400 seed pixel curtains - with Chip in hook junction ( aliexpress Versions)

[Juddge]

just to let eveyone know, i purchased some of these to experiment with
so far i have disconvered the chip in each hook, hold 40 channels
so the first wired 20 lights , then a buffer (null) of 20 lights
then the next row starts

i have made a custom inside xlights with
1-20 as row 1
41-60 as row 2
81-100 as row 3
ETC

as long as i start the next row at a 40 increment - but indicate only 20 lights it works perfectly as a curtain


soon i will experiment and find if the chip Nulls the last 20 each time, or if i add another 20 to each row, all 40 will light up


so i will be able to determine if it is allowing 20 then nulling 20 or just allowing 40 each time per hook chip join for each row

then i will be pulling the end one apart to try and see if i can reverse engineer it ( if anyone better wants to assist i would be appreciative)

for a small simple chip it would make running return wires, or upgrading to 4 wire data return cables, or looping cables and doing alternate nodes a thing of the past, and maybe it could be designed into a main board so the top ccan be a hard channel with RJ9 outputs to each drop(row) possibly good for matrixes, or even roof curtains so power only has to be on one edge of the roof

 

[Notenoughlights]

I expect you'll find one of these inside the hooks.

 

[Juddge]

yeah very similar

 

[pavelostra]

I’ve got the same set to play with.

Certainly keen to hear how you go with figuring this out…

 

[Juddge]

will update soon, i got them working

 

[pavelostra]

will update soon, i got them working

Am excited to hear how you managed it.
Would you be able to upload your xlights model too?

I'd like to start fiddling with mine as well, just holding off from cutting off the usb connector.

 

[Juddge]

ok so got them working,
they are actually set as rows of 40 lights, so each new row needs to start at the next 40 section
they work quite well,
so will definalty be using them and more in this new years xmas display

 

[Juddge]

i will show the xlights setup later,
but i can now change them to be as tall or short as needed,
the hook adapter is always 40 lights that it traps then passes through to the next

these will look amazing

 

[pavelostra]

So the 2m by 2m setup is as follows.
20 seperate drops of seed pixels, each drop has 20 x 10cm spaced pixels.

So to get them running in xlights, they need to be 20 sets of 40 or 10 sets of 40?

 

[merryoncherry]

I think what he's saying is that the chip for the drop always removes 40 pixels worth of data (directing it down the drop) and then sends the rest across to the next drop. This would be true regardless of whether you have 40, 20, 0, 50, or any number on the drop. If it's less than 40, you're "wasting" data, if it's more than 40 you can't control all the pixels properly.
So in xLights, if you only had 20 per drop in the real world, you'd need to make xLights think you had 40 anyway. 20 of those would go nowhere, "nulling" them out sounds painful but you could just make a full matrix and sequence to a submodel that only includes the lightable pixels... the rest of the bits would get lost but so what.

 

[Juddge]

I think what he's saying is that the chip for the drop always removes 40 pixels worth of data (directing it down the drop) and then sends the rest across to the next drop. This would be true regardless of whether you have 40, 20, 0, 50, or any number on the drop. If it's less than 40, you're "wasting" data, if it's more than 40 you can't control all the pixels properly.
So in xLights, if you only had 20 per drop in the real world, you'd need to make xLights think you had 40 anyway. 20 of those would go nowhere, "nulling" them out sounds painful but you could just make a full matrix and sequence to a submodel that only includes the lightable pixels... the rest of the bits would get lost but so what.

yes thats correct

 

[Juddge]

View: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lcg9M5bX8-MHJCfejcAA3sgtBR2gqoMj/view?usp=drive_link

 

[Juddge]

this is how i did mine works perfectly, and if i needed too, i could change to 2cm pixel seeds and have 40 per row, instead of the 20 x 10cm seed pixels

yes i hung the curtain in reverse so its all done right to left not left to right