Please help vet out my instilation idea from an xlights programing perspective

[Rknelson]

Greetings,

I am in the process of installing some “permanent pixel light track” around the underside of the exterior eves of my home with custom bent aluminum “Gutter coil” . Similar to a lot of commercial solutions on the market today. ( Nothing special there). I just want to check with you folks who are more seasoned than I am to make sure I am not going to really regret things when it comes time to sit down in xlights to program them.…….

My question comes based on my desire to have a 2” pixel spacing density. The 12v LED square pixels that I purchased with a 4” spacing are actually 4 and ¾” and this places about 2 3/4” loop of extra wire in my track MORE than I need. Yes this technically “Fits” however I am wondering if there might be a superior approach in which I basically take two strings and go “every other” 12mm hole in my aluminum track. I think this MIGHT solve two problems for me.

1) There will be less surplus wire in big loops getting in the way of the other signal and power injection wires I hope to place in this same pathway.
2) The first power injection point will still be 100 pixels away from the first one however this length will be twice as far linearly before it requires injection.

Great! Sold! Ill Take it!!!!

Except if I take this route will I forever hate myself when it comes time to program in xlights? I have no idea…. This is my first year…….

I have not seen any kind of way to basically say hey these two strings are going every other and so lights treats them as if they were one.

Thanks in advance for sharing your expertise and steering me away from potential pitfalls in physical install design from haunting me in xlights when it is to late.

Rob


PS i dont think it matters however these are 12v Regulated square pixels that i hope to run from a Falcon F16V4 board sequenced with xlights.

 

[1pet2_9]

From a strictly software standpoint, yes. You can create two Single Line props, and align the second so that it exactly fits in the middle of the first. Then form a group comprising of the two single lines. All your effects you place on the group will behave like a single strand. And in fact you can do some cool effects on the individual strings at the same time. I'm looking at Color Wash effect using different colors on the two strings right now, and it works. Nothing you couldn't also do using a single, linear string, but it would be harder.

P.s. if you punch the pixels that way, I think you'll need to punch both strings at the same time and alternate, i.e
punch string 1, then string 2, then string 1.... Because if you do all of string 1 first and go every 4th hole, I think your wire will get in the way and you'll struggle to punch string 2 in. You've only got 3/4' of slack.

 

[Rknelson]

Cool! Thank you for soundboarding this idea with me. And fantastic point about having to punch both strings at the same time, I had not thought about that. I will give it a go and report back. Thanks a ton!