Interest Only - Finally Affortable Snowfall Tubes (FAST) PCBs

josephleeson said:
http://www.diyledexpress.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5
Click to expand...

Following . . .

Can someone elaborate on what is needed? There are a lot of components listed on the website. Here is my understanding:

1 LED Segment PCB is the actual strip with holes for the lights, and that there are 4 of them for each "unit" purchased.
1 Controller BOM which has all the components for each "tube"
1 controller PCB for each "tube" that the BOM will go on
X LEDs (available elsewhere on the diyled site)

So buying the above components would give me 1 tube with 4 - 12" sections. If I wanted 4 - 12" sections I would buy one unit of the first item, and then 4 each of the others. Correct?

In addition, I believe we have to purchase the PIC programmer so that we can program the chips and change the random interval and number of segments?

Thanks,

Brian
 
brianweb said:
Following . . .

Can someone elaborate on what is needed? There are a lot of components listed on the website. Here is my understanding:

1 LED Segment PCB is the actual strip with holes for the lights, and that there are 4 of them for each "unit" purchased.
1 Controller BOM which has all the components for each "tube"
1 controller PCB for each "tube" that the BOM will go on
X LEDs (available elsewhere on the diyled site)

So buying the above components would give me 1 tube with 4 - 12" sections. If I wanted 4 - 12" sections I would buy one unit of the first item, and then 4 each of the others. Correct?

In addition, I believe we have to purchase the PIC programmer so that we can program the chips and change the random interval and number of segments?

Thanks,

Brian
Click to expand...

This is correct. Each FAST tube requires the Controller and Controller BOM, then you can use 1~4 of the LED Segment strips. You need 56 LEDs for the 4' FAST, most people use all white, some use all white with a few blue at the bottom.

I would also recommend a LED Tester to verify the LEDs work and aid in making sure you are installing them correctly.

Generally in the kits I pre-program all the PICs, I do not program them for the FASTs so you will need a PIC programmer to load the code on them.
 
Bearsquires1007 said:
Do these work with a San device pixel controller?


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Click to expand...

No - the FAST tubes are simple devices - just apply 5v and off they go. Basically use a low voltage DC controller to enable 5v and they start automatically. You can program different rates, etc in the PICs on the boards but it's not configurable on the fly.
 
When buying the LED segments, do I need the 1 X 8 controller or the new 2 X 4 controller PCB?
Thanks
 
Keith R said:
When buying the LED segments, do I need the 1 X 8 controller or the new 2 X 4 controller PCB?
Thanks
Click to expand...

The 2x4 controller matches the LED Segments much better. The 1x8 is just remaining stock of the original and I don't think I have many of those left.
 
Dave are these snowfall tubes you build or do they come built? I love building this stuff.
What all so I need to buy to make a snowfall tube? So it doesn't appear that you're able to program these to do special things in you're show is that correct or in correct?
How many come together, length, etc.


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Bearsquires1007 said:
Dave are these snowfall tubes you build or do they come built? I love building this stuff.
What all so I need to buy to make a snowfall tube? So it doesn't appear that you're able to program these to do special things in you're show is that correct or in correct?
How many come together, length, etc.


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Click to expand...

They are DIY Kits. You can program them to do what you want with Phil's LEDancer. A set of the LED Strips is 48". Check out the FAST wiki for detailed information.
 
Bearsquires1007 said:
Dave are these snowfall tubes you build or do they come built? I love building this stuff.
What all so I need to buy to make a snowfall tube? So it doesn't appear that you're able to program these to do special things in you're show is that correct or in correct?
How many come together, length, etc.
Click to expand...

The FAST are just snowfall tubes, you can configure some settings like speed, etc when you build them, but they just fall when 5v dc is applied to them. The Ledancers allows each led to be individually addressed and sequenced via a dmx data stream.

You need 1) a tube to mount them in (mcmaster Carr sells them) 2) leds 3) controller board (either FAST or LeDancer) for each tube 4) led pcbs that come in 1' segments (you can build them from 1' -4' long per tube) 5) end caps 6) wire 7) 5v dc power supply 8) time..... (lots of since each led has 4 legs)

If you build the LeDancer you need a dmx dongle to send them sequencing data. Each tube is between 14 -56 channels each depending on length.
 
I just ordered 15 fast tubes and everything need to build the actual units and got the tubes from the other site so I have everything needed to build these except the main power cord going into it. I ordered a standard 350 5v power supply that I was going to use to run all of these, what's my best way to get power to all of them and get them hooked up, or do I need to go ahead and order singular wall warts to hook up to each one. These will be going into a big tree and possible a few smaller ones in another smaller tree. May in future sync to show but as i'm new to this this year and am a static show with hopefully few animated sequences(snow falling, etc) i don't plan on sequencing it for the '15 display.

P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum as I saw several questions being asked thought it seemed appropriate.
 
Creativedesign said:
I just ordered 15 fast tubes and everything need to build the actual units and got the tubes from the other site so I have everything needed to build these except the main power cord going into it. I ordered a standard 350 5v power supply that I was going to use to run all of these, what's my best way to get power to all of them and get them hooked up, or do I need to go ahead and order singular wall warts to hook up to each one. These will be going into a big tree and possible a few smaller ones in another smaller tree. May in future sync to show but as i'm new to this this year and am a static show with hopefully few animated sequences(snow falling, etc) i don't plan on sequencing it for the '15 display.

P.S. Sorry if this is in the wrong forum as I saw several questions being asked thought it seemed appropriate.
Click to expand...

Nice thing about the FAST is you can modify the firmware to seed them with different rates, then power them all by one power supply and they will act differently. For wiring you can use CAT5 cable or the like since the draw is very low around 23mA each. Next year when you want to control them you can put them all on a single DCSSR as a group or use something like the Ren48LSD and control each one individually.
 
Hey Dave,
Do you use the UV tubing from McMaster-Carr:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#8532k21/=vfo7h4

or do you have another one you would recommend for these? I would think that the UV resistant would work better "long term"?

Also I "assume" that if you use the LedDancer board with the Snowfall boards that you would not need the Fast Controller?

Opps just noticed post #55 about the controllers and answered my own question!

Thanks
 
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beeiilll said:
Hey Dave,
Do you use the UV tubing from McMaster-Carr:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#8532k21/=vfo7h4

or do you have another one you would recommend for these? I would think that the UV resistant would work better "long term"?
Thanks
Click to expand...

I have not used the UV tubing. Anything with the UV additive is going to work out better over time but generally cost more. Don't remember the cost of the standard one off hand but that looks to be at about 3x the cost I remember.
 
Thanks
I was just browsing through and found that one I like to make stuff as long lasting as I can if possible! I will have to go see about a less expensive one on there I guess.
 
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