Anyone else trying out the new Firefly units?

[thebaronn]

GaryMartin wrote:

thebaronn wrote:

what are your thoughts???



http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=18711&forum_id=25

Galaxia is very cool looking to be sure, but it *is* a canned system. IE, you feed it videos and have a single control channel to tell it when to play them back. You don't get much control for that thousand dollar system IMHO. At the very least they should have DMX control to let you pick *which* video to fire and when. $800 controller, $200 color strings, man. I spend a lot of money on my display now, that could get out of hand real quick. ;)I

I agree. I Thought you would be able to pick and choose, not just start and stop an endless loop?????

Seriously.

[GaryMartin]

thebaronn wrote:

GaryMartin wrote:

thebaronn wrote:

what are your thoughts???



http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=18711&forum_id=25

Galaxia is very cool looking to be sure, but it *is* a canned system. IE, you feed it videos and have a single control channel to tell it when to play them back. You don't get much control for that thousand dollar system IMHO. At the very least they should have DMX control to let you pick *which* video to fire and when. $800 controller, $200 color strings, man. I spend a lot of money on my display now, that could get out of hand real quick. ;)I

I agree. I Thought you would be able to pick and choose, not just start and stop an endless loop?????

Seriously.

Yeah, might as well put video on film, then plug the film projector into a LOR circuit.

[thebaronn]

So, Firefly runs off a 12V adapter. Would I correct in assuming I could actually use 2 6V lantern batteries and power this thing?? I was thinking that Firefly and an ELL would make a wicked halloween costume addition.

Gotta try and trump last years Halloween show! I can see it now, soon I will be planning shows years in advance!

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

So, Firefly runs off a 12V adapter. Would I correct in assuming I could actually use 2 6V lantern batteries and power this thing?? I was thinking that Firefly and an ELL would make a wicked halloween costume addition.

Gotta try and trump last years Halloween show! I can see it now, soon I will be planning shows years in advance!

Cool idea!!


I know there was someone that tried powering theirs with a 12v car battery and it worked. So 2 six volts wired in series should work.

I wonder how a small 12v power wheels battery would do, or something like this. I know they have these booster packs at walmart cheaper.

Not sure which route would last longer or be lighter to strap on.

[Dr. Jones]

I would think an alarm battery would be the ticket - light and have a decent AH rating

[GaryMartin]

thebaronn wrote:

So, Firefly runs off a 12V adapter. Would I correct in assuming I could actually use 2 6V lantern batteries and power this thing?? I was thinking that Firefly and an ELL would make a wicked halloween costume addition.

Gotta try and trump last years Halloween show! I can see it now, soon I will be planning shows years in advance!

Yes, 12v, 200 watt consumption. So just plan for a 200 watt load and use enough battery for it.

Yer gonna clank if you add too much stuff to the Halloween outfit.

[tboerjan]

Aren't you then going to have to carry a laptop to run your sequences?

Also, has anyone thought or volunteered yet to do a "how to" for D-Light FF's using LOR software. Darryl is asking for volunteers on their board.

[GaryMartin]

Naw, he's using a WiFi extender to run the controllers in his Halloween outfit.

I will probably put together some Firefly how to's. I'm in the middle of making a tree topper out of a Firefly string and I'm documenting that.

tboerjan wrote:

Aren't you then going to have to carry a laptop to run your sequences?

Also, has anyone thought or volunteered yet to do a "how to" for D-Light FF's using LOR software. Darryl is asking for volunteers on their board.

[thebaronn]

tboerjan wrote:

Aren't you then going to have to carry a laptop to run your sequences?

Also, has anyone thought or volunteered yet to do a "how to" for D-Light FF's using LOR software. Darryl is asking for volunteers on their board.

Here is an example of me going wireless:

Actually came out a lot better than I could have hoped for, the only tough part is negotiating all the wires and extention cords all over the yard!

My gardener was happy, he didnt have to mow the front yard from early Oct to mid Jan!!!

[tboerjan]

That was hilarious, but must've scared the crap out of ordinary people and especially kids!!! Are you planning on carrying 110/batteries, and a CAT 5 cable with with you?

Gary: saw your plans and "STAR" on the d-light board and left comment: looks great!

From what I've seen of people in this thread's work, you would all be good candidates for contributions. Paul and I have corresponded and collaborated alittle already to try and set some kind of standard's up in the layout. And each of us independantly went with Unit One: red channels 1-16, blue 1-16, and green 1-16 as opposed to red,blue,green ch 1; red,blue,green ch 2; etc.

I believe that this is a start, so that if we do exchange ideas, seqs. etc. we're all on the same page and make it easier for ourselves and others to follow. I do believe this hardware has potential, once the bugs and "water" is worked out.

If anyone else has any ideas, please chime in.

[thebaronn]

tboerjan wrote:

That was hilarious, but must've scared the crap out of ordinary people and especially kids!!! Are you planning on carrying 110/batteries, and a CAT 5 cable with with you?

Gary: saw your plans and "STAR" on the d-light board and left comment: looks great!

From what I've seen of people in this thread's work, you would all be good candidates for contributions. Paul and I have corresponded and collaborated alittle already to try and set some kind of standard's up in the layout. And each of us independantly went with Unit One: red channels 1-16, blue 1-16, and green 1-16 as opposed to red,blue,green ch 1; red,blue,green ch 2; etc.

I believe that this is a start, so that if we do exchange ideas, seqs. etc. we're all on the same page and make it easier for ourselves and others to follow. I do believe this hardware has potential, once the bugs and "water" is worked out.

If anyone else has any ideas, please chime in.

So I am working on a video and explanation of what I did.

The costume consists of 30, 20ct Battery LEDs that I chopped off the battery packs and wired them in to the LOR DC Board.
The whole crazy story is located here: http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/forum83/17411.html

I have big plans for halloween!!! HUGE!

[thebaronn]

tboerjan wrote:

That was hilarious, but must've scared the crap out of ordinary people and especially kids!!! Are you planning on carrying 110/batteries, and a CAT 5 cable with with you?

Gary: saw your plans and "STAR" on the d-light board and left comment: looks great!

From what I've seen of people in this thread's work, you would all be good candidates for contributions. Paul and I have corresponded and collaborated alittle already to try and set some kind of standard's up in the layout. And each of us independantly went with Unit One: red channels 1-16, blue 1-16, and green 1-16 as opposed to red,blue,green ch 1; red,blue,green ch 2; etc.

I believe that this is a start, so that if we do exchange ideas, seqs. etc. we're all on the same page and make it easier for ourselves and others to follow. I do believe this hardware has potential, once the bugs and "water" is worked out.

If anyone else has any ideas, please chime in.

How kind of you, but im just an idea man. Then I scurry around trying to make them happen (thats y i have so many posts, always learning). And sometimes my ideas meet with the hard facts of reality and next to impossibility! Im trying to figure out how im going to do my halloween display!

[GaryMartin]

tboerjan wrote:

Gary: saw your plans and "STAR" on the d-light board and left comment: looks great!

From what I've seen of people in this thread's work, you would all be good candidates for contributions. Paul and I have corresponded and collaborated alittle already to try and set some kind of standard's up in the layout. And each of us independantly went with Unit One: red channels 1-16, blue 1-16, and green 1-16 as opposed to red,blue,green ch 1; red,blue,green ch 2; etc.

I believe that this is a start, so that if we do exchange ideas, seqs. etc. we're all on the same page and make it easier for ourselves and others to follow. I do believe this hardware has potential, once the bugs and "water" is worked out.

If anyone else has any ideas, please chime in.

Oh yeah, I agree completely there. I am using S2 (which doesn't yet have an RGB mode like Aurora, *hint* *hint*, *nudge* *nudge* and I also setup my Fireflies as a 16 channel controller of red, then one of green, then one of blue.

If LOR would add the RGB feature, it would make programming these things SO much easier. (or any RGB LED fixture, DMX stuff included)

What Aurora is doing with it is to combine the three legacy mode controller channels into a single channel in the editor. You see one channel. You set the color value for it from an RGB picker, you can do color fades, etc. Behind the scenes the software is sending three seperate packets out, one for each physical channel to make it happen.

I still vastly prefer sequencing in LOR though, so I will patiently wait for such features to make it there.

[Paul Roberson]

GaryMartin wrote:

SNIP

I still vastly prefer sequencing in LOR though, so I will patiently wait for such features to make it there.

I agree! It is my understanding that it is being worked on.

[thebaronn]

hope they keep an either or though, I guarantee some of my color ramps would be a PITA to each color individually..........or maybe not, who knows

[Paul Roberson]

If it is an either or it may just be a one time decision. In other words you may not be able to use both a 3 controller set up and a "color picker" in the same setup.

I don't claim to be smart enough to know how it will actually function though.

[thebaronn]

just read your d-light post and the post from that jonathan dude.......looking like I will not have firefly for an Easter display........

is it "a Easter" or "an Easter" I know the an to vowel rule, but does it change when its a proper noun or some BS like that?

BTW, you are awake entirely too early and I am now going to sleep, good night!

I am waiting for the bad news that d-light goes belly up from this catastrophe and we are all stuck with flickering pixels FOREVER!!!!! (what a nightmare)

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

just read your d-light post and the post from that jonathan dude.......looking like I will not have firefly for an Easter display........

is it "a Easter" or "an Easter" I know the an to vowel rule, but does it change when its a proper noun or some BS like that?

BTW, you are awake entirely too early and I am now going to sleep, good night!

I am waiting for the bad news that d-light goes belly up from this catastrophe and we are all stuck with flickering pixels FOREVER!!!!! (what a nightmare)

Well, my V3 (newest) pixel string is performing flawlessly. I have 4 FF strings running every evening. I have had one of the older strings start flickering, but not the V3.

According to Jonathan's post it does seem like whatever factory is making these if having major problems getting them right. I wonder if FF pixel strings are coming from the same 08 CDI factory:shock:

I was defiantly not a English major or minor as far as that goes. I am sure if Chuck sees it he will set you straight.

Its not that early here. Remember I am ALWAYS two hours ahead of you. LOL I know you are doing your best though.

[thebaronn]

Paul Roberson wrote:

thebaronn wrote:

just read your d-light post and the post from that jonathan dude.......looking like I will not have firefly for an Easter display........

is it "a Easter" or "an Easter" I know the an to vowel rule, but does it change when its a proper noun or some BS like that?

BTW, you are awake entirely too early and I am now going to sleep, good night!

I am waiting for the bad news that d-light goes belly up from this catastrophe and we are all stuck with flickering pixels FOREVER!!!!! (what a nightmare)

Well, my V3 (newest) pixel string is performing flawlessly. I have 4 FF strings running every evening. I have had one of the older strings start flickering, but not the V3.

According to Jonathan's post it does seem like whatever factory is making these if having major problems getting them right. I wonder if FF pixel strings are coming from the same 08 CDI factory:shock:

I was defiantly not a English major or minor as far as that goes. I am sure if Chuck sees it he will set you straight.

Its not that early here. Remember I am ALWAYS two hours ahead of you. LOL I know you are doing your best though.

well, i can only hope they get it right before christmas!!!!

LOL!!!

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

well, i can only hope they get it right before christmas!!!!

LOL!!!

I agree. Its hard to make big plans with/for them right now. I would like to have more, but am not willing to add more random flickering.

I can program in "random flickering" it that is what I would like to see.