Peace Stakes

[thewanderingpine]

So I’m thinking about adding “peace stakes” to fill in my lawn and make some of those whole house effects pop.
Does anyone have examples on spacing and counts?

also - any advice on the best way to wire them? Assuming I get some custom strings made up - what should I be asking for?

 

[Mark_M]

So I’m thinking about adding “peace stakes” to fill in my lawn and make some of those whole house effects pop.
Does anyone have examples on spacing and counts?

also - any advice on the best way to wire them? Assuming I get some custom strings made up - what should I be asking for?

I bought some 'peace stakes' lights from Ray Wu in 2020.

They're basically icicles with 05.m cable between each drop. The icicle model in xLights works with them.
I bought 10 drop 12v regulated ones and haven't had any issues.

 

[thewanderingpine]

Hmm. Is 50cm an appropriate gap? How far apart did that turn into in reality? How many pixels could you run on that sort of wire length before PI?

 

[Mark_M]

I have 2 sets of 100 chained, and at 50% brightness they work fine.
Certainly at 100% white I can see yellowing towards the very end.

 

[merryoncherry]

I got the 12V version of these from Ray.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801095617221.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_allProduct.8148356.7.2a022ca1expNou

At 100% bright and 5m from the controller you will get slight yellowing at the end even if you do not chain them. If you don't do 100% or don't care about those brief moments where the show hits 100%, you'd just run one string per port.

I used clips to clip them onto 1/4" aluminum stakes.

Wizard Pixel Clips - Wizard of Wire

Our "original" pixel clips are for attaching 12mm bullet pixels to 1/4" wireframes or round stock. *Note - the clips may rotate slightly once the pixel is attached. The type of coating on your frame will determine how easily they rotate.

www.wizardofwire.com

Then I promptly bundled them with velcro, piled them neatly in the attic, and left them there all season... Added to some sequences but never put the stakes into the ground... My excuse is I was walking around the area they were supposed to go quite a bit, tree tubes got water intrusion and were flaking on me.

 

[bpratt]

looking at finally doing peace stakes for my display this year, and being that my yard is 36m wide, or perhaps 26m wide where I want to put them, I'm thinking that I might need to have them at least a metre or more apart, than the usual 500mm spacings.

Being that the 26m width, I feel that I'd also need to go at least 15m front to back to give it some depth to it.

Still 'umming and arghing' over how I will end up doing it, so welcome your suggestions.

 

[merryoncherry]

@bpratt this is for a cube / forest / "fill in the lawn" setup, not just verticals along the edge? How tall should the stakes be in your mind?

 

[Indigogyre]

So, I had a grand plan of putting out 30 peace stakes at 13 pixels tall. They were going to be rough 2 feet ish apart. I ended up only putting out maybe 12 of them and left the rest in the box. They were some of the last things for me to put out and due to time and hurting my back I jest gave up on them. If ou watch some of my videos you can see them in the lower middle section of the screen in front of the arches.

I think they can be a good thing if setup and put together properly. I bought mine from GE USA and one end has a longer lead on it to allow for decent spacing. Last year I had a combination of 5 pixel stakes and 13 pixel stakes. In my opinion, the 13 just gave a better effect.

With GE USA coming out with the pixel forest more people seem to be sequencing for them now so they should pick up a bit.

 

[bpratt]

@bpratt this is for a cube / forest / "fill in the lawn" setup, not just verticals along the edge? How tall should the stakes be in your mind?

I'm thinking just 5-7 pixels high, but spaced about 50mm apart.

Perhaps even more pixels higher.

Yes, "fill the lawn" forest thing.

 

[merryoncherry]

Well, if you did 16 strings (one per meter front to back) of 26m length, 1m apart, 5 pixels each (or 7), it would seem to work out just fine math / electric wise, especially if you have a way to pull the voltage up on the far end. I think given the terrain (BooY pointed out a photo of it) it will be tricky to get things aligned perfectly, so while it will fill space quite nicely, let color wash across, etc., the wave effects people often put on cubes may not read well. But those effects aren't all that strong to begin with. The effects where groups of stakes leap at different times ought to work fine.

 

[djgra79]

Where have people bought their peace pixels from previously? I'm not interested in seed pixels only 5v nodes.
Ray has these with plenty of previous orders: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001287735501.html
20x 5px stakes = 100 pixels for USD$60 shipped which is ~AUD$86, or 86c per pixel.
I'm currently comparing to the Lightitup prebuy: https://www.lightitupleds-xmas.com....rue&sa=false&sbp=false&q=false&category_id=13
10 x 5px stakes = 50 pixels for AUD$50 ($100 for 100 pixels) which is $1 per pixel. I'd need to buy over 150 to enable free shipping also.
Seems to be totally different pricing, am I missing something?

 

[thewanderingpine]

So I'm seriously contemplating the idea of doing this with seed pixels. Anyone got recommendations on good/cheap takes that I can use to support them? And best approaches for keeping everything level and straight? Bonus points if you've got a way to also still mow the lawn?

Another thought -- Does it make sense to have a pair of connectors for each stake? I'm mainly thinking about maintenance/failures -- having a couple of standbys that I can swap in? Or do I just set it up as a run of 140ish pixels and fix it in place (given it's on the ground)

 

[merryoncherry]

So I'm seriously contemplating the idea of doing this with seed pixels. Anyone got recommendations on good/cheap takes that I can use to support them? And best approaches for keeping everything level and straight? Bonus points if you've got a way to also still mow the lawn?

Another thought -- Does it make sense to have a pair of connectors for each stake? I'm mainly thinking about maintenance/failures -- having a couple of standbys that I can swap in? Or do I just set it up as a run of 140ish pixels and fix it in place (given it's on the ground)

For a denser cube I was wondering how many bicycle spokes I could salvage from the transfer station this summer.

I would put connectors at the string level so you can field-swap the whole string, bring it in for repairs and it becomes the new spare. Fix in place might be an option. These are quite susceptible to gelcons in a pinch.

Where I do expect to connect, I use a 3-4-3 connectors so it does PI and passes data along to the next string.

Straight and level aren't things I grant the utmost effort... but if you put holes in a timber, pipe, or aluminum channel instead of sticking them in the ground individually, you could ensure they were straight to a high degree, and slide the whole assembly away to mow.

Supporting them from the top sounds like a possibility also. Then you could mow under.

 

[algerdes]

As we look at building 250 like items, we have been putting a little bit of thought into it. (Yes - we are straining the old grey-matter some these days.)
Putting connectors on each one is a bit much, for us. We have decided to do it every 10 units. We can pull and replace that many without too much effort when repairs are needed. We thought about every 5, but this was a lot of connectors (read - cost).

Just a thought.

 

[bpratt]

Another thought -- Does it make sense to have a pair of connectors for each stake? I'm mainly thinking about maintenance/failures -- having a couple of standbys that I can swap in? Or do I just set it up as a run of 140ish pixels and fix it in place (given it's on the ground)

I was thinking that.... convenience at replacing them when you have a dead pixel on one, you'd have to do a field repair, but if connectors on each stake, just pull it out and bring it inside.

The only catch is the cost of all the pigtails.

But if you were to just buy regular pixel, not made for, you're going to be doing a lot of joining anyway, so possibly worthwhile then.