5cm Seed Pixels Initial Prop Lessons Learned

I am just starting to design for this year. I will be using mostly seed pixels. They are lighter, easier to store, and are definitely bright enough.

So, I started to piece together my first mini tree. 20 pixels per strand, 24 strands, and a 50 pixel star. I ran into several issues to start and figured I would share what I encountered/

1. 5cm pixels have very little space for soldering and splicing. I found rejecting a pixel makes for best practice. Clip the end as close to the next pixel as possible and do the same on the other side. For my 50 pixel star, it works out to be 51 where the 51s pixel is sacrificed to leave 2" of wire on the ends.
2. Before soldering and messing around with the string, know the direction. I FUBAR's 50 pixels because of #1 and #2. Just twist the Xconnect and pixels together, test, and make sure the direction and pinout is correct. There is no real indication on my seed pixels other than a single gold wire indicates positive. Took messing up on the first string to learn how to identify.
3. Document your roll of seed pixels to know direction, which pigtail goes on which end, and follow it.
4. Count twice cut once. Almost screwed up the second set of 50 pixels by cutting at #50 instead of at #51.
5. When mounting to a prop (my star), make sure the pixels are facing out properly. The outer pixel were mounted backwards (facing in to the star). The inner pixels must have twisted and correct. I had to undo about 35 pixels and reseat them. I have a pixel tester and will use that before getting all the way through and then having to fix.

What mounting methods are you using?

I use the controller to measure the strings. You can connect the reel directly to the controller and let it light up where to cut. (I have spliced those little probe clips onto an xConnect to make this easy.) I haven't had issues lately, but it is good to have this as an initial test of the pixels before investing any time in wiring or mounting them.

I am probably not supposed to say this, but for the 5V seeds I make the cuts live so as not to lose track of the place to cut. There is enough resistance in the wire that this doesn't seem to hurt anything, they just dim out for a split second. YMMV.

Thanks. I thought about that too. Enter the number of pixels I want on the string logged in to the Falcon, see where it stop, and put a piece of tape there to show where I need to cut. That will make it easier. Work smarter, not harder.\

I ordered a set of aligator clips. I have extra port brackets for my F16v3. I will connect the aligator clips to one of the brackets and use that to test the string for direction and number of pixels. Easier to do this than to mess up any more.

5cm spacing is the smallest I'd also do. Sacrificing a pixel & soldering is my technique too.
I got this video in media with the same steps. https://auschristmaslighting.com/media/how-to-splice-seed-pixels-by-soldering.1712/

Splicing and direction of data is a tricky aspect of seed pixels. But so long as you know the start pixel in a roll it's not bad .

June 2024 I did 912 seed pixels in snowman & guitar. Planning to do the same technique again for stars around the house.

So this photo was supposed to be from a large post I haven't written up yet. But I really like these clips (I bought them from jay car because I wanted to work on it that day). They are attached to a connect pigtail and make it really easily to quickly work with seeds and identify which wire is which. (This is super import for dual data seeds - as the Data wire switches every time so you don't know which it is.

Jaycare have them here: https://www.jaycar.com.au/red-ic-test-clip/p/HM3040