hey everyone, I need some help with the parallel output / multiple controllers functions

hey everyone, I need some help with the parallel output / multiple controllers functions of fastled.

My setup is currently: arduino mega (but I have a teensy 3.2 available) Fastled 3.1, 50 WS2812 strips of lengths between 30 -120 leds and multiple 5V 40A power supplies.

For some context, I’m working on an installation consisting of about 18 of these sculptures / structures as in this video (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByNeW_1SXKRkejhBUWp5TGEtRkNSa1I1bXEtN05meXpSams4/view?usp=sharing)
. The data is fed via CAT6a cables with signal and ground per twisted pair and grounds tied to both arduino and power supply. Each structure is fed one signal line which is then split into three inside the structure, one for each led strip going down the legs. So far this works perfectly fine. I’ve been working with the Mega using simple mirroring for now with the knowledge I’ll run into frame rate issues and that I’ll scale up to a teensy very soon. The issue is that some structures are 50cm tall, others are up to 2m tall, which means if I define the number of leds to represent the largest structure, animations don’t get fully played out on the smallest structures.

My question is this: Can I use parallel output on the teensy and output one set of data on one set of pins (defining numleds for bigger structures) and another set of data on another set of pins (for smaller structures)? IE use port D and port C as defined in the example to output different data? Or should I be trying to use multiple arrays, or an array of arrays? I’m not that experienced with multiple controllers and don’t quite get how these work and if they’d be helpful to me so any help would be appreciated! Thanks
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByNeW_1SXKRkejhBUWp5TGEtRkNSa1I1bXEtN05meXpSams4/view?usp=drive_web

Hi- just a reminder that since ‘Google Plus’ is shutting down entirely, this whole discussion group has moved to Reddit.
See you there! https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/

(Full announcement here https://plus.google.com/u/1/112916219338292742137/posts/cVXKLysVfTw )
https://www.reddit.com/r/FastLED/

oh hadn’t realised! sorry and thanks - will repost over there

No worries! Even though the G+ shutdown has been in the works for a long time, we just announced the move to Reddit on Friday, so you’re not even really ‘behind the times’ or anything! See you over there, and thanks for asking a good question!

I´d go for multiple arrays as described here: https://github.com/FastLED/FastLED/wiki/Multiple-Controller-Examples#multiple-led-arrays
Depending on your animations it might make sense to render only one array for the largest number of leds and then scale it down for the shorter strips that it looks similar on every strip no matter how long they are.