When making my arches I thought I would use 75 nodes on a 10' piece of PVC. Well after trying to do this, its way to many nodes. Here's my question. I've already set the ssc for 75 nodes, if I cut the strings do I need to re pick-it the controller for the correct amount of nodes? Or does this matter as long as the start channel matches the controller.
As mentioned, the firmware does not need to be changed.
Also, you don't NEED to readjust the string length in the smart string utility -- but I'd recommend doing so.
I suspect that the number of pixels that are generated on the smart string data line are directly related to the length specified in the utility. If you only have 5 pixels, but have 128 configured, then the SSC generates 128*3 channels of data. This extra work might affect your refresh rates... 50ms should work, but maybe you'd be able to use faster rates with a smaller pixel configuration.