Controller Options - First Year

[djgra79]

Keep us in the loop of how you go Ambarta. Whilst it is a bit niche what you are trying to acheive compared to the majority of this home DIY community, it may help ignite a spark of inspiration for others to push the boundaries a little as to what could be acheived at home.
Plus i'm sure the developers of xlights would love to see how their (now not so) little program is being used in a larger commercial type scale also!

 

[Ambarta]

I sure will keep everyone updated. Everyone in this community has been amazing so far. So definitely something I want to stay apart of.

A new idea has birthed this morning as well. A few close associates of mine have just purchased a serious amount of broadcast/streaming equipment to help their business' weather the corona storm in some ways. I'm quite heavily involved with a lot of these projects as i'm a twitch streamer previously and it's a niche specialty of mine.
Once client has come to me requesting some interactivity for his stream in various ways. Which has given me the idea of not only streaming the Christmas Display, but also making it interactive for the audience online. Which strangely enough is completely and utterly possible based on the information above, because I already have console control via stream from a previous purpose.

Also deciding to go down the falcon path. I have serious expansion plans in mind over the years and the F48/receiver board combination just seems like the most appropriate option.

Finally - not so much appropriate for this thread, but figured i'd tack it on the end. Does anyone have any thoughts on buying from China at the moment with the COVID-19 situation? I really need some pixels to get under way, but i'm a little hesitant as quite a lot of people have mentioned questionable shipping times at the best of times.

 

[Mark_M]

Does anyone have any thoughts on buying from China at the moment with the COVID-19 situation? I really need some pixels to get under way, but i'm a little hesitant as quite a lot of people have mentioned questionable shipping times at the best of times.

Our main sellers that are reputable; Ray Wu, ETOP LED, Paul Zhang and Scott LED are best to email. Aliexpress/Alibaba shipping prices are too much.
I only know for Ray Wu, but these are shipped through DHL or another courier service.
You diffidently pay for shipping, but for 1 week payment to arrival (usually) it's pretty good.

Whether you want to buy with the current exchange rate is another point.

 

[TANSA]

1 week I have never had that. Still waiting for floods that where posted from China on the 27/02 tracking says it is still there
Ray Wu bulk buys are reasonable.
Aliexpress buy bulk or pay big freight.
Had some good luck with eBay but that seller is still offline.

 

[Gee Family Light Show]

Hi @Ambarta , we have used Advatek for the past couple of years and we love it. We love that the Head Office is here in Aust (Melbourne) and another bonus we found is if we did have troubles, or couldn't figure something out, you can ring the guys at Advatek straight away and they are extremely helpful and patient. Once we got the hang of it we found it to be pretty simple. We have tossed up whether to change to a Falcon, but for the price, and the fact that we have no issues with the Pixlite's, we're staying with them and would recommend them to anyone

 

[Ambarta]

Thanks @Gee Family Light Show
Looking through advatek. I really really really like the long range controller. More so than the F48 - mainly because of the 4 universes of DMX that it outputs as well as being virtually the same in every other aspect.
The only thing I find is the expansion boards aspect of the falcon F16 really beats out the 16 MkII for the megatree. I plan on doing 48 strands, which at my length can run one per port off the F16. So for 300 USD total, I can get those 48 ports. Where as with the 16MkII I would have to either triple up each strand (which would have half the tree starting from the top and half from the bottom) Or quadruple strings, which whilst all the data would start from the ground, it would involve two power injection points. The cost of 3 Pixlites also isn't really an option being over $1000
The one string per port aspect isn't efficient to do on the controller. But the time/connectors/wiring/power distro boards saved does add up a fair bit for me also.

It really sucks, because they both have an amazing product that's perfect for my needs for one part or another. Does anyone have any experience with hybrid setups? Is there a specific reason it's a bad idea?

 

[Mark_M]

It really sucks, because they both have an amazing product that's perfect for my needs for one part or another. Does anyone have any experience with hybrid setups? Is there a specific reason it's a bad idea?

You can mix and match controllers. xLights supports many kinds. They're all network devices that can see each other, nothing wrong with this.

 

[TANSA]

Let’s do some calcs.
48 strand of 50 or 100?
1 port can run 400 easy as I am going to push my 16MkII to 800 a port.
so if you are going to do 4 of up, down, up, down of 100 ea that is only 12 ports if you do 50 that is only 6 ports. When you setup the tree in xLights it works the up down up down next string. If you run 5V pixels at 30% power inject at the bottom. All good.
One thing to use up ports but another is to under utilise your equipment. Just a waist.
The only thing is not to push it to the limit that is when it slows down. 16MkII is 1020 pixel per port at 20fps, that is why I am only going to 800 for 40fps (fingers crossed )

 

[Ambarta]

150 per run. Because the base is in the run as well. 2 inch spacing. I'm doing 12v Pixels also. Would I be able to do 600 per port just power injecting at either end?
Sorry my knowledge of power injection is kinda primitive. So i just figured it was a cheap way of keeping it simple. I have too much total for one controller and also too spread out, so two controllers is going to be a thing regardless, so i just figured one per port on the tree was easy, but that makes sense how you've explained it there.

 

[TANSA]

That may be pushing the limits.
Most stings are made to a price, the wire is just big enough for that string at 100% so the next sting will not get the full voltage. Think of it as each string is a resistor and you keep add them you will not have any power at the end. Power injection is not scary and it will make the lights blink better and you will have less trouble.
The less brightness you run them the more strings, but copper wire has a resistance all by itself.
Most problems I see in the Christmas lights groups is people do not want to inject power.
It is only 2 extra wires that saves a lot of trouble in the future and they don’t have to be huge.

 

[TANSA]

800 5V at 30% very bright you may make the 600 white the ends powered with 12v.

 

[TANSA]

What if you make the base separate ?
I read some have trouble putting a prop over 2 controllers.
So that question will have to be for somebody else as I have not done it so I cannot tell you if it will work

 

[Ambarta]

I'm just going to power inject every second string, just trying to find a distro board now.

 

[DavidJ247]

Re long range boards vs local ports, keep in mind its is not just either/or, Falcon F16 gives you the option to add expansion boards of either type so you can do both with one controller. In my display for example, I have an F16V3 in a central control box with its 16 local ports feeding props on the house, then two differential expansion boards giving up to 32 additional ports spread around the yard, best of both worlds. You may find a single F16 plus expansion boards could run your tree and other remote props. Also, just to clarify both F16 and F48 have 4x DMX ports. I can confidently recommend the Falcon boards as I know them and use them, not to dismiss Advatek I'm just not that familiar. I do know that the Advatek guys are based here in Melbourne and have provided plenty of support to this group and the community for many years so which ever way you go you'll get good gear with good support.

 

[Derf]

@Ambarta If you prefer using your console to program moving heads can you export the show file out of the console and share one for a decompile.
Pending on what comes out of the console it may be able to be imported and applied to models.

Just ensure you have plenty of time. get your falcon / advatek, etc and just light something up attempting to understand why it is lighting up. E1.31 voodo does happen.

I have controlled LED spot / flood and lasers from Xlights and a Falcon f16v3. Works fine except rapid changes to the Chinese spot light. Clive has done a recent video which helped me figure out why it wasn't taking DMX. Turns out the processor is just a pile of garbage (What should I expect).


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyO4xq23zDs