Strobes with RGB?

[drlucas]

Just got the BoM confirmed from a local(ish) store. It will be $65 cdn for option 1 so I'm going that path. Will report back on the success in a while.

[zwiller]

I think the key to strobes is quantity so the cheaper the better IMO.  The xenons are good but expensive, have water penetration issues, and user must deal with lack of randomness.  I plan to test a small dmx constant current board from Ray with 1W and 3W raw leds.  White 1W can be had for two bits shipped and 3W a half dollar.  (I am happy with strobes limited to white)  With this is mind one could easily afford 100+. 

Kinda baffled no one in the blinky community developed a DIY strobe board.  Really wish I knew how and I would.  I have some cool ideas.  16 channel constant current 600ma for 3W is 4A and can be carried over cat5.  Board would be based on T200 case size.  Cat 5 input.  4 cat 5 outputs (32 wires).  Buy some 4-8' monoprice strand ethernet cat5 and cut off one end and strip to wires and solder a pair to leds.  16 strobes in a 8-16' radius, banks of 4 strobes per cat5.  A simple chip to do the dmx/pn thing.  Random fire programmed into firmware.  Maybe intensity could control rate.  1 being slow and 255 fast.  That's about it.  KISS.  No sequencing strobes.  Only 1 channel used.  Maybe there is a need for a 16 channel CC controller and then there could be strobing firmware... 

[arw01]

I bought a couple of the CC boards from Ray in my order that should ship next week and asked he put a few of his "strobe" pixels into the box to test with, they are only .75 watts, but I think a few in a prop large ball would be interesting.

I'm in, which one of you hardware hackers will help zwiller and a few of us other noobs with a strobe?

Heck I'd even look at 10W or so leds so I could get some brightness like for my "mega" tree as the strobes I bought on pre-sale are not going to cut it.

Alan

[zwiller]

Looks like we're back where we left off.     Still plan to try the RGB hack to my spot lights too. 

[arw01]

Don't remember the rgb hack you were plotting.  Those the little housings you found?

I was going to put a couple of ray's 10w spots in my order, but they add $30 each and when I crossed my budget I skipped em for this order.

I still want at least 3-4 little spots like you have on your house, and ultimately I would like a PTZ base for them so I can use them with home automation and motion sensors to track someone on the property after hours..

[zwiller]

Get a white spot on ebay $10ish.  Add a 350ma rgb led, Ray's little 3 ch 300ma CC dmx controller, and replace cord with 4 conductor connector (12+, gnd, dmx+, dmx -).  You might be ok to try the $13 rgb spots but unsure the led will work with the board. 

[drlucas]

I'm waiting for the arduino (and dip switch) to arrive early next week and will put everything together with the 3/4w rgb strobes I have. If that works I'd like to step up and try the 1 and 3w leds if there is a relatively easy way to light them at 5v.

In the meantime I'm back to testing my matrix and fixing one or two more strips (hope no other ones failed on me since my last testing about 4 weeks ago).