ideal size matrix?

[duane.mosley]

I am looking to add a matrix to my display. I have a section of fence that is 12' x 4' that I would like to use. I was curious as to how many rgb nodes I will need to fill this space and have a decent matrix? is there a calculator of some sort to figure out the spacing and things I need to know? I will start doing some reading but wanted to ask some opinions. thanks in advance

duane

[taybrynn]

you can model various matrix configuration using xlights very easily and maybe get an idea of how many nodes give you the look and capabilities you want ... and then see what the spacing would be for that on your fencing.

[JonB256]

After playing with a matrix that was very wide (126 pixels) but only 32 pixels tall, I realized that it made anything "graphical" look odd. I want to be able to display pictures of Santa and Elves and Spooks and Ghosts. It occurred to me that I really wanted a Video Screen shaped matrix. Since the two common sizes for video screens are a 4:3 ratio (standard definition) or 16:9 ratio (high definition), I played with numbers to get the right size.

My constraints were - I already bought a LOT of Smart String Flex strips, so that made my distance between pixels fixed at 33 millimeters (30 pixels per meter). And I wanted it to fit inside my Garage Door frame so that it could hang from the door header.

Since Flex Strips have to be cut at multiples of 3, that limited me also. I ended up deciding on a matrix size of 72 pixels wide by 54 pixels tall.  A perfect 4:3 ratio. In xLights/Nutcracker modeling, pictures just seem to fit well. Plenty of size for text, even two rows.

Total size is about 8 feet wide and 6 feet tall. The painter's tape on my garage door was to convince my wife that it would be large enough. She was thinking "whole garage."

[drlucas]

So this looks to be the same size I'm working with.  Almost identical. I was thinking of using 12x 4m flex strips and build a "Ray" 2d model and stick a dumb string coro star at the top. It would be 10' tall in the middle and the longest of the strips would be just over 12'.

I like the 4:3 approach. I haven't played with the new preview in nutcracker yet to see if I can get pictures and text to work across the strips but guess I should do that before I start tie wrapping the stings to PVC.

[duane.mosley]

I took measurements of the fence that I will be working with and it is 4' tall and 12' wide. I have 582 pixel nodes not being used and if I do 16 strings it would be 36 nodes per line on 4'' spacing(existing spacing on strands now) and 3'' between strings . doing a moch up using xlights, with the number of strings and the number of nodes per string, it looked ok but the preview can be deceiving. i'm not looking to do pictures and faces yet, more so just scrolling text, and some spirals, stuff like that.   I was configuring the 16 strings due to the zues capabilities. 

[drlucas]

Here is the design I have in mind for the garage. I'll try to move the vehicles and draw nice lines

The way i'm going to mount the flex strings i think will be to put up a 2x4 header at the top and a 6x6 that's 16' long at the bottom and then strap some 1/2" pvc and then tie wrap or glue (99% tie wrap) the strip down.