Looking for some help with the 'OctoWS2811 Demo' example.

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Looking for some help with the ‘OctoWS2811 Demo’ example. I’m getting some strange results with it I’ll. I’ve tried Paul Stoffregen’s ‘OctoWS2811 BasicTest’ example and that worked as expected, but I’d rather be using the FastLED. Any help figuring out what’s going wrong would be appreciated. Also, what should the result of that example look like?

The only edits I’ve made to the code are the number of strips and the number of LEDs per strip. Image attached of how the LEDs are displaying. Video of it and the code used linked to below.

A bit of other background information. I’m using 24V LEDs there’s only a chip per 6 LEDs. So I’ve divided the total number of LEDs in the strip by 6 to specify the value for NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP. Right now I’m just trying to get one strip working correctly. Will then be adding a second strip of equal length, displaying the same animation as the first but with an offset of when it starts.

A few more links…
Video of the OctoWS2811 Demo example running:

Code that I used with the above video:

Video prototyping the type of animation I’m looking to use:

Code that I used for the above animation:

Thanks!
Jeff

e04f398a436bdbbd43a9d35b6905e47f.jpeg
e04f398a436bdbbd43a9d35b6905e47f.jpeg3264×2448 1.49 MB

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the octows2811 board is not made to use 4 wire leds. in your code dont use clock pin.

Change this:

//LEDS.addLeds<WS2812,DATA_PIN,RGB>(leds,NUM_LEDS);
FastLED.addLeds<WS2801, DATA_PIN, CLOCK_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);

To this:

LEDS.addLeds<WS2812,DATA_PIN,RGB>(leds,NUM_LEDS);
//FastLED.addLeds<WS2801, DATA_PIN, CLOCK_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);

and maybe change rgb to GRB it depend on led you use you should tell us!

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for the first output of the pctpws2811 board you use pin 2 and comment the clock pin line or remove it all.

#define DATA_PIN 2
//#define CLOCK_PIN 7

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Thanks for the reply @Eloi_MIS . That second gist link that’s using the 4 wire code isn’t what I’m using with the OctoWS2811. That was just a reference of the animation effect I’m trying to achieve. I had prototyped that with other materials before I had gotten the materials I’m using now.

That first gist link I shared is the code I’m troubleshooting with the OctoWS2811 and the image I shared above. Here’s that link again…

Any ideas any what I need to alter to get that code working?

The strips that I have are GRB. When I had Paul Stoffregen’s ‘OctoWS2811 BasicTest’ example working it was with the following line:
const int config = WS2811_GRB | WS2811_800kHz;

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Another update. First off, figured it would be helpful to mention that I’m running the latest updates of FastLED, Arduino and Teensyduino.

I just tried altering the OctoWS2811 demo example to just display one color. See if that changed the flickering seen in the image I posted. Still gave me the same result as seen in that image. Here’s that code for reference too…

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I tried adding that config line to the OctoWS2811 demo example linked to above. Wasn’t sure if the GRB configuration is what’s throwing it off. Gave me the same result seen in the image I posted here. I also tried the Parallel Output demo set to WS2811_PORTD. No luck there either.

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Do you use the octoWS2811 board ??? what chipset your leds use??

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Howdy @Jeff_Howard fancy seeing you here :smiley: I am interested to see pictures and a diagram of your hardware setup. Have you been able to get any OctoWS2811 library by Paul to work at all, or just not the FastLED port of it? If so, can you post that video too? As for declaring color order with fastLED Octo, I have run into errors before and had to fix it at run time. The initialization for OctoWS2811 for FastLED is a little confusing and different than a regular strip declaration. Some more questions, what speed are you running your teensy at? 96mhz? Perhaps try 72mhz. Also, what version of teensy are you using? One more question, have you been able to get the new 24v strips working on their own without the OctoWS2811 board? It could be that the chips in the strips are not actually WS2811 or WS2812, but an analog that runs at 400hz instead of 800hz. Good to see you on the forum :smiley: Cheers, Matt

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I am using the OctoWS2811 board. Have the pin and Cat6 configured correctly. The chipset is WS2811 compatible but seems to actually be UCS1903. With it all working with Paul Stoffregen’s OctoWS2811 example ‘Basic Test’, I’m figuring the issue is in the software configuration side. Any ideas @Eloi_MIS ?

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in FastledMovingBluePixels.ino

#include “FastLED.h”

// How many leds in your strip?
#define NUM_LEDS 39

// For led chips like Neopixels, which have a data line, ground, and power, you just
// need to define DATA_PIN. For led chipsets that are SPI based (four wires - data, clock,
// ground, and power), like the LPD8806, define both DATA_PIN and CLOCK_PIN
#define DATA_PIN 2
//#define CLOCK_PIN 7

// Define the array of leds
CRGB leds[NUM_LEDS];

void setup() {
Serial.begin(57600);
Serial.println(“resetting”);
//LEDS.addLeds<WS2812B,DATA_PIN,GRB>(leds,NUM_LEDS);
//FastLED.addLeds<WS2801, DATA_PIN, CLOCK_PIN, RGB>(leds, NUM_LEDS);
LEDS.setBrightness(40);
}

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if you use T568B network cable

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I think the problem is the OctoWS2811 controller might not be well setup for using less than 8 strips. So - I’d say set NUM_STRIPS to 8 - even if you aren’t using them all just yet. I’ve only ever tested/used the OctoWS2811 controller with all 8 strips being used.

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it change nothing if for example you have 300 total led and 300 led per strip it will only use strip 1. anyways he try to use fastled with octows2811 board this i know it work also i use it i also used a octows2811 board with my esp8266 and fastled.

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@Eloi_MIS I know that he only has one strip hooked up - however my code that interfaces to OctoWS2811 may not work well if you define things with less than 8 strips - which is why I asked him to make that change, since he is using the FastLED OctoWS2811 driver. Your comments, for the most part, aren’t addressing the problem he’s having.

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but maybe he cant use octows2811 library since its not made for is type of led it only support WS2811 & WS2812 & WS2812B. Maybe the problem is just from there. He should try the included demo in arduino.

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He’s already tried Paul’s demo for the OctoWS2811 library and it works with his LEDs - from his post above:

“I’ve tried Paul Stoffregen’s ‘OctoWS2811 BasicTest’ example and that worked as expected, “

So the problem is somewhere in how FastLED is getting setup/configured which, again, is why I asked him to make that change above.

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sorry i was thinking he only want to use fastled directly with the octows2811 board but without using octows2811 library.

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See this line in his example code:

LEDS.addLeds(leds, NUM_LEDS_PER_STRIP);

That’s using FastLED’s OctoWS2811 driver (which is the fastest option for driving multiple strips in parallel on the teensy)

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id did not know it is easy like this to make fastled code to use octows2811 for output.

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Hey all, thanks for the follow ups here. I’ve been doing some onsite install planning since my last message. Just got home to start testing suggestions here. @Daniel_Garcia , changing NUM_STRIPS to 8 did the trick! The strip is now cycling through colors as expected! Thank you for that lead, much appreciated. Will pick back up on this tomorrow to do further testing. Hopeful that’s all I needed. I’ll post back to share more results when I have them. @Matt_Richard good to see you in here! Will have to catch up more. In the meantime though, some answers to your questions even if they’re just for interest as opposed to troubleshooting now… I had Paul’s demo working, no video to share of that at the moment though. I’m running a teensy 3.6 at 180mhz. I’d tested the 24V strips on their own too, running at 800hz. Now on to changing the animation and adding more LEDs!