Baldrick down under

[AAH]

I am now distributing the Baldrick 8 port pixel controller (designed by iLightThat in the UK) here in Australia. It's an absolutely brilliant little controller that will do 8 WS281x outputs of 750 pixels at 40fps refresh rate. At lower refresh rates it can have up to 2000 pixels connected to each port.
5, 12 or 24V pixels can be used with the ability to use any of the 3 voltages on each of the 2 30A rated inputs. The board is powered by either input.
The 8 outputs are each rated at 7.5A and each has a "fuse good" led.
The board has Xlight integration from 2024.10 and the board uses the DDP protocol for ease of configuration and for lower ethernet network congestion.
https://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/product/baldrick/
Greg at PanelsRUs shows off the board here.
https://youtu.be/Pl7_n3C1XMs

I have these boards on the way to me from the UK. They are likely to miss arriving by the time of the Sydney mini but if anyone orders them and has "pickup at mini" selected for the freight I will ship them for free as soon as they arrive.
These little controllers are as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University. It says so on the home page for the board which is also linked from a QR code on the pcb.

Baldrick Board Guide | Baldrick Board

The Baldrick Board is an easy to use 8 port controller designed to be plug and play

baldrickboard.com

 

[Katekate]

we were just talking about those in the chat yesterday

 

[Skymaster]

I'll be buying one for pickup up at the Melbourne Mini I reckon

 

[Johnnyboy]

I'll be buying one for pickup up at the Melbourne Mini I reckon

Perth mini on 8th June, don’t think it would make it if order expected on the 7th! Bugger!
Cool product

 

[AAH]

Perth mini on 8th June, don’t think it would make it if order expected on the 7th! Bugger!
Cool product

If there's free shipping turned on for a mini and they haven't arrived by then I'll ship them free when they arrive. I'm still hoping to have them this month but it's looking likely to be a bit later.

 

[Wayne1]

For that price I wonder how they did it. I am going to have to test one, I think.

Do they have plans for a 16 or 32 version?

 

[AAH]

For that price I wonder how they did it. I am going to have to test one, I think.

Do they have plans for a 16 or 32 version?

It has some stupidly good features and is amazing in what it can do for the price.
I don't know about any bigger versions as yet. I think the micro is maxed out for IO's with the 8 pixel outs and all the other stuff.

 

[fugley]

For that price I wonder how they did it. I am going to have to test one, I think.

Do they have plans for a 16 or 32 version?

i get your point although are they really that cheap ?
double the price and you now have 16 ports and a similar price

 

[AAH]

i get your point although are they really that cheap ?
double the price and you now have 16 ports and a similar price

Baldrick 8 channel $AUD110
My HE123Mk2 $AUD120 + BBB $85 + FPP 16 port licence $22.50 (48 port licence is $45). 16 ports is $227.50. 48 ports is about $70 or so more.

Falcon F16 V4 $AUD345
Pixlite16 Mk2 $AUD770
Light-o-rama Aurora Core 16 output controller $345
San Devices E682 16 output controller $345

Double the price of the Baldrick gives you 1 of my HE123Mk2 which can be expanded to 48 outputs for a cost of about $300. To get 16 outputs from any of the US made controllers you can get 3 Baldrick 8 output controllers. For an Aussie made Pixlite 16 you could have 56 outputs of Baldrick controllers.
The US made controllers have 2 30A inputs to 8 5A (ish) rated outputs. You can't use all 16 output to their full 5A capacity and you certainly can't use them to the 7.5A that the Baldrick controller (and my own controllers) allow.

They are cheap but importing them costs a fair bit of the price. Freight and GST (on the import) add to the shelf price that you see.

 

[AAH]

As of Saturday 18-May-2024 the Baldrick controller now supports E1.31 and Artnet.
This means that if you're using LOR for instance with an Advanced licence you can get 3 Baldrick 8 output controllers for the price of 1 Aurora core 16 output.

 

[Katekate]

Are you going to bring some to the minis to show off Alan?

 

[AAH]

Are you going to bring some to the minis to show off Alan?

I think my delivery of them will hit Aus too late for the Sydney mini by a few days but I'll definitely have them with me in Melbourne.
I'll definitely have my sample/test 1 with me at least.

 

[darylc]

Alan, can you help us understand how Baldrick is different to something like https://yourpixelstore.com/product/pixel-controller-advanced-eight-port-ethernet-controller/

The only difference I can see is Baldrick supports slightly more pixels/port at 40FPS?

 

[thewanderingpine]

The firmware claims to output close to 3X the pixels at 40fps than WLED. (The YPS one claims 500 per pin, but not with every pin running at the same time).
Also - the dual power inputs helps to do the full 7.5A /port.

 

[Skymaster]

Four differences I can see straight off the bat:

• 5-24V input /pixels as opposed to 12V only.
• Two power inputs for 4 outputs, allowing full 7.5A per output for the 30A input.
• Software isn't WLED
• 3 GPIOs that can trigger FPP commands directly