I am so glad that I found this group ... now I have something new to be obsessed with.
I have spent the last few weeks reading through threads on the board, watching related videos and puzzling over pictures and diagrams on the wiki.
I have to admit that there are a lot of things that I am reading that I have no clue about but I figure it will come with time and some hands on experience with the relavent hardware and software.
My budget means that I will have to start smaller that I would like (isn't this always the way). I bought 2 LEs and a dongle (not an etherdongle) from blearning which I will be able to pickup early next week. They should allow me to do something nice with the lights I already have.
I am fascinated with the smart strings and would like to do something with them.
"She Who Must Be Obeyed" aka my wife would like to have an animated face and has ok'ed some of these coro mini trees: You are not allowed to view links.
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LoginFrom what I have been reading, a LE (or part of one) would do the talking face.
I have been using this diagram as a start for my thoughts and questions on smart strings: You are not allowed to view links.
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LoginWith the smartstrings, I was thinking I could make a 'standard base' with 6 nodes and use them for coro trees, stars, jack-o-lanterns, ghosts and other shapes as I make them
Based on what I have read and absorbed so far, I see my setup as being pretty much like the diagram I linked out of the wiki.
With this in mind I have some questions ...
Pixelnet dongle: Which dongle will work best? I plan on starting out wired, so I don't see need for wireless atm.
SS Hub: Since I am running DMX hardware (2 x LE) I am assuming that I need to use at least 1 SS active hub. Or will a passive hubs work to pass through to the DMX hardware.
Pixelnet Cat5e: In the diagram, it is listed as stranded ... it that any different from the cat5e used for the rest of the connections?
Smart Strings: Assuming 6 nodes per display item (I'll call it a pumpkin from now on to save on the words), I would like to run through the different colors on them as well as being able to dim them. Would I need SSC (smart string controller) for this or is this something a DSC (dumb string controller) can do?
Will I need a SSC or DSC for each pumpkin or can I daisy chain them together, say using cat5e? If I can daisy chain them together, what are the limitations? I think I have read 128 nodes/4 amps so far but I imagine there must be a physical cable length limit as well?
Is there anything I have missed?
I hope this all makes some sort of sense.
Thanks for any help.