Pixel Strobe Controller

cenote said:
I like the design and concept, wondering if it's cost effective? Any idea on a group buy what they could run?
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No idea on costs yet. I did design it with all "through hole" parts to make it easier for people to make at home.

I don't run group buys, so we'll have to play that by ear once I get a prototype running.
 
So why not have this intercept a pixel style signal say 2801 or 2811 and then output to a dumb LED string. Have the board have 2 4 wire screw connectors instead of the rj style jacks for easy daisy chain. The dmb string wouldnt have any clock issues as theres no extra chip on the line to slow the strobing down based on update? So this board would intercept say the typical 3 channels as any other pixel would, but output to a dumb led node then like any other pixel it moves onto the next pixel. So you could have these all over the place in line, and with 2811 a good distance as well, then where ever you need some strobes you add the dumb nodes. The board could have power injection on it, as Im sure the long distances would power very many dumb nodes per small board without extra juice? As well if it were a dumb node, couldnt it be RGB as well?
 
The 3 channel pixel-DC board you speak of already exists and another member here is making 15 and 30 channel versions soon. But that is beside the point. What we're doing here is a controller for high power (or regular I guess) LED pixels.

The whole idea of this is to make the strobe timing independent of the DMX stream capabilities. Note that this applies to E1.31 (Ethernet) as well as "conventional DMX" (RS485) generated streams.

It can also make sequencing easier as you just need to set a speed and turn the strobing on and off instead of sequencing every single flash. Changing the flash rate will be as simple as changing one channel's value in the sequence instead of recreating the strobe pattern each time.

Make sense?
 
I finally got around to writing some code tonight:

20130605 212735

Since the video I've changed the DMX channels to:

Red intensity
Green intensity
Blue intensity
Flash rate
Flash duration
Flash fill
 
So is the idea that this will run normal pixels in a strobe-like manner, or would this project encompass development of a new type of ACL strobe that has a 2811 chip integrated??
 
This board drives normal pixels in a strobe like manner using a DMX input.

It's in no way related to the individual ACL pixel strobe units unless they are meant to be driven with a pixel stream.
 
I'll need to clean the code up and add support for other pixel types first. It only does 6803 right now. 2801 will be easy to add, but not sure about 2811.
 
David_AVD said:
This board drives normal pixels in a strobe like manner using a DMX input.

It's in no way related to the individual ACL pixel strobe units unless they are meant to be driven with a pixel stream.
Click to expand...

Aha, that makes sense.

I'm wondering about brightness of pixels though - if you look at the intensity value of an ACL strobe, for example, these are a huge amount brighter than any pixels on maximum brightness. Would we need to ask Ray to get some custom pixels produced with 1-2w LEDs on them to get some nice bright strobe stings happening?
 
Kane said:
Would we need to ask Ray to get some custom pixels produced with 1-2w LEDs on them to get some nice bright strobe stings happening?
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That would be good. I'll work on the board while you (or someone else) gets the strings sorted!
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At the Adelaide mini I'm hoping to show off some pixel based strobes as an alternative to the ACL strobes. All I need now is to get hold of a/that board that can drive them :)
Boards are done and I've got the components it is just a matter of joining the 2 halves together and having something to drive them.
 
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