WS2811 strobe pixels from Ray Wu store

AAH sent me a string of these strobes to test with the latest strobe feature I added to the PixLite controller. In terms of doing what they are told by the controller, they work exactly the same as a standard WS2811 string - no surprises there. The flashing looks quite nice, very stroby.


The actual brightness of them however I was disappointed with. Brighter than a standard string of course, however there is a significantly reduced viewing angle which makes them look a lot duller unless they are shining on something.


My biggest issue is this: I measured the current difference between an off string and one with a single LED turned on full brightness. The current draw is only 78mA for this LED. This is only 0.39W - so the strings have been designed completely wrong (they are supposed to be 0.75W LEDs). Like with any existing pixel string from Ray I would never expect that with all or a lot of LEDs turned on you would be able to get the correct power (they are cheap Chinese strings after all) - however it should definitely be able to work with a single LED on.


Hopefully some kind of diffusing cover will eliminate the viewing angle problem which will help a lot. Anyone else tried out these strings?
 
We used this LED type in the ACL strobes, we found that putting a C7 facetted cover on the LED made the light more diffused and brighter from more angles.
 
Was going to order a few sets of these, guess I will hold off now.


Since they are 5 volt, would upping the voltage change anything?
 
For individual LED pixels 5v is always a better way to go. Changing them to 12v wouldn't change the current, it would just make it use 2.4 times as much power without any of that extra power being used in the LED. It's not a voltage problem, it's a fundamental design problem.
 
I use 6.5 volts on my GECE 5 volt lights, they get a bit brighter and the white looks a whole lot better. I didnt know if the same thing could apply here or not. I didn't mean to change them to 12 volts, just hit the strobes as they are now with a bit more voltage.
 
OK - So I just got my order from Ray today (4 weeks...tsk, tsk, tsk) and immediately dived through the box for the strobes.
I’ve now got them up and running on my Arduino with a quick bit of code. Still things to sort out like having more than 1 LED firing at once. Also the freezing every ~12 seconds thing. I’m guessing the freezing issue is a variable/buffer hitting full as it occurs at the same time each go.
Anyhow...Without rambling on too much more, it looks like it is possible to get them working on a cheap Arduino. If you already have an Arduino, great! Otherwise the cheapest option that will definitely work is probably http://www.banggood.com/Arduino-R3-Mega2560-ATmega2560-16AU-Control-Board-With-USB-Cable-p-73020.html
It will probably work on a different Arduino (Except Due – I have no idea how it’ll go on its 32bit processor) however I haven’t tested on anything other than my Mega2560 R2. I do have a Dueminolove which I will test at a later date – First step is just getting things working properly :)
Arduino and WS2811 strobes
 
I've just found and tested with my Dueminolove and it works just as good in the single LED test as on the Mega. Still freezes on the same pixel every ~12 seconds which I'm thinking might be something to do with the "Random" generator hitting the end of it's built in list.
Edit: After further playing with the code, it looks like it's definitely the way the Arduino handles Random(). Now to make it work properly :)
 
dougd said:
What was your opinion on the brightness of the strobes themselves. Will having 200 of these be a nice "wow" effect?
Click to expand...
They aren't as "wow" as the ACL strobes last year. That may change if you put a cover on it to diffuse.
Does anyone know where to get those covers cheap from the ACL strobes?
 
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