Different coloured whites

L

logandc99

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
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Just question. Do people notice their lights slightly changing colour with use. I am using WS2811 rectangle modules for my Olaf and have noticed that the newer rectangular modules that arrived yesterday have a more blue white look than the older ones I have been testing over the last couple of weeks. that look more warm white. I have 58 modules in the head being driven by a p2 with power injected at the beginning and the end.
Just wondering if over a bit of time they will look more similar or do I have to start thinking about changing the older modules.
 
I might be wrong but I'm pretty sure that the colour of the 3 leds inside the pixels is due to the specific chemistry of the leds being used. The LED should give exactly the same colour throughout its life. What will change is the the fact that suppliers like RAY shop around for the best priced leds to sell to us so there will be different led chemistrys from batch to batch and potentially even from the same supplier as they make inhouse design changes.
 
Yeah, you really need to buy enough to do the job so they are more likely to be from the same batch / type.

That will be a potential with any type of LED - strips, modules, pixels, etc.
 
Ok, thanks. I figured that might be the case. It's a bit like paint, always get enough in the beginning else the tints never quite match afterwards. I have enough modules to replace the older lot but was hoping to avoid it as that older batch have slightly longer lengths of wire between then which seemed to work well with the way they needed to be arranged for the mouth. Oh well , never mind - at least everything was only held together temporarily with blue tac.
 
In the end I have largely solved the issue by changing the tint of the lights that look a bit more blue white by reducing the blue and green value in LSP while keeping the red value high which makes those more bluey whites look more like the others which have a slight warm/red tint to the white.
 
Thanks for the update Logan, I might give that a try with my matrix. I have 2 different batches of 5v 2811 strip on my matrix and there are definate white changes. Unfort when making it I stuck strips down so the batches are blended. If its an easy thing to do and possible then I will do it, if not then I just wont turn the matrix white lol.
 
Having the batches mixed up might make things a bit time consuming to change... unless white only happens infrequently on your matrix. In my case it's predominantly the difference between the one string of 20 rectangular modules making up the mouth vs the other two making the rest of the head which mostly just stay white. I did notice however that whilst the two newest strings looked similar when on full white, they needed slightly different values when I made them match the older string.... one looked a lot pinker than the other with the same settings changed so even sets of lights from the same batch can show differences once you start fiddling with the tints.
 
With LEDs there are different quality batches that are 'binned' and these can vary greatly in efficiency and light output. This is magnified by using RGB as there are effectively 3 LEDs within the one package that could have variations.

Generally in the DIY community price is a very important factor and so cost are kept down by using lower quality less consistent binned LEDs. So a string or strip you buy today may have a very different colour look to the one you buy in 3 months time.

So as already mentioned, its always best to buy enough for the element you are building.
 
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