Q Light Controller+

hello there
i've got some strange problems during my playback

i'm using servial artnet via wifi notes and Pixelstripes. ech note has a static ip-adress and is based on a ESP32. everything is connected throu a wifi-router and connected to my pc. It's a small tiny shuttle. i3-9100, 8gig, Linux Mint 20.1, QLC 4.12.2

in QLC i've got a universe for every single note. on each note are 5 to 120 RGB-Pixels. now, there is no distance between the router and the notes

the Playback is stopping every ~2sec, then kind of fast forward and quite moment even normal. even i'm running only one sequence/note or more/all together. the whole time, my CPU is about 10-20% (30% peak at all cores), ram even empty. but the network usage is swaping like a wave and its some like the stoppings in the playback. but its 30-80kB/s. The notes has 10-32mbit/s (i quess and shown in the router). considering on the distance to the router.
the notes are selfmade using code out of the web. and they worked very well in the past.

I've tried as a RGB-Matrix and as sequences.there are some "noise" effects in differnet colors for some PARs and some effekts like rainbow, fire, etc for the Pixelstripes.
The timings between steps is about 30 to 350ms.
Each note is one universe and one group. also i've grouped some groups for example to match different stripes.
it meens, i've got 2 groups of each 120x3ch - and grouped them to 2x120pixel.
But even if i only play sqeuences with 5 pixel, the playback isn't smooth.

even strange, a similar setup worked quite as it should, with less universes, but more pixel per universe. now a similar "programming method" wont work. the PC is used offline, so no updates were done.

every IP is static. the network is only used for artnet. All notes are configured as limuverse 0 (should be as programmed in the ESP-notes). PC<>Router is 1gbit.

the other problem is, i'm not the daily linux user. I'm using mint, because it runs perfect on the PC and i like the usabilty.

thank youuu
Flo



uni 1 - 8x 5ch PAR (DMX, entecc pro, but not checked now due to lent cables)
uni 2 - 50 pixel artnet .203
uni 3 - 120 pixel art .204
uni 4 - 120 pixel art .205
uni 5 - 5 pixel art .100
uni 6 - 5 pixel art .101
uni 7 - 8ch Dimmerpack (DMX, entecc open, only configrued, not programmed jet)

Hey Flori,

I tried to decipher your description. So your 'notes' are a network node. oke.

Did you try NOT to use the RGB matrix? Just plain old cue stacks with scenes? Does it work that way?
Where did you put the timing (30-350ms between steps)?
And where are those steps included? Inside a chaser?
So you are calling different RGB matrices from a chaser? With timing included in every step?
And you are using wifi?

One thing you have to know is that wifi does not like broadcast storms. Artnet IS considered to be a broadcast storm (very very many UDP packets in a continuous stream). So your wifi access point is filtering these (!) This could be the best reason why you get hiccups.
I don't like your network throughput graph! It shows gaps, which is an indication of? I don't know!

What if you go very very slow (like 10s per step)? Are those hiccups still present?
You could create a very fast chaser with scenes using fixtures over all universes... Are there still hiccups?

This won't be easy to troubleshoot, because there are too many variables ...

ok great thank you

by now i'm starting a new project and discripe every step i do

at first, yes if a write 'note' i meen my ESP32-wifi-controller for the neopixel.
while building these notes i've also testet so send via broadcast ip .255 and diverent ArtNet-Universes, but this didn't worked so well, so i use static IPs and it worked better.

this hiccack, i also don't know... but even if QLC isnt sending (no playback), there is a wave, but i bit flater (bit less traffic)

so. Step 1
i confige (by now) 4 QLC-Universes. All ArtNet as output. in the configuration of the ArtNet i set up the IP-adresses of my LED-Notes (204 - 205 - 100 - 101), all ArtNEtuniverse 0 (similar as the screenshot above)

now i'm adding a few "RGB-Panel" and choose in the dialog
"Empore-1" - Universe 1 - starting at 1 - RGB - 120 x 1
"Empore-2" - Universe 2 - starting at 1 - RGB - 120 x 1
"Balls-1" - Universe 3 - starting at 1 - RGB - 5 x 1
"Balls-2" - Universe 4 - starting at 1 - RGB - 5 x 1
now there are automaticly 4 groops
Empore-1 and Empore-2 i match together to a new group "A_Empore" and a dimention of 120x2

for making effects do it like so
i choose a RGB-Matrix, Group "A_Empore" and looking for some nice effects.
found one (for example Plasma/Rainbow), i klick on "Save as sequence" (don't know the exact english functionname)
i repeat it, using the same RGB Matrix, and save some effects as sequences. never using the RGB matrix again
for every sequence i set common to Fade-in+out and duration

the new sequences am putting in a Chaser and set the hold-time to infinity (i switch via Midi)

at the virtual console i'm adding a cue-list, load the Chaser (and do some Midi)
than adding a timing-tool. for sequences which should do a smooth colorchance, i'm sending 1/2 to Fade-in+Out. 3rd coloumn 1.
for flashing effects i'm sending (not sent) to Fade-in+out and 3rd coloumn 1.
also i set the 35-350ms and assign a Midi-knop

by now i set up 4 ArtNet Notes but only using 2 - and i've got the same problem as bevor. every less few seconds the playback is stopping.
only using one sequences (2x120 RGB Pixel) triggert by the chaser.
There is no diffence using shorter timings like 35ms or 350ms. even at very slow colorchange, you can see it stopping.

the network usage is swapping all the time. without QLC running, the usage is even zero. While starting, but not loading a projekt, there is 110Kb/s all the time. If i load my (new) projekt, it begins to sweeping and change a bit of the shape, when i start (the even stopping) playback.
The Faders in QLC are moving smoothly, even if the ectual playback is stopping

very stange, because it's not other as i made servial month bevor, when i'm using this setup without problems.

Can you share your project?.

Hello
Sorry, i was laying in bed for 2 weeks.

here is my project
www.metal-shot.de/stuff/Holle_____2____Fluffparty.qxw

this is the second project with the description from the post obove.

well.... i try the project on my home PC and everything works fine.
Same router.

i will reinstall my shuttle PC and try a fresh system
any suggestion for THE best QLC-linux?

Hi there,

The best QLC+ linux is the one you're most comfortable with. I use Windows for this reason, it's slower and worse but it's what I'm used to.

I think I know the issue is here. What you're noticing is the fact that wifi routers are "Hubs" I.e. the traffic that is sent to one node is actually received by all of them. There is an algorithm that determines what traffic is sent at what time but basically you can think of it as one at a time.

My advice would be not to use the specific ip addresses in the artnet output but just send everything to the multicast address. (Default) This will mean the router only has to deal with one stream of data rather than 5.

Please let me know how that goes.

Cheers,
Lachie

ArtNet sends to broadcast, not multicast.
Multicast is used by sACN
Some switches prevent broadcast flooding but there's usually an option to disable it

Forgive me I clearly need to brush up on my CCNA