Where can I buy Cheap-Fi ?
Write us an email order and we will send you Cheap-Fi directly. Use this Contact.
What is DMX?
Dmx (full named DMX512) is digital signal which is used to control lighting fixtures and is used worldwide in entertainment industry. DMX512 protocol is very easy to understand as it is just 512 values of 0 to 255. For more information visit: DMX information pages
What kind of DMX transmitter do I need?
As Cheap-Fi is designed to be cheap, it recieve DMX from most common cheap DMX transciever with 1 button (ID selector) and 1 RGB LED diode. It typically looks like this:Suitable DMX transmitter on Ebay or Suitable DMX transmitter on Ebay - unboxed version
How long should power bank last with Cheap-Fi?
Exact time depends on many factors like LED type used, LED count used, Effects you use, temperature, USB cable resistance, real power bank capacity, powerbank cut-off cuircits and so on.. To simplify things you can use this simple formula to calculate estimated battery life: NOMINAL POWERBANK CAPACITY (in mAh) / 75 / pixel count = time in hours on full white.
This time may seem to be too low, but this is on full white. Typicaly on party, or performance you use individual color, some time you disable it and so on. So in average you drain your battery by about 20%-40% of maximum rating. So you can multiply calculated time by 3.
For example. 2 cell power bank with rated capacity 5400mAh and LED strip with 30pixels it is: 5400 / 75 / 30 = 2.4h ~ 2h 20min. If you will use it in color efect, strobo etc then it is about 7h 10min
It is strongly recommended to use high quality power banks. Don't believe to cheap Chinese li-ion cells with triple capacity than is usual capacity of same size cell.
Please perform real test to get better accuracy measurements in time critical events.
How many LEDs can be controlled?
There are 2 factors which needs to be considered: Cheap-Fi limit and DMX limit.
As DMX512 has 512 channels and each pixel need 3 channels (RGB) it is 170pcs of independent pixels per one DMX line (DMX universe).
Cheap-Fi limit is 105 LEDs. But to save DMX channels to use more Cheap-Fi's, Cheap-Fi has "pixel repeat" feature. Pixel repeat can be set to any number between 1 to 105.
To understand pixel repeat feature just imagine 1 Cheap-Fi device with 30 LEDs connected. With pixel repeat 1 you can control each LED individually, so it takes 30*3 = 90 DMX channels.
In case that you don't need individual control of each LED, but control whole strip as 1 RGB pixel, then you set pixel repeat to 30. Then it will take just 3 DMX channels and apply same color on all pixels.
Keep in mind that you can use pixel repeat 15 to be able control first half of strip independent of second half. Or other setting to more precise pixel control.
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