MattJ Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 (edited) Hi Folks I've seen a display this year that, scaled down, I think would work well for me. I have a tall ~25' wall in front of a driveway that I think I can cover with a display like the one in the picture below. They have literally hung strings of 6" spaced pixels spaced 1 foot apart. They are only attached at the top and while they moved in the wind, they were heavy enough not to go far. Here's the mystery part (at least for me) these were not any of the 3 types of LOR Cosmic color devices (bulbs, bullets or square). They certainly are not ribbon. They were these super cool "in line" bulbs. The best way I can describe them is the ribbon cable goes into the top of each pixel and out the bottom. This meant that the center of pixel was clear all round and it did not matter if the sting twisted or swayed... the light from the pixel looked the same. If I can get back over there before the end of the season I'll try to get a better picture of the pixel close up but for now I was wondering if anyone knows what I'm talking about or how to create this effect. Thanks in advance. Cheers MattJ Edited December 30, 2019 by MattJ Spelling & Grammar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. P Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 You must be talking about these type of pixels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 Thanks @Mr. P - They are not the ones but they would work! The ones on the building were longer and thinner, more like an oversized Mike & Ike candy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 I think if I were to try that. I would use standard square pixels and Boscoyo pixel strips to keep them even. If you needed a 6 inch spacing you can get custom wire lengths from Ray. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ Posted December 30, 2019 Author Share Posted December 30, 2019 3 hours ago, PhilMassey said: I think if I were to try that. I would use standard square pixels and Boscoyo pixel strips to keep them even. If you needed a 6 inch spacing you can get custom wire lengths from Ray. Oh my gosh! How did I not know about this site!! Thanks @PhilMassey - Forgive the dumb question, could you explain a little more who Ray is and how I get custom wire lengths? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilMassey Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 Groundhog day is early............. Ray WU, no special time of year. Just avoid Chinese New year. They shut down for most of Feb. Once you know what you want, email him and ask for a quote with consolidated shipping. Ray@rita-light.com He can do custom spacing and connectors too if you want All the pixels come from China, Why pay a middle man is my attitude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k6ccc Posted December 30, 2019 Share Posted December 30, 2019 1 hour ago, MattJ said: Forgive the dumb question, could you explain a little more who Ray is and how I get custom wire lengths? Ray Wu is the contact person for a lighting manufacturer / vendor in China. Ray has gotten to understand what us lighting people need and deals with us quite well. His store is part of Alibaba (the Chinese version of Amazon). He can do almost anything custom when requested - usually at little or generally no additional cost. One thing to note. The Alibaba ordering system bases shipping cost as if every item was shipped separately. When you figure out what you want, make a list (I include links) with quantities and shipping destination. Send Ray the list and request a quotation. He will combine shipping and save quite a bit on shipping - and maybe on the items you are buying also. For example, I received an order from Ray this morning. I paid $95.00 in shipping. Had I allowed Alibaba to calculate shipping on each item, it would have been just under $950 for shipping. Ray also knocked off a buck on each of 9 of the items - the other 60 were already an incredible promotional price. BTW, I placed the order on 23 December, it shipped on 28 December, and I received it this morning on 30 December - not bad! Ray's store is: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/701799 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ Posted December 31, 2019 Author Share Posted December 31, 2019 7 hours ago, PhilMassey said: Groundhog day is early............. So I'm guessing that about this time of year some rookie who's only every bought the full plug-n-show setups from the LOR store comes on the forum and the penny finally drops that if you build your controllers and buy pixels from Ray.... you can do a whole bunch more for the same $$$?? Well @PhilMassey and @k6ccc between the two of you, you have completely opened my eyes and I am this year's rookie! 😁 I have a whole host of (dumb!) questions. Can I go full on Ned Ryerson on you both.... or anyone else who may be willing to answer? I have to build my own controller. If I started with the Pixie4... How do I decide between 12v or 5v? Is 12v better? I need a power supply. Do I just go grab one of Amazon like this? Or is there a Ray equivalent for power supplies? I need a case. Same question... is there somewhere everyone goes to get these too? Then I need Pixels... So lets say I want bullets and I've decided (from above) that 12v is better.... So I go for these: 18AWG wire 100pcs/string DC12V 12mm WS2811 addressable RGB led smart pixel node,with all BLACK wire,IP68 rated They say they are WS2811 (ICs in the bullets?) so that means they will work on the end of a Pixie4, right? If I buy pixels from LOR they come with end connectors and a dangle for the controller... on Ray's store they list ray wu, paul zhang, xconnect or DIY connectors. Is the LOR 12V 3 pin connector the same as the Ray Wu connector? If I buy 2 strings of 50 bullets (instead of the 100) and connect two of them together, will they work the same as 1 string of 100 pixels or will the fist pixel on each string of 50 be addressed as pixel 01? Bigger picture, if I suddenly add a bunch of pixels... I really need motion effects generator right? And for motion effects generator to be able to add into a sequence, I need the Pro licence? How many pixels can I control on a single 500k LOR network, before I have to add a second network? 1000? 1200? (3000 - 3600 channels?) I'm sure there are more but at this point I'll not show any more rookie-ness. BING!!! This stuff is so cool - Thank you both! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ Posted December 31, 2019 Author Share Posted December 31, 2019 I realize that the post above may be against the spirit of the forum rules. I was not intending to promote the services or products of a vendor other than LOR. I can't work out how to delete it but I will go research anything non-LOR outside of these forums and have restated my questions in a way that is in line with the forum guidelines. If an admin reads this, my apologies, please feel free to delete the post above. I have a whole host of (dumb!) questions. For anyone who may be willing to answer? I have to build my own controller. If I started with the Pixie4... How do I decide between 12v or 5v? Is 12v better? If I want to test this pixie4 I build with the strings of CCBs that I got with my CCD-II plug & show package where can I buy the 12V 3 pin dangles for the controller. I can't see them in the store? If I buy 2 strings of 50 bullets (instead of the 100) and connect two of them together, will they work the same as 1 string of 100 pixels or will the fist pixel on each string of 50 be addressed as pixel 01? Bigger picture, if I suddenly add a bunch of pixels...I really need motion effects generator right? And for motion effects generator to be able to add into a sequence, I need the Pro licence? How many pixels can I control on a single 500k LOR network, before I have to add a second network? 1000? 1200? (3000 - 3600 channels?) I'm sure there are more but at this point I'll not show any more rookie-ness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 ALL pixels ON A SINGLE (Pixie) controller must use the same chipset (eg WS2811) and color order (there is only setting per board) 3) They are 1 string, pixels are daisy chained (the data), so the next would be node 51 (channel 151,152,153). But if you are going to do that. 12Volts or you need to power inject if 5V (too much voltage drop) You really need to read some of the answers to your previous posts. Just because you don't appear to like those (that all agree)... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MattJ Posted December 31, 2019 Author Share Posted December 31, 2019 14 minutes ago, TheDucks said: You really need to read some of the answers to your previous posts. Just because you don't appear to like those (that all agree)... Thanks @TheDucks - Appreciate the clarification. I didn't mean to come over as not liking any of the answers. Apologies to any of you who responded if I came across that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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