150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

EL Wire/Tape/Panels, LEDs, pixels and strips, LCDs and TFTs, etc products from Adafruit

Moderators: adafruit_support_bill, adafruit

Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.
h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Oh FYI I am only running a single strip just using the parts from the adafruit kit and my arduino uno with breadboard wires to join the strip to the uno.

User avatar
pburgess
 
Posts: 4161
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by pburgess »

Hi Matt,

How deep is the cut, can you tell? Does it just nick the insulation or does it look like it might penetrate the copper wire as well? Also, where along the strand is the cut? At the start, or part way along the strand? If the latter, do you see all the LEDs flicker, or only the ones after the cut?

If the cut and the first flickering LED don't seem related, I'd suspect an 'iffy' connection between the Arduino and strand (check all three wires: clock, data and ground).

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

The nick does go down and I could see the wire strands inside I didn't think there were any cut strands originally but I will double check. All the less flash bright occasionally on a light background on a dark background or in a video a large number can flicker random colours and some go out completely. This seems to happen both sides of the cut which is about 4 pixels in from the input end.

All the wires are quite securely pushed in(using the jammed breadboard wire method wiggling then seems to make no change I will try and swap these out for different wires just incase.

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Heres a close up of the cut:

Image
It has cut afew if the wires inside

Here is a picture of my wiring I have swapped out the Adurino - LED wires but have had no improvement.
Image

The damaged wire comes just before the 3rd led just out of shot bottom right above.

Here is a video of the issue I am having:

Image

The odd thing is is is less severe when just on the desktop/lighter backgroud I have a video of this also if needed.
Colourswirl works absolutly fine aswell but it really isnt happy when I start using screen capture.

I have tried playing with SPI.setClockDivider(SPI_CLOCK_DIV16); setting it to 128 before reuploading the the urduino but to no avail
and I also tried static final boolean useFullScreenCaps = false; in the processing code but no luck here either.

User avatar
pburgess
 
Posts: 4161
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by pburgess »

Strangeness! Is the flicker represented in the Adalight preview window, or does that part look normal while only the LEDs flicker?

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Nope Adalights preview shows the correct colours for my screen no flickering there.

User avatar
pburgess
 
Posts: 4161
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by pburgess »

Tell me about the hardware. Vintage PC, or the latest hawtness? What sort of USB port is the Arduino connected to...1.0, 2.0, 3.0?

WS2801 pixels are sensitive to timing, so I suspect possible latch strangeness going on. But it may yet be that nicked wire after all, in which case we'll replace it.

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Intel i3 1st gen @ 4ghz
4gb Ram
ATI 6970
Arduino running from USB 2.0 on the motherboard.

Thanks very much for all your help so far, I am very grateful for the time you have taken.

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Oh and running Win7 Professional X64 sorry if theres any more detail you need just let me know.

User avatar
pburgess
 
Posts: 4161
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:29 am

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by pburgess »

Nothing weird there. Let's swap out the strand then...the cut is too close to the pixel to realistically try to fix.

Please email [email protected], include your order number and a link to this post, we'll have something on its way in a jiffy.

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Well I had wanted to say thanks for the amazing support got my new LED String last week plugged it in and all way running great. (Had hoped that’s all I was going to say in this post but.....)

Had been playing games with it this week and all was going well until the other night midway through a session all the LEDs got stuck on Red now all I get when I turn them on is the first LED glowing red for a little while then nothing tried re uploading the codes to my Arduino and running the Colour swirl but to no avail. Got any ideas how this could have happened I’m absolutely gutted.

Any suggestions?

h0ffman
 
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2013 4:50 pm

Re: 150 LEDs, 1 LED bullet flicker randomly sometimes

Post by h0ffman »

Good news! I tried cutting my old faulty to see if they would light up and got nothing at all not a flicker this made me wonder if there was a power issue. Currently using the supplier US plug with an adapter here in the UK which I wasnt that keen on, so I cut up a spare USB cable to get the power wires exposed and plugged in into my phone chargers USB socket (Also 5V 2A) and voila lights are back good as new (well with the addition of a ghetto electrical taped USB cable. I have taken them down for now and will try and produce somthing a bit neater now with a propper UK plug.

Locked
Please be positive and constructive with your questions and comments.

Return to “Glowy things (LCD, LED, TFT, EL) purchased at Adafruit”