Modifying Big-W Icle Lights

SmartAlecLights

SmartAlecLights

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This year with money being short,

I decided to go through my light stock an found 3 packs of Led Coloured Big-W icle lights.

Now there 24v, an they are setup in 2 drops per section (10leds)

What i do is separate each section by a wire, therefore turning them into 20ch Icle lights,

So you could trigger each section with your own controller (LOR etc)
making the icle lights chase after each other an other patterns.

I would say this is a Medium level in skill as it involves alot of joining wires by soldering
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ef9fF4HKDw

http://youtu.be/0ef9fF4HKDw
 
Thanks,

I literally have my big W icicles strung up downstair from the weekend and was heading downstairs tonight to figure out how to chop them up. Cheers for doing all the investigating for me. Guess that just leaves the soldering. :)

Rowan
 
A big thank you here too. This will be my first year at attempting a sequenced light show (hopefully) and my wife really wants to have our Big W lights somewhere in the show. This is a great help.
 
If I understand correctly, these lights could be cut in this way and controlled with one of Alan's (AAH) new controllers (2811DC15/30)? I am hoping to run a small show for my first year and incorporate our Big W lights with some 2811 led strip. Hoping for some confirmation or re-education. I'm guessing it's similar for the multi coloured Big W string lights as well?
 
Correct Guys, these would work perfectly with alan's ws2811 dc boards,
cause i designed it to work off my own ws2801 dc boards.

so in the end cheap, low channel pixel icles
 
Another option that I have used in my display to achieve the chasing effect along the string is to zip tie two strings of icicles together with an offset of 1 drop between strings.


To get a true chase effect, you need 4 channels. Each string of Big W lights has only 2 channels, but the 2 strings gives 4 channels. On each string, each channel has 2 adjacent drops, then 2 drops for the other channel. The 1 drop offset thus allows the 'on' sections to be moved progressively along the string - in either direction.


This approach only requires 4 control channels for the entire string, but it is of course limited in its controllability; it only does chases, and cannot light up progressively along the eaves. It does not require any soldering and can be estended in length by joining more strings end to end without requiring more channels (and thus more programming).


One thing to watch for while zip tying is to keep the correct string to string alignments. I usually have 1 channel of each string on, and then make adjustments where necessary by putting a loop in the horizontal string that needs to be shortened.
 
A bit confused about how the 2811 Dc Board can help here. I thought that you needed a 2811 set of lights for the Board to work. I have some 2801 dumb strip, so was waiting for the 2801 DC board to hook up to my strip, but the suggestion above (unless I misunderstand) is that the 2811 DC Board could work with my dumb strip even though its 2801?
 
DannyP said:
A bit confused about how the 2811 Dc Board can help here. I thought that you needed a 2811 set of lights for the Board to work. I have some 2801 dumb strip, so was waiting for the 2801 DC board to hook up to my strip, but the suggestion above (unless I misunderstand) is that the 2811 DC Board could work with my dumb strip even though its 2801?
Click to expand...

If your strip is 2801, then it won't be "dumb" - dumb strips don't have any chip, and effectively work as one (ie 3 channels only, that control the whole strip together)

But yes, you understanding is correct - a 2811 DC board will only work with other 2811 stuff (strip, pixels etc) - you won't be able to use a 2811 board with 2801 strip.
 
Sorry my terminology error. Its not dumb but the entire strip is controlled as one. Yes its 2801.
 
Sorry confusing myself even more now. Not sure why I think they are 2801. This is what I have. Can someone tell me what these are?

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/213979455.html
 
DannyP said:
Sorry confusing myself even more now. Not sure why I think they are 2801. This is what I have. Can someone tell me what these are?

http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/213979455.html
Click to expand...

They are in fact "dumb" strips - no ICs (chips) on them.. The small black things you see are resistors..

The four wires on the connector will be for common, and then one each for red, green and blue.. Basically, if you power it up, the whole strip will light up together.. If it had ICs on it, you could turn each group of 3 LEDs on individually.
 
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