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Hello,
I just completed my first Neopixel blade and I am getting a few dark spots on the blade. Plus, you can clearly see where the two strips are put together. The dark line goes all the way up the blade. Is there a setting to increase the brightness of the LED's or do I maybe have a setting wrong? Any advise would be appreciated.
Thank You!
Please share how your blade is constructed, what board you are using, what settings, etc.
I am using the CFX with 2 LED strips. I have the v2 foam tube, trans white blade and diffuser all from TCSS. I wired in the PCB like Rob's video showed and everything seemed to go together well. I did try the strips in my old Vader's Vault blade that has the cellophane diffuser in itand is sanded and a lot of the dark spots were gone. I think I am going to get rid of the white diffuser and try the cellophane and see what happens. If you have any other advise I would appreciate it.
I would not suggest using cellophane instead of the diffuser. If you already have, you likely can see each led independently. I found that those spots typically occur if you squish the stops in and either the strips or the diffuser end up with very slight bends in them. You want both to be super flat and perfectly sized for your tube.
Post a picture of you want more specific troubleshooting.
I disagree. Cellophane works great. As one of the pixel blade originators, I've been using it for years.
Attachment 17655 You can see the black spot where the joint comes together and the line up the side where the two strips are joined together. Is there any way to correct this?
Celophane is a great diffuser. You already have a transwhite tube, using the strip diffuser in the transwhite tube will just wash out your pixels further. Ditch the diffuser tube, and add as much celophane as you can fit. Did you keep your strips tight to each other when you joined them? Did you wrap the back to back strips in celophane prior to the foam? Celophane.Quote:
Originally Posted by jbkuma
Now, I use clear 1/2" shrink around my back to back strips, and I sand that. Some will decry that the heat shrink won't allow heat to dissipate properly; however, my oldest blade is 2 years old, and still functioning just fine with heat shrink.
I sand the clear heat shrink with 400 once it cools, then wrap the heat shrink with as much celophane as I can fit into the foam, then I get as much celophane around the outside of the foam as I can fit inside the blade tube. That will help. IMO, if you are using WS2812B strips, you will always have some vertical shadowing on both sides of your blade. The only way to really fix that is to use SK6812 (3535) strips, which are narrower. That vertical shadow drives me bonkers. sk6812s resolve it mostly, as well as staggering the pixels when you put the strips back to back, helps to break up and reduce shadowing. You must also keep the strips from bending or kinking. My clear heat shrink helps with that, as well as never pushing them into the foam. You have to inchworm them into the foam.
There are lots of ways to do it, and mine isn't "right" per se, but here is how I do it:
https://youtu.be/DecQBtbbS5Y