Neopixel christmas lights

racemaniac
Sat Jan 07, 2017 6:08 pm
I may be a bit late for this, but for the season i programmed some nice neopixel patterns to use as christmas lights :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFj5Xvmk8_8

Today i finished the project by putting the 150W meanwell power supply in a nice box, together with the maple mini, it’s now just plug in the box & the neopixel strings to the box, and enjoy the show.
In the video it’s driving 450 neopixels :).


stevestrong
Sun Jan 08, 2017 8:54 am
No valid link, no video, no fun… :geek:

zoomx
Mon Jan 09, 2017 2:10 pm
racemaniac.mooo.com unreachable……..
maybe a DDNS problem?

racemaniac
Mon Jan 09, 2017 2:29 pm
zoomx wrote:racemaniac.mooo.com unreachable……..
maybe a DDNS problem?

ddrown
Tue Jan 10, 2017 5:30 pm
racemaniac wrote:
should be fixed now. entered the wrong portnumber >_<

racemaniac
Tue Jan 10, 2017 6:10 pm
ddrown wrote:racemaniac wrote:
should be fixed now. entered the wrong portnumber >_<

RogerClark
Tue Jan 10, 2017 11:28 pm
Which digital LED strip did you use?

Looking on eBay and AliExpress there seems to be a lot of different types available.

This one seemed the best value on AliExpress

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/5m-roll … 04ff500058

But its hard to tell.

Do you have any recommendations ?


ddrown
Wed Jan 11, 2017 3:56 am
RogerClark wrote:Which digital LED strip did you use?

Looking on eBay and AliExpress there seems to be a lot of different types available.

But its hard to tell.

Do you have any recommendations ?


RogerClark
Wed Jan 11, 2017 5:08 am
Thanks Dan.

Unfortunately Amazon do not have a presence in Australia ( apart from selling books )


racemaniac
Wed Jan 11, 2017 6:50 am
these are all ws2812 strips (the one filmed is 60 leds/m)
they’re a bit more expensive :)
but wow, didn’t know they were dumping the ws2811’s at such prices :D. might want to buy some of those too :D

Also a difficult decision is 5V or 12V strips. the 12V are easier for longer lengths as there is less current needed for the same amount of power. But after some googling, i’m pretty sure the 12V strips just group sets of 3 rgb leds together, so you no longer have control over individual leds, which kind of sucks and defeats the point of neopixels.
The current demand is a royal PITA with the 5V pixels however >_<. my current setup is 450 leds, which can have a peak power of near 150W, that’s 30A >_<…. being able to use 12V pixels and get that down to 10A would of course be awesome. It kind of depends what you want to do with them.

Also, not sure if it’s mentioned on this forum already, but neopixels actually need about 3.7-3.8V to fully turn on all colors. Above that voltage you don’t see any difference. The rest is just disippated as heat by the voltage control on the pixel.


zoomx
Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:44 am
racemaniac wrote:
Also, not sure if it’s mentioned on this forum already, but neopixels actually need about 3.7-3.8V to fully turn on all colors. Above that voltage you don’t see any difference. The rest is just dissipated as heat by the voltage control on the pixel.

racemaniac
Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:57 am
zoomx wrote:racemaniac wrote:
Also, not sure if it’s mentioned on this forum already, but neopixels actually need about 3.7-3.8V to fully turn on all colors. Above that voltage you don’t see any difference. The rest is just dissipated as heat by the voltage control on the pixel.

RogerClark
Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:26 pm
Looking on the AliExpress listings, its hard to be sure which driver IC they are using.

Some vendors list both the B and non B versions in the description. I doubt they know what device is on the items they are selling, even if they list a specific IC.

I presume they all work in the same way, i.e as a bit shift register


Rick Kimball
Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:44 pm
racemaniac wrote:I may be a bit late for this, but for the season i programmed some nice neopixel patterns to use as christmas lights :)

racemaniac
Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:04 pm
Rick Kimball wrote:racemaniac wrote:I may be a bit late for this, but for the season i programmed some nice neopixel patterns to use as christmas lights :)

Rick Kimball
Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:24 pm
thanks!

zoomx
Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:46 am
RogerClark wrote:Looking on the AliExpress listings, its hard to be sure which driver IC they are using.

racemaniac
Mon Jan 16, 2017 5:42 pm
Ok, after an appeal the video is back on youtube XD

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