Anyone else trying out the new Firefly units?

[GaryMartin]

Paul Roberson wrote:

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.

To be completely honest, I think this "random flickering" issue is getting blown way out of proportion.

I used two Firefly strings for my 08 Christmas Display. I had a flickering pixel develop on one string. I disconnected that arch, took it inside and fixed the problem in about 5 minutes. It's just an issue with some cold solder joints that is most likely caused because of the differing wire size on the pixels and someone isn't using two different soldering iron temps in the assembly. The two data lines are small and need to be soldered with 15 watts, while the power lines are considerably bigger and need 30 watts to get a good joint. It looks like they were assembled with the lower wattage and the power lines can end up with cold joints. They test out fine indoors, but put them out in the moisture and some oxidation gets into that cold solder joint, the pixel starts getting intermittent power or can't get enough and it starts acting up and usually every pixel past it does too because of the "noise" on the power feeds caused by this.

After repairing my cold solder joint string, it ran flawlessly for over 30 days in some very nasty weather, rain, ice storms, snow, etc.

I will have at least three more Firefly units for 2009 and I may go ahead and do five more.

D-Light has been standing behind these issues and sent free replacement strings out to everyone involved. They will get it fixed, I am quite sure of it and even with that good support backing it up, it's a very simple issue to fix yourself if you're so inclined.

[Paul Roberson]

GaryMartin wrote:

To be completely honest, I think this "random flickering" issue is getting blown way out of proportion.

I used two Firefly strings for my 08 Christmas Display. I had a flickering pixel develop on one string. I disconnected that arch, took it inside and fixed the problem in about 5 minutes. It's just an issue with some cold solder joints that is most likely caused because of the differing wire size on the pixels and someone isn't using two different soldering iron temps in the assembly. The two data lines are small and need to be soldered with 15 watts, while the power lines are considerably bigger and need 30 watts to get a good joint. It looks like they were assembled with the lower wattage and the power lines can end up with cold joints. They test out fine indoors, but put them out in the moisture and some oxidation gets into that cold solder joint, the pixel starts getting intermittent power or can't get enough and it starts acting up and usually every pixel past it does too because of the "noise" on the power feeds caused by this.

After repairing my cold solder joint string, it ran flawlessly for over 30 days in some very nasty weather, rain, ice storms, snow, etc.

I will have at least three more Firefly units for 2009 and I may go ahead and do five more.

D-Light has been standing behind these issues and sent free replacement strings out to everyone involved. They will get it fixed, I am quite sure of it and even with that good support backing it up, it's a very simple issue to fix yourself if you're so inclined.

I agree with your last statement completely! However these free replacement strings had problems also.

Some can't fix these themselves though, and frankly should not have too. If I bought a new TV for example and it did some random flickering I would not attempt to look for a bad solder joint to see if I could fix it. I would expect the place I got it to make it good. Which is what D-light is doing.

I respectfully disagree, and to be completely honest I don't think this "random flickering" problem is being blown way out of proportion. The people having these problems are talking about them. I have 4 FFs and 4 of them had the flickering problem. I was sent 2 (only 2 of my FF stings was flickering at the time) replacement strings. They had the problem also.

It is a problem that should not be happening and I know D-light is trying to get the factory who is making these to make them correctly. It would appear from a report on the V3 (newest) pixel strings that they have not gotten it completely right yet.

For the record I have one of the V3 pixel strings. It is running with 3 of the older strings on my back deck. I am running the same show and same times as I did during the season. The V3 string has ran flawlessly thru the rain and freezing rain so far. Only one of the strings I had problems with during the season is doing any flickering. So from my stand point so far the V3 string I have is as it is suppose to be.

[thebaronn]

Paul Roberson wrote:

GaryMartin wrote:

To be completely honest, I think this "random flickering" issue is getting blown way out of proportion.

I used two Firefly strings for my 08 Christmas Display. I had a flickering pixel develop on one string. I disconnected that arch, took it inside and fixed the problem in about 5 minutes. It's just an issue with some cold solder joints that is most likely caused because of the differing wire size on the pixels and someone isn't using two different soldering iron temps in the assembly. The two data lines are small and need to be soldered with 15 watts, while the power lines are considerably bigger and need 30 watts to get a good joint. It looks like they were assembled with the lower wattage and the power lines can end up with cold joints. They test out fine indoors, but put them out in the moisture and some oxidation gets into that cold solder joint, the pixel starts getting intermittent power or can't get enough and it starts acting up and usually every pixel past it does too because of the "noise" on the power feeds caused by this.

After repairing my cold solder joint string, it ran flawlessly for over 30 days in some very nasty weather, rain, ice storms, snow, etc.

I will have at least three more Firefly units for 2009 and I may go ahead and do five more.

D-Light has been standing behind these issues and sent free replacement strings out to everyone involved. They will get it fixed, I am quite sure of it and even with that good support backing it up, it's a very simple issue to fix yourself if you're so inclined.

I agree with your last statement completely! However these free replacement strings had problems also.

Some can't fix these themselves though, and frankly should not have too. If I bought a new TV for example and it did some random flickering I would not attempt to look for a bad solder joint to see if I could fix it. I would expect the place I got it to make it good. Which is what D-light is doing.

I respectfully disagree, and to be completely honest I don't think this "random flickering" problem is being blown way out of proportion. The people having these problems are talking about them. I have 4 FFs and 4 of them had the flickering problem. I was sent 2 (only 2 of my FF stings was flickering at the time) replacement strings. They had the problem also.

It is a problem that should not be happening and I know D-light is trying to get the factory who is making these to make them correctly. It would appear from a report on the V3 (newest) pixel strings that they have not gotten it completely right yet.

For the record I have one of the V3 pixel strings. It is running with 3 of the older strings on my back deck. I am running the same show and same times as I did during the season. The V3 string has ran flawlessly thru the rain and freezing rain so far. Only one of the strings I had problems with during the season is doing any flickering. So from my stand point so far the V3 string I have is as it is suppose to be.

WOW! I thought I would be the only one to throw out the "i shouldnt have to" card! And I dont think that it is one single problem. We has some not so good weather (I say that because compared to you guys CA weather is heavenly) and even in heavy rain my FF would choose to work. I say "choose" because I swear these things have a mind of their own.

My bottom line: after all the soldering, all the sealant I personally used (sealant makers were the only companies that posted profits in the 4th quarter) my FF flickering issue seemed to be a time thing. Once I gave them power I had about 1 hour of perfect working FFs. I filmed my videos in early January (after my display was no longer running) and each time I was able to get one run of each song in before they started going haywire. I filmed 6 shows over the course of 2 weeks and every time i would get one run and then on the second time around whammo!

Then there is another problem (I may be the only one that has this problem) but my wife tolerates my christmas light psychosis.....and then when she sees me in the wee hours soldering an item that only cost $100 (shhhhhhh!!!!) and that should be working, her response is "send it back, you dont have time to be fixing someone elses mistake, you better go to sleep I dont want you being a zombie at the park tomorrow" There is some colorful language thrown in there as well. But you get the idea. But the worst part is......she is 100% right! We all put our hearts into this hobby and the something like this happens that we really do not have control of (like poor duke and his CDI martyfan that took a $h..) and we..........and im just rambling now so I will get off that topic.

Sad part is with all the fixing and everything and running around like a chicken with its head cut off, when I filmed my display in January, that was the first time I had watched a whole song, in its entirety! A whole song, how sad is that!

Thats all I got, good night again.

[Rafter Bar R]

Until LOR has a color picker for these, this is about the easiest method I have found for sequencing these.

Attached files

[Paul Roberson]

lonewolvie wrote:

Until LOR has a color picker for these, this is about the easiest method I have found for sequencing these.

I have mine arraigned in a 1-16 Red, 1-16 Green, 1-16 Blue fashion.

I however have only worked with the primary colors of Red, Green, or Blue.

I would imagine your set up would make it better/easier to do actual color mixes.

Thanks for the idea. I think I will set up a track with the arraignment you have. That way I can have use either configuration set up.

[thebaronn]

lonewolvie wrote:

Until LOR has a color picker for these, this is about the easiest method I have found for sequencing these.

wow! I went the easy route:

1. Created 48 channels

2. Set the the first channel to the correct channel, S2 asked if I wanted to at the other 15 channels and I let it. I did not change the names (FF are the only channel i DONT name so it is easy to distinguish)

3. so 11.1-11.16 red FF1, 12.1-12.16 Green FF1, 13.1-13.16 Blue FF1

Since I can fit all 48 channels of firefly on my screen at once it makes changing colors very easy! Vermillion, Magenta and Marigold!

Here is partial sequence capture of Colors!

Attached files

[GaryMartin]

Paul Roberson wrote:

lonewolvie wrote:

Until LOR has a color picker for these, this is about the easiest method I have found for sequencing these.

I have mine arraigned in a 1-16 Red, 1-16 Green, 1-16 Blue fashion.

I however have only worked with the primary colors of Red, Green, or Blue.

I would imagine your set up would make it better/easier to do actual color mixes.

Thanks for the idea. I think I will set up a track with the arraignment you have. That way I can have use either configuration set up.

I took that same approach myself. I can't wait for LOR to add the RGB feature that Aurora has though! Right now with 5 Fireflies I'm scrolling through 240 channels to get all all of them. ;(

[Paul Roberson]

Yes, programming only 16 channels per Firefly will be a welcome change.

[tboerjan]

tboerjan wrote: That is what I was talking about here. Although mixing colors would be easier by using lonewolvie's method; I think doing fades, sweeps, etc. would be harder, sooo that is the dilema until LOR incorporates something into S2 or one switches to Aurora. I looked at that and I don't care for it.

my 2 cents

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:

tboerjan wrote: That is what I was talking about here. Although mixing colors would be easier by using lonewolvie's method; I think doing fades, sweeps, etc. would be harder, sooo that is the dilema until LOR incorporates something into S2 or one switches to Aurora. I looked at that and I don't care for it.

my 2 cents

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.

I thought that back on some page in this forum me, paul, duke and thoerjan agreed that we did it with 16 channels of each red, green and blue.....

Or maybe im crazy.

[Paul Roberson]

tboerjan wrote:

tboerjan wrote: That is what I was talking about here. Although mixing colors would be easier by using lonewolvie's method; I think doing fades, sweeps, etc. would be harder, sooo that is the dilema until LOR incorporates something into S2 or one switches to Aurora. I looked at that and I don't care for it.

my 2 cents

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.

LSP is also planning on having a color picker also. I plan to wait on LOR to get it implemented into S2.

One thing we can do until then is keep the setup we have and add a track with ALL our FF channels in it and rearranging the order so the set up in the track matches lonvwolvie's set up. Then we can have the ease of programming color mixes in one track and sweeps, and fades in our original channel set up.

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

tboerjan wrote:

tboerjan wrote: That is what I was talking about here. Although mixing colors would be easier by using lonewolvie's method; I think doing fades, sweeps, etc. would be harder, sooo that is the dilema until LOR incorporates something into S2 or one switches to Aurora. I looked at that and I don't care for it.

my 2 cents

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.

I thought that back on some page in this forum me, paul, duke and thoerjan agreed that we did it with 16 channels of each red, green and blue.....

Or maybe im crazy.

I think we all did agree, but may not have ment in that particular order.


Actually mine is set up in a Green, Red, Blue fashion. Early on before the FF controllers were shipping I asked the channel/controller color setup pattern question on D-lights forums and was told it would be G,R,B. When actually the controller color set up is Red, Green Blue.

When I set up my 09 channel configuration I will use the standard 16 Red, 16 Green, 16 Blue setup. Unless LOR has the color picker operational. If so then it will not matter I am assuming.

[Denny]

Ummmmmm, uhhhhhhh, where did Dan say he was going to implement a color picker into S2?

[thebaronn]

Denny wrote:

Ummmmmm, uhhhhhhh, where did Dan say he was going to implement a color picker into S2?

i dont think he did say he was for sure

[Paul Roberson]

thebaronn wrote:

Denny wrote:

Ummmmmm, uhhhhhhh, where did Dan say he was going to implement a color picker into S2?

i dont think he did say he was for sure

Trust me;)

[Denny]

Paul Roberson wrote:

Trust me;)

Hmmmm, last time I listened to that, I ended up on an airplane to some distant Southeast Asian destination for a year.

[Paul Roberson]

Denny wrote:

Paul Roberson wrote:

Trust me;)

Hmmmm, last time I listened to that, I ended up on an airplane to some distant Southeast Asian destination for a year.

LOL!!

[Rafter Bar R]

Once I set it up like that, mixing colors was much easier.

[thebaronn]

lonewolvie wrote:

Once I set it up like that, mixing colors was much easier.

so you set it up the same way I did first?

What colors have you tried?

[Rafter Bar R]

I can get yellow, orange, sky blue, turquoise, chartruse, varying purples. Basically I play around with three channels and varying intensities to get the colors I want then replicate them through the string.