How to ID Pixel #1 Twinkly String >150 Lights

1. If your Twinkly string only has one string of lights coming out of the controller, the first bulb (closest to the controller) is pixel #1, and you don’t need to do anything else!
2. If you have 2 strings of lights coming out of the controller, continue on
3. Open xLights and make sure your controller is set up per the directions in the Twinkly xLights Setup Guide; make sure the Twinkly controller is plugged in and you see the green light for that controller in the xLights Controllers tab
4. Identify a controller that you plan to use for coro props and make sure it’s named something appropriate – for my example I will use my singing snowman and tree props — their controller is named “Frosty and Tree Props” in xLights, but the name can be anything
5. Switch to the “Layout” tab in xLights
6. Create a new model by clicking one of the model icons in the layout visualization window on the right — pick single line for this exercise, but could be anything
7. After clicking the icon, click and drag your cursor on an open area of the layout to create a line; don’t worry about what it looks like
8. Over in the models list of the left, you should see the new model called “single line” (if that’s what you used)
9. Click on “single line” in the list on the left
10. At the bottom left, you will see all of the settings for the “single line” model
11. Change the number of nodes to half of the total lights that came with your Twinkly string (for a 600 string, set nodes to 300)
12. Under controller, choose “use start channel” from the dropdown menu
13. Under start channel, type in “!Frosty and Tree Props:1” (replacing “Frosty and Tree Props” with whatever you named your controller in step 4
14. Scroll down to “controller connection” section and open up that menu; make sure “port” is set to 1
15. Hit save (red button at bottom of screen)
16. Click on “single line” again and hit control-c (command-c on Mac) to copy
17. Click control-V (command-V on Mac) to paste
18. You should now have another model called “single line-2”
19. Under controller, choose “use start channel” from the dropdown menu
20. Under start channel, type in “!Frosty and Tree Props:301” (replacing “Frosty and Tree Props” with whatever you named your controller in step 4
21. Scroll down to “controller connection” section and open up that menu; make sure “port” is set to 1
22. Hit save (red button at bottom of screen)
23. Jump to the “Sequencer” tab
24. Go to “file”, “new sequence” in menu bar at top
25. Click “Animation”
26. Click “20 FPS”
27. Click “Quick Start” (will bring in all models, including your “single line”
28. Drag the “on” effect from the effects toolbar (white square) to the sequencing area next to the “single line”
29. Change the color to green (click on effect next to single line, and click box above green in color bar)
30. Drag the “on” effect from the effects toolbar (white square) to the sequencing area next to the “single line-2”
31. Change the color to red (click on effect next to single line, and click box above red in color bar)
32. Click each effect and drag the ends to make it the full 30 seconds (default animation length)
33. In the toolbar near the top, there’s a white lightbulb icon, which is the “output to lights” button; click it
34. It may take a few seconds, and if you have other controllers in your layout that aren’t plugged in, you may get an error; Just tell it to continue if you get this
35. Press the “play” button at the top of the screen
36. Strand 1 (which is pixels 1 to 300) should glow red
37. Strand 2 (which is pixels 301 to 600) should glow green
38. Mark strand 1 with something (I usually use a colored zip tie) so it is easy to identify later! The pixel closest to the controller on the strand 1 wire is pixel #1
39. Now you know for sure which side is which for when you are assembling props!