Something does not add up. Each is 16 ft long, but “32 light sources”? The strips appear to have an RGB SMD at least every couple of inches, which would be closer to 90 LEDs (and I’m guessing it’s likely more than that). So what is this “32 light sources” thing of which they speak so fondly and seductively? The “product manual” (pdf available at https://blisslights.com/pages/manuals) mentions nothing about it, but it also mentions next to nothing about any subject at all. .
@troy Eh, that still doesn’t “illuminate” what the 32 light sources in the specs table is about. The item itself actually looks pretty interesting, although I’ve got too many strip lights sitting here that I haven’t used yet already. I think I would be getting the stink eye if I bought another one.
@troy@werehatrack The app only supports independent control of twelve regions. There appears to be one controller chip for every 3 LEDS. I would have expected for each controller chip to be individually addressable. If there is an LED every two inches, then that would mean 32 zones in a 16 foot segment. Even though this isn’t the product with 16 ft segments, the specs might have come from there.
The daisy chained RGB LED controller chips were affordable well before the Adafruit Neopixel style of combining the LEDS with the controller in a single package. Using one controller for many RGB LEDs made economic sense for several years.
Perhaps they made this product compatible with an older app that was originally written for a Bluetooth light string that actually only had 12 bulbs. The Bluetooth controller may be repeating pixels to stretch 12 zones over 32 feet.
@hamjudo I’d still prefer a product equipped with a controller that does not require an app to drive it. Experience has shown that the forward compatibility of those apps with future phone/tablet OS versions is often much worse than merely spotty, and when the access to the app’s installer goes away with the evaporation of the provider, it’s way too easy to end up with an orphan device that’s no longer very useful except as a component source to strip down (if the user’s capabilities make that an option).
@werehatrack I wasn’t suggesting that anyone buy these. I was hypothesizing on the odd specs.
The ideal for this sort of thing is when a product is advertised as using a particular version of Open Source software and that includes instructions for flashing different versions. This has actually happened with a few USB soldering irons, some remote control quadcopters, and various electronic test equipment.
I bought the GPIO breakout board for my Pinecil soldering iron without an intended use for the thing. I bought it to encourage them to offer GPIO expansion on future products. So far, I have only used the soldering iron with the stock firmware, and only for soldering. But I like the idea that I could use it in nonstandard ways if I chose to.
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Something does not add up. Each is 16 ft long, but “32 light sources”? The strips appear to have an RGB SMD at least every couple of inches, which would be closer to 90 LEDs (and I’m guessing it’s likely more than that). So what is this “32 light sources” thing of which they speak so fondly and seductively? The “product manual” (pdf available at https://blisslights.com/pages/manuals) mentions nothing about it, but it also mentions next to nothing about any subject at all. .
@werehatrack It’s just one 32’ strip light – the “in the box” has been corrected
@troy Eh, that still doesn’t “illuminate” what the 32 light sources in the specs table is about. The item itself actually looks pretty interesting, although I’ve got too many strip lights sitting here that I haven’t used yet already. I think I would be getting the stink eye if I bought another one.
@troy @werehatrack The app only supports independent control of twelve regions. There appears to be one controller chip for every 3 LEDS. I would have expected for each controller chip to be individually addressable. If there is an LED every two inches, then that would mean 32 zones in a 16 foot segment. Even though this isn’t the product with 16 ft segments, the specs might have come from there.
The daisy chained RGB LED controller chips were affordable well before the Adafruit Neopixel style of combining the LEDS with the controller in a single package. Using one controller for many RGB LEDs made economic sense for several years.
Perhaps they made this product compatible with an older app that was originally written for a Bluetooth light string that actually only had 12 bulbs. The Bluetooth controller may be repeating pixels to stretch 12 zones over 32 feet.
@hamjudo I’d still prefer a product equipped with a controller that does not require an app to drive it. Experience has shown that the forward compatibility of those apps with future phone/tablet OS versions is often much worse than merely spotty, and when the access to the app’s installer goes away with the evaporation of the provider, it’s way too easy to end up with an orphan device that’s no longer very useful except as a component source to strip down (if the user’s capabilities make that an option).
@werehatrack I wasn’t suggesting that anyone buy these. I was hypothesizing on the odd specs.
The ideal for this sort of thing is when a product is advertised as using a particular version of Open Source software and that includes instructions for flashing different versions. This has actually happened with a few USB soldering irons, some remote control quadcopters, and various electronic test equipment.
I bought the GPIO breakout board for my Pinecil soldering iron without an intended use for the thing. I bought it to encourage them to offer GPIO expansion on future products. So far, I have only used the soldering iron with the stock firmware, and only for soldering. But I like the idea that I could use it in nonstandard ways if I chose to.