A bit about my display!

[jimmyslights]

Hey folks,

Thanks so much for the warm welcome to ACL that I have received! I thought I'd better share a bit about myself and the history of my display

I am based at Noarlunga which is in the Southern Suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia and have been putting on "traditional" 240v Christmas lights displays on for almost 12 years. My display mostly has had LED fairy lights (strings and icicles), rope-light motifs and inflatables however, this year I have decided I would like to make the move to a pixel display, possibly integrating the older lights I have to work side by side with the pixels (with a bit of rewiring and suitable power supplies). The reason I have chose pixels is not only do I love the look of them compared to 240v lights, I love the ability we have to synchronise them to music and actually put on a show rather than just a static display.

So far I have made a few purchases to try and get started on my upgrades (Raspberry Pi, PixelPi from @SmartAlecLights, USB Sound card and some 3m strips of WS2811) and have also acquired some tint tubes from a local business who happened to be throwing them out at the perfect time. If anyone happens to have any recommendations on things to buy or if they are selling anything they believe may be able to help me out in getting started or just advice in general, I would massively appreciate it.

I am starting to try sequencing using XLights and I am finding this to be an incredibly user friendly system, which is awesome as I don't have as much spare time these days due to work to get really in depth with the nitty gritty side of it as much (although I can where I need to)

Looking forward to chatting with you all some more and can't wait to see what everyone has in store for the upcoming season!


- Jimmy

 

[samber]

Welcome from another Adelaidean let the fun begin for you.

 

[i13]

Welcome to the forum

I'm certainly happy to explain how to integrate the existing traditional LED strings into a computer-controlled display although I'm not in Adelaide anymore. Let me know if you want to go ahead with that as it is likely that you'll be able to integrate a good portion of what you already have. This was my result when I did it: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/9545/

Time will be tight as we're already in late August but I'm sure you'll be able to get something working.

 

[djgra79]

Welcome to ACL Jimmy, looking forward to seeing your progress, keep us updated and dont be afraid to ask questions if you can't find the answers within the site already.

 

[jimmyslights]

Welcome to the forum

I'm certainly happy to explain how to integrate the existing traditional LED strings into a computer-controlled display although I'm not in Adelaide anymore. Let me know if you want to go ahead with that as it is likely that you'll be able to integrate a good portion of what you already have. This was my result when I did it: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/9545/

Time will be tight as we're already in late August but I'm sure you'll be able to get something working.

Thanks so much for your warm welcome, I would love to have a chat about this some more at some point please!

 

[jimmyslights]

Welcome to ACL Jimmy, looking forward to seeing your progress, keep us updated and dont be afraid to ask questions if you can't find the answers within the site already.

Thanks so much for the warm welcome To be honest, your display videos are a major contributing factor as to what has inspired me to check out the world of pixels Always enjoy your content and can’t wait to see what you have in store for this year