Scrolling Large Text across a grid of 16 poles

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   I'm not sure why I didn't think about it until I tried putting the letter "H" across the matrix, but did you know that scrolling text (in English, anyway) should move from Right to Left? Once that sank in, I re-ordered my poles. Now, #1 is on the far right, #16 on the far left.

Because I'm a creature of habit, I did still number the channels from #1 at the bottom to #8 at the top. The next pole became #9 at the bottom, #16 at the top. Because of that, I had a problem with the letters. First I did an H.  No problem. It would easily move from right to left just by copy/pasting a single cell to the right. Then I did an O. No problem.  

H O scrolled just fine.  

Then I added a P  and and E   but ran into a slight problem. Because I put the channels from bottom to top, numerically, P and E were noticeably "upside-down." It didn't show up with the H and the O because they are the same either way. To fix, I could renumber all the poles or I could just draw the P and E upside down. I chose the latter.  

So now (and I'll post a video soon), I can already scroll HOPE and CURE across my matrix. It was remarkably easy once I fixed my early mistakes.

More to come!  Thanks for all the help. 

Slinkard - your layout would possibly work, but would be a very inefficient use of power cords. Easiest construction will be to put a 16 channel controller between each pair of poles.

Edited by JonB256 - 11 Feb 2009 at 11:16pm

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JonB256 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List DMX Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Location: Granbury, TX Online Status: Offline Posts: 130	Quote Reply Posted: 11 Feb 2009 at 11:13pm
	I'm not sure why I didn't think about it until I tried putting the letter "H" across the matrix, but did you know that scrolling text (in English, anyway) should move from Right to Left? Once that sank in, I re-ordered my poles. Now, #1 is on the far right, #16 on the far left. Because I'm a creature of habit, I did still number the channels from #1 at the bottom to #8 at the top. The next pole became #9 at the bottom, #16 at the top. Because of that, I had a problem with the letters. First I did an H. No problem. It would easily move from right to left just by copy/pasting a single cell to the right. Then I did an O. No problem. H O scrolled just fine. Then I added a P and and E but ran into a slight problem. Because I put the channels from bottom to top, numerically, P and E were noticeably "upside-down." It didn't show up with the H and the O because they are the same either way. To fix, I could renumber all the poles or I could just draw the P and E upside down. I chose the latter. So now (and I'll post a video soon), I can already scroll HOPE and CURE across my matrix. It was remarkably easy once I fixed my early mistakes. More to come! Thanks for all the help. Slinkard - your layout would possibly work, but would be a very inefficient use of power cords. Easiest construction will be to put a 16 channel controller between each pair of poles. Edited by JonB256 - 11 Feb 2009 at 11:16pm
	JonB - D-Light user

Slinkard Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List DMX Joined: 10 Dec 2007 Location: El Cajon CA Online Status: Offline Posts: 243	Quote Reply Posted: 12 Feb 2009 at 8:28am
	Yeah, I noted the SPT1. To fix the "Mirror" effect just flip you channels in Aurora i.e: Turns into 1 16 2 15 3 14 Then you'll have it. Gotta remember that when doing text you are literally look at a mirror when working in Aurora. Slink
	Coming soon www.computerizedlights.com

JonB256 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List DMX Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Location: Granbury, TX Online Status: Offline Posts: 130	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 9:12am
	OK, I've spent more time with this (plus the time to get more familiar with Aurora). The link below will open a file directory. The "Jon letter test.dls" file is the file to download. It should offer to "Save" and "Open" now that the server knows what a DLS file is. There is also a "Letter Test 2.dls" file that is new and works much better. Test file If you play this (I had music behind it but it wasn't "synchronized" at all) you will notice that the first sets of letters are too skinny and may be hard to read as they scroll. Later, there are some "H" demos, one is double-wide, one is triple-wide. The double-wide may be the size of choice. Testing continue. I still have to build the stupid poles and engineer a good method of anchoring them to bleacher seats. I can borrow enough controllers for the 128 channels this will consume but I'll need some more by Christmas. Edited by JonB256 - 14 Feb 2009 at 7:57am
	JonB - D-Light user

ChrisL1976 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 10:48am
	Cant remove the GIF status here. It brings it in as a GIF file and drops the GIF off the file name so I cant erase it. Anyone else get it to work?
	Chris www.lightsonsixth.com

JonB256 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List DMX Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Location: Granbury, TX Online Status: Offline Posts: 130	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 11:08am
	All fixed now, it appears. DLS files are now allowed by my server. Edited by JonB256 - 14 Feb 2009 at 7:58am
	JonB - D-Light user

ChrisL1976 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 11:41am
	I tried it on both FF and IE. I'll try it at lunch on my laptop and see what happens
	Chris www.lightsonsixth.com

Bigindian Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 373	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 6:23pm
	Chris and Jon, You both have mail about this subject. Chris, follow the link to the file cheers David

ChrisL1976 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 9:35pm
	Thanks David, that worked great
	Chris www.lightsonsixth.com

JonB256 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List DMX Joined: 19 Dec 2007 Location: Granbury, TX Online Status: Offline Posts: 130	Quote Reply Posted: 13 Feb 2009 at 10:02pm
	Now I have something worthwhile completed. Here's a YouTube shot of the Aurora screen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcLbfjIWx8A Since there are 16 vertical poles with 8 segments each, that is an array of 128 pixels. On the Aurora Visualizer, I used the Mini-Tree tool to draw my 128 lights. I'll post the latest Aurora file in the same folder as I did above (with the same naming workaround until they fix the MIME problem at the root of it. Edited by JonB256 - 14 Feb 2009 at 7:59am
	JonB - D-Light user

ChrisL1976 Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Visit Members Homepage Add to Buddy List Beta Testers Joined: 01 Sep 2008 Location: Kankakee, Ill Online Status: Offline Posts: 1341	Quote Reply Posted: 14 Feb 2009 at 12:20am
	Looks great Jon!!!
	Chris www.lightsonsixth.com