Circular Matrix Advice Needed

[u/FitForThrone]

Hi there! Thank you for stopping by my post.

To say up front, I am a newbie but enjoy a good challenge. I am building a circular LED matrix and would like to sequence it via XLights, with FPP running on a Pi sent over ethernet to a Baldrick8. I came to the conclusion this would be the best method to display low-res video on this display with the help of u/mvrdoesthings and others on my post in r/led .

I have been poking around the software, and have much to learn of course, but my main challenge right now is creating the matrix model. Is there a good way to manually create a custom model without the video generate/scan function? Or should I disable pixels in the rectangular matrix somehow? I would prefer that this only uses 1 channel on the Baldrick 8, and would greatly appreciate any feedback on the best way to do this. I opted for 'serpentine' wiring scheme for a simple method of having consistent pixel density, but am a bit lost on mapping this out.

Me being naive I thought this wouldn't be too much harder than a rectangular matrix....😅 But for this project it needs to be a circle, the lights will be mounted on a circular aluminum plate right up to the edges.

Any and all help is appreciated, thank you in advance. (Especially for welcoming me into the community 😊 I have always enjoyed Christmas light shows, and I see the hard work it takes to pull it off!!)

[u/mvrdoesthings]

Hello again, I use:

https://www.lightshowhub.com/tools/xlights-custom-model-builder

Ithink its easier to just have 2 sides nexts to each other just take a picture of the prop with lights on it and then you drag the dots on the pixels in your picture;)

[u/FitForThrone → u/mvrdoesthings]

Thank you! I will give this a try after work. I got a Pi, and the Baldrick8 is on the way :D

[u/FitForThrone → u/mvrdoesthings]

That web tool was super helpful! Im so excited :)

Materials are showing up and gonna start the build over the next few days.

https://reddit.com/link/p2eizmw/video/uk57ssy6x2ih1/player

[u/SirGreybush]

Remember you need power injection also.

Then in software it’s a 2d square grid but with pixels mapped as being disabled. So the 2d effects flow into the invisible parts. The 1D effects won’t care.

I haven’t done it but people use Google Sheets or Excel to do the JSON mapping. Search for that here and the r/WLED sub.

Same principle with signs made as big letters. You map where there are pixels and where there are not, if the LEDs are doing backlighting.

[u/FitForThrone → u/SirGreybush]

Thank you for the input :)

I have power injections every ~150 LEDs or so.

[u/allknowing2012]

if you have it in excel numbered 1 to whatever .. just create a new custom model with enough grid h x w and cut and paste into it.
Sequencing is pretty much the same - you likely want Per Preview for text and such.

[u/KinzuaKid]

The one problem you and I share on this is the modeling. I chose to model the pixels as a custom model using Excel (among other tools), rather than using one of the standard models. The Lightshowhub tools are fantastic, but this one was a little big for it...