What will you use Smart Strings for?

[meman]

Plan to start with some simple framing and borders. And maybe a really cool feature like this backlit star I just saw:
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Mike E.

[ron d]

Im ua before 5 in the morning simply thinking about this question that seems to have been haunting me for a few weeks now. What have I thought of using them for ? EVERYTHING!!! even indoor on my christmas tree and under cabnit lighting in my kitchen. Out back on my deck not to mention  everything and more in my christmas display!

[tbone321]

I can't use them on any of my Christmas trees as they are all on turntables so until somke type of wireless becomes available for them, I am restricted to using them on the house.

[FireMedic4Christ]

My grand plan is to set them on eves, windows and general yard lighting.  Hoping to be able to program sequences which are orange/green/violet for Halloween, then around Thanksgiving, re-load and do more typical Holiday/Christmas colors.  Once the holiday is over, pull them down and use for various mood/party lighting the rest of the year.

Don't forget about red/pink/white for Valentine's Day, red/white/blue for July4th, veterans and patriot day, green/gold/yellow for St. Patrick's Day and all of the pastels for spring and Easter.

[loveroflife96]

My grand plan is to set them on eves, windows and general yard lighting.  Hoping to be able to program sequences which are orange/green/violet for Halloween, then around Thanksgiving, re-load and do more typical Holiday/Christmas colors.  Once the holiday is over, pull them down and use for various mood/party lighting the rest of the year.

Don't forget about red/pink/white for Valentine's Day, red/white/blue for July4th, veterans and patriot day, green/gold/yellow for St. Patrick's Day and all of the pastels for spring and Easter.

Hmmm....and for those of us in South MS...and LA....we can't forget about our SAINTS....I'm thinking tailgating to a new LEVEL!

[warspyder]

Eaves, windows, and doors on the house. Then use current LEDs in the yard.

[dowdybrown]

My wife wants a webber (spiral) tree. I told her I wasn't going to make one due to the complexity. Then RJ posted the video of his superstring tree and I showed how it could spiral to the wife. And presto! I have authorization to buy superstrings!

I had 6803-based rgb strips on my gutters and eaves this year. I may replace those with the "superstrips" RJ had in one of the videos. I hope the manufacturing quality is better than the 6803 based strips because those came with a handful of nodes DOA.

Oh, and since I'll be purchasing superstrings, you can be sure that pixelnet support will be added to xLights.

It's going to be an exciting year!

Matt

[dmaccole]

Oh, and since I'll be purchasing superstrings, you can be sure that pixelnet support will be added to xLights.

LOL!

The big V only crapped out on me twice between Dec. 10-Jan. 3 and, of course, once was while I wasn't home, so the show was dark for the better part of a night because of it. But enough is enough -- I think I'm committing right now to running xLights as my show scheduler in 2011.

\dmc

[smartcontrols]

Nothing wrong with xLights, But Vixen ran for me from Nov 23 to Jan 2 every night on and off at the scheduled time without fail. Of course my show is only 6 songs long and 508 channels. I run it on a dedicated laptop using windows XP.  My show repeats continuously until the off time.

I guess it is up to the details of each display.

I will probably be switching off of Vixen this year anyway. Depends on what software comes out early enough this year that can handle Smart Strings better.

-Jeff
 

[mmulvenna]

Anxious to hear everyone's comments on this.

Background:

We have about 30 live trees on the acre that we decorate and have historically draped LED strings in them as is fairly standard. I have for years wanted to add some additional effects to make them stand out better during the show. My twin granddaughters got a preset from Santa this year that gave me an idea for using smart strings.

Design:

Use smart strings to make spinning ornaments to hang in the trees. My idea is to mount 10 or more smart nodes and an SSC on a pvc hoop that is attached to a 12 volt motor. The ssc would be fed its signals via a slip ring so that the hoop can rotate a full 360 degrees inside a 10-12in plastic globe.

The design was done in Google Sketchup and then the video made using Sketchup's animation tool. The bulbs I used are just C9's for ease of illustration and it is the first design with a few things missing. But I think you will get the idea.

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Questions/comments:

Do you think I can add 3 more slip rings to continue the nodes to the next ornament 3-6 feet away. The next ornament would then need only the 3 slip rings for the nodes and would not need an SSC.


The globe would be hinged to provide access to the nodes and the SSC.

The hoop would be hinged to proved access to the nodes.

Need to find a cheap source for the globes and then make a stencil to add the snowflake design.

Haven't  figured out how to power the motor yet.

There are 8 slip rings as all pairs in the cat 5 are used if I am reading the WIKI correctly.

EDIT:

Thinking about a modification of only 6 slip rings, three in and three out to feed the nodes. Then the ssc will not have to spin.

[mmulvenna]

Anxious to hear everyone's comments on this.

Background:

We have about 30 live trees on the acre that we decorate and have historically draped LED strings in them as is fairly standard. I have for years wanted to add some additional effects to make them stand out better during the show. My twin granddaughters got a preset from Santa this year that gave me an idea for using smart strings.

Design:

Use smart strings to make spinning ornaments to hang in the trees. My idea is to mount 10 or more smart nodes and an SSC on a pvc hoop that is attached to a 12 volt motor. The ssc would be fed its signals via a slip ring so that the hoop can rotate a full 360 degrees inside a 10-12in plastic globe.

The design was done in Google Sketchup and then the video made using Sketchup's animation tool. The bulbs I used are just C9's for ease of illustration and it is the first design with a few things missing. But I think you will get the idea.

Video Link You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login


Questions/comments:

Do you think I can add 3 more slip rings to continue the nodes to the next ornament 3-6 feet away. The next ornament would then need only the 3 slip rings for the nodes and would not need an SSC.


The globe would be hinged to provide access to the nodes and the SSC.

The hoop would be hinged to proved access to the nodes.

Need to find a cheap source for the globes and then make a stencil to add the snowflake design.

Haven't  figured out how to power the motor yet.

There are 8 slip rings as all pairs in the cat 5 are used if I am reading the WIKI correctly.

EDIT:

Thinking about a modification of only 6 slip rings, three in and three out to feed the nodes. Then the ssc will not have to spin.

I did an edit to the post about using slip rings from the SSC to the nodes an mounting the SSC so it it does not spin. That way is is just the current to the nodes going thru the slip rings. Does that make more sense?

[RJ]

I had not had a chance to reply to your PM about this so I decided to post it here.

The only issue I see is I am not sure how well high speed data with no error correction like DMX or Pixelnet or even the high speed serial data the nodes themself use would work through a slip ring. This is the only concern of the design I have.  The idea and work you have done is excellent.

RJ

[mmulvenna]

I had not had a chance to reply to your PM about this so I decided to post it here.

The only issue I see is I am not sure how well high speed data with no error correction like DMX or Pixelnet or even the high speed serial data the nodes themself use would work through a slip ring. This is the only concern of the design I have.  The idea and work you have done is excellent.

RJ

Thanks RJ, I am changing the design to use 3 slip rings for input to the nodes and 3 different ones for output from them and input to the next ornament.

Might have to look at using some king of mercury slip ring as suggested by Tfischer in another forum. Only one way to find out and that is to build one and give it a shot.

[TAdamsOK]

That is an interesting idea.  Please keep us posted on the results.

My current design in my head is to make 6 light long icicles out of them spaced about 4" apart.  Since a string can be 128 long, that means I could have a icicle of about: 128pixel per string / 6pixel per drop is 21 drops.  21 drops x 4" per drop is 84" per string.  My eaves that I want to hang them off of are approximately 100' in length (lots of ups and downs and a couple dormers thrown in too).  That adds up to about 1834 pixels or 15 strands!  Ouch!  I guess I could have said 6pixels per 4" or 1.5pixel per inch @ 1200"(ish) is 1806 pixel.

I will attach them to 1/2" PVC pipe that will be snapped to the side of the eave so they are easy to put up and take down/store.

At least that is the plan...

Travis

[mmulvenna]

Anxious to hear everyone's comments on this.

Background:

We have about 30 live trees on the acre that we decorate and have historically draped LED strings in them as is fairly standard. I have for years wanted to add some additional effects to make them stand out better during the show. My twin granddaughters got a preset from Santa this year that gave me an idea for using smart strings.

Design:

Use smart strings to make spinning ornaments to hang in the trees. My idea is to mount 10 or more smart nodes and an SSC on a pvc hoop that is attached to a 12 volt motor. The ssc would be fed its signals via a slip ring so that the hoop can rotate a full 360 degrees inside a 10-12in plastic globe.

The design was done in Google Sketchup and then the video made using Sketchup's animation tool. The bulbs I used are just C9's for ease of illustration and it is the first design with a few things missing. But I think you will get the idea.

Video Link You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login


Questions/comments:

Do you think I can add 3 more slip rings to continue the nodes to the next ornament 3-6 feet away. The next ornament would then need only the 3 slip rings for the nodes and would not need an SSC.


The globe would be hinged to provide access to the nodes and the SSC.

The hoop would be hinged to proved access to the nodes.

Need to find a cheap source for the globes and then make a stencil to add the snowflake design.

Haven't  figured out how to power the motor yet.

There are 8 slip rings as all pairs in the cat 5 are used if I am reading the WIKI correctly.

EDIT:

Thinking about a modification of only 6 slip rings, three in and three out to feed the nodes. Then the ssc will not have to spin.

I did an edit to the post about using slip rings from the SSC to the nodes an mounting the SSC so it it does not spin. That way is is just the current to the nodes going thru the slip rings. Does that make more sense?

As my old brain normally tends to over think things, it appears there is a much less complicated way to do this idea.

This idea came from TNG5737(at Lightshowpro.com)...and it makes a lot of sense

"What if you were to eliminate the rotating stuff all together. mount the ss nodes on a fixed surface (sphere, multi-sided something or other). use diffuser lenses to spread the light from each node out onto the outer globe inner surface. Then you switch between each node. If it were fast enough it might appear as if the lights were actually rotating inside but they would really be stationary. "

That is what is so great about this hobby. Someone can come up with an idea and ask for comments and ultimately something pretty cool will come out of it. Now I just need all the hardware to make a prototype.

If anyone else has any other ideas please keep them coming.