Hi there from a n00b with unanswered questions for the past year

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RokGoblin

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I have found some great info here on this forum, but I'm finding it difficult to get help. What am I doing wrong, other than not posting code in the first long winded thread? I am fully cognizant of the fact it might be the way I am asking for help or not asking properly. Can someone please let me know why I am not able to get assistance? One of my posts was really long winded but I felt I needed to provide details. I feel really odd trying to re-post the same questions in order to get help, but I did that again today out of sheer desperation.

I see several posts that get answered the same day or within a few days, but mine have persisted for months to over a year now without many attempts at all to provide any level of guidance or assistance. To be fair @crees dove in on my long winded post but never came back ;-( I was so excited that someone....anyone decided to take a bite.

This is a very difficult learning process for me and without help I am stuck for over a year now with tiny moments of "holy 5#it I did it" interspersed throughout. Any suggestions for free programming 101 (or electronics 101) training is highly appreciated so I can approach my questions from a more informed perspective too.

Thanksin advance and I hope I can get some help on my continued pursuit of my new obsession (for the last 2 years anyway).

Here are my posts in the order of appearance if you are interested to have a look
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/56443-2-Octos-with-Teensy-3-2-Sync-Help (The long one)
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/56493-How-do-I-sync-2-Octos (Thought maybe I was in the wrong place with my original post)
https://forum.pjrc.com/threads/58246-Need-syncing-for-dummies-instructions-please (Today's call for help...again)

Peace,

G!
 
June to Nov is a long 5 months - bummer - Been a busy year with T4 in Beta to production and continued development …

Octo stuff is one thing not familiar here - not sure if there are other threads or posts related to the issues ...

Except Paul, everyone else just other members - posts just have to appear when the presented info triggers something … and it gets seen before scrolling off …
 
@RokGoblin - I am sorry to hear that you have not had much luck getting help.

As @defragster mentioned, the only ones up here that are actually part of PJRC is @Paul/@PaulStoffregen and @Robin - The rest of us are just members. Many of which one or more Teensy processors in some of their products and others of us who are just hobbyist.

Unfortunately, the questions you are asking is specific to a set of hardware that many of us don't have and as such have not experimented with and as such can not offer you any help.

For example I do not own any Octos and have never looked at the code... So when I see questions on it, unless something jumps out at me that is not specific that setup, I typically don't respond with the hope that someone who actually knows something about your setup will chime in. Maybe some day I will pick up a few...

The only thing I ever saw about Sync is the stuff in the product page: https://www.pjrc.com/store/octo28_adaptor.html

My assumption from this was that if you had Two Teensy boards with Octo... You would connect a common GND and the SYNC pin.

You would then have both boards download their pixels to the Octos and for example if you are OctoWS2811 library. You would have both boards
doing their stuff to setup for the next frame, example doing something like: call setPixel() for each of the pixels.

Then if for example you wish for both to start at the same time and you logically have a master and slave.

Master side, might do be setup to do something like:
Code:
void setup() {
    pinMode(12, OUTPUT);
    digitalWriteFast(12, HIGH);
 ...
}

void loop() {
   ... do everything to setup this next frame.
   digitalWriteFast(12, LOW);
   leds.show();  // do your output.
   digitalWriteFast(12, HIGH);
}

Slave side something like:
Code:
void setup() {
    pinMode(12, INPUT_PULLUP);
 ...
}

void loop() {
   ... do everything to setup this next frame.
    // wait for Sync signal
   while (!digitalReadFast(12)) ;
   leds.show();  // do your output.
}

But again I assume you already tried something like this.

Obviously this signalling can be more complicated or advanced, like if want one after another you could have the first one not signal the second one until it completes it's own show.

You could have the Sync be such that they both wait for their data to be ready, for example maybe have an external PULLUP resistor connected to the signal on Pin 12 that connects the two. When each are busy, they have their IO pin in OUTPUT mode driven low. Then when each one is ready they switch their pin back to input mode and again wait for a high signal...

Again remember I have not done this, don't have the hardware or ... So take this with a giant grain of salt!
 
June to Nov is a long 5 months - bummer - Been a busy year with T4 in Beta to production and continued development …

Octo stuff is one thing not familiar here - not sure if there are other threads or posts related to the issues ...

Except Paul, everyone else just other members - posts just have to appear when the presented info triggers something … and it gets seen before scrolling off …

LOL, yeah I guess it seemed like a lot longer, I know I musta asked some other questions too in my earlier project with only 1 Teensy / Octo combo.

Thanks for the input, and it makes sense now why there weren't many offers to help. I think I am mostly frustrated because, against better judgement I went full steam into a complicated project before I even knew what I was doing. Now I really need to learn the right stuff to get me where I need to be for next festival season.

I'm sorry if this comes across as whining, I guess I kinda was LOL.

@RokGoblin - I am sorry to hear that you have not had much luck getting help.


As @defragster mentioned, the only ones up here that are actually part of PJRC is @Paul/@PaulStoffregen and @Robin - The rest of us are just members. Many of which one or more Teensy processors in some of their products and others of us who are just hobbyist.

Unfortunately, the questions you are asking is specific to a set of hardware that many of us don't have and as such have not experimented with and as such can not offer you any help.

For example I do not own any Octos and have never looked at the code... So when I see questions on it, unless something jumps out at me that is not specific that setup, I typically don't respond with the hope that someone who actually knows something about your setup will chime in. Maybe some day I will pick up a few...

The only thing I ever saw about Sync is the stuff in the product page: https://www.pjrc.com/store/octo28_adaptor.html

My assumption from this was that if you had Two Teensy boards with Octo... You would connect a common GND and the SYNC pin.

You would then have both boards download their pixels to the Octos and for example if you are OctoWS2811 library. You would have both boards
doing their stuff to setup for the next frame, example doing something like: call setPixel() for each of the pixels.

Then if for example you wish for both to start at the same time and you logically have a master and slave.

Master side, might do be setup to do something like:
Code:
void setup() {
    pinMode(12, OUTPUT);
    digitalWriteFast(12, HIGH);
 ...
}

void loop() {
   ... do everything to setup this next frame.
   digitalWriteFast(12, LOW);
   leds.show();  // do your output.
   digitalWriteFast(12, HIGH);
}

Slave side something like:
Code:
void setup() {
    pinMode(12, INPUT_PULLUP);
 ...
}

void loop() {
   ... do everything to setup this next frame.
    // wait for Sync signal
   while (!digitalReadFast(12)) ;
   leds.show();  // do your output.
}

But again I assume you already tried something like this.

Obviously this signalling can be more complicated or advanced, like if want one after another you could have the first one not signal the second one until it completes it's own show.

You could have the Sync be such that they both wait for their data to be ready, for example maybe have an external PULLUP resistor connected to the signal on Pin 12 that connects the two. When each are busy, they have their IO pin in OUTPUT mode driven low. Then when each one is ready they switch their pin back to input mode and again wait for a high signal...

Again remember I have not done this, don't have the hardware or ... So take this with a giant grain of salt!

Holy crap @KurtE, this is exactly the kind of help I was looking for, just a seed of something to start playing with instead of being completely stuck.

Actually, toward your comment about trying something already, I am not at all a programmer, so I have not tried much outside of the copy/paste stuff I got lucky with LOL. Thanks!!!! Please see my comments above about frustration because I am such the n00b.

Thanks to you both for your suggestions and input, like I said, something, even friendly critique is helpful at this point of my stuck-ness.

Can somebody please suggest for me a few videos, or online training sessions to take so I can progress "quickly" to where I need to be more comfy with this stuff and where I can ask better educated questions of you folks? I have an IT / desktop support background, I obviously know how to solder (kinda), and I am fairly intuitive if I got this far and didn't burn my house down yet, however I fully lack coding skills and formal electronics training of any kind.

For example, I think The Arduino is based on C and FastLED is based on Python...where is a good place to start with those? Most of what I find for free on YouTube or other training sites seems to be directed toward existing coders trying to learn new languages, which I am not.

In hindsight, if @PaulStoffgren or @Robin are as busy as I imagine, and are the only ones who can answer, I can fully understand the hesitation to take a bite. I still have several months until next festival season and it "works", so I have time to research and learn more.

Thanks again and please keep the suggestions or training links coming
 
There are a few examples installed with TeensyDuino :: ...\hardware\teensy\avr\libraries\OctoWS2811\examples

And the main PJRC page :: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_OctoWS2811.html

Looking here :: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1779 for the adapter I'm surprised there isn't a tutorial

A search like this may help find things on the forum :: https://www.bing.com/search?q=site%3Aforum.pjrc.com+teensy+octo

There are general programming tutorial sites showing C/C++ usage - but without a purpose they can be a dry way to start. Starting with the Octo examples in Teensy and working with one or more of them might help with an interesting related learning path showing relevant usage details.

I saw @crees responded on your one thread - returning to that thread with some discovered questions or issues may lead to useful feedback.
 
There are a few examples installed with TeensyDuino :: ...\hardware\teensy\avr\libraries\OctoWS2811\examples

And the main PJRC page :: https://www.pjrc.com/teensy/td_libs_OctoWS2811.html

Looking here :: https://www.adafruit.com/product/1779 for the adapter I'm surprised there isn't a tutorial

A search like this may help find things on the forum :: https://www.bing.com/search?q=site:forum.pjrc.com+teensy+octo

There are general programming tutorial sites showing C/C++ usage - but without a purpose they can be a dry way to start. Starting with the Octo examples in Teensy and working with one or more of them might help with an interesting related learning path showing relevant usage details.

I saw @crees responded on your one thread - returning to that thread with some discovered questions or issues may lead to useful feedback.
I was so excited when someone answered me and then I realized crees was kinda an expert of sorts, I think based on these replies (on a couple of threads) from the past 2 days might get me moving in a much better direction.

I'm so glad you reminded me of the site: search feature, I kinda forget about that when I need it most....thanks for the reminder there

I have been getting a fair bit of intel from that OctoWS2811 link you posted up to this point, that is a goldmine of sorts, but a lot of it is over my head and that is where the trial and error has come into play. Thanks for that suggestion as well.

Adafruit was one of the places where all of my tinkering began and I learn a lot from Lady Ada and her videos, but I too was surprised there were no tutorials for the OctoWS2811 board.

I am so going to get myself "back to school" on this C coding and see how far that takes me.

Thanks again everyone who is making suggestions, please keep them coming
 
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