dougd Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Here is a very short video of the 5 volt fan, I also have a few videos there of a couple of my other props. https://vimeo.com/98987576 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 The Plasma Icicles were all 5 volt and I had a lot more cutting, soldering and handling than that beautiful fan you made and I had no problems like you discribed. That fan is awesome! You should grow your hair out so you have more to pull like I do! ha ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph A Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I totally agree! That is an awesome fan. Very Good Job Doug!!! What temperature do most of you solder these types of pads at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 .... What temperature do most of you solder these types of pads at?Hot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougd Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 Yeah, the plasma icicles you did had to have a lot more soldiering than those fans. I was planning on making some for this year but after all the troubles i had with the fans I have shelved that prop for a while. Maybe I will come back to it after finishing a few other things up first. I run my iron at 700 F. I have no idea if thats a good temperature or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 that is about right.. That is about where I did the Plasma Icicle soldering. Good rosin core solder really helps. Forget about RoHs (lead free) solder... it sucks! The job I just did in Canada I had to use RoHs solder and that required a much higher heat it seemed to me. I cranked it up to about 400C according to the dial. Soldered quick and clean.. and that was on strips.. not the Chinese strips mind you, but still on strips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrison0550 Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 What am I missing here. Doug you seem to like 12v over 5v till the last sentence. Then seems you switch your mind and say that the 5v strips worked out very well. Which is it Doug? And I agree, the voltage of the strip should have nothing to do with the soldering. Unless your solder joints are cold. What am I missing here? Doesn't seem like he switched his mind to me. The last sentence says "Nodes, i use mostly 5 volt and they have worked out very well."Soooooooo its:5v = Nodes12v = StripsJust to clear up any confusion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted June 25, 2014 Share Posted June 25, 2014 Well cause a lot of people have a tendency to use nodes for one thing and others use nodes to mean something else. And we have people like me confused by this loose use of terminology. I missed that And was making a note of difference between strings and "nodes". Look at all of the newbies taking on this thing called "core". Last time I looked "core" meant the middle of something. Conductors like a 4 conductor wire, meant that there was 4 wires in a cable. Or 4 contacts in a plug or socket. So, when we have two or more groups calling the same thing by different names. Things it a bit confusing between groups. To me, a node is something that is addressable. Such as a WS2811 chip is a node. A pixel is a RGB LED. Then there are strips and strings. A strip is a ribbon with RGB LEDs on it with possible chips. A string is RGB LEDs with possible chips in the same package, with wires between each one. But hay, this is maybe just my thinking of how the world should work. I am willing to adapt to other names if they make sense and the majority agrees to those names. But core is not one of them. Been calling wires conductors for over 40 years and I am not about to adapt something that the Chinese just came on the market with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Messer Posted June 29, 2014 Share Posted June 29, 2014 (edited) Ralph: I don't use any strip. I hate them consistently 12v or 5v hahaha however DougD is the man when it comes to strips. He has a ton of them and would be the best to advise on what he has had the most luck out of. I will see if we can get him to chime in. Max: Dodge! Jeff: You crack me up. You saw me and Doug go 80ft with the same controller on 5v and 12v. Its gotta be those pixels man. I wouldn't recommend it but you saw us do it while playing with distances, and voltage drop. Just sayin. Ron: I sent you that PDF and some pics last night you needed. Let me know if it didn't go through.Andy, Ok next trip I will bring cards, wire and nodes. Something is not right and I tried your wire on my nodes on the j1sys and it was a no go for me. I will bring Ray's pixels and Todd's when I come up. I see a road trip in the near future.. I did not try control from the xlights. This is control from LOR software. Just saying. Email received say nothing over 15 feet.... Jeff Edited June 29, 2014 by Jeff Messer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Boyd Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Jeff, Let me know when you plan on making that road trip. I'm in need of some help with a J1SYS board too. I'll come down to Cleveland. So, Andy, get your teaching hat on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dougd Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Did someone say September mini? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 I'm using the P12S/X card too and so far, it works perfectly using Ray Wu's 5volt WS2811's. Now this will be my first season with pixels/nodes so time will tell how it goes. The only weird thing I saw was when I changed the transmission method from wired to wireless which suddenly reversed the addressing. The result was the pixels/nodes on the strings were backwards now. The P12S/X card allows to reverse direction easily so it was an easy fix but strange that this happened at all. I'll venture a guess that the data packet transmission gets reversed. I'm participating in the 2014 Corvette Caravan at the end of August to Bowling Green, KY. I have friends in Cleveland, TN that I'm thinking about visiting immediately after the caravan so depending on when you all might get together, I could possibly be there too if I was invited. I think I'm leaving the NCM(National Corvette Museum) on the 29th. I might go to Evansville, IN to visit the grandkids too during this trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Boyd Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Did someone say September mini? Looks like a good time to have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Messer Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 Make sure to pick the date early September. Mid September to the end is packed for me. I saw the test we did at Doug's and did send data 80 feet to a string of light with power being injected right at the lights. We did all the testing with xlights so I will be fully loaded with my computer, cards, wire and pixels to see what the problem is. Mini sounds good and I enjoy the day before hands on to find issues that I am having. By the looks of Ron's post he may be having the same issue. Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KStatefan Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 What is an acceptable voltage drop on a string of 5V 2811 pixels? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted June 30, 2014 Share Posted June 30, 2014 What is an acceptable voltage drop on a string of 5V 2811 pixels?zero! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted July 2, 2014 Share Posted July 2, 2014 What is an acceptable voltage drop on a string of 5V 2811 pixels? The typical voltage on a blue or green LED is 3.5v (This can vary a bit) so obviously the voltage drop must be less than 1.5v. The WS2811 datasheet assumes that the power to the chip is between 4.5 and 5.5 volts, but doesn't say what happens if it goes below 4.5v. A voltage drop of 0.5v would be acceptable, but you'll have to experiment to see how low the voltage can be and still work. It will depend on temperature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted July 3, 2014 Share Posted July 3, 2014 As the voltage drops you will also see a few other things happening. Even if your data sustains ok, you will start to get color shift on certain colors... like white for example. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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