391 replies to this topic

[whynotpizza]

Need some help getting jump started as I begin testing this contraption.

 

Using a single strand of WS2812B 144/M in length which looks like this:

  One end "female" is RED, WHITE and (RED|GREEN|WHITE - female connector)

  One end "male" is RED, WHITE and (RED|GREEN|WHITE - male connector)

 

I plan to connect my PSU +5V to RED and GND to WHITE on the "female" end. I am also going to connect Orange/White from CAT6 cable to GREEN on the "female" end.

 

Does this look about right? 

 

Do I ground the Teensy board?

 

If I was planning to inject more power, would I do that on the "female" end going to the RED and WHITE on the "female" connector? Or do you inject at the other "male" end?

 

What's the easiest way (using Windows) to check to see if this is wired up correctly to the Teensy board? 

 

Idea here is to use this 144/1M length to flash a light sequence from one end to the other as the ball is launched. 

 

Any more details would be great, thanks!

[DDH69]

You can inject power at either, or in my case, both ends.  I use 1m x 144 strips and connect power at both ends.  The signal is end specific (I found this out through error).  Best way is to look closely at the strip, it should indicate "in" and "out".  You want the "in".  Yes, signal is green.

 

There is no need to ground the Teensy board.  That will happen via signal wires from the RJ45 (colour / white) and should be done close to the start of the strip.

 

In Windows you should see a device appear as a COM port in Device Manager.  Plug / unplug the Teensy and you will know which one.  You will need the Com port # for setting up your DOF XML file.

[Outhere]

How to Set Up Addressable LED Strips

http://www.vpforums....showtopic=36156

[whynotpizza]

Thanks DDH69

 

When I ground the white RJ45 signal wire (color to DATA and white to GND) ...

 

Q: Do I connect it to the GND (which is white) on the Red/Green/White connector? or do I connect it to the GND (which is also white) on the individual White and Red wires. 

 

Continuity shows the White on the Red/Green/White connector is the same as the other White wire so maybe it doesn't matter.

[whynotpizza]

By the way, I tried to run the Teensy.exe loader app for Windows 7 to "test" the LEDs, but can't get any of them to light.

 

I have QTY 2 - 144/LEDs

 

First one is connected to +5, GND, Data, Orange (to Signal) and White (to GND)

Second one is connected to a different +5 and GND and its Data, Blue (to Signal) and White (to GND)

 

Hmm, any thoughts on what to try?

 

https://www.pjrc.com...ader_win10.html

[DDH69]

Yes white at both ends is negative. The recommendation is that you connect the data to green and data /white as close as possible to the green. So that means connect the negative (white / data ) to the end with the green.

[whynotpizza]

ok, still no real sign of any lights when testing with the Teensy loader.

 

I am only injecting +5V power and GND to the 144/m at the beginning end, and from a stand-alone PC ATX power supply using one of the Molex plugs.

 

Could that be a problem? 

 

I see nothing, no lights. 

 

https://www.technibb...wer_pinouts.gif

[Outhere]

PC ATX power supply  - - This is what I use

Did you test the power supply to make sure it's putting out power with something else?

+5V power to the (red) and GND to (white)

Only the CAT6 orange is hooked up to the green wire

The CAT6 white & orange wire is hooked to the ground

The light strip should be marked with arrows to show the signal flow direction

Try testing with your  -- DirectOutputConfigTester.exe

 

 Addressable-1.jpg   169.23KB   32 downloads

Edited by Outhere, 30 September 2017 - 11:41 PM.

[Outhere]

whynotpizza  if needed post your

GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml

cabinet.xml

[whynotpizza]

Tested multiple molex connectors on this power supply, each produces +5V. However, I noticed that only 0.14A is actually being drawn (maybe that makes sense since no lights power up)

 

Maybe its time to get a different power supply? Any recommendations for what to get? 

 

I'd post my config files, but I can't even get the thing to light up by itself, so not sure if this would help, although I could use the DOF tester like you suggest, but I haven't built the DOF+Teensy xml files yet.

[whynotpizza]

I think I made things worse by attempting to add the virtual serial driver (and when Windows complained on install, I clicked ok to install anyway)

 

Windows Serial Installer (under Other)

https://www.pjrc.com...d_download.html

 

Now I see this listed in Other and can't get rid of it (comes back each time and won't find real driver)

 

Should have watched the Bills game instead of messing with this electronics they are actually did well today!

Attached Files

•  pinball.jpg   50.93KB   20 downloads

Edited by whynotpizza, 10 September 2017 - 08:32 PM.

[whynotpizza]

I am looking at two different kinds of mean well power supplies ... 26A vs 60A

 

  http://www.jameco.co...att_323821.html

  http://www.jameco.co...LY_2149651.html

 

Any thoughts on which one to get? or is there a better one to consider?

 

Also, silly question, but if I am plugging my cabinet into a power strip and ultimately a single 15A wall receptacle, won't I trip the 15A circuit breaker in my house wall outlet before coming even close to 26A draw let along 60A?

 

Lastly, I have 144/m and 60/m and 30/m LEDs to be used for side rails as well as a matrix of LEDs. (testing each density to see which I like best)

 

What's the rule to figure out how much current I could potentially draw?

Edited by whynotpizza, 11 September 2017 - 12:53 AM.

[whynotpizza]

Ok snagged a spare HP desktop machine today, dropped a new OS on it (Windows 7) and hooked it up the same way and tested.

 

Same result.

 

What is weird is that a few LEDs light up initially only, and when I power cycle the 5V line, they don't come back.

 

Maybe I have something wrong in following the wiring instructions?

 

I ordered a mean well power supply (since I'd like one anyway) but I doubt this will solve the problem.

 

I even traced pins on the CAT6 to make sure I was using the right two pins (which are Orange and Orange/White)

 

Any ideas? I am pulling my hair out on this one...

Edited by whynotpizza, 12 September 2017 - 01:48 AM.

[Outhere]

That is normal to have a couple lights flash on when you Power It Up...

Did you setup --> (DOF) R3 Beta

[whynotpizza]

Yes, I have DOF setup with two "test" fixtures, one with Sainsmart USB and relays, and another with LEDWiz and LEDs, Strobes, Amps, etc. Each test fixture worked just fine in various pinball games and I was trying to get a "test" of this addressable LED strip next but thought it best to have it work outside of DOF, since there is a decent amount of configuration in DOF to make this work.

 

I fixed my driver issue from above by re-running the USB drivers which came with the motherboard and rebooting. When I did, I saw Teensy on COM4 in device manager (which is a good thing) but when I run it thru the loader test tool, it dropped off the device manager when it rebooted after loading code.

[Outhere]

I never used the loader test tool
When I first set mine up I follow the directions made my GlobalConfig_B2SServer.xml  and cabinet.xml

and try a game and it worked..

[whynotpizza]

Power supply arrived today (Meanwell RS-150-5)

 

Re-wired the test fixture and it looks much cleaner.

 

I believe I am close (or actually working) can't tell since the "teensy.exe" loader program won't actually fire any of the lights in the sequence using slow, fast or test blink. Even tried using arduino-1.8.4-windows to kick it off, and it still won't light any of the sequence.

 

I have WS2812B LED Strip with 144 LEDs wired in the simplest configuration. I even swapped a different 144 set to make sure the first one wasn't bad.

 

See pictures that shows how the wiring was done. I only injected +5V and GND on just one side -- maybe I should inject the other side an additional +5V and GND?

 

  --> I just injected additional power and ground on the opposite side, and same result <--

 

As you can see, a block of like 15 or so lights stay ON continuously. 

 

Computer Management (Windows 7) shows the device in "Device Manager" as "Teensy USB Serial (COM4)"

 

Any ideas what to try next? Isn't there any way of testing this besides going full tilt with setup on DOF for addressable? 

 

Or should I really go forward with wiring 2 full strips and fully configure DOF for addressable in order to test? 

Attached Files

•  testwiring1.jpg   113.61KB   27 downloads

Edited by whynotpizza, 15 September 2017 - 03:17 AM.

[Westworld]

Seems you already tried everything and things gets more and more frustrated.

When I've setup mine, I had a wrong cable, wrong DOF setup - and to make things worse, at that time was even a bug in DOF. I was near to get crazy.

 

If you reached that state, maybe it makes sense to start from scratch.

Take the Teensy and connect it to your notebook (or another computer, not the pin), so you can start from scratch.

On that computer, install Teensy IDE (free software), go to 

https://www.pjrc.com...eensyduino.html

to learn how to install and set it up.

Then follow this tutorial to use the "blink" code:

https://www.pjrc.com...y/tutorial.html

 

This will make the internal LED from the Teensy blink. If that happens, you know your Teensy is fine, your setup is correct, your computer can talk to it.

 

Now jump over all other tutorials, directly going to LEDs with OctoWS2811:

https://www.pjrc.com...OctoWS2811.html

 

Reading the first 20-30% of that page should give you a better understanding how these strange thing works.

Read till "BasicTest Example Program"

 

To follow this test, you might connect just a rest of your strip, like 5-10 leds, directly to your Teensy (via OctoWS2811 modul). For up to 15 there is no need for external power supply, but it will not hurt either.

In any case, there is no need of DOF, cabinet.xml, configuration. You just need correct wiring and the example code.

 

If that works, take the Teensy back to your cabinet and connect it there. Keep the test code in the Teensy, just connect power.

The ledstrips should work. If no, you have an issue with wiring!

If yes, your cable, power supply, etc, is correct - and you have an issue with DOF setup.

 

So yes, all this works only help you to validate that wiring is ok or not and if it is DOF or not, it does not show directly where your error is.

But it seems you already spend a lot of time for trial&error, maybe a step by step process could speed things up.

[bjschneider93]

Someone please help! Im ready to pull my hair out. I am trying to get my leds working. I am using a teensy 3.2 and 144 per/meter led strips. I cannot get a he leds to light up. Is there an easy easy way to test the strips? I have tried 4 different strips so I would assume that they are not all bad. The Teensy was blinking about every 1.5 seconds and now it blinks twice and the a pause and blinks twice again. Also when I load a table it will pulse rapidly briefly and go back to its twice blinking routine. I am wondering what I screwed up?

[DDH69]

I don't know how to test other than with the DOF, so via VP and DOFLinx.  Having done this recently myself with the same equipment you're using I had the same result, I had the signal wire (green) connected to the wrong end of all 8 strips, that is the out signal not the in signal.  Definitely check that, no other suggestions at present.