What is a Lynx Smart String?

[richardb]

I read originally that this would be a one time Co-op; then they would be available from 3rd party distributor.
Did I imagine this?  I can't seem to find it again...

My concerns were that if we miss the initial Co-op at the around $.63 per node rate, what could we expect the node prices to change to in the future?
Is the 3rd party a "for profit" organization?  Or something we order from a Chinese distributor for only a slightly elevated price?

the .63 per node is regular price. The coop will hopefully save us some shipping cost from China.

I think the one coop thought is from the amount of time this will take and the new rules from the government

or I could be wrong. Wont be the first or last time 


Cheers

Rick R.

Good deal...
Then we are keeping the product "co-op able" for the foreseeable future...

[tthompson]

I'll be up for 2000 nodes.

[joshuashu]

Is there any possible way this could be paid for In Feb? you know tax time and all?

[RJ]

Is there any possible way this could be paid for In Feb? you know tax time and all?

No I am afraid the coop will close the mid of January and payment will be needed with in a week of closing it.

RJ

[batdive]

Hey RJ Im trying to get you a better estimate for what I need in regards to numbers.  Is there any chance the "other" products are going to come out for this upcoming coop or will this one just be for the current nodes you have displayed.

This will help as I am trying to plan next year and what I need in regards to SS's or LE's and that kind of depends on the above.

Thanks in advance.

-JS

[Trepidati0n]

RJ,

Do you have any recommendation on "viewing angle" for these devices?  Right now they appear to be pretty omindirection (good for mega tree), but is there any angle which provides the "most" light?  The reason i'm asking is i'm trying to figure out how to mount these to our house.

Do you have any gut feel how on much pressure the insulation can take.  If I put a staple over the top, I want to know what I kind I need and how careful I need to be.

Have you though about a splicing connector/cable.  Reason I ask this is window are often a few feet apart, but it odes not make sense to put a controller on each window when one will do.  I figured a bit of wire at a reasonable guage would help with this.  Maybe one idea is to make a little PCB with a RJ45 on side and the 4 wires (Through-hole) on the other. A bit of silicone and shrinkwrap might make it fairly safe from the elements, but also easily to take apart when the world thaws.

Thanks for your work so far.  It is nice to finally have time again.

[RJ]

Please be patient guys there is a lot happen that you do not see. I will be posting a bunch of information very soon. I know every one is excited as I am and has a million questions. I just finished testing the additional items that will be on the coop and I am waiting on the proto of the production hub to arrive so I can build it and test the DMX out port, and the repeater section.

I added the fuse for each SS output that I wanted as well as beefed up the board to make sure it could handle 16 full strings with ease.  

I built a new dongle to work with since both of mine are tied up in the show.

Once I put all the info out before the coop starts take a day to read it all and take it in. Give yourself a day and when you have a question read and watch it again before you post. There will be some video and lots of text explaining all I know about them for you. If the information is not there then post and ask.

The coop will run about three weeks so you will have time there is no rush to order in the first days.

Currently I have flexible ribbon like a CCR that runs off of a SSC and cost exactly 1/3 what the CCR cost.

1 meter long Ridge LED strips that can be daisy chained off a SSC up to 4 of them.

RGB little modules both with 5050 and standard leds.

I am working right now on lining up the Cat5 patch cables very cheap as well as rolls of the wire used to make the node lights so you can modify them if you wish.

I am also trying to line up a great deal for a power supply to power the SSC's  with

We will offer the Dongle pcbs on the coop since some will need extras.

The Hub and SSC themself's of course as kits and pcbs only.

After I post all this info I will answer questions for you.

RJ

[batdive]

I know every one is excited as I am
RJ

 
 
 
 

Enough said 

-JS

PS: Thanks RJ that answered my question good enough to plan out for the LE Co-Op

[JerryPlak]

 
 

[Dave H]

I may have missed this while going through the thread, so I apologize if it has been addressed previously.

When daisy chaining two or more hub boards, is there a specific connector and cable or do we utilize one of the (16) ports on the first board to connect to the others down line ??

[rrowan]

I may have missed this while going through the thread, so I apologize if it has been addressed previously.

When daisy chaining two or more hub boards, is there a specific connector and cable or do we utilize one of the (16) ports on the first board to connect to the others down line ??

Hi Dave,

I believe there are two rj-45 jacks marked pixelnet in and pixelnet out. Normally RJ's boards have two jacks normally called DMX in and DMX out. So it won't subtract from the 16 connectors for the SSC on each hub.

Cheers

Rick R.

[Dave H]

YOU ARE CORRECT!!!
Thanks Rick

Just watched the first video (again) and now have a better grasp of the concept of the system and could see the input / output ports. 

What is still beyond me is the programing aspect.  I see where you can program the string to start at pixel one or the last one on the string.  What I am contemplating is folding back a string in order to get greater density of the lights.  So based on a 24 ft string on a 12 ft tree can the opposing pixels be programmed to mirror each other, such as:

1 - 72
2 - 71
3 - 70
4 - 69
and so on

[rrowan]

Oh My - I was correct - That Never happens 

For each SSC in node mode you control what the light is doing. So each node (light) has its own three channels.  Mirroring is as easy as copying the right channels.

So light 1 = Channels 1,2,3
Light 2 = Channels 3,4,5
etc

In string mode all of the lights work off of the same 3 channels. So if you double the number of strings of ssc only 12' of lights then you can just program the 2 SSC with the same start address, and they would mirror each other.


Hope that is clearer than mud

Cheers

Rick R.

So you example doesn't work because each on is 3 channels

[Dave H]

Rick
Not nice to confuse me so close the magic day!!!

I don't see a problem in string mode since the entire string will respond as one complete unit.  Not much different than what I do now, just with less copper wire.

So, if I expand on the individual pixel mode, based on the 24 ft string folded in half, it would be viewed as

Pixel    Channels      Pixel       Channels
  1         1,2,3             72          216,215,214
  2         4,5,6             71          213,212,211
  3         7,8,9             70          210,209,208
  4         10,11,12       69          207,206,205


so if for conversation sake, the first number of the pixel is red and I want red to come on from the bottom to the top, it would be


1 & 214
4 & 211
7 & 208...and so on?

Am I in the ball park with this ??

[rrowan]

Looks good to me

Of course I am blind in one eye and the good eye was closed

Kidding

SS is fun - lots of control and lots of programming "fun"

Cheers

Rick R.