Suggestions on Dumb & Pixels

**AJVenti** · 02-25-2023, 04:44 PM

I have an older prop, that I am thinking of upgrading. I had a prop that I built 4yr ago. That was all dumb nods with an 8-channel controller. I want to use some of these in the new prop with some ws2811 pixels. Any suggestions on how to control these types of pixels using just one controller.

**algerdes** · 02-25-2023, 06:28 PM

"Dumb Pixels" and "Smart Pixels" use two different methods of control. Dumb pixels usually have all the brains located on the controller board and all the pixels respond to power being turned on and off to the whole string's 3 power lines. Smart pixels each have a chip and receive their instructions in a stream from a controller that just passes data. (Yes - I know the controller also has a power system, but it is on all the time, unlike the dumb controller.)

So to answer your question, I don't think there is a single controller made to handle both. Two different physical methods!

**MikeKrebs** · 02-25-2023, 06:56 PM

What is the protocol of your existing controller? You can probably do it with a custom version of espixelstick hardware and probably with the standard firmware. But a nice 4 channel with an extra dmx port would work as well.
I guess that wouldn't be a single controller but it would be just a good.

**MartinMueller2003** · 02-25-2023, 08:59 PM

ESPixelStick V4 software supports Pixels and PWM outputs at the same time. The tricky part is finding some hardware that can support what you want. There is a Quinled platform that has enough output pins that you can assign two of them to be I2C outputs. You connect those to a PCA PWM Led Driver. You get 16 PWM outputs on that device for less then $10 USD on amazon. Then you need a DC SSR (Lots of those around) and you are good to go.

**TomL8345** · 02-25-2023, 10:44 PM

A couple of years ago ronp5683 made a WS2811>DC SSR that took 2 pixels of data and converted it into 6 channels of DC SSR. I bought a couple and I use them to run my DirksCheap Strobes. I am not sure how active Ron is on this site, but I see him post frequently on the Green Site. Send him a PM to see if he still has this available. It sounds like just the ticket for what you are trying to do. It only uses 2 pixels worth of data and then passes on the rest of the information to the downstream pixels, I have 3 of them inline before the star on each of my MegaTrees.