Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman.

Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman

Spotlight On RGB Overview of many of the different RGB products available and how one can incorporate those products into a spectacular home holiday or seasonal display 2

What Is RGB RGB is an acronym for Red, Green, Blue. It is used to describe a wide selection of lighting products which can be used produce just about any visible color. 3

Topics Pixel definition Tool chain Dumb RGB and Smart/Intelligent RGB
Lenses and types IP Rating Pixel chip families and why these are important Electrical power How smart pixels function 4

Topics Communication interfaces (Serial, Ethernet) and protocols
Controllers Networking and IP addressing Bandwidth considerations Channels and universes Controller configuration Software Show playback options 5

What Is a Pixel Typically a pixel is a single RGB device which can be independently controlled in a given system 6

If any part of the chain is wrong it won’t work.
Tool Chain Dumb RGB devices Headend/playback device > serial cable > controller & power > dumb RGB devices Smart RGB devices Headend/playback device > serial cable > controller & power > smart RGB devices or Headend > data network > controller & power > smart RGB If any part of the chain is wrong it won’t work. 7

Dumb RGB RGB device or string lights which function as one pixel or 3 channels. All the lights work together and respond to the same 3 channels. Examples: dumb strings, dumb ribbons, etc. Challenge question: Wash and flood lights – dumb or smart? 8

Dumb RGB RGB device or string lights which function as one pixel or 3 channels. All the lights work together and respond to the same 3 channels. Ch 1, 2, 3 Ch 1, 2, 3 Ch 1, 2, 3 Ch 1, 2, 3 Ch 1, 2, 3 9

Smart RGB RGB light sources which can be independently controlled in a given system. May be arranged as a string, a collection of lighted blocks or modules, etc. Basically they are a collection of dumb RGB light sources, each with its own starting channel number. 10

Smart RGB Each light source responds to different channels. This is how it is possible to individually control each light on a smart RGB string. Channel 1, 2, 3 Channel 4, 5, 6 Channel 7, 8, 9 Channel 10, 11, 12 Channel 13, 14, 15 11

Dumb vs. Smart One easy way of spotting the difference between dumb and smart pixels is by looking for the chip in each module. Smart Dumb 12

Lenses and Types One has to consider the look or the type of lenses you want on your pixels. There are bullets, domes, C7’s C9’s, squares, rectangles, etc. Bullets Modules Modified bullet 13

Lenses and Types Domes Capsules Screw-in modules Pucks C7/C9
Globes & Tubes 14

IP Rating 15

Pixel Chip families GE Color Effects – 4 Bit
Remember the small chips in the smart pixels? There are many different types of these chips. Here are some names and number of brightness levels they support: GE Color Effects – 4 Bit LPD6803 IC – 5 Bit (CCR’s) WS28xx IC – 8 bit (CCB’s and CCP’s are 5V) WS2811/12 are the most popular and most wide-spread – 12V TM18xx IC – 8 bit TLS3001 IC – 12 bit CYT3005 IC – 12 bit INK1003 IC – 8 bit 16

Pixel Chip families The number of bits supported is important as it affects how smoothly the pixels will ramp and fade. The more bits the better (up to a certain point). 2^4 bits: 16 steps per color (16 x 16 x 16 = 4096 colors) 5 bits: 32 steps per color (32 x 32 x 32 = colors) 8 bits: 256 steps per color (256 x 256 x 256 = colors) 12 bits: 4096 steps per color (4096 x 4096 x 4096 = colors) 24 bits: steps per color (65536 x x = a lot of colors) 17

Pixel Chip families The main reason it is important to know the pixel chip used by your pixels is so you can select which controller or controllers to use. You have to make sure the controller you use will support the pixel chip you have purchased. Some pixel types aren’t listed on a given controller because they can be controlled using the same protocol as other chips. For example WS28xx=TM18xx and CYT3005 = TLS3001. 18

Electrical Power It is vitally important to know how to calculate electrical loads, especially when using RGB devices. It is even more critical when assembling the components yourself from several different sources. 19

Electrical Power Its also important to use switching power supplies rather than regular, unregulated power supplies. AC voltage is what is provided by electrical utilities (usually high voltage >90VAC) DC voltage is what pixels require to operate (usually low voltage <60VDC) Tesla vs. Edison 20

Electrical Power The reason AC power transmission “won” over DC power transmission is because of voltage drop in DC applications. Yes, AC power transmission does suffer from voltage drop but not nearly as much as DC voltage. Pixels suffer from voltage drop, too, because they are low-voltage devices. AC Tesla vs. Edison DC 21

Electrical Power Voltage drop is why you have to inject power when using a high number of pixels per run and/or going long distances with a run. Another consideration – use higher voltage pixels (12VDC) rather than lower voltage pixels (5VDC) to help mitigate voltage drop. AC Tesla vs. Edison DC 22

Voltage Drop Voltage drop calculator: http://www.calculator.net/
voltage-drop-calculator.html AC Tesla vs. Edison DC 23

Power Injection Example of injecting power: Channel 1, 2, 3 Channel
4, 5, 6 Channel 7, 8, 9 Channel 10, 11, 12 Channel 13, 14, 15 24

Power Injection Or: Channel 1, 2, 3 Channel 4, 5, 6 Channel 7, 8, 9 Channel 10, 11, 12 Channel 13, 14, 15 Some manufacturers offer special power injection “T’s” to make this easy. 25

Electrical Power It’s important to plan out your display when it comes to using RGB pixels and the power they require. There are times when many smaller controllers (4 outputs) are better than one regular pixel controller (16 outputs) because of power distribution issues. 26

Electrical Power Watts = Volts x Amps (WVa = West Virginia)
Calculate the mains power needed for low voltage devices by calculating wattage. 27

Electrical Power Example: 12VDC pixels and each is 0.04A
How much power does 150 pixels need at 12VDC? Answer: At 120VAC? 28

How much power does 150 pixels need at 12VDC? Answer: 6A At 120VAC? Answer: 29

How much power does 150 pixels need at 12VDC? Answer: 6A At 120VAC? Answer: 0.6A 30

How much power does 225 pixels need at 5VDC? Answer: At 120VAC? 31

How much power does 225 pixels need at 5VDC? Answer: 7.875A At 120VAC? Answer: 32

How much power does 225 pixels need at 5VDC? Answer: 7.875A At 120VAC? Answer: A 33

Electrical Power Wire size is very important! Not length but diameter or wire gauge (American Wire Gauge or AWG). 3000 pixels which rated at 0.05A each need 150 amps of power. This works out to: 750 watts at 5VDC! or 1800 watts at 12VDC! 34

Electrical Power AWG Amps 6 55 8 40 10 30 12 20 14 15 16 22 18 10 35

Tool Chain Smart RGB devices
Headend/playback device > serial cable > controller & power > smart RGB devices USB-RS485 Wire size! 36

Electrical Power Divide and conquer! Use multiple power supplies and controllers. Look at what power supplies are available and how many pixels each controller can control. For example, there are 350W power supplies available. Keeping the load at no more than 300W provides a safety margin. If 5VDC pixels are rated at 0.05A then 300W can power 1200 pixels (60 amps). If using 12VDC pixels then 300W can power 500 pixels (25 amps). 37

Electrical Power Or: Channel 1, 2, 3 Channel 4, 5, 6 Channel 7, 8, 9 Channel 10, 11, 12 Channel 13, 14, 15 Some manufacturers offer special power injection “T’s” to make this easy. 38

Electrical Power A RGB tree is nice because all the pixels come back to one place and all the controllers can sit near the pixels. However, using RGB pixels for long runs needs to be planned and thought out. This is one of the big problems that cause RGB displays to fail prematurely. A good rule of thumb to use is to inject power every 100 pixels or 100 feet, whichever comes first. 39

Electrical Power Voltage drop summary Higher voltage pixels
Power injection on long runs Large wire for power injection Multiple controllers Keep first pixel in any string close to controller 40

Prebuilt “Dumb” Products
Look for pre-built products from companies as they will have already sized and wired the power supplies, included them in the enclosure, and tell you how many strings or pixels you can run off of a given controller. Dumb RGB controllers and product suppliers: Advatek HolidayCoro LOR (available from Holiday Technologies) Ray Wu/China Others… 41

Prebuilt “Smart” Products
Look for pre-built products from companies as they will have already sized and wired the power supplies, included them in the enclosure, and tell you how many strings or pixels you can run off of a given controller. HolidayCoro.com Light-O-Rama (available from Holiday Technologies) Advatek, Falcon, Joshua Systems, Minleon, Holiday Technologies, San Devices, and other companies… 42

Electrical Power Plan and calculate Calculate and plan Recalculate 43

How Smart Pixels Function
Pixel strings work as bucket brigade devices. Data flows one direction; as it flows, each pixel takes the next available data and then repeats the data that is left over down the line. This continues until all the data has been exhausted or the end of the line has been reached. 44

How Smart Pixels Function
Pixel strings can be repaired! Simply replace the bad pixel with another one, making sure the data flow is going in the right direction. This will restore the flow of data to the remaining pixels on a damaged string. Replacement pixel(s) has/have to use the same voltage and pixel chip type and wires have to be connected correctly. 45

Communication interfaces
Serial Ethernet 46

Serial Can go up to 1500 feet Can have up to 32 devices attached Slower data speeds (19.2Kb/s, 57.6Kb/s, 115.2Kb/s, or Gen3 speeds of 500Kb/s or 1000Kb/s) Length inversely proportional to data speed Can use daisy-chain Ethernet Can go up to 328 feet (100m) 1 device at each end of a given cable Higher data speeds (multi Mb/s or even Gb/s) Can use star configuration Wifi also in this category 47

Serial DMX512 protocol - 250Kb/s DMX is also called E1.11 LOR protocol Other custom protocols (i.e. Renard, PixelNet, etc.) Devices can have duplicate addresses (Unit ID’s, DMX starting channel numbers, etc.) DMX via Ethernet Streaming ACN (sACN) also called E1.31 ArtNET Devices must have unique TCP/IP addresses but can service the same DMX universes 48

The communication interface(s) you use will be driven by the pixels/light sources you choose and the hardware they require. It will also be driven by the software you choose to control your display. 49

Controllers Dumb RGB controllers are similar to AC light controllers – they take commands and turn outputs on and off. Smart RGB pixel controllers are basically protocol translators – they take commands and turn them into other commands that pixels understand. 50

Serial/DMX-based controllers which control smart pixels
CCR, CCP, CCB – LOR Pixie4, 8, and 16 – LOR 51

Serial/DMX-based controllers for dumb pixels
China controller 27 outputs (or 9 dumb pixels) CMB24D – LOR 24 outputs (or 8 dumb pixels) China controller 3 outputs (or 1 dumb pixel) 52

Serial/DMX-based controllers for dumb pixels
China controller with remote China controller Various numbers of outputs Many other serial/DMX-based pixel controllers are available (and cheap, too!) 53

Ethernet-based controllers
Falcon – Falcon Christmas 16 pixel outputs, 4 DMX outputs PixLite16 – Advatek 16 pixel outputs, 4 DMX outputs PixLite 4 – Advatek 4 pixel outputs, 1 DMX output 54

Falcon – Falcon Christmas 4 pixel outputs, 1 DMX outputs AlphaPix – HolidayCoro 16 pixel outputs, 3 DMX outputs AlphaPix4 – HolidayCoro 4 pixel outputs, 1 DMX output 55

ECG-P12R – Joshua 1 Systems 12 pixel outputs ESPixelStick 1 pixel output, Communicates via wi-fi NDB – Minleon 16 pixel outputs Other ethernet-based pixel controllers are available (such as Raspberry Pi, Arduino, etc.) 56

Tool Chain reminder Lights (pixels) Controller and power supply
Data network (serial or ethernet) Head end/playback device If any part of the chain is wrong it won’t work. 57

Networking Serial networking is fairly straight forward:
Cable leaves headend/playback device Daisy-chains from one controller to the next Add repeater if necessary to continue chain One network per cable daisy-chain Only complications are if multiple serial networks are used. 58

Networking Ethernet networking can be fairly complicated due to TCP/IP addressing and networking devices such as switches and routers: Headend/playback device Cable to network switch or router device Star configuration out from network device to ethernet-based controllers Additional network switches can be added to repeat the signaling to other controllers 59

Networking – unique addresses
Serial Devices can have duplicate addresses (Unit ID’s, DMX starting channel numbers, etc.) DMX via Ethernet Devices must have unique TCP/IP addresses but can service the same DMX universes Important difference between the two! 60

Networking IP addresses: x.x.x.x
They are actually made up of two parts – the network and the address. The net mask tells the computer and network where to draw the line between the two. 61

Valid numbers are 0-255. Why? Because of 8 bits in a byte.
Networking IP addresses: x.x.x.x Think of the network as the street and the address as your street number Valid numbers are Why? Because of 8 bits in a byte. 62

Networking Private address space: These networks do not get routed out
Start network space End network space These networks do not get routed out to the Internet – so use them 63

What is the network or street? What is the address or street number?
Networking Example: Net mask: What is the network or street? What is the address or street number? What about a netmask of ? 64

Networking The gateway address tells the computer, “if the street number isn’t on this street, then go here.” Typically the gateway is the address of your network router and it will route your traffic to another street or network connected to the router. 67

Networking Example: 192.168.0.44 Net mask: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: What is the network or street? What is the address or street number? What is the address of the “network exit” (i.e. router)? 68

Networking Two computers example: Computer 1: 192.168.0.44
Both have net masks of Can the computers communicate? Even if they are on the same physical network? 69

Networking One last note – you cannot use the first and last address or street number of a given network. In the case of a netmask of the address of 0 denotes the network and the address of 255 is the broadcast address. 70

Networking Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP)
How are IP addresses assigned in a given network? If working with a static scheme then a human assigns them (typically, you!). 71

Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP)
Networking Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP) If working with a dynamic scheme then a DHCP server device (either a computer or router on the network) assigns them from a pool of available addresses. 72

Networking Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP) This is important because you cannot have duplicate IP addresses. When using DHCP a machine (computer or router) makes sure duplicates don’t happen. 73

Networking Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP) When NOT using DHCP the human (i.e. you) have to make sure duplicates don’t happen. 74

Networking Static IP address vs. Dynamic (DHCP)
Why is using DHCP better? Why is using static better? 75

Networking Unicast vs. Broadcast
A unicast is when you send data to a specific address on the network. A broadcast is when you send data to ALL the devices on a network. Why is unicasting better? Why is broadcasting better? 76

Bandwidth Considerations
If you have 1 universe worth of data to send it means you have (roughly) 512 bytes of data. If you want to send that data 44 times a second then you need to send 512 bytes x 44 = KBytes of data. 77

22.528KBytes x 11 bits (8 bits per byte plus a start bit and two stop bits) = Kbits of data per second. This is why serial DMX runs at 250Kb/s and has a refresh rate of 44Hz. These are very rough estimates! 78

We’ve established that to send 1 universe of data 44 times a second takes a network running at 250Kb/s. What about if you have more universes of data to send? 79

How much bandwith would 5 universes need to maintain a refresh rate of 44Hz? 250Kb/s x 5 = 1250Kb/s or 1.250Mb/s What about 10 universes? 2.50Mb/s 80

One serial link cannot handle very many universes. This is why most people begin to use Ethernet-based controllers. Ethernet can run at 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s, or even 1000Mb/s (i.e. 1Gb/s). 81

If one universe at 44Hz needs 0.250Mb/s then 50 universes needs 0.250Mb/s x 50 or 12.5Mb/s. A 100Mb/s Ethernet link should handle up to 400 universes of data at 44Hz. However, network and packet overhead along with inefficiencies make this number much lower! Give yourself a safety margin and move up to 1Gb/s speed. 82

Channels and Universes
A DMX universe can output up to 512 channels of data. Each pixel typically uses 3 channels. 512 divided by 3 = pixels or 170 pixels per universe 83

Channels and Bandwidth
If you have a display with 1000 pixels then you need 1000 pixels divided by 170 pixels per universe = 5.89 universes or 6 universes. A display with 15,000 pixels needs: 15,000 / 170 = 89 universes 84

Channels and Bandwidth
A display with 15,000 pixels needs: 15,000 / 170 = 89 universes Bandwidth: 89 universes x 0.25Mb/s = 22.25Mb/s if staying at a 44Hz refresh rate 85

Channels and Universes
Pixels are controlled by DMX universes (typically). Some LOR pixel products which use the LOR protocol are controlled by unit ID’s. Match up your channel configuration on the computer with the controller configuration…. 86

Controller configuration
This is yet another link in the chain between the computer and the lights. All of the information has to match or the lights cannot be controlled. 87

Software Commercial: Light-O-Rama (RGB support beginning with S3)
Madrix Others Freeware: HLS (Hinkle Lighting Software) Vixen xlights/Nutcracker 88

Show Playback Headend devices Run show from Pro Show Director
modern computer Serial and/or Ethernet outputs, multiple protocols, multiple software solutions Pro Show Director RTC, 6 inputs, 2 networks Run show from Raspberry Pi Serial and/or Ethernet outputs, multiple protocols Mini Show Director No clock, 3 inputs, 1 network 89

Show Playback Headend devices Minleon Network Effects Controller (NEC)
Serial and/or Ethernet outputs, multiple protocols 90

Show Playback Coming soon? Master/Slave configuration Master
Raspberry Pi Serial and/or Ethernet outputs, multiple protocols Pro Show Director RTC, 6 inputs, 4 serial networks Slaves 91

Your purchase decision
Human nature being what it is…. Make an informed decision but recognize after you do that others are in the same decision-making boat. The Expo and what you will encounter… 92

Links To Know PowerPoint™ RGB presentation
fasteddy_rgb_intro_v11.ppsx PDF RGB Manual (have to sign up for free account first) auschristmaslighting-101-manual.1889/ 93

Spotlight On RGB Drew Hickman http://www.holidaytechnologies.com

Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback

Log in

Auth with social network:

Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman.

Similar presentations

Presentation on theme: "Spotlight on RGB Drew Hickman."— Presentation transcript:

Similar presentations

About project

Feedback