I have done a bunch of research on the topic of 12 volt vs 5 volt pixels as this will obviously affect both what pixels I buy as well as which PSU (power supply units) I will need. Having said that, I sense it is all based on what you plan to do with them and how comfortable you feel with doing power injection. I even saw someone on a forum mention it is like the age old Ford vs Chevy discussion, which seems very appropriate.
From research I have gathered that 5v and 12v pixels are pretty much the same when it comes to what power they need to run properly. If they do not have enough power they will apparently look red or pink when you try to make them full white. Being colorblind, I may not notice if the pink is really light. I will have to depend on my family to point this out. Anyways, the pixels from both sets need around 5 volts to run at full white… but the 12v pixels use buck converters/resistors to step down the power. This would mean that power is being “wasted” and I suspect some level of heat is generated as a byproduct. The positive is that power loss over a lot of pixels/wire would be less of an impact for 12v given you have a lot of overhead to lose… where 5v dropping just a volt is not good for anyone.
I have used my shopping list to order $565.11 worth of items from holidaycoro.com. This is their pre-sale #1 that should be shipping out in February.
I picked up:
Pixel strips for the arches (5 meters each, to be cut in 1/2, so 3 for 6 arches)
Two 350w 12v power supplies (with cords)
25 pixnode stripes (so I have some extra for splicing and playing)
2 enclosures, one for inside and one for outside
A ton of waterproof connectors (although I needed 20 of one type and they only had 19 left)
Only 10 sets of bullet pixels (I waited too long and the square nodes for the megatree sold out… gotta wait for another presale)
200 feet of 3 conductor cable (checked on amazon and didn’t really see a better deal) – although I may not need it with the rolls of SPT1 i have in the garage.
Waterproof labels, 2 sets, because why not…
EasyPix Controller – was unplanned but I thought it would be nice to have a quick way to test pixels without firing up more stuff on the bench and I saw someone else mention using it for this purpose.
I was trying to get this order in a quickly as possible before something else ran out of stock (like the waterproof connectors and the square pixels). I will have to wait for the next presale to grab more pixels and the tree topper stuff.
Video from the street looks ok, as long as you pull focus properly and set your F stop correctly on your DSLR. Obviously I did not this year as I was in a hurry and years past have been hit and miss based on drive by traffic and other stuff going on. Why not use something that rises above it all?
DJI is having a 10 year anniversary sale on the Phantom 3 quadcopters and both the standard and advanced models are $200 off. This means $499 for the std and $799 for the advanced. This price is being replicated across most retailers, including Amazon. Unfortunately I missed (by a couple hours) where Newegg messed up the pricing during the start of the sale and had a bundle with the Advanced, an extra battery, and the hardshell case for the same price. Many people got in on the deal, but not me.
Despite missing out on the great deal, I have received my Phantom from Amazon and hope to use it like I have seen others do with filming their shows. I actually bought a small indoor Hubsan X4 back in the summer and flew that around a bit before upgrading to a Syma X5C-1 before Christmas, which has a cheap camera and can be flown outside. Both were great trainers and I hope to enjoy the P3 as a video/photo platform… since the other 2 were more for fun/stunts.
Like most things after a move, I have no idea where my old soldering iron has ended up. That said, it is not like I had a nice one or even most of the extra stuff I would need to setup a soldering station in the garage. I barely did any soldering in the past and most of that was like 15-20 years ago. So, it is time to do some shopping and prepare myself for the presales items that will require this gear. Hoping to keep my cost around $50 to $60 for everything but not skimp on items that make my life easier vs harder but cheaper. Continue reading Soldering needs, can’t find my old stuff→
Well, since I am installing an alarm at the house (pre-wired) and nothing was labelled, I figured I needed something to label the wires properly. I have an old brother label maker but it is something I would use for putting labels on a plastic drawer bins in my garage when I have screws or zip ties in them, not for wires.
Time for the second pre-sale purchase from Holidaycoro.com. I was looking to pick up remaining items for the megatree as I missed out on the square pixels during the last pre-sale. I also needed a topper mounting system and some strain relief clips for the PixNode strips that will be possibly anchored to the ground with huge nails. Not sure if I will use it, but I also grabbed a center post load spreader, although I will likely drill through the middle and drive a piece of rebar down to stop any movement if it lifts at all.
I will first say that I apparently missed the original Jon (jchuchla) group buy on diychristmas.org, probably because I didn’t know I would be going rgb in 2016. The original thread discussing the item can be found here and it will explain that it is a tiny PCB used to splice or power tap/inject. They come in a panel of 50 for $5!
So what would I use it for and do I need it? That is a tough question honestly and for the price I do not really care, if I can come up with at least one possible use. Luckily, I do not think it is that difficult to realize that if I have a pixel go out, I have to perform some minor surgery where I cut it out and splice in a good one by using a bunch of solder and heat shrink. Why a bunch of heat shrink? Well, to make sure the wires do not touch and cause fuses to pop or fires to start… although I do like a good fire when it is cold.
Another group buy that i find interesting? Thank you ma’am, may I have another?
This time the group buy is for a device that I am not actually sure how much use I would get… a buffer/line driver from RobG on diychristmas.org, along with other items (flood drivers). I have heard that with the right wire setup on the Falcon F16v2, some pretty long distances can be had to the first pixel. Fair notice, there are other boards like this (uAmp for example) that do something similar.
The premise is pretty basic. If you run your data too long before your first pixel, the signal degrades (drops voltage) and stuff doesn’t work. You may ask why just the first pixel? That is because each
pixel repeats the data down the line to the next. Without any devices like this in a long run, people can resort to just splicing in a normal pixel to act as a repeater (referred to as a null pixel). Obviously you would not want that lighting up so you can just make sure it is excluded in sequencing or you can set this up in the controller (if supported, which most are now) by telling the controller the first pixel is a null and it will leave it off. So this board is a tiny guy that you would use in place of a null pixel and the board will use the incoming power to boost the data headed down the line. A quick solder and heat shrink, done.
Well, I didn’t miss this falcon christmas forum group buy from Andy (harrison0550) before it ended, so that is certainly good news. In fact, this is going to be running until Feb 21st and has already gone over the 500 board break point to drop each unit by $0.50. This still means $11.50 per assembled board, but this would be one of those times where spending some cash can save hassle and time down the road. I have always believed in spending the cash to have the right tool for the job as trying to open a paint can with a hammer can be messy!
As you can see it is a single power input board with 6 fused outputs. Most people might say… “why don’t I just run my own wire and save the money?” In my opinion it would depend on how far away the psu is from the points you have to power inject. If you have a ways to go (like the top of a megatree), wouldn’t you rather run one pair of wires up instead of 6 pairs? I would, especially if I am looking at injection numbers that would require more than one of these boards. I think the same would apply to running across the yard to a location where you have several elements but no good place to put a larger psu.
I do not know how I missed it all this time, but apparently doityourselfchristmas.com has sub-forums dedicated to specific elements and most have a lot of posts showing what methods people are trying to accomplish similar elements. This is really amazing. Unlike websites or blogs where you see how one person made something (like Matt’s youtube walk-throughs), you get to see a myriad of approaches to the same task. It really does open your eyes to different materials or designs that could be used, which might fit in your budget over other designs.
The display items forum page can be found here. Everything from people working with coro (corrugated plastic not dissimilar from cardboard box structure) to mega trees, arches, wireframes, matrices, and even motorized elements (which it likely not something I will tackle).
I will first say that I apparently missed the original 
This time the group buy is for a device that I am not actually sure how much use I would get… a
As you can see it is a single power input board with 6 fused outputs. Most people might say… “why don’t I just run my own wire and save the money?” In my opinion it would depend on how far away the psu is from the points you have to power inject. If you have a ways to go (like the top of a megatree), wouldn’t you rather run one pair of wires up instead of 6 pairs? I would, especially if I am looking at injection numbers that would require more than one of these boards. I think the same would apply to running across the yard to a location where you have several elements but no good place to put a larger psu.