My First RGB/DMX Project

[ColonelChristmas]

Finished my first RGB running over DMX tonight. It is a 6 foot star using a dumb strips. I is two rows of SMD 5050 controlled by 2 three channel controllers. The dip switches were set to test. The video is not to good but it does look cool and I am happy to be getting the hang of RGB DMX stuff. Thanks to those who replied to my last post.
As a side note, it is still snowing here in North Dakota and we are suppose to get another storm this weekend. I am starting to wonder why I ever took our lights down, a project we only finished last weekend.

http://youtu.be/IlP8yayVpLE

 

[nato595]

Nice! Project accomplishments just feel great don't they!?
What did you make the frame out of?

 

[Bill Ellick]

Definitely a nice looking star there !! Great job. That should blaze a hole in the night for sure!


Always feels good to get a project put together. You get a nice warm fussy feeling when you look at it and say "Wow, I did that!".



I too am curious what you made the frame out of for it and how are you going to mount it up for display.
I forgot to mention that I am in upstate NY and it is snowing out right now here as well! I think we are going to go from winter to maybe moderately warm and then back to winter this year! I won't have to rake this year, just watch the dead spots appear and then cover back up with snow.

 

[ColonelChristmas]

I used 2 inch by 1/8 flat steel for the frame and then welded it to a 1 inch steel tube. I am planning on mounting on one of the peaks of the house and I welded up a receiver and have it anchored to the fascia. I have attached a couple of photos to show that I drilled holes in the frame to also use zip ties to secure the light strips to the steel. Being my first time using RGB strips, I don't know how well the 3M tape will hold up with our weather here.

 

[Bill Ellick]

Nice heavy duty construction. I like it!


Good idea to not trust the 3M tape on the strips. Some seem to work okay and then again a lot of people have had it pull loose.
The strips that I had out in the weather for testing for 11 months had most of the tape peel away from the strip as well. Mostly due to moisture getting under it but the changing cycles of warm and cold also tend to work against anything like tapes anyway along with the UV damage.
You may find that your zip ties will begin to fail some after a year or two as the white ones are not UV protected (for the most part, unless you bought them with UV rating). It is not a big deal as they will just get brittle and snap when you move things around.
Just pick up a bag of UV rated ones and then you can just replace any that fail over time. I still use white ones as I have a ton of them but I am replacing them slowly with black ones that are UV rated as the white ones fail. It only seems to be about a dozen or two each year that I end up having to replace when I take the display down and some of the brittle white ones snap. No big deal really. Just an FYI for you.


The star is great and should last a very long time from the looks of the pictures.
Nice job.