Interest Only - Finally Affortable Snowfall Tubes (FAST) PCBs

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"?

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
Click to expand...
You are correct. The home depot tubes are thinner and crack easier. Uv is good. And yes you use either a ledancer or fast controller.
 
I take that back. Uv tubing is very spendy. The tubing we used is shipping tubing. About $2 vs $6. I've had them for four or five years and they are not foggy or brittle. Other than scratches from putting them up and down they are like new.
 
Thanks for the reply.
I think since I would like to probably build 20 to thirty of these then it wouldn't hurt to pay the price for the UV tubing and make them last a bit. Especially since they will be more of an extra for the display and hanging around the perimeter of my property.
I would think that I would run them maybe for a bit before and after the show and then maybe during some announcements as well for effect. They certainly do have a lot of possibilities!

Just saw your post so will update this one! So where do you all pick up the clear tubing you are using for yous?
Something like this then I take it?
http://www.mcmaster.com/#2044t47/=vfok15


Bill
 
Last edited:
beeiilll said:
Thanks for the reply.
I think since I would like to probably build 20 to thirty of these then it wouldn't hurt to pay the price for the UV tubing and make them last a bit. Especially since they will be more of an extra for the display and hanging around the perimeter of my property.
I would think that I would run them maybe for a bit before and after the show and then maybe during some announcements as well for effect. They certainly do have a lot of possibilities!

Just saw your post so will update this one! So where do you all pick up the clear tubing you are using for yous?
Something like this then I take it?
http://www.mcmaster.com/#2044t47/=vfok15


Bill
Click to expand...

The 2044T47 are the ones that I have tested the hanging caps on and they fit great. As I said those are about 1/3 the cost of the UV ones you posted.
 
Great, Thanks
Now I don't have to ask which tubes will fit the end caps on the DIY site!
As well as now others will know too.
 
dlovely said:
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.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info! To gain contol of the whole group(as I don't see needing individual control the way i'm displaying) can I hook the 350w 5v power supply to a channel on a renard ss board or is that bad for the power supply and use the dcssr to daisy chain it in and the power supply to inject the power? And if i'm completely off base in my thinking please feel free to call me an idiot as i have lived on the forums for about 2 weeks now and go to bed with a headache a lot of times. Also when hooking up the tubes I was thinking something that is lower voltage like the cat 5 cable but is the better way to do a 'quick disconnect' or 'plug' if you will at the actual fixture since obviously vampire plugs or something like that won't fork. Also at the actual power supply since there is 15 of them do I just wire them all to the same post or need some kind of splitter? Thank you!
 
About how many snow fall tubes with 28 led on them could be ran off a 1 amp 5 volt PS? I think I will be running about 24-30 tubes.
 
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