perigalacticon
New elf
So I was trying to make a 30W floodlight work that I hadn't used before. It needs 36V input. 
I don't like high voltages. They do bad things. So I gingerly and carefully set it up with a decent boost converter and yep it's putting out 36V. I had to solder up a new ESPixelstick and put it into a plastic breadboard for testing. First I try a pixel tester on the 36V flood, with 5V going to the tester from a separate supply. It worked good, I was happy. Then I connect it up to the ESPixelstick . In the ESPixelstick device setup tab I turn the brightness down to 20% to limit any collateral damage if things go wrong. I go into the Effects tab, and also turn that brightness way down. Maybe 20%. Then activate! And yes, it works And I am not blind. So then I try and make this work from a sequence from FPP. And I get Nothing. And I wonder... what did I touch with the 36V wires... ! I am also using a SN74AHCT125 level shifter on the plastic breadboard and I am finding it is giving full strength noise output to my 5V test strip.. Is it fried?? What is fried??? Is it frying now?? There are no olfactory insults, so I have hope. I spend the next few hours frantically trying to figure out what I've got here now, and is the 30W 36V floodlight I waited for from China for weeks still any good after I ruined the 1st one by reverse connecting the supply voltage? Oh man, this is not the way to spend Christmas... Sooo, long story short, the brightness in the Device Setup tab and the Effects tab compound! So I was getting 20% of 20% or something like that from the effects page, which I trusted to give good output. I don't understand how all the brightness settings work. It also seems the brightness compounds if you are outputting from xLights. There's like 4 places to set it. The flood has a very non-linear output, and doesn't do anything below 20% or so. Just a heads up, when leds aren't lighting, it could just be your brightnesses, check them everywhere! Good luck!
I don't like high voltages. They do bad things. So I gingerly and carefully set it up with a decent boost converter and yep it's putting out 36V. I had to solder up a new ESPixelstick and put it into a plastic breadboard for testing. First I try a pixel tester on the 36V flood, with 5V going to the tester from a separate supply. It worked good, I was happy. Then I connect it up to the ESPixelstick . In the ESPixelstick device setup tab I turn the brightness down to 20% to limit any collateral damage if things go wrong. I go into the Effects tab, and also turn that brightness way down. Maybe 20%. Then activate! And yes, it works And I am not blind. So then I try and make this work from a sequence from FPP. And I get Nothing. And I wonder... what did I touch with the 36V wires... ! I am also using a SN74AHCT125 level shifter on the plastic breadboard and I am finding it is giving full strength noise output to my 5V test strip.. Is it fried?? What is fried??? Is it frying now?? There are no olfactory insults, so I have hope. I spend the next few hours frantically trying to figure out what I've got here now, and is the 30W 36V floodlight I waited for from China for weeks still any good after I ruined the 1st one by reverse connecting the supply voltage? Oh man, this is not the way to spend Christmas... Sooo, long story short, the brightness in the Device Setup tab and the Effects tab compound! So I was getting 20% of 20% or something like that from the effects page, which I trusted to give good output. I don't understand how all the brightness settings work. It also seems the brightness compounds if you are outputting from xLights. There's like 4 places to set it. The flood has a very non-linear output, and doesn't do anything below 20% or so. Just a heads up, when leds aren't lighting, it could just be your brightnesses, check them everywhere! Good luck!