LEDs stay on

roy.debruin

New elf
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
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22
Location
Australia
I apologise in advance if this has already but answered but I can’t see anything. I have my lights running from a F16v3 controller and power injected from a number of sources around as is norm. The power sources are time controlled to power on usually before the controller sequences are to play. On occasion before the controller is timed to play the sequence, I see some leds come on. Is this something to be expected when the injected power is on before the sequences play and if so can that be cause concern or even dealt with. Everything works perfectly once everything is timed to run
 

i13

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 5, 2013
Messages
1,172
I have seen the same thing in my display too. I haven't seen anyone post about it either. My suspicion is that some of the pixels are interpreting data that is not supposed to be there. It doesn't surprise me that there's enough voltage in the data wire for it to be interpreted as data when everything is first powered on. I have also noticed that if data drops out when the show is running, the pixels continue to display whatever they were last displaying. In your scenario that you describe here, no continuous data is being sent to the pixels so they continue to stay on. The only possible problem that I can think of is if you haven't built your display to run at 100% brightness, there's a slight chance that the pixels could exceed the brightness that you've designed for.

I'll be interested to see what other replies are posted in this thread.
 

Notenoughlights

400,000+ twinkly lights
Joined
Oct 16, 2016
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641
Location
Christchurch, New Zealand
I occasionally have mine light up, orange for some reason but really dull. I just put it down to interference. As soon as a show starts, it goes away. I guess one way would be to set your show player to constantly output e1.31 data even when not running a show, i.e to tell the lights to be OFF all the time when not needed.
 

Jayxdallis

Bayrise Lights
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Nov 15, 2019
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52
Location
Urangan - Hervey bay
Mine happened occasionally too so I set FPP to have a 5sec startup delay to allow for the controllers to fully fireup and not any problem since the only other time where it still may happen is if I physically stop a sequence mid show it could freeze on but a quick play & stop will fix that!
 

bpratt

Senior elf
Joined
Mar 31, 2019
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562
Location
Jimboomba, Queensland
I've replaced several pixels lately where I've had power applied, but not data being sent.... seems like some pixels don't like to be left out in the weather all year.

Replaced the first 'funny' pixel, and the one before it, and it rectified it for me.

Might not be your issue though, particulary if you have new pixels there.
 

roy.debruin

New elf
Joined
Nov 4, 2015
Messages
22
Location
Australia
Ok thanks all … it sounds like a quirk of LED which isn’t really cause for concern then in that it comes good once the data is re sent
 

thewanderingpine

Full time elf
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Mar 13, 2021
Messages
311
I had a fun quirk in testing last night. I had a long string (260?) of LED's that had Power + Data coming in from one end and just power in the middle.

I was running the falcon test sequence to alternate colours. And then I disconnected the Power+Data cable. And the lights stopped alternating - but they stayed on.
 

BAZMick

Full time elf
Generous elf
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Nov 26, 2019
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484
They stayed on because of the last signal they received. They didn't receive a stop signal
 
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AussiePhil

Dedicated elf
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Canberra, ACT, Australia
I had a fun quirk in testing last night. I had a long string (260?) of LED's that had Power + Data coming in from one end and just power in the middle.

I was running the falcon test sequence to alternate colours. And then I disconnected the Power+Data cable. And the lights stopped alternating - but they stayed on.
For the record....... used twp's post as example only

the behavior being discussed is completed expected for a string of pixels, nothing quirky about it.

A powered string with no active data can and will pick up noise or even spikes from powering up and any pixel can interpret that as a valid signal though corrupted in length. it will then pass that on if it can... nature of a pixel string.
If your powering from your controller and power injecting about the only real option is to leave everything powered up and ensure you send off signal as the last command for the night... most controllers on power up will also send "off" by default
Think about the logic order of power up.
Now in most case powering up the controller even with power injected strings attached should happen before you turn on any power injection, should be completely safe to do and will also stop randon behavior discussed at power up.
Cheers
 
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