Trying to Understand Features

[alan_sailer]

In my attempt to fix my problems with getting the Web Browser to function I have run across other things that I do not understand. In the hope that knowing more might lead to a beginning level mastery of the PB…questions.

What does the Rest button on the PB do? I hold it for five seconds.Sometimes it causes the orange light to flash, then I release the button, the orange LED flashes once and I get a bright green flash on the LED array, then dim green. After a few minutes the orange LED comes on and I get a display of colored light on the array.

Sometimes it does absolutely nothing.

I am failing to make sense of all this. Does it clear out all the patterns stored on the PB?

On the Web Browser (when I can get there) there is an “Enable on Reset” box. What does this do?

Next to this box is a place to set time. What does this do?

I have tried searching the forum with various terms in hopes of an answer but so far have found nothing that helps.

Cheers.

[alan_sailer]

Even more questions. If I am missing some document somewhere that is describing all this stuff then I apologize.

How to load pattern that I want onto the PB?

How to get rid of all patterns on a PB and start fresh? I somehow manged to load some patterns but don’t want them and can’t get rid of them.

Cheers.

[wizard]

Hi @alan_sailer,

There are a few sources of documentation. The first is the printed sheet that is included. This describes the button usage.

Here’s a PDF: Pixelblaze printout insert.pdf (206.6 KB)

There is also some information in the setup guide, and on the advanced features page.

What does the Rest button on the PB do?

A point of clarification, it isn’t a reset button.

The button can be pressed to change patterns, or held for 5s to put PB into setup mode. Nothing other than WiFi settings is changed. All LED settings and patterns remain unchanged. It’s not like a factory reset or anything.

On the Web Browser (when I can get there) there is an “Enable on Reset” box. What does this do?

I’m guessing that is the sequencer settings on the pattern list tab. That enables the sequencer whenever PB is powered on. The box near that is used to set the interval between switching patterns.

How to load pattern that I want onto the PB?

Go to the edit tab, and click upload. Select an .epe file that was previously downloaded via the Export button, or from the pattern site. Once the file is selected, the code will be shown and the preview rendering will start. After 5 seconds, the Save button will be enabled. Clicking that will add it to your pattern list.

How to get rid of all patterns on a PB and start fresh?

On the pattern list tab, click the delete button on each pattern.

[alan_sailer]

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I really appreciate you helping the coding challenged.

We deserve nice blinking things also

Cheers.

[alan_sailer]

Ben,

I went to the Web Browser. I pressed the Edit tab next to the effect.

I can find no Upload button. I am totally confused.

I pressed the Delete button. It did just what I feared and removed it form the Web Browser.
I did not want to remove it from the Web Browser, I wanted to remove it from my PB LED
display.

As far as how to remove a pattern I guess I was not specific enough.

Lets say I have a pattern on the PB. It displaying something on the LEDs that I do not like. I do not want this on my display.

How do I get rid of this? How do I get it out of the PB memory?

How do I remove this pattern that is scrolling across my LEDs???

Stepping back I feel like I am speaking different language than you.

Right now I have the PB board sending a bunch of patterns to my array of LEDs.
I have no idea how to control this series of patterns. I would like to add and
subtract this patterns to get the display I want. Right now I just have a random
mess of patterns. I have no idea how they got onto the hardware, no idea how
to add them and no idea how to delete them.

I am very, very sorry if I sound crazy. But right now I have a beautiful display
that I have no control over.

[jeff]

Hi Alan,

The upload button is labeled “Open file”; look for it here:

The delete button removes it from the “non-volatile memory” - that’s the memory kind of like your hard drive; it’s memory that doesn’t lose it’s data when the power goes off. When you get comfortable with uploading patterns, you can get back whatever you deleted from the pattern library Ben linked to.

Since you wanted to clear the running pattern off the LEDs, I have two suggestions for you. One is, if you just temporarily want some darkness but don’t want to turn off the power, you could drag the global brightness slider all the way left (off):

Another option without cutting the power is to code yourself an “Off” pattern. Click the “Edit” tab up top, then the “New Pattern” button, clear out the default new pattern template, and paste in this code:

export function render(index) { hsv(0, 0, 0) }

Name it “! Off” so it’s sorted to the top of your pattern list, and click “Save New”.

You can select which pattern is playing from the main list:

To cycle through all the patterns, advancing every 15 seconds (or whatever you set), enable the sequencer:

This will cycle through all the patterns - if you want it to skip a pattern, you’d need to delete it from the list. But no worries, if you want it back, just grab it from the pattern library. Another option is to export them, which downloads that pattern as a file on your computer, before you delete a pattern from the Pixelblaze.

If you want to specify the order that the sequencer plays in, you can rename your patterns to start with a number, like “1 - color bands”, “2 - fast pulse”, etc.

The patterns are there because Pixelblaze ships with them all as default example patterns. Some people use them as example code for learning the language, and others just like having some working off-the-shelf patterns so they can start using it immediately without learning to code.

[alan_sailer]

Jeff,

Thanks for the input. I will look at it later in detail. Right now I need to gather gumption to work with it again.

Last night I had a thought that may be a clue that I am thinking about this in a completely wrong way.

Is the system set-up so that the patterns that are visible on the Web Browser are the patterns that are automatically on the PB?

In other words just by opening the Web Browser you load the patterns onto the hardware?

EDIT: with the information that you gave me I spent some time working with the Web Browser/PB. As afar as I can tell, my guess is right. The Web Browser is a visual guide to what is loaded onto the PB.

Thanks again for the help. I believe that I can move forward and start making my display do what I want.

Cheers.

[jeff]

@alan_sailer

The Web Browser is a visual guide to what is loaded onto the PB.

Yes! And it’s pretty incredible that the entire web server creating that page is running right there on that small board, sharing CPU time with the code that runs your code and streams it to the LEDs, right?