Thread: RGB Help!!!

I consider myself a fairly tech savvy individual and I have done some extensive reading on the various forum web sites, but I still have a bunch of convoluted questions.

1 - Computer to controller - Looking at either sandevices E680 or Joshua 1 Systems ECG-PIXAD8 - Am I correct in seeing that these get hooked up directly to the Ethernet port on the control PC and I can use pretty much any normal off the shelf network switch/router?

2 - I am looking at using a combination of the following from Ray Wu (or, if there are any comparable sites stateside with similar products)
Buy led strip, digital strip, led dream color strip, 5m led digital strip,DC5V input,WS2801IC(256 scale);32pcs IC and 32pcs 5050 SMD RGB each meter;without controller at Aliexpress.com
Buy led channel letter, led direct lighting, pixel rgb led module, 12mm 8mm led pixel RGB led channel lettet,waterproof,WS2801IC;256 level gray scale;DC5V input at Aliexpress.com
Buy led module, led pixel node, 2801 pixel node, RGB full LED pixel module (WS 2801 IC) ;DC5V input,50pcs a string at Aliexpress.com

They are all 2801 IC and are all 5volt DC. not quite sure how many and where, Thats where my second question comes in, Are these items good to use with the above listed controllers? How many "nodes" can be run off of those controllers? By my research, 2040 pixels/nodes off of the J1SYS and SanDevices units, am I correct? Can I hook up multiple controllers thru the switch/router depending on what I need. I do see that I need to inject power along the way as well and a good 5 Volt DC Transformer should accomplish that easily.

I plan on doing my eaves with strips, my bushes in pixel strings and a matrix using the modules using Lightshow Pro. Am I missing something?

Originally Posted by abigroot

I consider myself a fairly tech savvy individual and I have done some extensive reading on the various forum web sites, but I still have a bunch of convoluted questions.

1 - Computer to controller - Looking at either sandevices E680 or Joshua 1 Systems ECG-PIXAD8 - Am I correct in seeing that these get hooked up directly to the Ethernet port on the control PC and I can use pretty much any normal off the shelf network switch/router?

2 - I am looking at using a combination of the following from Ray Wu (or, if there are any comparable sites stateside with similar products)
Buy led strip, digital strip, led dream color strip, 5m led digital strip,DC5V input,WS2801IC(256 scale);32pcs IC and 32pcs 5050 SMD RGB each meter;without controller at Aliexpress.com
Buy led channel letter, led direct lighting, pixel rgb led module, 12mm 8mm led pixel RGB led channel lettet,waterproof,WS2801IC;256 level gray scale;DC5V input at Aliexpress.com
Buy led module, led pixel node, 2801 pixel node, RGB full LED pixel module (WS 2801 IC) ;DC5V input,50pcs a string at Aliexpress.com

They are all 2801 IC and are all 5volt DC. not quite sure how many and where, Thats where my second question comes in, Are these items good to use with the above listed controllers? How many "nodes" can be run off of those controllers? By my research, 2040 pixels/nodes off of the J1SYS and SanDevices units, am I correct? Can I hook up multiple controllers thru the switch/router depending on what I need. I do see that I need to inject power along the way as well and a good 5 Volt DC Transformer should accomplish that easily.

I plan on doing my eaves with strips, my bushes in pixel strings and a matrix using the modules using Lightshow Pro. Am I missing something?

From what i understand you are on the right track. I will be using 4 - J1 sys 8 universe devices to DMX. I will be using DMX decoders for my strips.

My strips are all 12 volts 5050 super bright leds with 2801 ic

Example here Test-Show

From the Conversations with Ed @ J1 as long as the devices are on the network we are good to go .

I am using 10/100/1000 hubs/ switches on my network as i do not want bottle necks on home lan.

Mike

Originally Posted by abigroot

I consider myself a fairly tech savvy individual and I have done some extensive reading on the various forum web sites, but I still have a bunch of convoluted questions.

1 - Computer to controller - Looking at either sandevices E680 or Joshua 1 Systems ECG-PIXAD8 - Am I correct in seeing that these get hooked up directly to the Ethernet port on the control PC and I can use pretty much any normal off the shelf network switch/router?

2 - I am looking at using a combination of the following from Ray Wu (or, if there are any comparable sites stateside with similar products)
Buy led strip, digital strip, led dream color strip, 5m led digital strip,DC5V input,WS2801IC(256 scale);32pcs IC and 32pcs 5050 SMD RGB each meter;without controller at Aliexpress.com
Buy led channel letter, led direct lighting, pixel rgb led module, 12mm 8mm led pixel RGB led channel lettet,waterproof,WS2801IC;256 level gray scale;DC5V input at Aliexpress.com
Buy led module, led pixel node, 2801 pixel node, RGB full LED pixel module (WS 2801 IC) ;DC5V input,50pcs a string at Aliexpress.com

They are all 2801 IC and are all 5volt DC. not quite sure how many and where, Thats where my second question comes in, Are these items good to use with the above listed controllers? How many "nodes" can be run off of those controllers? By my research, 2040 pixels/nodes off of the J1SYS and SanDevices units, am I correct? Can I hook up multiple controllers thru the switch/router depending on what I need. I do see that I need to inject power along the way as well and a good 5 Volt DC Transformer should accomplish that easily.

I plan on doing my eaves with strips, my bushes in pixel strings and a matrix using the modules using Lightshow Pro. Am I missing something?

1.) If you connect the controller directly to the PC, there is no need for a router. You can configure your network card to be on the same subnet and the controller and PC will talk to eachother.

2.) I have 2801 pixels from Ray and use the e680 controller. They have been up since July and all worked flawlessly together for Halloween and Christmas. On the e680, you can go up to 4 universes. That is a total of 680 nodes. To connect multiple controllers you could just connect them all to a switch. Not only do you have to inject power, but you need to ensure that your distance from the controller to the first pixel is minimal; 5 to 10 feet. Make sure that you have a common ground between all your power supplies, controller, and RGB's. Do not connect the + wires together between power supplies though. I ordered the 5v/60w supplies from Ray when I got my pixels for about $12 a piece IIRC.

Here is how I did my roofline:
http://doityourselfchristmas.com/for...ighlight=eaves