Ken Benedict Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I recently converted a snowflake to dumb RGB.Was purchased from a retail Target store. Short video at: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 I wish you hadn't done that.. I have 20 of them I may now have to convert... Wife is thinking about coming to the meeting.. she will have to make the decision as to what she likes.. You may have just cost me Mo' Money! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstorms Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 This is my plan as well. I thought they'd be perfect for RGB. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_moody Posted January 9, 2015 Share Posted January 9, 2015 Ken, Love the snowflake... BUT ..I am more wowed by your video roll in and roll out effects ..Those are AWESOME !!!! Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 9, 2015 Author Share Posted January 9, 2015 (edited) I wish you hadn't done that.. I have 20 of them I may now have to convert... Wife is thinking about coming to the meeting.. she will have to make the decision as to what she likes.. You may have just cost me Mo' Money! Sell me your extras; I only have two. Or for a small fee, I can leave it at home. . . You could stuff some RGB into yours, add a 2811 chip, a buffer amp and make the whole snowflake a single pixel on your E1.31 network.It draws 1.1 amps, fully on. See you soon for pizza and yakkin' Edited January 9, 2015 by Ken Benedict Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 cool snowflake Ken. Ditto the roll in and out. Also very impressive. It appears someone has access to some cool software toys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_moody Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Holy Cow !!!!!Max and I finally AGREED on something ... surely we are approaching the "End of Days" ... ... just kidding ...We now return you to this awsome thread ... Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrock_at_rons Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 I was able to get 9 of these snowflakes at 70% off after Christmas. I'm debating something like this or just pumping them full of regular leds. I've been looking for a small(ish) project to get into RGB. Doing basic math (and I have just started reading all the RGB stuff online), I should be able to purchase something like the 27 channel DMX controller from holidaycoro to handle all 9 snowflakes (along with the leds, power supply, etc.)... correct? Each snowflake would eat 3 channels (times 9 = 27)... or am i a hopeless cause in terms of RGB. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 I was able to get 9 of these snowflakes at 70% off after Christmas. I'm debating something like this or just pumping them full of regular leds. I've been looking for a small(ish) project to get into RGB. Doing basic math (and I have just started reading all the RGB stuff online), I should be able to purchase something like the 27 channel DMX controller from holidaycoro to handle all 9 snowflakes (along with the leds, power supply, etc.)... correct? Each snowflake would eat 3 channels (times 9 = 27)... or am i a hopeless cause in terms of RGB. Thanks. You got it right. You could get either the LOR 24 channel controller (for 8 snowflakes) or the Holidaycoro 27 channel version (for 9 snowflakes). There's also a 60 channel version (for 20 snowflakes) if you're so inclined.And a 36 channel version and a 32 channel version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrock_at_rons Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Thanks Ken. The other question I have then looking at the 27 channel controller is this... on it it lists 150 modules as the max for 27 channels. Your snowflake has 25 modules... correct? Would I need to break it into multiple controllers to satisfy this limitation (or is it 150 modules per RGB channel)? (again these might be questions for the RGB newb section). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 All of those 25 modules are tied together so the entire snowflake is only three RGB channels. (see the soldering closeup) So if you have the 27 channel controller, you could have 9 snowflakes. Each acting differently from the others. You could also parallel some of the snowflakes, but they would duplicate others. (if that's confusing, ignore it) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrock_at_rons Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) The channels make sense (and maybe this is a question for outside this post), but for the holidaycoro 27 channel controller, they list 150 modules as a suggested 'max' for the entire controller. However 9 stars * 25 modules each = 225 modules, 75 more than suggested. For all 9 stars, could I put all 225 modules onto the single 27 channel controller or would I need to break it into two smaller controllers? I'm not sure if I'm reading the documentation correct. (27 DMX Channels)RGB Rectangle & SquareDumb / Basic Modules150 Modules15,000mA or 15amps per controller / 100maper module with white output Again, sorry to have sort of 'hijacked' this thread. These stars are really cool and are the first thing to actually inspire me to get into RGB sooner than I had wanted. Thanks Ken. Edited January 11, 2015 by jrock_at_rons Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darryl Lambert Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) The channels make sense (and maybe this is a question for outside this post), but for the holidaycoro 27 channel controller, they list 150 modules as a suggested 'max' for the entire controller.The reason it's suggested is because they don't know which modules you'll be using.With RGB dumb products it's there power consumtion which is the limiting factor. Once you know which module you'll be using you can figure out how many can be used on that or any controller. The Max on this particular controller is 15A.The rectangular module holidaycoro sells is 0.1A per piece with white color. So if you take 0.1A x 150 modules you get 15A. Maybe you use one with a lower consumtion thus increasing your total # of modules.BTW. Ken those snowflakes look AWESOME!! Makes me want to scrap what I was planning for RGB snowflakes this year & try to get some of those. They don't sell them here ( Canada ) Maybe I can convince Plasmadrive to sell me his!!!!I'll might even drive from Canada to get them. Edited January 11, 2015 by Darryl Lambert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrock_at_rons Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Perfect answer. Thanks a ton Darryl and Ken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 The channels make sense (and maybe this is a question for outside this post), but for the holidaycoro 27 channel controller, they list 150 modules as a suggested 'max' for the entire controller. However 9 stars * 25 modules each = 225 modules, 75 more than suggested. For all 9 stars, could I put all 225 modules onto the single 27 channel controller or would I need to break it into two smaller controllers? I'm not sure if I'm reading the documentation correct. (27 DMX Channels)RGB Rectangle & SquareDumb / Basic Modules150 Modules15,000mA or 15amps per controller / 100maper module with white output Again, sorry to have sort of 'hijacked' this thread. These stars are really cool and are the first thing to actually inspire me to get into RGB sooner than I had wanted. Thanks Ken. You actually bring up some good points. However, lets work this all the way thru using practical numbers for the electronics themselves. Lets start with 25 modules per snow flake. Each has three colors, R & G & B. Each color of each module full on draws approx.02 amp (worst case) x 25 modules (per snow flake) for about 0.5 amps per color, per snow flake. So that is approx. 0.5 amps per channel full on. Each channel on the 27 channel controller is good for at least 1 amp so you are not overloading the individual channels. If you have 9 snow flakes and turn them all on 100% for white, you would have 27 channels x 0.5 amps per color for an overall current draw of approx. 13.5. This also does not exceed the overall rating of 15 amps total draw for the controller. Bottom line here is that you should be fine with 9 snow flakes using 25 of those RGB modules on one 27 channel controllerThe reason it's suggested is because they don't know which modules you'll be using.With RGB dumb products it's there power consumtion which is the limiting factor. Once you know which module you'll be using you can figure out how many can be used on that or any controller. The Max on this particular controller is 15A.The rectangular module holidaycoro sells is 0.1A per piece with white color. So if you take 0.1A x 150 modules you get 15A. Maybe you use one with a lower consumtion thus increasing your total # of modules.BTW. Ken those snowflakes look AWESOME!! Makes me want to scrap what I was planning for RGB snowflakes this year & try to get some of those. They don't sell them here ( Canada ) Maybe I can convince Plasmadrive to sell me his!!!!I'll might even drive from Canada to get them. HC uses rounded up numbers... in reality, each module draws a bit less than 60mA. See my previous post for the walk thru Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Looking at the light spread, I will probably up the module count from 25 to 26, to add one more to the center because it looks too dim. Should still be within the load limit of the controller tho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Santas Helper Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Love the snowflake Ken. Great idea!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Looking at the light spread, I will probably up the module count from 25 to 26, to add one more to the center because it looks too dim. Should still be within the load limit of the controller tho.You will be within limits on the individual channels... and at the edge on the overall limit when on white. Should be fine as long as you don't put them on white and forget them.. But in reality, with voltage drop on the wire and the slight over kill in the generic calculations it should not be a problem.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bob_moody Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Ken, I know its off topic but I hoped my previous post would bait you into telling us what you used to create your video. It is spectacular. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 Ken, I know its off topic but I hoped my previous post would bait you into telling us what you used to create your video. It is spectacular. Bob I grabbed some free footage from youtube for the front and back Christmas stuff and added my iPhone 6+ footage for the overall look and the closeups. Added some generic holiday music tracks (for Christmas commercials). Used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit. But could have been most any video editing software. I wanted to see how the regular videocam software worked on the iPhone (not great).I also have FILMICPRO app that can lock the exposure and focus to avoid the throbbing look that you see on most videos that people take.I know that works great; just didn't use it this time. I've been asked by several people to make a how-to video but it's pretty simple (for me). I have a short video of how to program DMX moving lights using LOR software and that seemed to be OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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