Suggestions on Pixel Strips for house outline

Hello,
Just starting out and wanted to know what is the best recommended CCR for house outline. I been looking through a lot of forms and seen different recommendations from Ray store. I want to make sure that when the lights are on that it looks like a solid line not dotted. I have not purchased anything yet and was planning on ordering also the LOR starter kit to go with it? I know shipping from Ray store takes a little bit and wanted to order that first to get it on its way.

Thank you for any Help
Ben

Raven, I would start out by reading the 101 manual. and Jump into chat. Before you purchase ask lots of questions as most of us just purchased LOR gear and now have made the switch to RGB pixels.

You need to decide which way your going to go.
LOR has great plug and play equipment that works well, don't try and mix Rays gear with LOR hardware,you'll be in a world of pain.
In fact I would do a lot more reading before you purchase any starter kits and gauge your abilities and expectation of what you want to achieve.
It's not impossible but there is a lot to learn and Understand on the DIY side of things. A whole roof line as simple as it looks is actually a rather Large undertaking.

You can also pop into chat anytime and ask away.The only stupid questions in there are the ones you don't ask.

Ben, it would help us help you if we new more about "just starting out".


E.g. what software do you use currently to sequence if any?


are you a technical solder it up yourself sort of fellow, or buy it all ready to plug in and go sort?


Do you have LOR gear or just like what LOR has put together?


I was in your shoes about 18 months ago, and am very thankful I did not go LOR.


Alan


ps as a side note, I'm chuckling at the trio of LSP users here in a row.

Currently i am starting from scratch. I don't mind soldering at all. I mostly do IT work so i am hoping that will help out a little bit. I was thinking about using light o rama for the regular lights and purchasing the S3 software and upgrading to Super Star, but nothing is set it stone. I have read over the 101 and been reading over the past few month on different forums. I used to program animatronic shows a long time ago for a restaurant franchise and kinda enjoyed doing it. I am very open to suggestion and don't mind assembling or DIY. I will jump onto chat as well and talk. Thanks for the replys

There is a special running Light Show Pro this month, get the Professional Version for the advanced price, I think in the long run it's less than S3 with superstar, and way more powerful.


It has a learning curve and we have a few bugs yet in version 2.8, but it works slick for a lot of functions. I have seen eddie demonstrate (on a video) how to do moving dmx item sequencing in it.


You just have to decide which way to go, also check out Do It yourself light animation for another source of controllers and information. I went pixelnet instead of dmx and the system made my life SOO much easier last year. I'm still trying to get my head about these 512 channel universes..

Do have a look at Vixen 3 for your sequencing software.
It has the advantage that it has been designed for pixels and RGB and has a sequencing editor that is really powerfull.
And it is Free.
Its not finished yet, development work is going on, but what there is works, and makes your life easier. You can sequence a song in hours, rather than days.
LOR and LSP are doing redevelopment to better cater for pixels, but it will be next year before they get that work done.

davrus said:

LOR and LSP are doing redevelopment to better cater for pixels, but it will be next year before they get that work done.

Click to expand...

LSP is designed for Pixels, and always has been, Its Vixen and LOR that are catering for Pixels, LSP is going through a redevelopment to make it more snappier when sequencing as when it was written it didn't cater for multi core processors.

Definitely start with the 101 manual, I read and read and read some more and still would find things I was unsure about, I started 7 years ago with LOR and kept adding each year, I now have 16 controllers and also 2 P12's my RGB is mainly my Mega Tree right now and I plan to slowly add more RGB because in the long run it is cheaper than doing 1 strand each of Red, Green, Blue, and White LED's and then you still only have 4 colors which can only be dimmed, turned on and off, etc. When you have the RGB you can control every pixel (with smart strings) and generate every color. I personally like a mix of both because when you turn everything on you get a lot of light with multiple strings but you still get the "Wow" of what RGB can do. We luckily have great neighbors and have 4 neighbors who want us to control their lights this year so I will be doing this with the LOR controllers. So do your homework and check out all brands and decide for yourself what you want to do. There was 1 comment about RGB (Ray's Gear) being difficult with LOR, I don't think its hard if you use Nutcracker which will allow you to import what you have programmed into LOR. That's actually pretty easy, time consuming but easy. Good luck and I will apologize right now for the time and money you will spend on this crazy hobby!

I started from scratch 3 years ago and spent a ton on LOR equipment, and other than the software and couple AC controllers I completely regret spending the money on name brand gear. All I buy now is DIY and non big name stuff.
To address your specific question of the house outline, here is the ideal guide for you, it was written for my house, but as an instructional guide for anyone:
http://blog.holidaycoro.com/2013/04/outlining-your-house-in-rgb-lights.html?m=1