My hopeful plan for 2022

[rmturner54]

Now that I have 1 year under my belt with S5. My plan is to move forward with 2 projects.

1) add 4 leaping arches with pixel strips WS2811. That's pretty staright forward. 1ea Pixe 4 and 4 strings of piexl strips.

2) I think I want to install permanent pixels on the front of my house outlining the fascia/ soffet perimeter. For year round use. Using either pixel nodes or pixel strip(with the aluminium channel and difuser)

Schools of thought here, pixel nodes are too obvious and pixel strip I think will be a cleaner look for permanent install. I think I can get by with a pixe 4. The wedsite says up to 170 pixels per port which is fused at 4 amps. It also says 100 pixels per port.  Not sure on that one but  going off of the 100/port here is my thoughts.

My house: Window 1 =288 inches, window 2=192 inches. Now splitting up the front of house into 2 equal runs of 328 inches.Calculations based on the following.(I know all pixel strips are not created equal). Trying to stay at or below the 4A fuse rating of each port.

12V, WS2811, 5M/150 LEDs pixel strip , 0.4watts per LED. I did some rough calculations for each area.

Win 1=218 LEDs x .4W= 7.26 A @100%, @50%=3.63A and 10V at the end

Win 2 =150 LEDs x .4W= 5A @ 100%, @50% =2.5A and 11V at the end

Left/Right House =249 LEDs x .4W=8.3A @ 100%, @50%=4.12A, @30%=2.49A and 10.5V at the end

http://spikerlights.com/calcpower.aspx This is what I used to figure my runs with. Pixel Light Power Calculator

So I am open to suggestions/input/tech advice etc... Thanks in advance for any insight.

[dibblejr]

Max pixels for a "pixie controller" = 170. Tested and true. I have shared the videos many times. (no power injection required)

I use modules mounted on electrical PVC conduit (grey). If you look at my house you would never know they are there unless I told you. Even the insurance adjuster did not see them until he flew his drone to have a look at my roof. Then he had to ask what they were.

My window and sides are taken down annually, my roof peak is 60' so they are up until they go bad. A hurricane broke a tree and a branch took out a section from 45-60' so I was up on a ladder at almost 60' making cuts and soldering replacements on Halloween day 2019. Lots of fun.

At 100-150 nodes or a 16' ribbon strip you will not have to worry about the 4a requirement with most of todays common pixels. I have not found any that I cannot light at 170 at 30% (plenty bright). I do like LORs and some others that I use because they are low power. I prefer LORs due to warranty. My house outline was a beta test batch I did for a company in 2018. I have tested the LOR square pixels on my PVC and they are not noticeable either. In 2022 the 5th season/ year of my modules I will be replacing them with my LOR 12v nodes. They are already mounted to my pvc and only need to be clipped in place and the cables ran through my attic vents.

[k6ccc]

8 hours ago, dibblejr said:

Max pixels for a "pixie controller" = 170. Tested and true. I have shared the videos many times. (no power injection required)

That last part depends on your pixels.  Some conditions will allow no power injection with 170 pixels, but especially with 5V pixels, that is very unlikely.  So test the pixels that you have before assuming that you do or do not need power injection.

For example. with the standard high power power pixels on my pixel tree, 100 pixel strings at 5 volts will run without power injection ONLY if I keep the intensity setting in the controller set to 30% or lower.  Even at 30%, if I bring a string to full white, the end of the string will be looking a bit off.

 

[dibblejr]

28 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

That last part depends on your pixels.  Some conditions will allow no power injection with 170 pixels, but especially with 5V pixels, that is very unlikely.  So test the pixels that you have before assuming that you do or do not need power injection.

For example. with the standard high power power pixels on my pixel tree, 100 pixel strings at 5 volts will run without power injection ONLY if I keep the intensity setting in the controller set to 30% or lower.  Even at 30%, if I bring a string to full white, the end of the string will be looking a bit off.

 

Exactly the reason I have 0 5v pixels. But with all of the pixels from the main suppliers I have found NONE that require PI.

JR

[rmturner54]

Thats why I leaning towards the 12V pixels ...no power injection or least very little. I have played all different setups and situations using the Pixel Light Power Calculator. 

Using a 100 Pixel-5V-0.3W-3"=6A, voltage drop start is 11% end is 30%

Using a 100 Pixel-12V-0.6W-3"-5A, voltage drop start is4% end is 10%

38 minutes ago, dibblejr said:

Exactly the reason I have 0 5v pixels. But with all of the pixels from the main suppliers I have found NONE that require PI.

JR

 

[k6ccc]

All "standard" high power WS2811 pixels draw between 55 - 60 mA per pixel at 100% full white.  That means each pixel draws between 275 - 300 milliWatts at 5 Volts or 660 - 720 milliWatts at 12 volts.  Yes, there are low power pixels available that draw about half that.  My understanding is that most of the pixels LOR sells are the low power variety (not confirmed by me as I have none).

Like most things in life, there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides of the 5 Volt vs 12 Volt pixels.  The biggest advantage to 5 volt pixels is total power consumption.  Standard strings at 12 volts will consume about 2.4 times as much power.  That means more or larger power supplies.  Rough rule of thumb is the standard 350 watt power supply most of us use will handle about 400 pixels at 12 Volts or 1,000 pixels at 5 Volts.  Both of those figures allow about 15 headroom - you don't want to plan on running your power supplies at 100% load.  That may not be an issue for smaller props, but can be substantial for larger props.  For example, my pixel tree and star have 2,870 pixels.  That's three power supplies at 5 volts and eight supplies at 12 volts.  Both of those assume running at 100% (often not the case especially with larger props).

The biggest advantage of 12 volts is longer strings without power injection.  There are some people that have an outright fear of power injection, and there are some people that use it extensively.  The latter is particularly true for people using controllers that will happily drive the data for strings in excess of 1,000 pixels.

 

 

[rmturner54]

According to the LOR specs(website) they appear to be low power pixels. So far from what I have found in my research is they cost more than a "standard". Power injection does not bother me.  I am just trying to come up with the best fit for me and keep it as simple as posible to outline the front of my house with year round lighting. And make it look good. As far as my roof, not looking to outline the roof. I use seperate strands of red,blue, green led strings. And yes I put them up every year. They are twisted together. So when all three colors are on I dont get white. I like that look. Been doing that on the roof for years.

17 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

there are advantages and disadvantages to both sides of the 5 Volt vs 12 Volt pixels.  The biggest advantage to 5 volt pixels is total power consumption.  Standard strings at 12 volts will consume about 2.4 times as much power.  That means more or larger power supplies.  Rough rule of thumb is the standard 350 watt power supply most of us use will handle about 400 pixels at 12 Volts or 1,000 pixels at 5 Volts.

Totally agree with you on the advantages/disadvantages. I also never peak out my power supplies I have always in all my years of electronics and electrical work allowed minimum 10-20%. Knock on wood I have only had 1 power supply fail since I started this hobby. And it failed while using it as a bench test supply(2 months use). 

[k6ccc]

Pouring dirty rain water into the Chinese power supplies does not work well - I have personal experience with that one.

Hint:  brick and mortar by itself is not waterproof.  I have to water seal the columns every year.

http://www.newburghlights.org/photos/Columns_lit.jpg

 

[rmturner54]

4 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Pouring dirty rain water into the Chinese power supplies does not work well - I have personal experience with that one.

Hint:  brick and mortar by itself is not waterproof.  I have to water seal the columns every year.

I bet that made a nice boom. . You can't put your supplies in some weatherproof boxes in the columns?

[k6ccc]

It has happened twice.  In both cases, as soon as the supply got wet, it tripped the GFCI which prevented any damage.  Both supplies were operational after drying out.  Besides the sealer, there is now a scrap piece of coroplast that deflects any water away from the electronics.

 

[rmturner54]

Thankful for GFCI's. Who would have thought that columns with concrete would leak like that 

[k6ccc]

Just now, rmturner54 said:

Who would have thought that columns with concrete would leak like that 

Yes it does.  In the photo I included above, I built the right column first and after building the top, I changed the design, so that one has two layers of brick in the flat section in the middle.  When I built the left hand column, I changed the design such that it eliminated the extra layer of brick.  Downside is that the left column seeps more.

Think about this one.  Hoover Dam on the Colorado river is a concrete dam that is around 45 feet thick at the top and 600 feet thick at the bottom.  They figure it seeps through the concrete about 20 cubic feet (roughly 150 gallons) per second.

 

[rmturner54]

9 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

Think about this one.  Hoover Dam on the Colorado river is a concrete dam that is around 45 feet thick at the top and 600 feet thick at the bottom.  They figure it seeps through the concrete about 20 cubic feet (roughly 150 gallons) per second.

Learned something new, so old dogs can learn LOL.

[ItsMeBobO]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

Rough rule of thumb is the standard 350 watt power supply most of us use will handle about 400 pixels at 12 Volts or 1,000 pixels at 5 Volts. 

LORs Pixie16 comes with 1600 12v pixels.  Looks great at 100%.     (no pink on full white)

[rmturner54]

13 hours ago, dibblejr said:

I use modules mounted on electrical PVC conduit (grey). If you look at my house you would never know they are there unless I told you. Even the insurance adjuster did not see them until he flew his drone to have a look at my roof. Then he had to ask what they were.

So how are you attaching your pixels to the PVC and the PVC to yourroof top?

13 hours ago, dibblejr said:

My window and sides are taken down annually, my roof peak is 60' so they are up until they go bad. A hurricane broke a tree and a branch took out a section from 45-60' so I was up on a ladder at almost 60' making cuts and soldering replacements on Halloween day 2019. Lots of fun.

I already use PVC frame for my 2 windows with LED strings ty wraped to them. And they come downevery year.

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, ItsMeBobO said:

LORs Pixie16 comes with 1600 12v pixels.  Looks great at 100%.     (no pink on full white)

And those are low power pixels...

 

[rmturner54]

47 minutes ago, k6ccc said:

And those are low power pixels...

Yep

 

[ItsMeBobO]

On 1/4/2022 at 3:31 PM, rmturner54 said:

Yep

 

10560

[rmturner54]

1 hour ago, ItsMeBobO said:

10560

What is that mean

[k6ccc]

4 minutes ago, rmturner54 said:

What is that mean

Zip code for North Salem, NY?

I was wondering the same thing...