[SIZE=small]Hi All![/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]My dreams of a huge outdoor display have been dashed by sad financial realities, so I'm looking at starting at pretty much the smallest scale possible with a plan to possibly work my way up at a later point. So with that in mind, I'm looking to replace the dumb pixel strings that grace my ~6ft Christmas tree with Pixels. That way I can get my head around the basic concepts of putting a display together (protocols, power injection etc) and still have the fun of designing my own sequences but do it on the cheapest scale possible.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]My thoughts[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* It has to be safe - my 4 year old can reach the components so it has to be safe. I can of course put everything in locked containers or similar, but the containers then have to factor into the cost as I don't have anything suitable. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I want to use decent (Australian standards etc) power supplies so I don't have to worry about my house burning down. I may have a PC power supply that I could repurpose.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* It needs to be pixels - I want to design my own colour routines. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I don't want to dedicate a computer to the display (though a Raspberri Pi or similar would be okay as I can factor one into the purchase without breaking the bank). I'm happy to look at an integrated device (like this maybe : http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/T-1000B-LED-sd-card-pixel-controller-full-color-SPI-signal-output-2048-pixels-controlled/701799_1202269899.html if it's suitable - though .led format doesn't seem supported by the standard tools). [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I want the option to be able to expand on the setup down the line (eg. I'd rather use outdoor rated pixels than indoor in case I ever realise my dream to grow beyond a single lonely tree). [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]At this point I'm not even sure how many lights I need to make a standard indoor tree look decent. I'm open to either 5V or 12V (still not clear which is the best idea when you don't have to match existing equipment, and whether I can use the one power supply for the injection I'll need to do (it looks to be an injection per 50 pixels?))
If you've got any thoughts as to the ideal bits to make a cheap setup, I'd love to hear them![/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]Cheers![/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]My dreams of a huge outdoor display have been dashed by sad financial realities, so I'm looking at starting at pretty much the smallest scale possible with a plan to possibly work my way up at a later point. So with that in mind, I'm looking to replace the dumb pixel strings that grace my ~6ft Christmas tree with Pixels. That way I can get my head around the basic concepts of putting a display together (protocols, power injection etc) and still have the fun of designing my own sequences but do it on the cheapest scale possible.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]My thoughts[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* It has to be safe - my 4 year old can reach the components so it has to be safe. I can of course put everything in locked containers or similar, but the containers then have to factor into the cost as I don't have anything suitable. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I want to use decent (Australian standards etc) power supplies so I don't have to worry about my house burning down. I may have a PC power supply that I could repurpose.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* It needs to be pixels - I want to design my own colour routines. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I don't want to dedicate a computer to the display (though a Raspberri Pi or similar would be okay as I can factor one into the purchase without breaking the bank). I'm happy to look at an integrated device (like this maybe : http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/T-1000B-LED-sd-card-pixel-controller-full-color-SPI-signal-output-2048-pixels-controlled/701799_1202269899.html if it's suitable - though .led format doesn't seem supported by the standard tools). [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]* I want the option to be able to expand on the setup down the line (eg. I'd rather use outdoor rated pixels than indoor in case I ever realise my dream to grow beyond a single lonely tree). [/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]At this point I'm not even sure how many lights I need to make a standard indoor tree look decent. I'm open to either 5V or 12V (still not clear which is the best idea when you don't have to match existing equipment, and whether I can use the one power supply for the injection I'll need to do (it looks to be an injection per 50 pixels?))
If you've got any thoughts as to the ideal bits to make a cheap setup, I'd love to hear them![/SIZE]
[SIZE=small]Cheers![/SIZE]