Testing Different Pixels

wbottomley

One Light Too Bright
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North Carolina
Today, I ordered some test pixels from Ray. They are 2811 bullet nodes with black wire and 12V. Plus, I have some test GECE replicas from DIYLEDExpress that look great as well. Those are 5V 2801's.

I read the difference between 5V vs. 12V pixels. But... what's your preference or main selling point?
 

wbottomley

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North Carolina
I saw that article last year. But... my question is, what was the selling point for the choice you made?
 
G

GoofyGuy

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I went with 12v and 2811 for a few key reasons. Most of which was covered last in last nights mini.

The 2811 is a 3 wire pixel, so extending, soldering, and the amount of work per pixel is much less. As well with the 2811 you can run 20 meters from controller to the first pixel, as well from pixel to pixel. So you get a lot of room to play without needed null pixels down the line to carry the signal.
I used both 12v and 5v. The 12v was in strip form on my house, windows, arches, and next year my pillars. The 12v are 3 leds per pixel, so they are a bit larger, but again this was on the house. In motion you cant tell at the distance. They are bright becuase of the 3 leds per pixel. As well absorb less channels per meter.
The 5v were used on my matrix. As its 1 led per pixel it gave higher resolution to show picutres, video, animation, as well scrolling text. My matrix was 30 x 20 so 600 pixels total. If this were in 12v it would have been massive and would have taken over my whole yard. My Mega tree will be 5v pixels to give more of a points of light in space effect rather than rays of light.
The 2801 pixels were used last year on my matrix, and I threw the whole damn thing away. I had over 40 individual pixel failures, the 4 wire setup makes them very fragile. They would fail in random locations as well, most of which were from the IC not the led. Pressure on the IC at the failed LED would bring it life. Again 2801 has 12 solder pads per IC, the 2811 only has 8. I have no clue how eddy has done it but the 2801 was to delicate for me. My 2811's as well Andys were flawless. I had 0 2811 failures. I ran a total of 14 strips on the house so 700 pixels on the house 0 failures. Im not sure what Andys count is but Im betting it was higher than mine.
The 2811 and 2812 will be the pixels so far of the year this season.
 

Boof63

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how did you get 20 metres from controller to 1st pixel, i couldn't get past 2 metres before had to put in null pixel to carry signal from P2 to either strip or pixel (all ws2811).
cheers Boof63 ??? ???
 

fasteddy

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Boof63 said:
how did you get 20 metres from controller to 1st pixel, i couldn't get past 2 metres before had to put in null pixel to carry signal from P2 to either strip or pixel (all ws2811).
cheers Boof63 ??? ???

What speed were you using for the 2811, i got 10 metres running at 2000, if you were running at 3500 then that would explain why you could only get 2 metres as the 2811 distance is heavily dependant on the data speed.
 

Boof63

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yes was running at 3200, so that explains it, thanks eddy!!, will print and asave this for next years display.
PS how did you sequence your candles with the colour change going down the candle, trying to emulate in HLS but having probelsm getting it right, understand you use LSP? but a visual of your actual sequence could help if possible please,
cheers and thanks
Boof63
 

fasteddy

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Boof63 said:
yes was running at 3200, so that explains it, thanks eddy!!, will print and asave this for next years display.
PS how did you sequence your candles with the colour change going down the candle, trying to emulate in HLS but having probelsm getting it right, understand you use LSP? but a visual of your actual sequence could help if possible please,
cheers and thanks
Boof63

LSP allows me to group my candles together into a layer and then use a macro effect over that grouped layer called the shifter macros which is just a quick bunch of colours a put together in MS excel and then did a capture to turn it into a jpg for use in the macros, LSP did the rest, in fact its one of the easiest effects to apply in LSP. Not sure of the abilaties of HLS and how you would go about getting the same effect. So this was not manually created as you can see the candle is grouped and has a transition applied to it for the effect.

[attachimg=1]
 

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Boof63

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thanks eddy!!!, at least i have an idea of how it is setup, now i just need to work it out in HLS (can do colour shifts but may be a little more manual in the setting up) thankyou for sharing the sequence, (the candles worked well and everybody liked them that saw the display - so credit to your creativity!!)
cheers and thanks again
Boof63 :D :D
Update:- have got the sequence working , was on the right track, but your colour shift made the difference as well as having it chase, thanks for the help, your candles will really look good this year.!!
 
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