DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Smart String => Topic started by: kjam22 on July 15, 2011,
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I haven't read too many comments (good or bad) about the flexible strips. I am thinking about going with the flexible strips and the Coro diffuser (from holiday coro) for my roof line. Any comments???
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Will let ya know shortly - I got 12 lengths of them coming.....
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I forgot I bought flex strips, been wrestling with the node strings!!! I'll test those as soon as I can and post results.
:) joe
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The flexible strips are pretty cool if you plan on something flat with a more directional light pattern. I am planning on using them for arches just zip tie them to some PVC and have it face the street.
I am really happy with them and glad I got them. The strips with the light diffusers would look good and offer a nice look
Hope that helps
-JS
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I have been working with them a lot. Like everything else they have both pros and cons. A lot of it would be based on how you are using them and how far away your audience will be. 2 things I did not expect is, if you have many of them close together, they are a lot brighter than I had expected and they put out more heat then I would have thought.
That is just 2 things I did not expect. Not sure what info you are looking for or how you plan to use them. I made a 75 column by 60 row matrix (4500 nodes) on a 10 foot by 8 foot wood frame. So I have a lot of nodes in a small area.
I will try to post a video of my matrix over the weekend. Note the word try. I tried to take it last night at 50% intensity and it was just a big spot. I will try to night at 30% intensity.
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That is just 2 things I did not expect. Not sure what info you are looking for or how you plan to use them. I made a 75 column by 60 row matrix (4500 nodes) on a 10 foot by 8 foot wood frame. So I have a lot of nodes in a small area.
Hmm your kind of past the Xmas light display and moved more on to JumboTron. Put the game on that baby =) HAHAH ;D
-JS
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I am planning on using them for arches just zip tie them to some PVC and have it face the street.
JS:
This is something I'm considering, so any progress on that particular project would be of interest to me. Please keep us updated.
Thanks.
\dmc
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Do the flex strips bend in a way a arch would need?
By looking at them it seems they would be better with wrapping them around a tube/column. A arch would seem to be trying to bend them in the wrong direction. But this is only my assumption and no real prove.
Cheers
Rick R.
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The flex strips are good overall quality, probably closer to a retail grade product than any of the other node options.
I also want to use them for arches and one strip per.
They come inside a pretty nice rubberized sleeve that protects the very thin flex strip and seems to increase the light dispersion a bit.
While they are NOT ideal for wrapping onto an arch, unless your talking about the LED(s) pointing UP, they can be attached sideways onto an arch .... and allow for enough side bending to pull that off, but may require a fair number of zip ties to do properly.
I've been toying around with ways to further enhance the light dispersion while using them. And thus far, the best I have found is using clear tubing I found at Fleet Farm for around $.29 per foot. That was in IA, I haven't found this product in CO yet. The tubing was 9/16 ID and 5/8 OD or something like that. (so thin walled, which was better than thick walled tubing which absorbed too much light). THey require over a 1/2" ID (inside diameter) to fit ... but inside a clear tub does seem to increase the light viewing angles and might also make attaching to an arch a little easier ...
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Do the flex strips bend in a way a arch would need?
By looking at them it seems they would be better with wrapping them around a tube/column. A arch would seem to be trying to bend them in the wrong direction. But this is only my assumption and no real prove.
Rick -
Last year I just zip tied pixel strip onto a 1" PVC pipe that was 10ft long and didn't have any issues - easy as pie to make and take down. You can see it close up and during the day light in this "behind the scenes" video:
http://www.vimeo.com/18221711
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Quite a set up.....the arch looks nice and even.
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You can see it close up and during the day light in this "behind the scenes" video:
http://www.vimeo.com/18221711
David:
Thanks for pointing that out. Of course I'd watched that video a few months back, but that was before I started thinking about pixels for arches.
Would you think that a tighter radius could be achieved? My arches are need to be short and tight ...
Thanks again.
\dmc
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Generally on forums, you tend to hear about problems - not successes. So, not hearing about the strips probably means they just work - minimal issues. I've picked up 8 strips to play around with and they all seem to work fine. No big issues, so I'd second the opinion they are pretty close to full retail quality.
They bend into a very tight radius (~1 inch or less) in the 'bendy' direction. If you wanted them on an arch facing 'forward', that would be a little harder bend. You could cut the strip every 3 nodes and put in very short jumper wires - that would easily let you get shorter radii and you probably wouldn't notice the arch was made up of short lengths of straight nodes until the radius gets very short.
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If you wanted them on an arch facing 'forward', that would be a little harder bend. You could cut the strip every 3 nodes and put in very short jumper wires - that would easily let you get shorter radii and you probably wouldn't notice the arch was made up of short lengths of straight nodes until the radius gets very short.
Corey:
Thanks. I guess I'll just buy some to try it out.
\dmc
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I'll just put this out there - as an alternative to the flex strip for arches, you might consider using rectangles. With the wires in between bending radius of an arch is a no brainer. Also, fewer channels to program and way cheaper!
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you might consider using rectangles.
Hmmm. Thanks TNG!
\dmc
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I've also thought that the modules as a nice and cheaper alternative. The only difference is controlling modules as "groups of 3 pixels" vs. individual pixels on the strip. BUt the cost of the modules seems better, since 40 of them is $40 (40x3=120 pixels) ... and they use significantly less power for same number of 5050 LEDs.
I'm also happy with how the flex strips look pulled inside a 5/8 ID x 3/4 ID clear vinyl tubing ... but it costs around $37 for 100' of it (online) ... so it adds about $5 per strip, but does provide some better diffusion, wider angle viewing, additional weather and attachment protection and the ability to mount while providing more linear bending of the flex strip in the arch viewable orientation. (5050 LEDs facing toward street instead of up/or/down).
By attaching a pull line to the flex strip and pulling it thru the clear tubing, it should be easy to attach, but I probably wouldn't remove after that ... would hang it or carefully fold.
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The only difference is controlling modules as "groups of 3 pixels" vs. individual pixels on the strip. But the cost of the modules seems better, since 40 of them is $40 (40x3=120 pixels) ...
For something like an arch the 'grouping' doesn't matter much, and you probably wouldn't use 40 rectangles (or 2 sets of 20) . For example, if you had a 10ft section of pvc and made your arch - you probably want some space between the ground and the start of the string. So let's say that was 6" on either side - making the total length to be covered by rectangles 9ft or 108" Even if you cut teh ears off of the rectangles making eachrect. 3" long you'd only use 36 rect. end-to-end - max. In actual practice you probably have much less than the 36. Just a note that the 3 pixels in each node are NOT individually addressable but act as one set of RGB chans (3 chans).
The reduced number of channels really helps performance when programming. If you add four arches of 120 nodes (each node consuming 3 channels) in LSP right now - performance is horrible. I haven't tried it with Vixen, but I have with LSP 1.8. The high channel counts associated with these RGB devices really stresses todays programs. So I look for ways to reduce my channel count.
Just some random thoughts...
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Totally agree with your last comment.
I think it would be cool if the SS Utility could (*some day) allow for something between 'string mode' (1 RGB channel) and say a RGB channel per node (120 in the case of flex strip) ... call it SS group mode, where you enter the total node count and number of RGB groups you want ... and they must be equally divisible (so 120 and 12 are allowed, but 120 and 9 would not be). You might be able to tweak it using the null node capability?
It would be ideal if you could define say 10 groups of 12, and then the SS utility would program that string or strip to act like a 10 RGB NODE SS ... which controls the 120 nodes exactly as want, just as 10 groups of 12 (must be equally divisible). Then you sequence it as 10 RGB channels, which I agree is a lot easier.
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Yes, you have to offload the cycles to the hdw. to do the grouping. While it is true that you can create logical groups inside of LSP and program it that way - the program STILL has to process all those nodes.
RJ's recent demo of the ether dongle is truly interesting since it offloads the whole processing to the hdw.
he is ahead of the curve - yet again!
(What's that huge sucking sound ;D)
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The only difference is controlling modules as "groups of 3 pixels" vs. individual pixels on the strip.
I hadn't caught this before ... so three of the modules is three channels (R, G & B)? And then the next three modules are three channels?
I'd think this would work in an arch, though.
\dmc
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The only difference is controlling modules as "groups of 3 pixels" vs. individual pixels on the strip.
I hadn't caught this before ... so three of the modules is three channels (R, G & B)? And then the next three modules are three channels?
I'd think this would work in an arch, though.
\dmc
I think he is referring to that all three LEDs in single unit act as one, basically how CCRs are set up.
Not quite sure what you are referring to as to "tight" radius arches. They dont laterally bend all that much so I would say look at the rectangular units would work and the 3 chs as one I doubt will be an issue. Just look at CCR arches on youtube for plenty of examples of how it looks.
-JS
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3 5050 leds - aprox 4" is one independent module in the flex string, all 3 leds work together (3 channels) - so think of the rectangle ones butted end to end with no wire in the middle of them
Myk
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I think he is referring to that all three LEDs in single unit act as one
yes, thats what I meant ;)
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And to clarify the above post ... every single 5050 LED in a SS flex string is controllable (and is a RGB channel/3 channels) not groups of anything ... so for example,
the 120 node flex string (set up as 120 node string using SS utility) is setup as 360 channels of pixelnet, or 120 RGB channels in LSP. It would be 360 channels of pixelnet
in Vixen. And you can chase each 5050 LED node independently (if you want, but what a programming chore) ... but if you did this using the SS modules (rectangles say) ... your be having 1 RGB/3ch pixelnet per module ... and when you chase each RGB channel, the module units light up for each RGB channel and each module is a set of (3) 5050 LED(s) in the same module unit.
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ok, just so i get this right, in the flex version 3 leds per section, but each can be controlled indv as 3 nodes per section? but the rectangles are always controlled in the grp of 3 as a single node?
My flex should be here friday so now I am curious :)
Thanks
Myk
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I think if you take a look at my matrix test it may help you see that each node on the flex strip is individually controlled. And that Vixen has no problem sending 16,384 channels.
http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=5517.0 (http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=5517.0)
This test was done at 30% intensity so the camera could pick it up. I will normally run it at a higher brightness and the nodes blend together much better, but the camera just sees one big white spot.
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Yes, you have it right.
Keep in mind this information applies to smart strings and SS items from Ray only.
If you get into regular DMX controllers and modules ... it may differ ..
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I think he is referring to that all three LEDs in single unit act as one, basically how CCRs are set up.
Ah, so each rectangle is one channel.
Thanks.
\dmc
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Right, each module (using SS modules) is a single RGB channel (3 pixelnet channels) ... you mix them to form the color you want ... and that module (all 3 5050 LEDs on the module) changes color.
Depending on the sequencing software you use, they may support RGB channel (groups of 3 channels mixed together) or be shown as 3 channels in a row (vixen, currently). Software like LOR S2/S3 or LSP support RGB channels, which just groups them into groups of 3 for you, making life a little easier and cleaner.
Note: The real power, IMHO, is in using grouping of RGB channels, and then running chases (or other effects) on them ... whether your using 'channel groups' in LOR S3 (not released yet) or using virtual controllers, layers or other grouping mechanisms in LSP ... LSP 2.0 is also soon to be released and supports pixelnet, whereas LOR S3 probably doesn't.
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I would not count out SS on LOR3. I have it on good info you will be able to run the etherdongle on LOR.
Sent from my Charge by Tapatalk
RJ
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Y'all are confusing me and i think i know...
Square modules - function as one pixel per module
smart strings - eache node is one pixel
rigid strips - each 5050 is one pixel
I thought the flex strip was like the rigid strip and the rectangles were like the square modules.
RM
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rm357, that sounds right.