Anyone in Perth willing to share their knowledge?

[sveevers]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and the idea of computer controlled lights but I have decided that I want to get something up an running for
Christmas 2016.

As I'm new to this I was wondering if there was anybody in Perth who is using computer control this Christmas who wouldn't mind me coming to have a look and a chat about the setup?

Basically I want to see what gear I need to acquire over the year to get a basic setup running next year.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[dale82]

Firstly Welcome to acl, secondly you should download the 101 manual and have a look at all the options etc. this forum is certainly the right place to start.

 

[djgra79]

Hi Steve, Welcome to ACL!
I'd suggest getting familiar with the 101: http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1889.0.html
It may take a couple of read through to make sense of it. Otherwise, hang around the site and see what other members have done this year to get some inspiration and then inquire as to how they did it and what they used, that should set you in the right direction.
plenty of experienced & friendly members here, feel free to ask as many questions as you need, they're all welcome!
Cheers, Graham

 

[Benslights]

keep a eye out for the mini in your area next year

 

[scamper]

Very few mini's in Perth Ben...
Where about in Perth are you Steve?

 

[sveevers]

Thanks guys. I have had a read of the 101 document and I guess I've made as much sense of it as possible without actually having a 'play' with anything.

One of the things that I am most interested in is how people run all the cabling on large scale projects. ie. Where are the controllers located with respects to the light features? Do most setups run just one controller or multiple controllers in the yard?

I'm in Byford which is about 10km south of Armadale.

 

[scamper]

I know it well.
I am in Collie, so if you head south for the holidays you are more than welcome, otherwise there are others in perth, you should look at the display locations tab at the top right and find some members on there.

 

[sveevers]

Actually we are heading south after Christmas so I might get a chance to stop and have a look at your display. How do I find your address, do you post addresses on this forum?

 

[i13]

Have a look at the display locations map in the links at the top of every ACL page. It shows up when you're logged in.

From memory there haven't been minis in Perth in the last few years and that's all I know. If you have a suitable venue for a weekend then you could offer to host one - big job though. It's also common to travel to other places that do have them. Sydney and Adelaide for example seem to consistently have one each year.

In the meantime you have a whole year to learn, order, prepare and set up. It is never too early to start especially for your first year of computer control and there are no silly questions.

 

[kel]

 

[cdbrown]

I'm in Guildford and have done my first pixel display this year.
Currently using xlights to run the show, pixlite4 and a variety of strip, string and modules. Very simple display compared to others. Spent lots of time trying to work out what elements I wanted, placement, sizes. Even longer was spent making up cables.
Still need to add my dumb white led icicles to the display (gutter line) and in xlights and make some more sequences.

 

[sveevers]

Hi cdbrown, how many pixlite4's are you using and where did you buy them?

 

[cdbrown]

I'm only using 1 pixlite4. Got it from advantek (just used the links on this forum). I'm only running 1200 channels
8 - 2m vertical strips as poles
4 - corro candy canes with 10 modules in each
4 - spiral trees with 50 pixels strings
Also to add is the icicles which are chopped big w lights which will be controller by a mega60.

 

[sveevers]

This is where I'm getting lost. The pixlite 4 is a 4 channel controller yet you have 16 'features' running off it. Are you running each group of features as one channel each? ie. One channel for the poles, one for the canes and one for the trees? That would mean you still have one channel left on the pixlite 4, is that correct? Also are you needing to do any power injection with that setup?

Is this the correct place to be asking these questions or should I move this discussion somewhere else?

 

[cdbrown]

you could pop into the chat if you want.
4 outputs, outputs 1 and 2 each control 4 vertical strips, outputs 3 and 4 control 2 trees and 2 canes each.
I probably could actually control it all just using 1 output as it can do 680 nodes per output. But decided to just use all 4 as that provided power at the beginning. I also injected in the middle and end of each run.