Sneak Peek at "Night Driver Desktop"

[davepl]

I've been tinkering off and on with Night Driver Desktop, which is a C# desktop app used to control multiple instances of NightDriverStrip (or Mesmerizer or NightDriver Pi... anything that can receive and process ND wifi packets).

A "Location" is a group of strips. Since you can only hang about 1000 LEDs off an ESP32 at a reasonable framerate on a single channel, my under-eave Cabana lights, for example, are broken up into four controllers. So are my shop cupboards.

The effect draws across the entire location, then breaks up the pieces that go to each different strip, and since they're time-synced, it acts like one big canvas.

It can also drive matrices, as shown in this screen shot. If anyone is interesting in working on or contributing to the C# WinForms app, please let me know! There's also a lot of multithreaded C# plumbing that does the communication with the ESP32s, but it's largely all working well.

Cheers,
Dave

[robertlipe]

Neat. I was thinking about something less ambitious than that for some of my own home lighting once I realized I was in the land of insanity teaching NightDriver about ESP-Now. Let a Real Computer fill a pixbuf and then delegate out timestamped buffers to the ESP32s sprinkled around. https://github.com/BradyMeighan/WLED-Studio, https://www.ledfx.app (not quite the same space) and https://github.com/isra17/wled-tools/tree/main have all been on my list of things to look at and seems to play in a similar space. (There's another, more established peer to it in a bookmark list somewhere (where ideas go to die ...). WLED is actually close enough to our pixel buffer format (hardly a coincidence - an array of colors is an array of colors, though I'm sure that SOMEONE tried to patent it) but with some little nuisances like differing alignment or swapped x and y or something that's trivial that I actually thought about implementing wire compatibility with WLED just to use the numerous tools like that. I remember thinking they were close enough that either could be the pattern leader and the others actually managing pixel strands be the pixel followers without major damage in either code base.

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On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:18 PM David W Plummer ***@***.***> wrote: I've been tinkering off and on with Night Driver Desktop, which is a C# desktop app used to control multiple instances of NightDriverStrip (or Mesmerizer or NightDriver Pi... anything that can receive and process ND wifi packets). A "Location" is a group of strips. Since you can only hang about 1000 LEDs off an ESP32 at a reasonable framerate on a single channel, my under-eave Cabana lights, for example, are broken up into four controllers. So are my shop cupboards. The effect draws across the entire location, then breaks up the pieces that go to each different strip, and since they're time-synced, it acts like one big canvas. It can also drive matrices, as shown in this screen shot. If anyone is interesting in working on or contributing to the C# WinForms app, please let me know! There's also a lot of multithreaded C# plumbing that does the communication with the ESP32s, but it's largely all working well. Cheers, Dave 2024-09-23_17-12-43.png (view on web) <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f1001d60-a093-421c-b093-c03de80f8a63> — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#651>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACCSD35Z7ML73NKC3YXYBCLZYCVWXAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ERDJONRXK43TNFXW4OZXGIZDQMBQHE> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[davepl]

WLED is not really comparable, or I would use it. Unless they’ve added canvases spanning multiple IP address with millisecond level timing sync… You could build a Jumbotron with NightDriver where each row of the TV is 8 wide. You could have 12 rows, each connected to its own Pi, receiving color data. And the sync should prevent tearing. I just don’t have that many to test with :-) Going the OTHER way, you could certainly add code (and depending on the license, could just use their code) to add the ability to process WLED data to NightDriver. That could be quite handy. If you’re familiar with the WLED studio and the other app, and are up to speed on C#, let me know if you want to start tinkering on the app. The core functionality works, you can even load and save definitions, but there’s TONs of work left to do, particularly with respect to scheduling and specifying effects, etc. - Dave

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On Sep 23, 2024, at 6:41 PM, Robert Lipe ***@***.***> wrote: Neat. I was thinking about something less ambitious than that for some of my own home lighting once I realized I was in the land of insanity teaching NightDriver about ESP-Now. Let a Real Computer fill a pixbuf and then delegate out timestamped buffers to the ESP32s sprinkled around. https://github.com/BradyMeighan/WLED-Studio, https://www.ledfx.app (not quite the same space) and https://github.com/isra17/wled-tools/tree/main have all been on my list of things to look at and seems to play in a similar space. (There's another, more established peer to it in a bookmark list somewhere (where ideas go to die ...). WLED is actually close enough to our pixel buffer format (hardly a coincidence - an array of colors is an array of colors, though I'm sure that SOMEONE tried to patent it) but with some little nuisances like differing alignment or swapped x and y or something that's trivial that I actually thought about implementing wire compatibility with WLED just to use the numerous tools like that. I remember thinking they were close enough that either could be the pattern leader and the others actually managing pixel strands be the pixel followers without major damage in either code base. On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:18 PM David W Plummer ***@***.***> wrote: > I've been tinkering off and on with Night Driver Desktop, which is a C# > desktop app used to control multiple instances of NightDriverStrip (or > Mesmerizer or NightDriver Pi... anything that can receive and process ND > wifi packets). > > A "Location" is a group of strips. Since you can only hang about 1000 LEDs > off an ESP32 at a reasonable framerate on a single channel, my under-eave > Cabana lights, for example, are broken up into four controllers. So are my > shop cupboards. > > The effect draws across the entire location, then breaks up the pieces > that go to each different strip, and since they're time-synced, it acts > like one big canvas. > > It can also drive matrices, as shown in this screen shot. If anyone is > interesting in working on or contributing to the C# WinForms app, please > let me know! There's also a lot of multithreaded C# plumbing that does the > communication with the ESP32s, but it's largely all working well. > > Cheers, > Dave > 2024-09-23_17-12-43.png (view on web) > <https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f1001d60-a093-421c-b093-c03de80f8a63> > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > <#651>, > or unsubscribe > <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACCSD35Z7ML73NKC3YXYBCLZYCVWXAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ERDJONRXK43TNFXW4OZXGIZDQMBQHE> > . > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message > ID: ***@***.***> > — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#651 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA4HCF2FH56YIFLLTJO2SJLZYC7OHAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTANZTGI4TCNQ>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.

[robertlipe]

I'll admit my network is clear enough and my displays small enough that UDP jitter/loss isn't really an issue for me, but those that need it use DDP <http://www.3waylabs.com/ddp/#Timecode%20Usage>,or DMX/E1.31 which all handle display subsetting as well. I've experimented with WLED's UDP RT sync (which has no time sync) and NightDriver's and really can't tell the difference in *my* case. (Your case is surely more challenging. My standards are waaaay lower than yours and I'm pretty sure I've seen only a tiny fraction of your blinkies on cam.) I think ARLS has a timecode, but I'm not sure. MOST of those could be bolted into the NightDriver base without a lot of suffering - see also: arrays of RGB - but at some point it becomes WLED and I haven't exactly seen anyone asking for such things. I was mostly flirting with this topic a few weeks ago as described in a moment.

up to speed on C#,

Nope.

particularly with respect to scheduling and specifying effects,

Relevant to my interests (that's why I have bookmarks of those other apps - I was studying either implementing it for NightDriver or just using something else) but unless I can accidentally program in C# (Which could happen... ISTR it looked like Java with a Pascal accent, so maybe I could do remedial stuff in it...) I'll be very little help to you on that one, Dave, but I dig watching projects grow! Holiday lighting is entering my thoughts more this time of year. RJL On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 8:49 PM David W Plummer ***@***.***> wrote:

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WLED is not really comparable, or I would use it. Unless they’ve added canvases spanning multiple IP address with millisecond level timing sync… You could build a Jumbotron with NightDriver where each row of the TV is 8 wide. You could have 12 rows, each connected to its own Pi, receiving color data. And the sync should prevent tearing. I just don’t have that many to test with :-) If you’re familiar with the WLED studio and the other app, and are up to speed on C#, let me know if you want to start tinkering on the app. The core functionality works, you can even load and save definitions, but there’s TONs of work left to do, particularly with respect to scheduling and specifying effects, etc. - Dave > On Sep 23, 2024, at 6:41 PM, Robert Lipe ***@***.***> wrote: > > > Neat. I was thinking about something less ambitious than that for some of > my own home lighting once I realized I was in the land of insanity teaching > NightDriver about ESP-Now. Let a Real Computer fill a pixbuf and then > delegate out timestamped buffers to the ESP32s sprinkled around. > > https://github.com/BradyMeighan/WLED-Studio, https://www.ledfx.app (not > quite the same space) and https://github.com/isra17/wled-tools/tree/main > have all been on my list of things to look at and seems to play in a > similar space. (There's another, more established peer to it in a bookmark > list somewhere (where ideas go to die ...). > > WLED is actually close enough to our pixel buffer format (hardly a > coincidence - an array of colors is an array of colors, though I'm sure > that SOMEONE tried to patent it) but with some little nuisances like > differing alignment or swapped x and y or something that's trivial that I > actually thought about implementing wire compatibility with WLED just to > use the numerous tools like that. I remember thinking they were close > enough that either could be the pattern leader and the others actually > managing pixel strands be the pixel followers without major damage in > either code base. > > > > > On Mon, Sep 23, 2024 at 7:18 PM David W Plummer ***@***.***> > wrote: > > > I've been tinkering off and on with Night Driver Desktop, which is a C# > > desktop app used to control multiple instances of NightDriverStrip (or > > Mesmerizer or NightDriver Pi... anything that can receive and process ND > > wifi packets). > > > > A "Location" is a group of strips. Since you can only hang about 1000 LEDs > > off an ESP32 at a reasonable framerate on a single channel, my under-eave > > Cabana lights, for example, are broken up into four controllers. So are my > > shop cupboards. > > > > The effect draws across the entire location, then breaks up the pieces > > that go to each different strip, and since they're time-synced, it acts > > like one big canvas. > > > > It can also drive matrices, as shown in this screen shot. If anyone is > > interesting in working on or contributing to the C# WinForms app, please > > let me know! There's also a lot of multithreaded C# plumbing that does the > > communication with the ESP32s, but it's largely all working well. > > > > Cheers, > > Dave > > 2024-09-23_17-12-43.png (view on web) > > < https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/f1001d60-a093-421c-b093-c03de80f8a63> > > > > — > > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub > > < #651>, > > or unsubscribe > > < https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACCSD35Z7ML73NKC3YXYBCLZYCVWXAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43ERDJONRXK43TNFXW4OZXGIZDQMBQHE> > > . > > You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message > > ID: ***@***.***> > > > — > Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub < #651 (comment)>, or unsubscribe < https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AA4HCF2FH56YIFLLTJO2SJLZYC7OHAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTANZTGI4TCNQ>. > You are receiving this because you authored the thread. > — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#651 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACCSD323GFIGFRVGTCYLNIDZYDALRAVCNFSM6AAAAABOXEGIBGVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTANZTGI4TMNQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: <PlummersSoftwareLLC/NightDriverStrip/repo-discussions/651/comments/10732966 @github.com>

[heidepiek]

The nightdriver desktop looks nice. Using something like that in my mancave looks like a good idea to me. Unfortunately I can't help with programming, I'm not skilled enough for that. Find it quite something that I got it running (totally surprised with myself😳 ) Can't create a new file myself. Can only load your demo. Hmm well, my mancave doesn't have all those nice little projects that are in and around your garage. Hope over time that there will be a working version for us tinkerers.💪

Greetz harrie✋

nightdriverdesktop.mp4