I had less pixels this year than I have for years. I had a lot of people say that my display was the best it's ever been. Seems contradictory, eh? I bought excess strips in 2015, never touched them to this year, and found nearly all of them didn't work. I had a few hundred bullet nodes also bought that year, never used, and found them interlaced with multiple bad nodes.
So the extra blinky bits were generally the old faithful two-wire led strings from Bunnings, Kmart, Big W, and the cheap shops, all controlled through 3 x DMX2-18's, 2 x DMX2-24's, and a bit of DC stuff switched by ye olde Ray Wu 27 channel DMX controller. Pixels were only on window surrounds, door surround, gutter, and my home-made north pole. With two days to go, one of the strips failed (same batch as the aforementioned duds). During heavy rain one night, the circuit-breaker tripped (I had a circuit specially put in for blinky a few years ago). After a few false starts diagnosing the next day, I found I'd made a rookie error hanging up those weather-resistant thingos for protecting joins in extension cables, with the socket facing up, instead of down. Of course, a few drops of water penetrated, ran down the lead, and congregated merrily in the up-turned socket. I am accumulating a large collection of inflatables with stuffed blowers. I know you can buy blowers on Ebay, but they mostly seem a little on the expensive side, and with no prospect of longevity. There must be a better way. One of the DMX2-24's ceased talking to its blinkies one night, (the night after the rainy night), but decided to work the next night. I couldn't see any moisture in the enclosure, but perhaps there was something out of sight. It did work on test and classical mode when it decided to ignore data, and data passed happily through it along the daisy-chain to other DMX controllers. One of life's little mysteries.
My Pixlite16 LR seems a bit iffy. After the show has finished random pixels will flash briefly, as if a little signal noise is being transmitted. My older Click boxes (those grey ones from old Masters and Bunnings) are beginning to look a little worse for wear, and some have probably seen their last summer in the sun (what to replace them with?).
I need more motifs, and I'd like to have a crack at making some of my own. I drool over neon flex, but wince at the price of it.
Disjointed ramble over. Happy New Year all!
So the extra blinky bits were generally the old faithful two-wire led strings from Bunnings, Kmart, Big W, and the cheap shops, all controlled through 3 x DMX2-18's, 2 x DMX2-24's, and a bit of DC stuff switched by ye olde Ray Wu 27 channel DMX controller. Pixels were only on window surrounds, door surround, gutter, and my home-made north pole. With two days to go, one of the strips failed (same batch as the aforementioned duds). During heavy rain one night, the circuit-breaker tripped (I had a circuit specially put in for blinky a few years ago). After a few false starts diagnosing the next day, I found I'd made a rookie error hanging up those weather-resistant thingos for protecting joins in extension cables, with the socket facing up, instead of down. Of course, a few drops of water penetrated, ran down the lead, and congregated merrily in the up-turned socket. I am accumulating a large collection of inflatables with stuffed blowers. I know you can buy blowers on Ebay, but they mostly seem a little on the expensive side, and with no prospect of longevity. There must be a better way. One of the DMX2-24's ceased talking to its blinkies one night, (the night after the rainy night), but decided to work the next night. I couldn't see any moisture in the enclosure, but perhaps there was something out of sight. It did work on test and classical mode when it decided to ignore data, and data passed happily through it along the daisy-chain to other DMX controllers. One of life's little mysteries.
My Pixlite16 LR seems a bit iffy. After the show has finished random pixels will flash briefly, as if a little signal noise is being transmitted. My older Click boxes (those grey ones from old Masters and Bunnings) are beginning to look a little worse for wear, and some have probably seen their last summer in the sun (what to replace them with?).
I need more motifs, and I'd like to have a crack at making some of my own. I drool over neon flex, but wince at the price of it.
Disjointed ramble over. Happy New Year all!
