After the Adelaide mini light expo 2013 I have a story to tell. The mini was a great event and there were 3 diseases spread. I helped spread all 3 unfortunately. The CLAP (Christmas Light Addiction Problem) and PAP (Pixel Addiction Problem) were good for everyone but a few people managed to catch my cold too 
Anyway on to my story. At the mini there was a computer control newbie who isn't an ACL member but who had contacted the venue via wiki info and attended both days. As he's not a member instead of using his name I'll call him an elf. This elf sounds like he has quite a decent static display and was looking at moving to computer control. Prior to attending the mini he was looking at using a number of LOR AC boards for controlling his show. He had trawled the forums and the wiki and had a pretty good general knowledge. After attending the show he was in possession of several DMX controlled DC boards at about 1/5th of the cost per channel of the LOR boards, had the knowledge to modify his existing Big W and KMart strings so that they could be ran on the 1 DC voltage and had actually used his laptop to control a board and flashed some lights with a sequence he had made himself.
This elf may join the forums himself as we kept telling him there are a number of benefits which include being able to see links and attachments and access chat for real time support. Attending a mini and seeing for yourself what is out there and being able to talk person to person with others with the same afflictions will save so much time that you'll wish there was a mini every other weekend when you are starting out.
The elf in question looks like going from zero controlled channels to about 100 in year 1. A few others who got the PAP infection last weekend look like jumping from zero pixels to thousands of pixels and many thousands of channels in their first year of jumping into pixels.
If you can get to a mini then get to 1. You can learn sequencing, lighting types, safety, tips, get some comradeship and just see and talk everything blinky.
Anyway on to my story. At the mini there was a computer control newbie who isn't an ACL member but who had contacted the venue via wiki info and attended both days. As he's not a member instead of using his name I'll call him an elf. This elf sounds like he has quite a decent static display and was looking at moving to computer control. Prior to attending the mini he was looking at using a number of LOR AC boards for controlling his show. He had trawled the forums and the wiki and had a pretty good general knowledge. After attending the show he was in possession of several DMX controlled DC boards at about 1/5th of the cost per channel of the LOR boards, had the knowledge to modify his existing Big W and KMart strings so that they could be ran on the 1 DC voltage and had actually used his laptop to control a board and flashed some lights with a sequence he had made himself.
This elf may join the forums himself as we kept telling him there are a number of benefits which include being able to see links and attachments and access chat for real time support. Attending a mini and seeing for yourself what is out there and being able to talk person to person with others with the same afflictions will save so much time that you'll wish there was a mini every other weekend when you are starting out.
The elf in question looks like going from zero controlled channels to about 100 in year 1. A few others who got the PAP infection last weekend look like jumping from zero pixels to thousands of pixels and many thousands of channels in their first year of jumping into pixels.
If you can get to a mini then get to 1. You can learn sequencing, lighting types, safety, tips, get some comradeship and just see and talk everything blinky.
