Seed vs bullet pixel vs mesh matrix

A

aaronross

Member
Taking the dive into adding matrices on my windows and figured I would ping the brain trust on their thoughts. I’m thinking 3’x6’ with 1.5” spacing. Windows sit around 50’ from the road.
 
I'll be watching this. I have a 2x4, 2.5" grid now but I need better resolution. I just measured today
and a 3'x6' would work there.
 
In my opinion: 2" is the smallest spacing I would use for seed pixels, because any smaller spacing is much more difficult in splicing (soldering/heatshrink).
Maybe you could attach the seeds to a garden net/mesh with cable ties.
 
I used 1" spacing in my windows with a distance of about 50' from road. I like the effect, but as said earlier it is a bit more challenging to splice. This is my second year with that window matrix and works very well. I only run them at 50% brightness and they mesh really well with my bullets at 30%.
 
Its lots of work but....if you take and fold the seeds, so they are closer together but then you can spread them apart for splicing, you get the best of both worlds. I did that for a set of candy canes (ribbons in some, seeds in the new ones) and will rebuild with seeds on the ribbons just so they are all consistent. I also did that for meteors, since 2" was not the effect, so did more like 1". BUT, downside its a bunch of work but in the end the result was a better looking prop. But starting in January, you have 10+ months to get it done, because we all start rebuilding/fixing/building then right? Nobody waits until Sept.... :-)
 
Utimgr said:
Its lots of work but....if you take and fold the seeds, so they are closer together but then you can spread them apart for splicing, you get the best of both worlds. I did that for a set of candy canes (ribbons in some, seeds in the new ones) and will rebuild with seeds on the ribbons just so they are all consistent. I also did that for meteors, since 2" was not the effect, so did more like 1". BUT, downside its a bunch of work but in the end the result was a better looking prop. But starting in January, you have 10+ months to get it done, because we all start rebuilding/fixing/building then right? Nobody waits until Sept.... :)
Click to expand...
How did you secure the fold? Definitely trying to get most of the work knocked out early this year, quite a bit of expanding happening and I don’t want to be burning the midnight oil in sept/oct
 
I made a new 6' talking tree with santa hat (blatant copy of EFL). I just looked at the image and made it as close as I could, its attached to tenax using 4" cable ties. The seeds used for this were 4" spacing (too much, 2" would have been better). A lot of 4" cable ties but it came out great. I made the model and sub models myself. All total it was around 496 pixels (not in front of xlights). I am all in on seeds now. I hope to create a few 3d printed props using them over the next few months.
 
I'm planning to deploy a bunch of 1" seeds next season. My hope is that splicing will be tolerable using solder sleeves, and cutting the pixels so that you have about 1" of wire on each side (cutting it right up against a throwaway pixel). I'm told that's doable.
 
I think I’m opting to go the traditional bullet route. I saw a video posted by YPS with a seed matrix in front of a window and while the seeds do make a more economical matrix, the amount of light reflected from the window seemed to wash out the matrix itself. I think the traditional matrix mesh does a good job of isolating the light.
 
Not sure why you would think seeds wash out the look of the matrix.
Here is my submission for XLAW, have a look at matrix effects and see for yourself. I don't find them to be any better/worse than the P10 I replaced it with.
Recorded about 35' away. Viewing distance for visitors is about 50'.
Ignore red and green lights in background (daughter keeps them on all year inside window)
Attached is what mine looks like after I took it down. 14 strings of 120 seeds zig zag (X4) so 30X56 = 1680 pixels. 5v with no PI, 1" spacing.
 

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Bravo! Your display looks awesome! My opinion was based solely on a single observation but you have swayed my opinion. Your effects look amazing.
 
No, I have 3D printed snowflakes in the other 3. (114 pixels each) These are going on 10 years in PETG.
I used to have a projector playing Santa Claus waving to the kids on that particular window.
My daughter moved back home so I had to convert that room into a bedroom.
Needed something to fill in space so created a matrix.
My 2X6 P10 matrix failed 2 years back so I created this one out of seeds.
Does double duty as a Tune-to sign between each song.
 
DrNeutron said:
No, I have 3D printed snowflakes in the other 3. (114 pixels each) These are going on 10 years in PETG.
I used to have a projector playing Santa Claus waving to the kids on that particular window.
My daughter moved back home so I had to convert that room into a bedroom.
Needed something to fill in space so created a matrix.
My 2X6 P10 matrix failed 2 years back so I created this one out of seeds.
Does double duty as a Tune-to sign between each song.
Click to expand...
I have used PVC pipe like that in the past and I have a big roll of the mesh. My question is where did
you get your 1" spaced seeds? Or did you just tie them every inch. I'm looking to do a 3x6 or somewhere
in that range.
 
rayhjr said:
I have used PVC pipe like that in the past and I have a big roll of the mesh. My question is where did
you get your 1" spaced seeds? Or did you just tie them every inch. I'm looking to do a 3x6 or somewhere
in that range.
Click to expand...
I bought the roll of seeds from Ray. Those are the original one's he offered which use 24 or 26ga wire (very thin). There was no need to cable tie every inch, every 6 or so was fine to keep things lined up. I have since bought a few thousand of the 2" and 4" spaced seeds from Ray with the new 20ga wiring and they are so much better to work with (my talking tree is made with the 4" seeds). I would strongly suggest going the 20ga route. I kept 2 spare strands as backup in case I ran into issues but 2 seasons of Xmas and Halloween and not an issue. I think the key to longevity for these is to support them. Don't depend on the strand to support itself or allow it to move around on its own.
 
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