Pixie16 and Arch Tunnel

[FallsSD]

Hello

I am wanting to make a walkthrough arch tunnel and I was wanting to use 2 pixie16 controllers, but I was wondering if its possible to get the 2 controllers to work together, like in the link below, and not just mimic each other.  The arches themselves are roughly 10'h by 10'w by 4'deep.  I was thinking of using 8 of them and have the pixie strings 1' apart and I am hoping there is a way to get them working together instead of mimicking one another.  I hope that makes sense.  I haven't bought anything for the arches yet I wanted to find out if this is possible, if not I will just use 1 controller.  I already have the pixel trees and have a basic knowledge of them through trial and error. 

Thank you,

 

Mike

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PRFwM5nYYE

 

[Mr. P]

Of course it is possible, it all comes down to your programming. They only mimic each other if you program that way but you can also make them act like your video very easily.

[k6ccc]

I'm not sure I know why you think that they would mimc each other.  As long as you set up each Pixie with a different Unit ID, they are controlled separately.  In your Preview it would simply be 32 arches as a single group.  Whether you use two Pixie 16s, or four Pixie 8s or eight Pixie 4s makes no difference at all.  Distance from controller to first pixel should not be a limitation if you place each controller in the middle of group of 16 strings being controlled by that controller.  That would keep the distance to the first pixel under 10 feet which is not a problem.

One thing you did not mention is the number of pixels per string you are planning.  Assuming for a moment that you use 100 pixels per string (which would come out to just under 2 inch spacing based on the measurements you gave), you will likely want each controller on it's own dedicated LOR network.  If you go with for example 50 pixels per string, you could use just one network.

 

[Jimehc]

so eight arches at 283 pixels each.. Each arch will use two pixie ports... which is just one pixie16 and 2264 pixels total...

[k6ccc]

24 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

so eight arches at 283 pixels each..

What math did you use to derive that number?

The OP stated that the arches are 10 foot wide and 10 foot tall.  Each arch is 4 feet deep.  So far, I am understanding that to mean the physical structure (not the lights on them).  He plans to put eight of these 4 foot sections together to create a tunnel 32 feet long.  On that 32 foot tunnel he is planning on strings from side to side every 1 foot - which makes 32 strings (or possibly 33, but that makes it harder from a Pixie controller standpoint).  Since each arch is roughly half of a 10 foot diameter circle, the length of each string (in order to reach from ground on one end to ground on the other end) is one half of Pi x D or half of 3.14159 x 10 feet which equals 15.71 feet or 188.25 inches.  100 pixels per string would give just under 2 inch spacing.  However, the OP did not mention what his planned number of pixels per string, nor spacing along each string - so we're all guessing.

 

[FallsSD]

Sorry I didn't give enough information in my first post, but the length of the arch is 24' and I am thinking of using 50 pixels per channel with a total of 32 channels.  They won't be exactly 1' apart but pretty close.  It will be 1600 pixels all together.  I've been messing around with a preview a bit and just can't seem to get it right.  I made an arch with 50 pixels and used Aux B and used unit id 1-32.  It seems to do the motion effect per channel and not the whole tunnel.  I am just a little confused on how to set up the preview to get the whole thing working together, cause the Archimedes spiral just ain't right.  Let me know if ya'll need any more info, I'd like to get it figured out in the sequencer before I put in an order. 

[k6ccc]

6 minutes ago, FallsSD said:

Sorry I didn't give enough information in my first post, but the length of the arch is 24' and I am thinking of using 50 pixels per channel with a total of 32 channels.  They won't be exactly 1' apart but pretty close.  It will be 1600 pixels all together. 

First of all, it's 50 pixels per output or port - NOT channel.  50 pixels is normally 150 channels.  So just to make sure we are on the same page, the physical structure of the tunnel is 24 feet long.  That does not gel with your initial report of 8 sections of 4 feet (if I understood what you were describing).  However with the tunnel 24 feet long, and assuming the first light string right at one end of the tunnel and the last light string right at the other end of the tunnel makes just over nine inch spacing between strings.  With 50 pixels spaced along each string and assuming that the strings come right down to ground level on each end, that makes spacing of about 3.8 inches between pixels.  All that is very do-able.

Note that with only 50 pixels per string, you could save the cost of a pixie by running 100 pixel strings with 50 pixels in one direction, and then back the other direction on the next string of lights on the arch.  1600 pixels on one LOR network is fine - although I would run it at 1000K speed and Enhanced mode.

16 minutes ago, FallsSD said:

I am just a little confused on how to set up the preview to get the whole thing working together, cause the Archimedes spiral just ain't right.

Should be pretty straight forward.  Let me play with it for a second.

 

[k6ccc]

Here's a working preview for you:

http://newburghlights.org/share/FallsSD/

There's only one file there.  Download that and import it into your Sequencer.

 

[Jimehc]

big difference between 8 and 32 Arches.... Although 1600 Pixels still doable on one Pixie16....

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, FallsSD said:

Sorry I didn't give enough information in my first post, but the length of the arch is 24' and I am thinking of using 50 pixels per channel with a total of 32 channels.  They won't be exactly 1' apart but pretty close.  It will be 1600 pixels all together.  I've been messing around with a preview a bit and just can't seem to get it right.  I made an arch with 50 pixels and used Aux B and used unit id 1-32.  It seems to do the motion effect per channel and not the whole tunnel.  I am just a little confused on how to set up the preview to get the whole thing working together, cause the Archimedes spiral just ain't right.  Let me know if ya'll need any more info, I'd like to get it figured out in the sequencer before I put in an order. 

24' just happens to be the length I get for 100 Bullets on 3" centers (on perf tape).  Note: you might want to use the lower power nodes like LOR sells as all white gets real close to the Limit per port without power injection.  Do your DC power homework. you are getting close to 16A per bank (or more if you use HC bullets) that could be a 300+W supply per bank 

[k6ccc]

1 hour ago, k6ccc said:

There's only one file there.  Download that and import it into your Sequencer.

BTW, you will likely want to play with the arrangement of the tunnel group as that will radically change the options.

 

[FallsSD]

This is usually about the point where my wife gets annoyed with me because I am bad with details but I attached an image of the arch tunnel I am looking at.  The tunnel in the image is 16 feet long and I am looking at doing one double the length.  The dimensions would be 10' wide by 10' high by 32' long with a total length of 24' up and over the arch.  The arch is bolted together in 4' sections so I would have a total of 8 arch sections.  Each arch section would have 4 strings of pixels and each string would have 50 pixels and they would go up and over the arch like in the picture, I would like the strings to go up and over the arch so I could leave the strings on the arch, but I can run them horizontally if that works better in sequencer.  The spacing to go up and over would be 6" and I would need to shorten it up a little on both sides near the bottom.  I would use 2 pixie16 controllers.  The price of using 2 controllers is a drop in a bucket compared to the price for everything, and power supply wouldn't be an issue, plus if one controller went down for whatever reason I would at least have half a tunnel.  k6ccc thank you for the preview I will check it out at work tomorrow since I don't have the sequencer on my home computer, and I will probably post more details as they pop into my head.  But the link below is me in a nutshell.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6sbPCIEMyI

 

[Jimehc]

If that is your Framework - run the strings vertical - front to back - thus keeping Bulbs aligned and pointed in one direction

[TheDucks]

You could also put one controller on each side at the 16' mark and feed 16 @ strings of 50 to the mid point  (top) and avoid long strings.

[tlogan]

13 hours ago, FallsSD said:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6sbPCIEMyI

This is funny because it's true! Thanks for posting.

[FallsSD]

12 minutes ago, tlogan said:

This is funny because it's true! Thanks for posting.

Not a problem. 

I was thinking about this all wrong instead of setting it up as a tunnel for the preview I did it as a matrix.  I think with the tunnel each output was trying to do the full motion effect I was trying out.

I work for a local municipality and this year is our 20th anniversary of our display so this is me going big but would it look better if I doubled the amount of pixels so they are roughly 6" apart vertically and horizontally and still use 2 controllers but fold the strings so I have 100 per port and each controller would have its own network.  My only hesitation would be would that be to bright inside the tunnel?  But I could just dim it too.

[Jimehc]

The bigger C9 bulbs would look better with 8 or 12 spacing - as the tunnel is 10' x 10' x 32' - and yes you are creating a rolled matrix...

Edited February 9, 2023 by Jimehc

[Mr. P]

7 hours ago, Jimehc said:

The bigger C9 bulbs would look better with 8 or 12 spacing - as the tunnel is 10' x 10' x 32' - and yes you are creating a rolled matrix...

The bigger C9 bulbs are awesome as I use them on my borders. The biggest downside is for a string of 50 at 12 inches apart is around $50.

Edited February 9, 2023 by Mr. P

[BluMan]

Since I have done a light tunnel for a few years now, I will only add that if you run the lights on the outside of the tunnel, then when you walk through it, since the lights will be facing outward, the "dazzle" will be looking at the tunnel and not really walking through it.  That's why I ran my lights on the inside of the tunnel so when you walk through it, you are bathed in the vivid splendor of the lights.  It's really up to you but with the lights on the inside, I found it to be more attractive to those who looked at it and they wanted to walk through it.

Edited February 13, 2023 by BluMan

[FallsSD]

On 2/9/2023 at 4:49 PM, Mr. P said:

The bigger C9 bulbs are awesome as I use them on my borders. The biggest downside is for a string of 50 at 12 inches apart is around $50.

I priced it out and I can either go with 32 strings of the bulbs at 12" apart or 64 strings of the squares at 6" and it would about the same price to go with either.  The bulbs don't come in a package and they are up to $60 a string now.

1 hour ago, BluMan said:

Since I have done a light tunnel for a few years now, I will only add that if you run the lights on the outside of the tunnel, then when you walk through it, since the lights will be facing outward, the "dazzle" will be looking at the tunnel and not really walking through it.  That's why I ran my lights on the inside of the tunnel so when you walk through it, you are bathed in the vivid splendor of the lights.  It's really up to you but with the lights on the inside, I found it to be more attractive to those who looked at it and they wanted to walk through it.

Thank you for the tip.