DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Smart String => Topic started by: Jugster on January 11, 2011,
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I am seriously thinking about joining the coop but money might be an issue. I was thinking of doing a megatree with 16 channels. Looking at the coop the total cost would be around $220 based on the possible amounts mentioned on the coop.
My biggest concern is the lights. Will the Smart String controllers need special lights? If so then how much are those per string (128 nodes).
Maybe I don't understand SS well enough to try this project since this is my first year. Maybe I should stick with the 4LEs I ordered and try SS next year.
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The projected cost of the Smart Strings is $.63 a node I believe. That would make 128 node strings $80.64.
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The smart string controllers work with smartstrings so yes, you will need special lights. The coop for those will come later. A mega-tree using smart strings can easily exceed $1000 in total cost and if this is your first year, that could be a heavy investment for 1 item. A 16 channel LE driven mega-tree my be the better way to go for your first attempt. The cost wil be much less and if later inthe year or a following year you dcide to go for it with a smart string tree, the LE and the lights from the existing mega-tree can easily be repurposed to do other things in your growing display.
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I would say half and half. This is my second year and the smart strings for me are awesome because of how I do my display; however in year 1 I would have never have understood that really to know. From a still learning and growing perspective I would really first think about where stuff is going in your display, what you are looking to do (effect, visual wise) and then map it out a bit.
First year did LE's and even SSRs and yep even a Freestyle. From that experience LE's are by far so much better in my display than all the rest for simplicity, troubleshooting, it is a lot more visually helpful when there are issues. Now from the display side of things what I found was and I'm basing this on a Halloween display that I did prior to the Christmas one because I was eager to jump in and get started seeing how things worked... From that perspective the LE's worked great; what needed thinking out was how I was using light sets. Sometimes I wanted to change from one color to another color in my display rather than running 1 set of lights I need two sets one of each color; two LE channels, etc. My pumpkin display has so many places that I only need like 10-50 lights of a specific color but need multiple colors to change the pumpkin faces; what seemed simple actually became a lot more complex because of the multitude of strings I was running to affect colors. Don't get me wrong it came out great and the LE's were true work horses but compare that to Smart Strings and for me in that situation it is awesome because now 1 small smart string of say 20 lights can replace 4 regular strings of 20 lights.. With SS I get basically whatever color I can think up; with the 4 regular strings I get 4 colors. I have so many uses for smaller sets that can be any color rather than multiples of sets of 1 color each to get the same effect; SS looks like it will be amazing for what I am doing.
Now like previously posted larger megatrees are going to be expensive in SS; so it really comes down to understanding your display. Your first year I think the LE's are a great hands on start and great learning experience. After the first year it will give you so many more ideas and you'll have a much better understanding of what works best and what equipment fits that need the best. So I would say either way you go you're in good shape. Start with LE and then move up to SS if what you are doing works well with such and is cost effective for your display.
-Mike
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I have watched RJs video on the nodes and understand the concept of the different types i dont understand what he means by 50/50 nodes?
thanks
Gordon
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Hi Gordon,
The 5050 simply refers to the type of LED. It is a LED that is 50mm x 50mm surface mount and generally offers a higher brightness compared to other LED's.
-Curt
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I have watched RJs video on the nodes and understand the concept of the different types i dont understand what he means by 50/50 nodes?
thanks
Gordon
The 5050 that RJ talks about is just the name given to a particular type of LED. These LEDs are surface mounted LEDs that have a dimension of 5.0x5.0mm, thus the name 5050. These types of LEDS are mainly seen in the RGB strip and modules
This link shows you what a 5050 led is
http://www.aliexpress.com/fm-store/701799/209888996-380723853/5050-SMD-LED-green-color.html