My first (modest) musical blinky display

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logandc99

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Well I finally managed to get my display turned on this weekend :) . Most of it is static like previous years but this is my first venture into the world of LOR. I'm pretty happy (even though it's small compared to most) especially since I knew nothing about RGB lighting and Light o rama until about June/July this year. Also jumped straight into RGB and DMX (also both completely new to me). But have gained lots of info from this site which has been really helpful.
I've posted up three videos - one showing the static display component and the other two the musical part (as small as it is) with one of the songs including my singing face (sorry the iPhone didn't quite pick up the detail in the face).
You will probably notice that one of my strip lights on the roof has the blues (or should i say lack there of) making some of the colours come out odd so I am trying to work out whether it is the strip or the controller causing the trouble. Any advice on that point would be good. The strip is being driven by one of AVD's 24 channel DMX controllers and the strip is from ray wu (http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/5m-one-roll-5050-SMD-30LEDs-m-led-strip-waterproof-by-silicon-tubing-and-coating-RGB/701799_329544925.html). The main problem is the blue colour comes out dim so when the colours are mixed, the blue is often missing meaning my purple is red, white is yellow etc.
Anyway, here are the vids. I know it's small but.....be kind ;)


http://youtu.be/vqC0xR6Pq3I
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[/size]http://youtu.be/bU2iLYIYZjE
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[/size]http://youtu.be/7IOtAzPOI2k
 
Woooohooo, awesome log!!! Makes it all worthwhile when its done eh, gotta get more kiwis into this :)

Thats a huge amount of lights you have there, you musta been saving them up for years lol.

Again, great stuff!
 
Thanks Shell. Some of the lights have been collected over the years but the credit card has taken a hammering this year :eek:
Looking forward to seeing your display in motion.


Burner, thanks for the suggestion about power. Each 5m strip connects directly back to the 24 channel DC controller and I have one of Ray Wu's 350W power supplies providing the juice. So I presume there should be enough power to the strip. Or have I got that wrong?
The 24 channel DC board connects to the four 5m RGB strip lights and the four candy canes (using up all 8 channels) so I had assumed that the board and power supply would have been enough. Red and green come out fine... it's only blue that's the problem.
 
I was more suggesting power loss through the length of cable and strip. Are you seeing it loose colour towards the end?
 
burner said:
I was more suggesting power loss through the length of cable and strip. Are you seeing it loose colour towards the end?
Click to expand...


It seems to be the whole strip. The light intensity when on blue is evenly low throughout the 5m length. But sometimes it's full blue. About to go and switch the cables over and run the sequence again to see if the same strip has the problem or if the issue changes to a different strip. If the latter, that might suggest the controller channel I guess.... or the cables supplying the strip.
 
Also, might pay to test the power (volts) at that point with a multimeter.
 
Just changed the strip to another channel and still same strip is dull so definitely not the controller. Will check the solder joints over the next few days along with the volts at the connection points. Thanks for all the suggestions.
 
logandc99 said:
Anyway, here are the vids. I know it's small but.....be kind ;)
Click to expand...
LOL .. if that display is your definition of small, I would hate to see your version 'over the top' display.
That is a very nice display as well as nice sequencing.
 
Thanks for the kind comments.
Yes the static part isn't exactly small. The small bit was really referring to the musical lights part.
Fortunately the snow globe survived opening night - i discovered a visitor's 7 year old daughter jumping full force onto the globe!
Now I just need to get the snow machine working - it seems to be blocked after last years use. ( guess I should've cleaned it!)
 
Realy enjoyed close encounters, so much so Im playing with the Idea of making a short version for opening the show. Dont think I will have time to make it this year.
 
what type of connectors are you using? have you looked at them. I had a few dumb rgb strips doing the same thing so I did a basic check of everything and found the rgb connectors weren't contacting properly. so I cut them out and twisted, soldered and shrink wrapped the problem connections and I haven't had a problem since.
 
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