Blinkstick Pro vs Blinkstick Flex low brightness differences

[e_kravcenka]

I have both pro and flex blinksticks and using the same code with same LED strips it appears that blinkstick flex is far better at adjusting low levels of brightness. What i mean by that is that if i set blinkstick pro to have the strip light up with RGB=(10,0,0) the red light is significantly brighter than when I do the same with blinkstick flex. Is there any reason for this or am I missing something? This is a pretty annoying issue as the light from blinkstick pro is too bright even at low levels to comfortably have the leds facing me in the dark, whereas leds connected to blinkstick flex are very pleasant and dim to look at when set on low brightness. Blinkstick pro is dim enough when i set it to rgb = (1,0,0), but that locks me into 3-bit colors only.

[p0ke]

Hey Edwin,
what I know is that the flex controls the brightness automaticly. So it really could be a bit darker than the pro. I will take a look at this later but I think a brightness calculation in your code could be a solution. If you like take a look at the link below and additionally there must be more ways users went somewhere in the forums.

Would is be possible to power LED strips using USB

Thanks @p0ke, that worked great! def goDarkBlue(): for bstick in blinkstick.find_all(): Brightness = 5 bstick.set_inverse(True) r,g,b = bstick._hex_to_rgb("#3F89FF") r = (Brightness / 100.0 * r) g = (Brightness / 100.0 * g) b = (Brightness / 100.0 * b) bstick.set_color(red=r, green=g, blue=b) return redirect("/") Is how I adapted your sample script. Thanks again.

Just as an idea.

[e_kravcenka]

That’s the thing. It’s as low as it gets in my code. the rgb values are to r=1 g=0 b=0 and only then the red light is somewhat dim enough, meanwhile on flex the same rgb code results in a barely visible tiny dot (which, I’d say would be expected).
I wouldn’t be surprised that flex can be dimmer due to having a much stricter limitation on the led count, but I’m hoping it’s possible to somehow make the pro also be as dim as the flex.

[areid_van]

I haven’t seen the Flex firmware code, but the product description says:

It's smart enough to automatically adjust the power draw from the USB port based on how many LEDs are controlled

see https://www.blinkstick.com/products/blinkstick-flex

USB can only deliver 500mA, so for 32 LED ~16mA. The specs on the LED modules say they can draw up to 60mA, so the Flex might be limiting power to the device and lowering overall brightness.

Are you testing with the same USB port and same length cable? Different hubs and ports could have different power ratings.