Beginner looking to start the journey

[Kussie]

So i have begun looking into getting started in the hobby after toying around with the idea. Obviously it's a little too late this year so mostly looking to get started ready for next year, this also means hopefully the supply shortages and shipping issues will improve through next year (Fingers crossed).

Have had a read through the 101 PDF and it makes sense, but just wanted to put my plan in some form of writing and see if i overlooked or missed anything.

My plan is start small and simple with some animated faces/characters and gradually grow from there and slowly replace my existing retail based lights.

Given the lower number of LEDs needed for these setups was going to look at starting with a 5V setup. Though if i understand correctly 12V would be less complicated due to not needing as much power injection and such, though i dont think that would really be a factor on something that has around ~400nodes would it?

My understanding is i would basically need the following:
- LED strings (A given)
- A controller
- A power supply
- An enclosure for the above
- Display software/planning
- pigtail connectors and wiring and general misc stuff

In terms of controller i was looking at the Falcon F16v4 or a PixLite as i would likely be planning to use xLights.

The other option i was looking at was going with a BeagleBoard based setup to run these initially, though i am a little unsure if this could be incorporated with another controller later on as my show grows? The advantage of this approach to me is that i could use FPP to run them, without needing a laptop or my PC.



Am i missing anything from the list that really jumps out?

Another thing i read/saw is a DMX controller/dimmer on Hanson Electronics (https://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/product/dmx2-24/) makes mention of being able to control the Bunnings Lytworks brand lights, would that be able to be used in conjunction with the above plan? If so might allow me to adapt some of my basic lights for simple on/off effects. But thats really a problem for another time.

 

[i13]

You're likely to need a few injection points if you have 400 5V nodes running end-to-end. If you break the 400 nodes into shorter lengths then you're unlikely to need it. To minimise voltage drop, I suggest ordering nodes with 18 AWG wire and spacing with some headroom but not too much. Wider spacing leads to more voltage drop. 12V doesn't need power injection as often as 5V but the tradeoff is the higher power consumption of 12V. This reduces the number of pixels that you can have on each power supply. I generally recommend 12V when there is a small number of pixels spread across a large area and 5V when there is a large number of pixels in a small area.

Yes, a BeagleBone can run alongside other controllers. A Raspberry Pi is another option for running FPP (Falcon Player). There are some boards (with which I have no experience) that can be added to the Raspberry Pi for running small numbers of pixels too. The BeagleBone with a board like a Kulp or HE123 can run a much larger number of pixels but unlike a Raspberry Pi, it does not have audio by default. You'd need to use USB audio and choose a board with a real time clock (RTC) on it if you want to use a BeagleBone for the purpose of scheduling and running the show. IMO it doesn't sound like a big deal but I haven't done it myself. Another option is bridge mode. In bridge mode, the BeagleBone takes in E1.31 signal and controls the pixels like a regular controller. Something else can schedule and run the show.

DMX controllers can be used alongside the other controllers that you mention. You'd just need something to output DMX signal for them. Falcon and PixLite controllers can do this. Another option is to choose a controller like the 2811DC2-30. It uses WS2811 signal (same as the pixels) instead of DMX but it otherwise has the same purpose as the dmx2-24. I suggest that you list the details of your traditional LED strings before choosing a controller for them because the type of controller depends on the wiring of the LED strings. I have recently written more about this in this thread: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/14138/