RGB Strips

[Troy Mann]

ok, so I may be a little slow. Or it may be that I am confessed due to reading so many forums. So please tell me if I am correct with my conclusion:

If I purchase an intelligent RGB strip like the one on this site http://www.satisled.com/intelligent-rgb-led-strip-light-smd-5050-30led-per-meter-150led-5mreel_p426.html (and it really does not matter if its from LOR or CDI, just as long as its and intelligent RGB strip)

I would need to connect the RGB strip to a LOR CMB-16D-QC and then power the CMB-16D-QC to a 12v power source.


(This part I have not figured out so its a guess)
I would connect the black cord of the RGB strip to channel 1 as a constant power source (so in the LOR software this channel would be setup to be on at all times). I connect the red cord to channel 2, the green cord to channel 3 and the blue cord to channel 4. Am I correct?

If I am correct can 4 RGB strips be connected to the LOR CMB-16D-QC on the single 12v power source? Or would I have to add other power sources?

Is this the easiest or cheapest way to go about doing this?

[bretk]

Troy Mann wrote:

ok, so I may be a little slow. Or it may be that I am confessed due to reading so many forums. So please tell me if I am correct with my conclusion:

If I purchase an intelligent RGB strip like the one on this site http://www.satisled.com/intelligent-rgb-led-strip-light-smd-5050-30led-per-meter-150led-5mreel_p426.html (and it really does not matter if its from LOR or CDI, just as long as its and intelligent RGB strip)

I would need to connect the RGB strip to a LOR CMB-16D-QC and then power the CMB-16D-QC to a 12v power source.

So far so good.

(This part I have not figured out so its a guess)
I would connect the black cord of the RGB strip to channel 1 as a constant power source (so in the LOR software this channel would be setup to be on at all times). I connect the red cord to channel 2, the green cord to channel 3 and the blue cord to channel 4. Am I correct?



If I am correct can 4 RGB strips be connected to the LOR CMB-16D-QC on the single 12v power source? Or would I have to add other power sources?

Is this the easiest or cheapest way to go about doing this?

You would connect the anode + to the common anode on the board, then as it is a semi intellegent (read 3 interlaced or combined strips, you would use 9 channels of the dc controller and have 7 left.

[Steven]

Troy Mann wrote:

If I purchase an intelligent RGB strip like the one on this site http://www.satisled.com/intelligent-rgb-led-strip-light-smd-5050-30led-per-meter-150led-5mreel_p426.html

Calling that strip "intelligent" is mainly a marketing ploy. If you look carefully at the larger image, you will see in between the splice points is 3 5050 RGB LEDs and 3 resistors. There are no other semiconductors in the strip itself and thus no "intelligence."

The "intelligent" part is in the design, as they made a dumb RGB LED ribbon into a chasing ribbon by effectively having 3 ribbons in one package.

Electrically, this ribbon has a 10-pin connector. Pin 1 is the common anode (positive) lead. As I understand, pins 2, 3, and 4 are the red, green, blue cathode (negative) for the 1st of 3 chasing segments.

You could hook this up to a 12-volt battery. If you put 9 switches on the cathode leads, you could run your own manually operated light show. (But you would only be able to do 7 colors, and you'd have to have really fast fingers! )

I would need to connect the RGB strip to a LOR CMB-16D-QC and then power the CMB-16D-QC to a 12v power source.

Correct.

(This part I have not figured out so its a guess)

Nice try.

I would connect the black cord of the RGB strip to channel 1 as a constant power source (so in the LOR software this channel would be setup to be on at all times).

In the strip shown in your link, you would connect pin 1 to a positive pin (which goes to the positive of the power supply). In a standard (3-channel) RGB strip, this would be the black or white wire.

I connect the red cord to channel 2, the green cord to channel 3 and the blue cord to channel 4. Am I correct?

In a standard RGB strip, you would typically connect red to the negative of channel 1, green to channel 2 (-), and red to channel 3 (all negative).

In the 9-channel strip in the link above, you would connect the 2nd chasing segment to channels 4, 5, 6, and the 3rd chasing segment to channels 7, 8, 9 (all to the negative pins of those channels).

If I am correct can 4 RGB strips be connected to the LOR CMB-16D-QC on the single 12v power source? Or would I have to add other power sources?

In my RGB spiral tree this year, I connected 4 RGB strips to each CMB-16D, with 8 strips total, two CMB-16D controllers, all driven with a single 12v power supply.

Is this the easiest or cheapest way to go about doing this?

The easiest way is to buy one (or more) CCR. They way you describe is the 2nd easiest way to do it. Other posts in this thread describe potentially cheaper ways of doing it.

[bretk]

Steven,

Thanks! I have not yet gotten one od these 10 pin strips so didn't know the pin locations .

Bret

[Troy Mann]

Oh shoot, so the strip lights I am looking at say they are intelligent, but in fact they are not the same as the CCR or the ones Paul is selling from CDI. Damn, I thought I was on to something. So what about the strip light people have mentioned about the Ray sells?

I just have a hard time spending $250 for one strand of lights. For that price they better install and sequence them self.

[Troy Mann]

Steve "Calling that strip "intelligent" is mainly a marketing ploy. If you look carefully at the larger image, you will see in between the splice points is 3 5050 RGB LEDs and 3 resistors. There are no other semiconductors in the strip itself and thus no "intelligence."

The strips on Pauls site look exactly the same with 3 leds and 3 resistors so whats the difference?

[WilliamS]

Do you know something about 1.31 release that we dont.

[Ed Slonka Jr]

Bret and Bill,

Thanks for the conversation. Learning quite a bit. But I have a question about the
one off issue. I have some of those white controllers and have programmed the
channel numbers. Where does the one off issue come into play?

Thanks, Ed

[WilliamS]

Ed Slonka Jr wrote:

Bret and Bill,

Thanks for the conversation. Learning quite a bit. But I have a question about the
one off issue. I have some of those white controllers and have programmed the
channel numbers. Where does the one off issue come into play?

Thanks, Ed

If Im seeing everything Im reading so far, when you set the channel Ill say 100 for example, 101 is what it sets. So if its a 3 channel and you start the string at 100, the channels in the sequencer will be 101 (red) 102 (green) 103 (blue)

[Guest wbottomley]

Ed Slonka Jr wrote:

Bret and Bill,

Thanks for the conversation. Learning quite a bit. But I have a question about the
one off issue. I have some of those white controllers and have programmed the
channel numbers. Where does the one off issue come into play?

Thanks, Ed

Ed... it's an issue with the DMX device itself in conjunction with the DMX output.. It's one LOR does not support and right now it remains as is.

[Troy Mann]

Is this an intelligent RGB strip?
http://www.adafruit.com/products/306

Would it act like the cosmic ribbon?

[Steven]

Troy Mann wrote:

Is this an intelligent RGB strip?
http://www.adafruit.com/products/306

Yes, there is no doubt that is intelligent.

Would it act like the cosmic ribbon?

Not completely. Here are the differences:

• The CCR uses 12-volt power, and these ribbons use 5-volt.
• The CCR is 3 LEDs per pixel (due to the 12-volt supply), but these use a separate LED for each pixel. This means each pixel is individually addressable!
• That page says 32 LEDs per meter, and 5-meter strips. Therefore, each strip has 160 pixels (vs 50 for a CCR).
• A CCR includes a controller, which gives you all the LOR capabilities, including twinkle, shimmer, dazzle, fill, chase. The Adafruit ribbons do not include a controller, and I can't find where they sell a ready-built one. It's obviously a DIY project.
  

[Guest wbottomley]

Steven... yes it's a DIY. A person would have to find a controller that talks to this type of chip: LPD8806.

[Troy Mann]

Could you hard wire it to the CMB-16D and run the superstar program for LOR to sequence it?

[Guest wbottomley]

Only if It's a non-IC ribbon. IC ribbons require another way.

[Ken Benedict]

No.

Like wbottomley and steven say, there's no ready made controller for it yet. It's a do-it-yourself electronics project.

[johnson8ryley]

Alright well, after reading 5 pages of RGB talk, I'm learning lots but I'm still fuzzy about some stuff.

1) What is this talk I hear about of anode + and - and common anode?

2) If I were to find a smart strip, what would I connect it to, to make it work with LOR. I understand that if you want a dumb strip, you would buy http://store.lightorama.com/cmdedcca2.html and hook them up but are there any dumb strips that use under 9 channels? I may in the future replace my roof lights with dumb strips but don't want to have to buy 3 DC Boards

3) Could someone put together a cost effective smart strip set for me? I think everyone here is just looking for a cheap alternative to the CCR's. Could someone find me a smart strip with power supply and converter? I'm very new to this but am open minded about RGB's.

4) Also, if i come across a smart strip, would it have the same capabilities of a CCR? I know someone else posted above asking the same thing but I'm looking at replacing my arches with some RGB's and just need something that will chase and maybe some color effects.

THANKS

-sorry for the long post;)

[Ed Slonka Jr]

Thanks Bill!

The bulb in my head is getting brighter!

[Guest wbottomley]

johnson8ryley wrote:

Alright well, after reading 5 pages of RGB talk, I'm learning lots but I'm still fuzzy about some stuff.

1) What is this talk I hear about of anode + and - and common anode?

2) If I were to find a smart strip, what would I connect it to, to make it work with LOR. I understand that if you want a dumb strip, you would buy http://store.lightorama.com/cmdedcca2.html and hook them up but are there any dumb strips that use under 9 channels? I may in the future replace my roof lights with dumb strips but don't want to have to buy 3 DC Boards

3) Could someone put together a cost effective smart strip set for me? I think everyone here is just looking for a cheap alternative to the CCR's. Could someone find me a smart strip with power supply and converter? I'm very new to this but am open minded about RGB's.

4) Also, if i come across a smart strip, would it have the same capabilities of a CCR? I know someone else posted above asking the same thing but I'm looking at replacing my arches with some RGB's and just need something that will chase and maybe some color effects.

THANKS

-sorry for the long post;)

Here ( http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php ) you can learn more about pixels. I'm not retyping everything covered in the Aussie Forums. Sorry.

[johnson8ryley]

Thanks. I'll check into it. By the way, would it hard to program the semi intellegient strips or would it be as easy as the CCR's? ( even though they aren't that easy to program)