🎄Colorlight 5A-75B Panel Controller (2020) 🎄

[@stevenzhu527]

Yours is PH4. We are mainly in mass production of LED display module.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

OK. Thanks!

[@gadget1968]

Many thanks for the knowledge sharing and all the great work

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Hope it helps!

[@gadget1968]

@@CanispaterChristmas your always do you class act in world of yt... hope you have a wonderful day and up and coming holidays

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

Just picked up some panels and the color light card from wired watts!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Awesome! Ken is awesome!

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

@@CanispaterChristmas when I got to intelligent setup only half of the panel lights up white

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@lightsonmatfield4031 Did you also check out the follow-up video? Ken pointed out that I made it too complicated in this video. You don't need to follow all the steps I went through.

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

@@CanispaterChristmas It's weird because I select j1 and one-half of the panel is white then I go to J2 and the other half is white. I'm running p10 panels that are daisy-chained to port J1

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@lightsonmatfield4031 Sounds like something is configured incorrectly then, but I have no idea what that might be. Try giving Ken a call. He knows a lot more about these than I do.

[@bigbluelights2292]

Any chance you could suggest to ken to put together a canispater p5 kit of everything that you just put together on this video for those of us to order? I would like to have 1 or 2 of these for tune to signs but it gets confusing on some of these websites exactly what you need. If he was nice enough to sponsor this video hopefully he would be nice enough to put together the entire kit in order to sell.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. I can certainly ask and include a 5V power supply! :)

[@andreacavallaro-official]

Amazing. Thank you. That was really helpful.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Glad it helped!

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

I love how cheap it is, I will definitely be getting one in the future

[@CanispaterChristmas]

They are fun to use & play with! 😂

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

@@CanispaterChristmas I was wondering, in xlights I don’t have the light on button for bridge mode. Did they change it in the newer releases?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@lightsonmatfield4031 Bridge mode is an FPP thing. Output-to-lights is what xLights calls is.

[@lightsonmatfield4031]

@@CanispaterChristmas yeah I know that but for some reason in xlights I don’t have a option to output to lights

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@lightsonmatfield4031 Do you have any controllers defined? The icon may not show if your screen resolution is too low. It's the light bulb in the toolbar. It's to the right of the zoom toolbar which is to the right of the Windows toolbar.

[@widmerwonderland]

I just got this stuff a few weeks ago! I haven't had the nerve to try it all yet... 1st p5 build...

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Just take it one step at a time and ask questions if you get stuck. Very cool stuff.

[@asulliv1954]

I have Colorlight 5A 75B and Raspberry Pi 4 with FPP I hook up board to my Windows back RJ45 jack to the board and try connect to board but can’t what am I doing wrong!Thank You for all the inspiration Love Your Videos!!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! I'm not the expert on these cards and it's been a few days since I played with it. 😂 You might give Ken a call at Wired Watts. Not sure what has changed since I did the video.

[@larrywilliams893]

Great video Jeff

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks Larry!

[@nateandsuzi7971]

wow nice editing

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. Thanks!

[@iancooper2637]

Just like to say Thank you Thank you Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. Thanks! Did that help?

[@iancooper2637]

Canispater Christmas aka Jeff very much so been banging my head against the wall for a good month

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@iancooper2637 OMG! No don't do that. Check into the Facebook group or the xlights zoom call for help. Plenty of folks there to assist. But if this gets you past it 👍😂

[@lyori1]

Jeff. Another great video. Since Ken sent you those, any chance you can get a Kulp K40PB and Pocket Scroller from Ken and do a series of videos how to take it from the box through setup to functioning controller.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! I'll see what I can do.

[@RLeeErmy]

Thanks for another great video!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks!

[@scottndeann]

Long time watcher first time Question LOL. Can the Colorlight be used in the same manner or configuration as your P10/P5 Panel enclosure (4 panels in a double 1x2)? I am assuming this has to be fed by the Etho and cannot be wireless. Your help is greatly appreciated.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Hmm. Good question. I didn't try that, but I'd say probably. Someone in the facebook groups can probably answer that one or Ken at Wired Watts though he might be unavailable this week. I kinda took a birds-eye view of this and haven't gone deeper.

[@jamirkuhn5206]

@Jeff What is the LED are dis-align?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Not sure I understand the question. Do you mean an option in the software?

[@AndysBastelkanal]

Why the brightness is now 57%?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Can you give me more details? I'm not sure what you're asking.

[@brianschuster7855]

Always like your videos. Thanks for sharing. Have you done a comparison of the indoor vs outdoor P5 panels that Wired Watts sells? Wondering how different the enclosure could be with the outdoor version. Some of us don't have all the fancy wood working equipment to build a nice enclosure like you did :)

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. I haven't. You might give Ken a shout to see what's required. Either way, you'll need to be able to protect the electronics.

[@kohh_cool]

Unable to connect 5a75b receiver card and pc with usb type c lan conversion.Why?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

No clue, but you might give Ken at Wired Watts a hollar.

[@kohh_cool]

@@CanispaterChristmas Thank you!

[@ApolloTheDerg]

Ok you sold me on these panels lol. I have a setup at work that I didn’t have to pay for but I’m learning a lot from doing it all myself with a company budget, and I think I can sell the boss in this being a nice FM sign 👉😎👉 maybe I can upload our Halloween show, it’s alright I suppose but it’s getting me into it for myself. Getting paid to learn it all, might as well have fun. Now the thing I want to figure out is automotive lighting, I am sort of at an impasse on controller for that. Would you have any ideas? It would be for non street use, mix of undergow and bed lighting for the truck, with maybe some custom headlights with DRL’s and the sorts to just have an all out fun experiment, I would like to use something that I can sequence but also have reactive to music or set to nice static on the fly, and running off of the 12v battery. I just wonder what you would think for a controller setup? DC-AC inverter to power a small router and flacon with a pie, connect with my phone to the pie and tell it to play songs over the stereo? Or should I get one of those DMX controllers and get myself an app that can do some reactive stuff? I have an experimental setup in my truck bed right now, it’s a bit janky but I have some 12v strips up the bed rails and one crossing the tool box creating a nice bed glow, bit I have 3 wires into the back window of my cab and a ready to go F16V3 from work I borrow that needs AC power. I just want something I can keep and maybe wire in better long term, but yeah.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Cool! You probably want something to regulate the 12V since automotive 12V isn't 12V and pixels don't like varying outside their range too much. You could also look at 5V pixels then. Whatever your preference. You can go directly from the Pi to the Falcon without a switch and the Falcon has a 2-port switch on it if you need to connect something else. The only part I don't know how to do is the light organ (live reaction to audio), but someone may have something that will do that now. I haven't outfitted a vehicle with pixels, but have seen them used in parades.

[@cindyblanton3960]

How far can you go with either net cable and not effect the timeing

[@CanispaterChristmas]

The Ethernet spec is 100m (328 feet) for copper cable.

[@50MT4]

Great video! Does this 5A-75B controller plug directly to your computer via ethernet? Is there something another device needed to have it run properly? I’m not wanting to run a prescheduled show or FPP(I think that’s what it’s called, I’m new to this). I’m more wanting to play live from my computer directly to the led matrix using something like Resolume or xLights.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I think I went through a network switch, but it was talking directly to the card during the setup. xLights doesn't play to it directly (although that could have changed by now) without the plugin. If you have specific requirements, definitely get in touch with Ken at WiredWatts - he's got more experience with these.

[@ronm6585]

Good stuff, thanks.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks!

[@akakfreeman]

Thanks for your video! At 9:00 min into the video it looks like you switch from the 128x64 to 256x32 layout for your panels. I'm trying to build the same 256x32 double-sided sign that you built, but I can't get the ColorLight settings to display the test pattern correctly. I've tried your exact numbers and a bunch of others. Did you change your colorlight settings after the 9:00 minute part? I also have P5 instead of P10 so I loaded the preset for 8 scan, but I've tried 16 scan too. Any ideas?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Ken at WiredWatts told me this setup went a lot further than you should need to go. With the correct software version, it's a couple of clicks and it's set up so you might want to check with him and see if he can answer your question. Also, the software I show in this video was a bit quirky and things magically changed without my knowledge so I'm not sure how to answer that. 😂 I believe I should have been able to set it up as a single panel, but went with 2 here. Both should work. I may have corrected some of this in a later video.

[@lrmeans1]

Hi Jeff, haven't talked to you for a while. Just a comment on your panel. I built a 2 by 2 about three weeks ago using a controller card that does not need external connection. Take a look at my post on the Xlights facebook support page. (Larry Means) Our hardware is real close to each other. I just wanted a Tune To Sign that I could put in the window. One question about yours. You are programming it with Xlights and FPP. Does it need to be connected via cat 5 cable to work once it is programmed? Does the Colorlight controller work wireless? Ops that is two questions... My PI 4 is connected to the F48. It only has one ethernet jack. Could you use the second ethernet jack on the F48 to connect to the Colorlight card it you wanted permanent connection or would you have to go with a USB/ethernet adapter on the PI? Keep up the great videos. Lots of people are starting to ask lots of questions on how do I get into this expensive hobby.. See ya, Larry

[@CanispaterChristmas]

The colorlight card is just a data receiver. It needs to be connected to the network at all times and does not do wireless. Checking with David to see if you can use the 2-port switch on the F16/F48 to daisy-chain the colorlight card off them or if you must use a separate network switch. Switches are pretty cheap now, but another piece of gear. I'll let you know. Send those people my way - I'll show them. :)

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I checked. I recommend using a network switch to plug them both into. Daisy-chaining didn't work in either direction.

[@mcroftcheck]

Great videos and I appreciate the time and effort that goes into them. If I have a Pi/FPP show player currently connected via ethernet to a SanDevices E682, do I just add a gigabit switch and plug the colorlight card and the Pi/FPP remote (the one that controls the colorlight) into the switch also? So a Pi/FPP master, Pi/FPP remote, E682 and colorlight all in the same switch, even though the remote and colorlight are talking a different "language"? Thanks for any pointers!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! As far as I know, that should work. I just used a standard switch in my demo.

[@mcroftcheck]

@@CanispaterChristmas Thanks for the response. As soon as my 2nd Pi gets here, I'll dig the E682 out of mothballs and give 'er a go. (I did get the panel talking with the 1st Pi and xlights thanks to your video!)

[@asulliv1954]

I have same card hooked up to my RPI4 with Wi-Fi hooked up to Pi and Colorlight board right,then I have my Windows PC with FPP running LEDVISION but my cursor isn’t showing up on panels,why.?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Well, I'm no expert on these cards, but Ken at Wired Watts is so you might give him a call or email. My guess is some sort of config issue.

[@kosmoso7725]

Hello, thanks for video. I Have these four P3 panels (64x64 - 32s) & colorlight. Somehow in LedVision all the panels shows same LED1 stock image instead of full merge image, like on your panel. I did all different connections, looks like LedVision doesn't recognise, that there is 4 panels in square. Maybe you known what could be wrong?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I'm no expert on these, but you might try using earlier software. At one time, the latest had a problem and the previous version worked.

[@kosmoso7725]

@@CanispaterChristmas Thanks, will try that, have a nice day 🙂

[@cinematicspark7141]

Is it possible to use a tv as a pixel matrix and connect it to the falcon f16v3 controller

[@CanispaterChristmas]

A Pi has an HDMI output you can connect to a TV, but the Falcon doesn’t.

[@patrickriordan9167]

Jeff thanks for the video! One question, does the Ethernet have to be dedicated to the light system or can it be fed through an active gigabit LAN sharing with other computers?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Best practice is to create a separate show network. You can run it on your existing network and see what you get. If the lights start lagging or your KZbin videos stop loading while your show is running, you might want to make a change. :)

[@michaeljackson6650]

Hi. Need your help!!!...l have a c4 player colorlight and a led screen p4.81...l can t mapping anything,no image on the screen,only vertical lines. The receiver card is 5a 75b. Please help me. Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Did you go through the setup process with the utility?

[@michaeljackson6650]

@@CanispaterChristmas yes and still nothing. I have an upgrade to firmware to card receiver,after that no more video no more mapping. How reset this card to factory values? Please need your help. Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@michaeljackson6650 Contact Ken at wiredwatts.com He knows more about these than I do.

[@aniekanfriday7150]

Please how can I change the Width under "Intelligent Setting", under "Receiver Parameters", Under "LED Screen Setting"? Trying to get the Width of 320 to match with the actual width of my module. The Max it allows is 240. Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I'm not an expert on these boards, but you can email ken at wiredwatts.com for more information. You might also try 2 columns of 160 to see if that works.

[@mewrongwayKOCXF]

More Colorlight vids please Jeff! 😁 Oh and dont tell anyone the Password is 168! 🙊

[@CanispaterChristmas]

More colorlight? What else is there? 😂

[@mewrongwayKOCXF]

@@CanispaterChristmas Oh im just having trouble figuring things out! lol Like I installed FPP 6.2 on my RasPie and cant remember how to log in to the Pie to setup or how to get Pie to talk to Colorlight. lol cant believe how much I forget in a year! 🤔

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Does the Pi talk directly to them now? IIRC, I had to add some special plugins to get xSchedule to talk to it. I'm out of that loop a little tho. 😂

[@mewrongwayKOCXF]

@@CanispaterChristmas Yes Jeff that was the problem. I had to ad a plugin to xScheduler.

[@AndysBastelkanal]

I have one Colorlight 5A-75B in my new Display. For the FPP i use a Raspberry 3B+. When i generate in XLIGHTS a new Sequence with 30 fps, the scrolling text is not smooth. The Text stutters extremly. With 25 fps it is better, but blured out. The Display is 4 x 64x64 P4 Panels. I dont know what i can do now.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Ken at Wired Watts is my goto guy for that card. I don't have enough experience with it to give you meaningful assistance.

[@JamesBowlesaz]

Do you have any thoughts about the Colorlight vs. a BB octoscroller plus or even pocket scroller other than price? I imagine the octoscroller makes it a little more standalone.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Depends on your setup, but the BB/Octo can have the sequence files local so no data goes out over the network which is a plus.

[@bauera2b57]

Jeff, Thanks for another great video! One question If I only have 1 Raspberry Pi running Falcon f48 Do I need another one to run this panel? If not how do you wire it up since there is only one Ethernet output on Pie?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! You might want to get a 4-port gigabit network switch. They are fairly cheap. Plug everything into that.

[@FRANCESCORUGGERI1997]

Hi Jeff, you are always the best, great video! Only one question. Is possible to run both Falcon f16v3 and colorlight card?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Sure. You can either use the other Ethernet connector on the Falcon to feed the Colorlight card or possible the other way around (I haven't tested it, but assume it's just a 2-port switch as well).

[@ivancachicatari1464]

I have the same receiving card but I lost the sending card, it was an S2 Colorlight sender box, but I have Linsn and Novastar sending cards, I'm very afraid to test that with those sending cards. Did you test the 5A-75b with other brands sending cards? How would it work?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Responded to your email.

[@ivancachicatari1464]

@@CanispaterChristmas Thank you very much :)

[@SmokinLoken]

I have a very similar setup as you. I am using a matrix of P5 panels with a ColorLight receiver controlled by a Pi. However, for some reason I can't get the Output to Lights feature to work within XLights when connected directly to the ColorLight receiver When I click it, nothing happens. However, I can play my sequence via a playlist through FPP with no problems. Any suggestions on what I'm doing wrong that the Output to Lights feature doesn't work?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I don't know the answer to your question. I'm not sure what lighting protocol the CL card uses. I know xSchedule requires a plug-in to work with the card, but I don't think xLights has one. It may not be an option currently.

[@SmokinLoken]

Okay. So I take it that using xScheduler is kind of the workaround then to achieve a live output since that's how you did it in the video. Would that be correct?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@SmokinLoken Well, you won't get live output from xSchedule. It does the same thing as FPP, but runs on a PC vs a Pi - plays/schedules sequences. You might post a question on the forums/FB group to see if there's a way to do that I'm unaware of.

[@anotheramazingproduction7798]

Does this require a dedicated pi running FPP to work? If so, how does it get show data ?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Either Pi/FPP or xSchedule. Not sure I understand the last part. Show data is stored on the SD card of the Pi.

[@anotheramazingproduction7798]

New to this.... my FPP sends show data out on eth0 to my f16v3 and hinkspix pro over cat 6 cable. The pi running FPP for the matrix sends data to the color light board via its eth0. If I want the matrix to run as part of the show the other FPP is running, how does it get it’s show data. The FPP running the show does not transmit Wi-Fi data nor is there a second eth port to connect to the other pi.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@anotheramazingproduction7798 If you 're running 2 Pis, make one a master and the other the remote. They can sync over WiFi (one pulse per second) but the pixel data comes from the local storage on both.

[@anotheramazingproduction7798]

Canispater Christmas aka Jeff thanks.

[@phieuxudua]

Hello brothers and sisters, can you help me with configuring led p6? I need a configuration for Colorlight 5A card, if you have a configuration file sent to me, can I thank you guys!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Have you tried a preset? See @7:01

[@jmansour84]

I have 2 P5 panels running 1x2 (32 tall x 128 wide). Successfully set them up in LEDVision. Installed the Color light plugins for xSchedule. When I play a sequence, it's swapped the two panels. Can't figure it out. Any ideas?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

When you setup the Colorlight card, did you try the mouse all over the panel trick to see if that was set up correctly? 2) I'd make sure the panel wiring is correct, 3) check the xLights model. Other than that, I can't think of a reason it would be backwards, but admittedly, I don't have a lot of experience with this card and might steer you to the Facebook group.

[@jmansour84]

@@CanispaterChristmas So, I was up late and exhaustion was getting the best of me last night, so I pulled the plug and went to bed. First thing this morning, I did a reset on my PC and went to double check all settings - those were fine. I went to xScheduler and deleted all matrices I created last night and added new ones. First test, worked flawlessly. So, I don't know if it was the reset or the new matrix I set up in xSchedule, but whatever it was, it's working! Your video was the only one I needed to get up and running. Thanks for the stellar videos!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@jmansour84 Been there! Glad you got it working. Thanks!

[@jorgerivera1027]

Hi, thanks for a really helpfull video, i have some issues with a hevy blinking after set my led screens P4 64W x 32H smd2121, I tried to adjust the performance settings and improves with less blinking but no dissapear some idea master ¿?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I don't know a lot about these, but you might give Ken at wiredwatts.com a call.

[@tnet232]

I need some informations about CLT A5 50pin receiving cards.. Can it be connected to General Hub12 hubcards for controlling P10 Single Color (monochrome video)? Eg: h192 x w1440 P10 Red hub12.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I had someone commenting on videos about NovaStar cards, but it's been a while and I don't remember who it was. To my knowledge, we don't use those in our displays so my knowledge of them is non-existent. Have you tried reaching out to NovaStar sales or support about them? You might also try the xLights Facebook group to see if anyone there has experience with them.

[@wendtvideo]

Can you live off xlights

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Do you mean "can you play directly from xLights to controllers" or something else?

[@wendtvideo]

@@CanispaterChristmas yes

[@CanispaterChristmas]

You can "output to lights" and it sends data out just like the scheduler/players. There's also 20 assignable buttons that allow you to jump to different segments of the open sequence.

[@widmerwonderland]

@@CanispaterChristmas wait, what are those assignable buttons, how do you do that?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@widmerwonderland Yeah, not my area of expertise. Look through Keith Westley's tutorials. Might be able to search on videos.xlights.org or just search Google. Keith added that for live stage show effects.

[@kbsalescorporation3298]

plz answer me colourlight s2 sender card 5A-75B_V2_8 RECEIVING CARD SOPPURT BY

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I don't understand the question.

[@sammyvasquez7787]

Dude!! Kill the music. No need. Excellent content but the music is wayyy distracting.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks!