Matrix project in progress

[thepunisher]

Working on a new matrix and trying to decide how much to let my OCD govern placement and the amount of strips that I will use.

Currently it is at 10 strips of 90 LEDs, but at 3.33cm width and 3.33cm height, it doesn't create a very big matrix.
At double (6.66cm), some of the text and effects looked a bit skewed.

Anyone have any suggestions for the best spacing on the strips?


View: https://youtu.be/OzKvLy2luTw

 

[Adsy]

If your using 30 per metre leds then ideally you would want the same vertical spacing.
This does mean you need a lot of strips to create a traditional matrix for images and effects.
My original matrix was 36 strands of 44 leds and was approx 1500mm wide by 1100mm high.
For text or tune to sign what you've shown would work well

 

[TerryK]

Would agree; whatever the horizontal pixel pitch is (of the strip), to keep text appearance 'normal' the vertical pixel pitch should be the same or nearly so. Viewing distance plays a role of course but with only 144, 60, or 30 pixels per meter strip available design possibilities are rather limited.

I don't have one but if I was to build one I'd go with 30 pixels per meter and set the vertical pitch at 1.5 inch, maybe 2 inch (English for me ). 1000 / 30 = 33.3 mm = 1.3 inch; characters would be a bit 'skinnier' but doubt anyone would care or notice much. I would however give attention to the horizontal and vertical layout to insure lines are straight.

 

[merryoncherry]

Before I knew any better, before I'd wired my first pixel, I thought it'd be cool to built a strip matrix, so I ordered all the stuff (48-port controller and 48 60 LED/m 5m strips) and built a 150x96 matrix. While I was "successful" (give or take longevity, which is TBD), this was a real pain, and I would not recommend it to anyone. For coarse pitches (2.5cm / 1"+), coro with holes for bullets, for 5cm/2"+, HDPE with holes for bullets or square nodes, and for fine pitches P10(or finer) panels would make more sense.

One of the problems I had was figuring out how to mount the strips to something, various glues tried did not adhere to the coro board, the silicone tube, or both, so I did resort to zip ties... that took quite a while, and while the coro inherently provided a pretty good guide for straight lines, it isn't perfect.

 

[thepunisher]

Some good information and insight. Appreciate it.
I'm going to give equal spacing a try and see how it lays out.
I've also bought another 10 LED strips because just 10 wasn't enough, so 20 seemed like a good starting trial