xModel Tools - Pixel Mapper

S&B Designs LLC - Scott Hanson

About this app

Pixel Mapper turns your phone into an automatic layout tool for xLights. Point
your camera at your light display, and the app lights each WS2811 / WS2812 pixel,
finds it in the camera image with computer vision, and builds a ready-to-import
xLights Custom model — no manual clicking pixel by pixel.

Perfect for Christmas light displays, props, matrices, megatrees, and any
irregular pixel layout that's painful to map by hand.

HOW IT WORKS
1. Target — enter your controller's IP and pixel count. Output goes over DDP or
sACN / E1.31, the same protocols xLights and FPP already speak.
2. Scan — choose a mode:
• Fast (base-3): every pixel lights in every frame, colored by one base-3
digit of its index, so all pixels are identified in only ~log3(N)+2 frames
(about 500 pixels in 8 frames). Two checksum digits reject misreads.
• Sequential: light one pixel at a time and find the single bright blob.
Slower, but dead simple and rock solid.
Both modes subtract a black reference frame to ignore ambient hotspots.
3. Review — see the detected layout over your photo, drop bad points, tap to
place or move a node, and re-scan individual pixels. Zoom and pan to fine-tune.
4. Export — save a standard xLights .xmodel file that imports into both old and
new versions of xLights.

WHY PIXEL MAPPER
• No more mapping hundreds of pixels by hand.
• Works with the gear you already own — any DDP or sACN/E1.31 pixel controller.
• Fast base-3 scan maps large models in seconds of capture.
• Checksum-protected so misread pixels get rejected, not placed wrong.
• Best results in a dim room; the app locks camera exposure and focus where the
device supports it.
• Captures a clean 2D layout from a single camera angle.

REQUIREMENTS
• A WS2811 / WS2812 (or compatible) pixel controller reachable on your network.
• The controller set to receive DDP or sACN / E1.31.
• A phone on the same network as the controller.

Pixel Mapper is an independent tool and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the
xLights project. xLights is a trademark of its respective owners.

What’s new

- **Wiring Viewer tab.** A new bottom tab alongside Scan & Map, merging in
the standalone xModel Wiring Viewer app: browse the xLights vendor
catalog, load a `.xmodel` or `xlights_rgbeffects.xml` from device, and
view the physical pixel wiring order as a pan/zoom diagram (color-by-strand,
backside/front toggle, node labels, print to PDF). Supports Custom, Matrix,
Single Line, Arches, Tree, Circle, Star, and Spinner model shapes.