DiyLightAnimation

Somebody even pointed out on another venue that there is a little more resistance for the higher levels: Cat 6 > Cat 5e > Cat 5.   Because of twists, a 100' cable has conductors longer than 100', and the higher grades have tighter twists and longer conductors.  So for power, cat5 could be (slightly) better.

Mostly this is a small effect tho, I think it was no more than about 10% (I don't have the figures he quoted from some tables he used in his work).  Nothing to really concern anybody, just a minor point.

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If I'm understanding that listing, it is a fixed color strip - that is, all LEDs are on a single channel; you could control it so that all LEDs are on, all are off, or all are at the same dimming level.  You can choose among a few colors, and one of the colors is "RGB" but that means alternating those fixed colors along the strip, without individual control of each color (still only one channel, not three channels).

That's a viable option, so long as you are not expecting 3 channel RGB control for color mixing.

Has anybody here powered their pixels from a 12V lead acid battery (like a deep discharge marine battery)?

I was thinking to power around 100 pixels, of the recommended type from the Wiki:
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My thinking so far:

If powered directly by the battery, the pixels would need to withstand up to around 13.8v (when none or few were lit and the battery was fully charged). but this would drop as the battery discharges, and with higher loads (all LEDs on full).

Alternately, one could use an LDO regulator (around 3 amps draw for the above string), or a DC-DC power supply but it would probably need to be buck-boost to handle input and output voltage so close to each other.  Any suggestions for either of these?

Any other ideas, refinements, or especially experience?

(I would use 12v-5v regulator or PS for the driving electronics as needed; this is about powering the pixels per se).

Interesting, a 950W PS which puts out 1000W on the !2v rail alone.  I guess that it's both an overachiever and can expend its full capacity on 12V if you don't use anything else.

Cool!

Which wireless units work with the Conductor (to slave)?  Any links?

First note - some answers might assume an AC string; AC current can be measured with current clamps (which essentially makes a tiny transformer).  Doesn't work for DC, tho.  In general, you will need to put something in line to measure DC current.

What I'd do first is use my old analog meter.  It's a very old Radio Shack that was once probably $20.  I've found it to work more reliably on circuits (current or voltage) with a lot of switching noise.  If you don't have an analog meter, I recommend getting one; any time your digital meter reading seems a bit wacky or unstable (varying over time, or when measuring the same thing in different ranges), pull out the analog for a sanity check.

(If I had an oscilliscope I'd put that across the meter leads next and look at the waveform, but we'll leave that aside for now).

The smart strings have a highly variable current when doing PWM (Pulse Width Modulation).  It's full on for a tiny fraction of a second and full off for another fraction, rinse and repeat often.  That can drive a DMM to distraction.

It might measure better when at 100% brightness.  You'd have to look at it with as scope to see if it really stabilizes to full on or if there is any off time.  Try it.

If you really want to measure it with a DMM, you might be able to put an appropriate capacitor across the DMM leads to filter out the variations.  Basically there is a small resistor (called a shunt if anybody cares) between the leads inside the DMM (and the analog meter)  when measuring current.  As current flows through the resistor it develops a voltage which is measured and scaled by the meter.  A capacitor between the leads would smooth out the curve.  I don't know the right value - it depends on the frequency of the PWM in the pixels, the amp range of the meter (which changes the shunt resistor used), and the current draw.

I would not be surprised if a really good DMM can handle all this in stride; I've never had a really good professional DMM.

Please follow up and let us know what you discover about what works and how... this is a very interesting question.