OCTOWS2811 and relays

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ShaneGreen

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I have a Teensy 3.2 and Octows2811 set up to run a Christmas "mega tree". Three outputs run groups of 400 pixels at 5V: 16 strands of 50 for the tree and 4 strands of 50 for the star. Everything is working great and it's been exciting learning all about this. It's my first real try at an electronic project of any magnitude and it's all new to me.

My problem is that I'd like to be able to turn off some 120V decorations that will be nearby when the tree is running. If I was able to control them by relays, then I wouldn't have to stop at just turning them off, I'd sync them to the music and make them part of the display. Is there a way to operate a set of relays off of one of the remaining OCTO outputs?

I plan on purchasing more 3.2s and relay boards to control some 120V lights in my display next year, but they will be in a different part of the yard.
 
You can't easily control break out Octo Pins for other purposes without hacking up the library a fair bit, though given you would probably need a driver circuit anyway using an ordinary 3.3V pin + transistor should get you where you need to go. If getting creative with a relay remember it's physical thing that takes time to move and will wear out when planning your effects code, and at 110V arcing and contact welding are something to manage in your design.
 
Way back when before LED's I designed a 3 channel color organ using triacs driven with home made opto isolators. Basically a small incandescent bulb and a photo cell in a small enclosure. The bulb was driven by the output of an audio amp through filters to separate the audio into 3 frequency ranges. Worked well enough I sold several to bars during the disco craze.

Might do a little studying on triacs to see if you could come up with what you are wanting to do.
 
For reasons mentioned above you could run your relay off another free output and leave the OCTO outputs alone.
If you want to use your cat5 wiring already going to your octo board for convenience then just strip your cable and pull out a wire to use at both ends.

feel free to post any pics/videos or info on your project as I'm interested.
 
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So Gibbedy, there are free outputs left on the teensy after installing the OCTO? How would I go about accessing those? My electronics knowledge is pretty minor and I'm learning as I go.

Here is a proof-of-concept video of the tree laid out on the office floor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3larz8B3law It's really rough, but I have mounting strips on order and I'm building the support pole and bracketry, so I'm hoping in a few weeks to have something a lot more professional looking. Right now its' two 2x4s stretched out between a paint roller pole, LOL. It's pretty straight forward, a 5V 300A power supply, Teensy and OCTO. 12mm pixels on 3" centers in a zig-zag configuration with power injection every 100 pixels. They never run at 100% brightness on white, so I have pleanty of power. . . for now. I'm expecting to need a 2nd power supply when I move it outside. There will be three small (36" to 24" tall) trees clustered off to the side that will use one of the OCTO outputs to sync with the megatree. And the star for the top is roughly 200 pixels.

Here is a project I'd like to tackle next year to animate the rest of the house and yard, but I don't have the time or money to do it this year. Of course, I'd like to try it with a Teensy: http://www.instructables.com/id/RPi-Christmas-Lights-W-Website/
 
Yep. You could solder wires to pads on bottom of teensy, or the octo board brings out some of these pins that you could solder header pins or sockets to.

Not at computer or I would make a list of available pins.

Tree looks good.
 
I’m thinking about something similar, but I would just use a nodemcu to run a few relays, it can still be a e131 channel and work on xlights (or other) show program.
I would separate it just because it’s easier to manage them as separate controllers.
For the few pennies it costs to buy a nodemcu, it’s much easier this way.
 
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