WilliamS Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 GaryMartin wrote: Fair warning: You need to buy samples of any RGB digital strips from Ray first and test them with the controller you plan to use. DO NOT go out and order a ton of any production without doing this first.The "why" is very simple: Not all (dang near hardly any) of the RGB digital strips from Aliexpress are in "R", "G", "B" order. BGR seems the most popular. I've received over a dozen different types from Ray to see what I like the best, and only a couple were in straight RGB order when attached to his inexpensive controller.Now if you use a fancier controller, like a SanDevices E68x, it allows you to configure for those wierd orderings. The inexpensive one from Ray definitely does not.Yes, you could *manually* move the channels around until it was a proper RGB inside LOR S3, but man, that is a LOT of work when you're talking many hundreds of channels. IMHO it's far better to find a strip that works the way you want with your controller first.Oh, and if anyone wants some BGR, GBR, GRB or whatever strips, just give me a shout! I have extras. This I have seen in many posts both here and over in the Aussie forums. I bet changing hundreds of channels to BGR or other forums would be a tedious task. As well I keep seeing that some strips will have differnt spacing between pixels as well. This is why Im glad this thread exists. When I get ready to purchase it will be somewhere in this forum perhaps in a thread or just a PM to a few of the RBG nuts on this forum for a final approval.My plan is a Hybrid setup of m5 led and rbgs on many of my props. I like the chaos of the little lights and I like the sharpness of the RGB strips. Its going to be a creation to say the least. Im sure Im far from the first doing it this way but many props will have both types of lights on them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bretk Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I too am really good at being wrong If it weren't for these forums I never would have considered dipping my toe in rgb pixels. I am very thankful that there are better swimmers out there that can assist newbies like me. Thanks :cool: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I too am hoping to get into using the strips for my display but am just sitting in the background reading and watching to see how things develope with them.There is such a vast and varied type, style, voltage, controller protocol, and more amount of information flowing around now that it is almost impossible to dredge through it all and make much sense out of it all.I would hope that threads like this one will get pinned and be a good reference tool for others to study and learn from.It probably would not hurt to make a couple of threads like this so that the "dumb" RGB strips and the "intelligent pixels" strips can be somewhat seperated so that the information on each can be kept apart and people don't get any more confused by the differences between the two items and the various problems that each can have or solve depending on what the person is trying to accomplish.Great information on this stuff so far though.I would love to just see a few people who are already working on this get the products and bring the results to light for others here. It just does not make any sense to have 100 different people doing the same research and wasting so much money on useless items that won't work.Hopefully we can all get some consensous on things and make some gains in knowledge and what items are useful for this hobby as well as the possiblity of maybe even a group buy for strips and controllers later in the year that would benefit us all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryMartin Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Very good point Bill. The most confusion seems to arise from the difference between those two versions.The DIY groups have been calling the smart ones digital strings/strips since they each have an IC controller at each pixel that's auto-addressing them, and handling the data coming down the wire.So Digital strings/strips need a special controller to talk to them that is capable of talking their protocol. (2801, 6803, 3001, GE-G35 and so forth and so on)The Non Digital strings/strips still have some very good uses IMHO. They're just a common wire (usually the positive) with three other wires for each color. Drive them from a DC controller or a litteral horde of other controllers to do what you want with them. Non digital strings should excite anyone that's tired of having to wrap each element with multiple colors of minilights. Instead just put one string up there that does whatever color you want it to.I *do not want* Digital LED stuff on my house eves. I'd like to control them in the same 7 zones I've been using for years, not each and every pixel.beeiilll wrote:It probably would not hurt to make a couple of threads like this so that the "dumb" RGB strips and the "intelligent pixels" strips can be somewhat seperated so that the information on each can be kept apart and people don't get any more confused by the differences between the two items and the various problems that each can have or solve depending on what the person is trying to accomplish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I agree with Jeff David has a wealth of knowledge in the pixels. Harrisons video setting up and using the $6 DMX RGB controllers for dumb strips or just small elements is another part of an ongoing puzzle that I hope someone consolidates down into 1 thread.Jeff did you order a set of controllers and strips or did you order one of the starter kits? Im tempted to order the starter package Ive seen with a few random RGB pixels (dumb) and controller to play with those as well for the mini trees and small elements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donny M. Carter Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I completely agree Jeff! David has done all the hard work and I for one am very thankful for that! Thanks David!!Donny Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bretk Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I have purchased a experimenters kit from David as well as som mega balls and a programmer. David is top notch, and IMO so are his products! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beeiilll Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I totally agree that David has done most of the leg work on things for this and do appologize for not mentioning his name firsthand for the knowledge that he has posted. Harrison got me onto his videos about this stuff and that is where I started to try and decrypt soem of this.I do tend to get a little confused between all the different forums here, DIY, the Australian DIY, and others sometimes as to who is doing what with what.So my appologies for that as well.David's videos should be listed as a "required reading" source for information to all who all looking into this stuff.My contention was that there are so many people out there who are basically doing the same research and testing new products that it is just as confusing as the actual product differences at times, expecially to people who don't have the background in this stuff or the technical prowess to understand a lot of it.It can all be busswords at best to a lot of folks and with the threads popping up on strips, pixels, RGB, GBR, BGR,etc it is only going to get more confusing for awhile.I don't have the funds to allow me to experiment with this stuff right now so I have to read and learn through you folks who are testing the waters with it and dig through all the explanations on 6803, 2801, aba-dab-doo and what ever for now till someone comes up with things that will work with the LOR line of software/hardware (or at least interface with it).Shoot, I am plenty confused just by trying to learn about dumb strips at this point! And trust me it is a term that I should be able to grasp - LOL.Well back to reading, learning, and confusion for the time being.It will all work out in the long run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 GoofyGuy wrote: I agree with Jeff David has a wealth of knowledge in the pixels. Harrisons video setting up and using the $6 DMX RGB controllers for dumb strips or just small elements is another part of an ongoing puzzle that I hope someone consolidates down into 1 thread.Jeff did you order a set of controllers and strips or did you order one of the starter kits? Im tempted to order the starter package Ive seen with a few random RGB pixels (dumb) and controller to play with those as well for the mini trees and small elements.I ordered one of his starter kits. It comes with everything you need to try things out. Dave is also great in answering any questions you might have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 bdeditch wrote: GoofyGuy wrote: I agree with Jeff David has a wealth of knowledge in the pixels. Harrisons video setting up and using the $6 DMX RGB controllers for dumb strips or just small elements is another part of an ongoing puzzle that I hope someone consolidates down into 1 thread.Jeff did you order a set of controllers and strips or did you order one of the starter kits? Im tempted to order the starter package Ive seen with a few random RGB pixels (dumb) and controller to play with those as well for the mini trees and small elements.I ordered one of his starter kits. It comes with everything you need to try things out. Dave is also great in answering any questions you might have.Im getting ready to order the experiment kit as well. Time to start playing with DMX. My USB Lor adapter allows me 512 channels so lets see how long it takes me to run out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Slonka Jr Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Guys,Great stuff! What a great post! Tons of info. in easy to understand terms. Does someone have a link to the Harrison video? Have not seen this one.Thanks in advance!Ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 http://forums.lightorama.com/view_post.php?post_id=295884There ya go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdeditch Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 GoofyGuy wrote: http://forums.lightorama.com/view_post.php?post_id=295884There ya go.Those have the best when it comes to using LOR and the Enttec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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