I am creating a cloud wall using the pixelblaze and the bullet led lights. The LEDs will go behind a large board and I’ll drill holes through it and poke the bullets through.
My question is how should I string the lights to work well with the patterns on the pixelbalze?
Up and down moving from the left side of the wall to the right? Left to right working from the bottom of the wall to the top? Random patterns?
I have 500 pixel bullets and plan to go the full length of the wall pictured below (probably around the TV too.
You can map it as simply as taking a photo and clicking on the LEDs in the right order. (So don’t go too random to the point of you not being sure what the next pixel is, but of course you can always run KITT and see the order)
With most other controllers, keeping them in a straight and even line/order would be important, but with PB, not so much.
One thing to consider: Pixelblaze comes with a lot of 1D linear patterns preloaded, so if you’d like to use them with very little 2D code conversion, you might pick some pattern that you think would be aesthetic to your project.
For a cloud wall, I might start with outlining the outermost layer and and then spiral in. This gives you some flexibility for different effects by limiting which section of the line is lit - storms emanating from the middle, outline of sun behind the clouds, etc.
Many of the stock/contrib patterns are still 1D (a single strip of LEDs). I do plan on adding 2D (and 3D) versions of most. Some patterns that look good on a strip might look weird in 2D, of course
I agree, a layout by “sections” or “segments” always makes sense if it’s easy to do. If nothing else, you can always limit an effect/pattern by pixel index (I only want this effect to happen between pixels 120 and 150)
As we’ve discussed in the past, planning ahead of time yields the best results. Thinking through the led layout with an eye to what you want to do, is better than just stringing it up, committing to it, and then realizing you really wanted to do something you can’t now.
