CR150D questions

[Denny]

Looking at the picture of the CR150D, the outward set-up reminds me of the Firefly. So that brings some questions to mind based on my experiences with FF last year. Is the controller/power supply weatherproof or is there a longer extension available between the ribbon lights and the actual controller? It was very awkward protecting the FF last year with such a short extension between the pixel string and the controller. From the picture, I would guess that the power supply and controller are not weatherproof, so hope some allowance has been made to get them somewhere out of the weather.

[LightORamaJohn]

The picture shows a prototype ribbon. The production ribbons have 6' cables. Weatherproof power supplies are pricey and there is still the problem of the network connections. The best way to go seemed to be a small plastic box for the controller & PS.

[Denny]

John, thanx for the info. The six foot cable will make life much easier; at least everything won't be "hanging in the air" and with six feet of space, the box/power supply can easily be placed in a weather tight container.

[daniel]

Late make this the official question thread!


About the resolution. If Its one pixel, then the entire strip will be solid one color?


And if it is set to 150, then a really smooth color wave effect can be done?


Is the controller separate or part of the lights? Like can It control 50 strands of lights one pixel each? Or is is one per strand?



--Daniel L

[LightORamaJohn]

daniel wrote:

About the resolution. If Its one pixel, then the entire strip will be solid one color?


And if it is set to 150, then a really smooth color wave effect can be done?


Is the controller separate or part of the lights? Like can It control 50 strands of lights one pixel each? Or is is one per strand?

If the logical resolution is changed to 1 pixel then one RGB channel would select one color out of 2 million for the entire strip. With older software, 1 pixel resolution would mean three channels: R, G & B, whose intensities would select the color.

There are 150 RGB LEDs on the strip which are grouped by threes into pixels. So the maximum resolution is 50. This would appear as 50 RGB channels or 150 channels where R, G & B are separate channels. You can manipulate these 50 pixels in any way you want, including a color wave effect.

The controller speaks a protocol understood by the strip. The controller is not a power handling device -- it sends data to the strip after converting LOR network commands to strip commands.


Edit: When I say three RGB LEDs are grouped into a physical pixel I don't mean they are in a triangle or something like that. The 150 RGB LEDs are evenly spaced along the ribbon about 1.3" apart. So there are 3 RGB LEDs in every 4" of ribbon. These 4" sections are 1 physical pixel.

[DownTown]

What is the expected lifetime on the strip and components, and is there any way to change out an LED that fails somewhere down the road?

D.T.

[warcraft]

can these strips be seen from all sides? kinda looks like they can only be seen from 1 side on the prototype picture

[LightORamaJohn]

What is the expected lifetime on the strip and components, and is there any way to change out an LED that fails somewhere down the road?

The LEDs are rated for 50,000 hours of life, so replacement should not be required. I don't think it would be reasonably possible to replace an LED. Like other electronic systems, it should last a long time after surviving any infant mortality problems. This is a ShowTime product and comes with a two year warranty on the entire CR150D system.

can these strips be seen from all sides? kinda looks like they can only be seen from 1 side on the prototype picture

This is a ribbon with the LEDs facing outward on one side. The LEDs have a 120 degree viewing angle. The ribbon could be used on the side of an arch facing the audience, around the perimeter of a fountain to light the water or under the eaves to color wash.

[michael.farney]

LightORamaJohn wrote:

Edit: When I say three RGB LEDs are grouped into a physical pixel I don't mean they are in a triangle or something like that. The 150 RGB LEDs are evenly spaced along the ribbon about 1.3" apart. So there are 3 RGB LEDs in every 4" of ribbon. These 4" sections are 1 physical pixel.

I am very curious to see the video of how this works. I can see a colorwash scenarios working well, but if these were facing the audience will you still get a good RGB effect? My initial impression of 1.3 inch spacing sounded like it would be possible to view individual pixels as opposed to the intended color, but previous posts sound like we still get the RGB effect, which is terrific.

I'm trying to understand possibilities and limitations of the product. Is there a certain intention for use/application of this product?

[LightORamaJohn]

michael.farney wrote:

I am very curious to see the video of how this works. I can see a colorwash scenarios working well, but if these were facing the audience will you still get a good RGB effect? Say you attach these to a gutterline facing the audience. For purple, would the audience see purple, or would they see red and blue pixels?

I can't seem to explain this properly, but I will keep trying. Each LED on the strip is an RGB LED so the red, green and blue emiiters are packed together (about 1 mm apart)so that you have to be very close to the LED and the LED must be dim for you to actually see the individual R, G & B emitters. There are three of these RGB LEDs in a physical pixel.

You can control the brightness/color of each physical pixel, which is actually three adjacent RGB LEDs spaced about 1.3" apart.

When I am experimenting, full brightness is annoying because the strip is only a couple feet from me. I usually keep the brightness down. At 1% brightness and a couple feet away, I can see the three dots in the LED, red, green and blue. As the brightness increases, it becomes impossible to see the separate colors.

[michael.farney]

For those following this thread, looks like John grabbed my post before I made edits. LOL.

Ok, here's where the confusion is coming in (at least for me.) I get that there are 150 LEDs and each of those 150 LEDs are RGB from your recent post now. But, it was unclear from the PDF flier because the max resolution is 50 pixels (150 channels). So I was thinking the strip had 50 red, 50 blue, and 50 green LEDs. After re-reading it, the flier is pretty clear that is has 150 RGB LEDs. It's just for RGB our assumption is to be able to control each pixel individually (450 channels) instead of groups of 3. Groups of 3 can easily be intepreted as 1 red led, 1 blue led, and 1 green led. (It is an RGB device, after all.) This is where people are getting all messed up on this. I don't know if there is any way to make it more clear on the flier or not, but at least that's where my failure was. The numbers line up in a way it's easy to jump to the incorrect conclusion of how this product works.

[michael.farney]

Oh, and I'm curious now. Why is there not an option for 450 channels? Is there a hardware limitation?

[LightORamaDan]

It is confusing because the numbers 150 and 3 get used too many times and I at first I lost track myself! Michael has it straight but for anyone else still confused.

Lets forget about channels for now and think of only the LEDs. There are 150 RGB LEDs. So every 1.3 inches you have a RGB LED. The RGB LED is a little rectangular box and inside of it there are 3 LED Junctions (a Red, Green and Blue)... So as mentioned by someone above, if you count all the reds, greens and blues you have a total of 450.

Now for channels. On the strip there are 50 micro chips, one every 4 inches. Each of those micro chips is a pixel and has three channels (one channel each for red, green and blue). That is where you get the 150 channels. Each of those driver chips is connected to 3 adjacent RGB LEDs and those 3 RGB LEDs act in unison.

We are working on a video and hopefully that will let you know how cool this actually looks. I used it as garland wrapped around a tree and it was neat to watch the colors spiral around the tree.

[warcraft]

LightORamaDan wrote:

We are working on a video and hopefully that will let you know how cool this actually looks. I used it as garland wrapped around a tree and it was neat to watch the colors spiral around the tree.

i wanna see this

[thebaronn]

LightORamaDan wrote:

It is confusing because the numbers 150 and 3 get used too many times and I at first I lost track myself! Michael has it straight but for anyone else still confused.

Lets forget about channels for now and think of only the LEDs. There are 150 RGB LEDs. So every 1.3 inches you have a RGB LED. The RGB LED is a little rectangular box and inside of it there are 3 LED Junctions (a Red, Green and Blue)... So as mentioned by someone above, if you count all the reds, greens and blues you have a total of 450.

Now for channels. On the strip there are 50 micro chips, one every 4 inches. Each of those micro chips is a pixel and has three channels (one channel each for red, green and blue). That is where you get the 150 channels. Each of those driver chips is connected to 3 adjacent RGB LEDs and those 3 RGB LEDs act in unison.

We are working on a video and hopefully that will let you know how cool this actually looks. I used it as garland wrapped around a tree and it was neat to watch the colors spiral around the tree.

Is the programming for this in the new version of S2 that just came out?

Or will another version address control of the new item.........

Would it work like other software in that you would create 3 channels (one for each color) and combine then into a single channel that you could pick a color from? I understand what this will do and have my order amount ready!! I am just anxious to start programming!!!!!

btw? when does DESTINY go on sale???

[LightORamaDan]

thebaronn wrote:

Is the programming for this in the new version of S2 that just came out?

Or will another version address control of the new item.........

Would it work like other software in that you would create 3 channels (one for each color) and combine then into a single channel that you could pick a color from? I understand what this will do and have my order amount ready!! I am just anxious to start programming!!!!!

btw? when does DESTINY go on sale???

There will be a new version of software that has some new features that will address the new RGB device. That version of S2 will have a single channel where you can pick a color (rather than 3 channels to pick the color). It will also allow more than 16 channels per controller so that all channels can be addressed from a single unit ID.

[thebaronn]

LightORamaDan wrote:

thebaronn wrote:

Is the programming for this in the new version of S2 that just came out?

Or will another version address control of the new item.........

Would it work like other software in that you would create 3 channels (one for each color) and combine then into a single channel that you could pick a color from? I understand what this will do and have my order amount ready!! I am just anxious to start programming!!!!!

btw? when does DESTINY go on sale???

There will be a new version of software that has some new features that will address the new RGB device. That version of S2 will have a single channel where you can pick a color (rather than 3 channels to pick the color). It will also allow more than 16 channels per controller so that all channels can be addressed from a single unit ID.

One more question: If have a RGB setup over 3 channels with sequencing already in place, will I be able to combine the 3 channels and have S2 figure the color automatically based on my earlier sequencing? Or will I have to toss out the old sequencing of 1 channel each for R, G, and B? I am adding 256 channels of RGB stuff this year (768 total channels 256R, 256G, 256B in S2 right now) And I have sequenced several songs, will I lose that if I want to convert it to the new color picker style? I just want to know if I need to be prepared to re-sequence all my Firefly setups. And if I should hold off on sequencing the DESTINY :] (I know that a 50 channel controller isnt supported now, but I can sequence my arches and cut an paste!!!)

Did my rambling make any sense??

[HowardShank]

The manual says the ribbon dimensions is 16.4' long.

So, if there are 50 pixels and each takes 4" of ribbon then the ribbon (first to last pixel) would be 200 inches or 16'8". Is that correct?

LightORamaJohn says the production ribbons have a 6' cables.

What does that measure exactly?

I'd like to know the following:

Length of power cord
Length between power adapter and controller
Length from controller to first pixel
Length from first pixel to last pixel

How much heat is generated by the controller? What kind of enclosure would be recommended? One of the plastic cases LOR sells?

Thanks and Happy Independence day!

[LightORamaJohn]

Length of power cord
Length between power adapter and controller
Length from controller to first pixel
Length from first pixel to last pixel

How much heat is generated by the controller? What kind of enclosure would be recommended? One of the plastic cases LOR sells?

Sorry, exact numbers are not possible. We use 12vdc power supplies like those on laptops, the power cord on one side and low voltage cord on the other are both in the range of 3-4' for the ones we are using now. The cable between the strip and controller is between 6-7'. The strips are about 196.5-197.5" The LEDs start about 7/8" in from the ends.

The controller generates very little heat. It is not a power switching device. It does the protocol conversion between LOR and the strip. The plastic box for the CTB16PC would work, but is larger than needed.

[HowardShank]

That's close enough! Thanks a lot for the info. Now I can do some measurements and see how I can use them! Any video yet?