost 8 hours and still a-ok.
I feel good about setting it up for the December lights display now so giving it a thumbs up for now. We'll see how it performs.
I've been looking for others who have used this controller and Vixen users seem to be pretty sparse as I've not seen much of anything here other than my own posts. Guess that's probably ok since it's only been out a few months, so thought I'd post my experience so far with it.
I had some troubles getting my new megatree working properly, which turned out to be my own error in setting up the color handling in Vixen. Once I had that corrected (thanks to some thoughts from the facebook group that supports these) I was glad to see the pixels happily and obediently doing their pixely thing.
I looped a sequence and let it run on the bench for a few hours in it's weatherproof box to see how the temperature fared on the board. The status displayed on the board's webpage showed it stabilizing at around 32 degrees C in my warm lab room, which seems pretty ok. The box does have some vents on the side (with protection from rain) so not worried about it getting too warm, especially since it's at least 20 degrees colder outside at night (central coast California).
So it ran for a few hours and I stopped the sequence. When I started back up again there were no happy flashy lights and the status showed zero frame rate and nothing streaming, although the little amber data LED on the B8 board was flashing away same as it had been the entire time. Not sure what was going on with this, I rebooted the board (there's a handy reboot 'button' at the bottom of the webpage) and it began working again. So all was well again and I let it run for a while longer. About an hour later or so it did the same thing, so I rebooted the board again. Again, it resumed it's intended function... Well, then day two came and the manufacturer suggested trying the latest beta version and it appears to be working perfectly now... almost 8 hours and still a-ok.
I feel good about setting it up for the December lights display now so giving it a thumbs up for now. We'll see how it performs.