Sean Meighan
General => The Water Cooler => Topic started by: danj on April 01, 2015, 07:06:03 PM
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I used WS2811 strips last year on my megatree. While I like the look, they are a pain if any repairs have to be made (at least for those who are solder-challenged like me...). So, I am thinking about using my WS2811 strips on that megatree and WS2811 bullets on my 2nd megatree. I am also considering about using 12V bullet nodes whereas my existing strips are 5V. Will this look ok??
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.
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they both will look fine. 12v ws2811 flex strips are in groups of 3. dave pitts made his main megatree out of the. his display looked great!
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thanks Sean.
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Well I can show you exactly that in my yard. WS2811 strips on the right and WS2811 nodes on the left. My strips are 12V and my nodes are 5V. Most of the time you can't tell much difference. The strips do look a little bit fuller because there are 3 nodes per pixel on a strip with 30/m.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZB3_5X-A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZB3_5X-A)
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I think the main difference is the density of pixels using strips vs nodes. All my pixels are 12v, I do not want to start worrying about mixing power supplies up or having to keep 2 different kinds in house.
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Well I can show you exactly that in my yard. WS2811 strips on the right and WS2811 nodes on the left. My strips are 12V and my nodes are 5V. Most of the time you can't tell much difference. The strips do look a little bit fuller because there are 3 nodes per pixel on a strip with 30/m.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZB3_5X-A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQ5ZB3_5X-A)
Hi Gil, love the layout, such wonderful canvas to work with.
Can you please tell me what the effect is at the 1:20 mark - right after the meteors.
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Well the stuff you see on my tree is a mix. I had a SuperStar sequence bought from SuperStarLights and then I overlaid a few NC effects in spots. At 1:20 that is a series of Spiral effects from SuperStar. I'll probably be trying to create something similar. Just not sure what to call it since we already have a different type of spiral.
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Looks like a Galaxy spiral. "Galaxy" would be a decent effect name, and it would be easy to get to when sequencing next to Garland and Glediator.
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Thanks so much for your responses. I really appreciate the info!!!
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Gil--As I worked on my BOM for this year's setup, I got thinking about pixel density of the bullet nodes compared to the strips (30LED/m). I am probably going to use James' pixel holders, which would space the bullet nodes at 1" on center. I think I could configure it at 2" on center and be ok. Would that work in comparison to 30LED/m strips on an adjacent megatree (about 15' away...)??? Thanks.
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If you watched the video that James did of his trees, they are all 3 inch spacing. And they are very bright.
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3 inch spacing is what I use also, works well for text and pictures my mega tree
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3" spacing also cuts down on the expensive of buying a lot more nodes.
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I think it depends on what you are doing. I used 4" spacing for my roofline pixels and the pixel tree on the left side of my yard if you've seen any of my videos. If you think about it the 30/m strips have 10 controllable leds per meter which is 39 inches so that about 3.9" per controllable pixel.
For my matrix I'm going to build I need to fit 85 pixels in about an 8 foot space so I'll have probably 1" spacing but I'm going to wait till I determine my exact vertical spacing to I can keep it even before I decide.
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My strips are 30 LED/m with 30 ICs; all individually controllable. I was thinking I might just buy a few strands of bullet nodes and run them in some test patterns against the strips in test patterns to see what everything looks like. Thanks for the response.
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Danj, in my Christmas display video https://vimeo.com/115948503 (https://vimeo.com/115948503) I have 3 matrix panels.
On the right, is a 40x30 bullet matrix (PVC tubes, 2inch pitch)
On the left are two 22x30 strip matrix panels. (they are designed to be set side by side to also give me a 44x30 matrix if needed)
Could you have told them apart? From the street, you really can't.
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Followup question. How about opinions about 30 LEDs/10 ICs instead of 30 LEDs/30 ICs? I am looking at HolidayCoro's presale and I could cut my pixel cost in half. Would that still work well on a megtree? Even if the other megatree is 30 LEDs/30 ICs?
Thanks.
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All mine are 30/10 . As far as I know (aussiechristmas lights), this is the most common configuration used
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Thanks Gerry. I thought I had read before that a lot of folks use the 30/10 lights, but I wanted to check before I go make a $$ commitment...
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Reading through the entire post (since I am new to this forum) , I may add that there has been a huge amount of discussion on the aussie site of string v/s strip and 12v v/s 5v and what to use and when (including if 360 or 180 ).
I use 12V strip for almost everything , except that I use 12V string for my 360 mega tree (I don't have a separate matrix though). And I only use Ws2811 as that is what I started with.
The "conventional wisdom" was 12V for strip and 5V for string , but I did not want to mix the two different voltages . And all is 30/10 . Very bright , even with our late summers.
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Thanks Gerry. I finally decided to stick with strips for my 2nd megatree since I kind of have a blueprint based on last year's megatree. I am, however, going to use 12V strips on the 2nd tree. I appreciate the info!