counting leds...

[chrisatpsu]

i see that some people list how many thousands of leds they have in their show...

do you count rgb leds as one, since it's one capsule, or do you count it as 3 since technically there are three leds inside there?

what about rgb modules that have more than one rgb led, like plastic rectangles?

[angus40]

the best measure would be a channel count when it comes to rgb

[t.jo13]

So true   

[chrisatpsu]

the best measure would be a channel count when it comes to rgb

so you cheat and count the r,g, and b seperately?   

[twooly]

I say physical node 

[angus40]

It is impossible to cheat the sequencer , channel cout is the way to go ...imho

[combustionmark]

My vote is for unique channel count. After all you sequenced each color.

Have fun

[PJNMCT]

the best measure would be a channel count when it comes to rgb

so you cheat and count the r,g, and b seperately?   

Either that or you could say I might cheat by counting every light on a string of dumb lights! 

[jnealand]

Counts seem to be a measure of display complexity and effort so it would depend on what you are trying to demonstrate when you state a count of any kind.  Since effort of sequencing is based on channels I believe that is the best way to go.  Effort of hanging lights though might be based on bulb count.  Count them both and label each as such.

[SteveMaris]

If one module had 3 led's than the count is three.
 Then you need to count the 1 million different color combinations, so each module is technically 1 million lights. Getting your total light count will take some serious thought, and will include many zero's.

[rm357]

Hmmm,

Is this a who has the most lights contest?
I think we should call a RGB led a node and leave it at that. You program it like a single light, it just has 3 parameters.

A module is effectively one node. A smart strip has many nodes. A dumb strip/string is effectively a big module, but you really should not combine that count.

Lights
Nodes
Strips
Raw channel count
Power draw...

The first 3 tell you how bright
4 tells you how complex
5 tells you not to run the oven while the lights are on...

RM

[pk]

When we count incans and LED strings we count each physical bulb or LED.  Doing this we get for example, 6000 lights which lets say are controlled by 128 channels.   

As for either smart or dumb RBG nodes, each node is 3  LEDs.   IMO, I would count Ray's 128 node smartstring as 384 LEDs.  That's my $0.02 worth.

[tbone321]

Counting a RGB node as 3 LED's is just silly and using the channel count is even more lame.  Lets say I had 5 100 node smart strings.  Because of my layout I have all of the strings in string mode and because I want them all to do the same thing, I have all of the controller set to the same address.  So how many lights do I have.  By node count, I have 500, by LED count I have 1500, and by channel count I now have 3.  Which one is correct?  If someone wants me to show them 500 points of light, I can do that by turning any combination of channels on.  If that same person wants to see 1500 points of light, I can't do it.  If that same person only wants to see 3 points of light, I can't do that either without shutting down 497 nodes.  It seem pretty clear which is the correct way to do it. 

[t.jo13]

This is too funny    Just put ( My wile says too much ) LOL

[pk]

wow  Chris has opened a can of worms with this topic...