In my display last year I had 9 strands of fairy lights that came from the front of the house and extended out over the front lawn to a temporary arbour.
When I saw the plasmasicles people were making I decided that they could replace my plain white on of fairy lights.
When I made them I quickly realised that the RGB strips were not going to give me the effect I was looking for. I decided to make these new Fairylights out of 12mm nodes.
Originally I cut the nodes into lengths of 3 6 and 10 lights, added a data return line and the soldiered them to the main line, just like plasmasicles. I found that this was pretty much what I was after. However with some more thought I changed the original down to make every drop 5 pixels.
Making these elements was a massive undertaking, each string is 145 pixels or 29 drops of 5 pixels if you like, each drop is 50cm long, with a 30cm space to the next drop and are approximately 5 meters long. Injecting power at both ends seems to be all that’s required power wise.
I made 5 of these with each one taking me some 8 to 10 hours to complete, although I did get faster as I got used to the process….
Then someone mentioned custom made strings from Ray, I quick few measurements and emails to Ray and for $38 a string, they come pretty much ready-made, all I have to do is cable tie to get the drops I am after.
I ordered 5 and made one up last night, these new ones will need power injected both ends and in the middle (at least) due to the much longer run of the power and earth wires. No big issue there, and adding the cable ties to form the drops only took about an hour! Such a huge time saver, and frankly probably cheaper buying straight from Ray!
So now I have (or will have) 10, 5 meter lengths of fairylights with 29 drops of 5 pixels. 145 x 10 = 1450 pixels to my fairlight element.
My question is, how do I program them in LSP. My first thought was to make each drop its own element (fairy light 1.1, 1.2, … 2.1, 2.2 …9.1, 9.2… 10.1 10.2) but this seems very laborious. (not to mention drawing every single drop). Will also mean I have 290 elements to sequence in just my fairlights alone… although will give me the greatest control.
Does anybody have any ideas on an easy way to sequence this particular element?
When I saw the plasmasicles people were making I decided that they could replace my plain white on of fairy lights.
When I made them I quickly realised that the RGB strips were not going to give me the effect I was looking for. I decided to make these new Fairylights out of 12mm nodes.
Originally I cut the nodes into lengths of 3 6 and 10 lights, added a data return line and the soldiered them to the main line, just like plasmasicles. I found that this was pretty much what I was after. However with some more thought I changed the original down to make every drop 5 pixels.
Making these elements was a massive undertaking, each string is 145 pixels or 29 drops of 5 pixels if you like, each drop is 50cm long, with a 30cm space to the next drop and are approximately 5 meters long. Injecting power at both ends seems to be all that’s required power wise.
I made 5 of these with each one taking me some 8 to 10 hours to complete, although I did get faster as I got used to the process….
Then someone mentioned custom made strings from Ray, I quick few measurements and emails to Ray and for $38 a string, they come pretty much ready-made, all I have to do is cable tie to get the drops I am after.
I ordered 5 and made one up last night, these new ones will need power injected both ends and in the middle (at least) due to the much longer run of the power and earth wires. No big issue there, and adding the cable ties to form the drops only took about an hour! Such a huge time saver, and frankly probably cheaper buying straight from Ray!
So now I have (or will have) 10, 5 meter lengths of fairylights with 29 drops of 5 pixels. 145 x 10 = 1450 pixels to my fairlight element.
My question is, how do I program them in LSP. My first thought was to make each drop its own element (fairy light 1.1, 1.2, … 2.1, 2.2 …9.1, 9.2… 10.1 10.2) but this seems very laborious. (not to mention drawing every single drop). Will also mean I have 290 elements to sequence in just my fairlights alone… although will give me the greatest control.
Does anybody have any ideas on an easy way to sequence this particular element?
