My idea is to build several large "pakages" in the front yard out of which a Grinch will rise with one of those guns to shoot Christmas lights (like in the movie) and have the gun follow my roof line and "shoot" the lights on the roof line. One bang of the gun, one node on white till the roof outline is done. My wife is already rolling her eyes at me..... ;)
My idea is to build several large "pakages" in the front yard out of which a Grinch will rise with one of those guns to shoot Christmas lights (like in the movie) and have the gun follow my roof line and "shoot" the lights on the roof line. One bang of the gun, one node on white till the roof outline is done. My wife is already rolling her eyes at me..... ;)
Looking at replacing existing megatree, but have some questions on the best way to do it. Tree is 12' running 24ch, 8ea of RWB, 70ct string of LED running up and back down the tree for a channel. That's 1680 LEDS on 48 35ct strings around the tree. Thinking of replacing that with 840 nodes but not sure about how to split them up. Will it be easier programming with 24 SSC's and 24 35 node strings or I could use 12 SSC and 12 70 node strings, but I am worried that nodes 1-35 going up the tree and then 36-70 going down could turn into a nightmare for programming. Anyone got any thoughts on megatree layout using smart strings.
thanks
Bob
Do these then run off the lynx express (current coop) or? Wondering what all someone would need to buy to bring the magic?
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.
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.
Oh, and since I'll be purchasing superstrings, you can be sure that pixelnet support will be added to xLights.
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 http://vimeo.com/18595517
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 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
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 http://vimeo.com/18595517
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?
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
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
Gentlement, we use slip rings for data transport (RS-485) between our Omron PLC's mounted on a turret that spins a full 360 deg. on our splicers. We load 6000lb rolls of paper into our printing presses and rely on the slip rings to transport encoder positions- encoded brake signals- prox pulses (rpm) and other assorted data. Some of the gear is over 30 years old and we only have to clean the rings and brushes annualy.
Awesome idea- and great sketch work!