Colorlight 5a-75b and Waveshare LED panels

[wouter]

Hi all,

I'm currently working on a project that involves some LED panels and I'm trying to make things work, but for some reason it doesn't and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've bought two 5a-75b net cards that I eventually want to use with FPP on a RBPi, together with two Waveshare P5 panels (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CLV5MHPX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I've watched a bunch of videos and I'm trying to set up the net cards using LEDVision. However, whatever I try, nothing seems to work. I'm trying baby steps and the first is one card with one panel. My Windows 11 computer is directly connected to the card by ethernet and LEDVision sees the card. However, which ever setting I use in "Intelligent Setting..", nothing seems to work. To make sure it's not a hardware issue, I've swapped cards, panels and connectors, to no avail. I noticed that when I disconnect the data cable from the panel the panel displays some random pixels, so the panel itself seems to work. When I then plug in the panel again some pixels stay lit and changing some settings in LEDVision does sometimes changes which pixels are lit, which tells me that my computer is communicating with the card. Does anybody have a clue of what might be going on?
My project requires a lot more panels, but I figured buying only two, just to see if I can make that work before spending a lot more money. Since these panels might not be suitable for the cards (I'm making a big assumption here), can anybody point me to (cheap) alternatives?

[MikeKrebs]

What configuration did LEDVISION come up with?

Your panels appear to be pretty standard 1/16 scan RGB 32x16.

[wouter]

Sorry, I should have been clearer in my initial post. I'm trying to use "Intelligent Setting" to configure, but I get stuck right there. I'm using LEDVISION 8.8. I started off with selecting the generic full color 1/16 scan (no 25 in the list) and when I select "Intelligent Setting.." and hit Next, pretty much nothing happens on the panel. I'm presented with choices 1 and 2, but the panel doesn't show anything (or it shows random noise when I wiggle the connector).

[wouter]

Additionally in the "Intelligent Setting" dialog box, I've tried different ICs (I found fm6124 in the demo source code from the manufacturer) and all the decoding options. Some decoding options affect the panel when there are pixels that are lit when I click next, but not to the extent that it provides anything useful.

[wouter]

I ordered a Hanson Electronics Panel Pi Hat and even with that, the panels don't show anything. Maybe the panels are broken? I've just ordered 2 panels from Wired Watts and let's see if they work..

[darylc]

I usually contact the place I get the panels from and get them to supply colorlight files.  The last lot of panels I bought, they had to supply a special colorlight receiver firmware to drive them

[wouter]

The panels I got from Wired Watts worked without a problem. The earlier two I got of off Amazon and they just won't work. I might as well send them back..