Controllers. What to buy?

[someoneAUS]

I am also starting out. QuinLED quads have been my only purchases so far. They are cheap have an optional ethernet that seems to be recommended and being WLED based will integrate nicely into my Home Assistant during the off season. I will use them for all my perma stuff long term I think.

Also watching the thread with interest on peoples opinions. Falcon or Experience Lights seem to be the way I am leaning for the show controllers.

 

[uncledan]

I might have a slight biased opinion, but I would recommend the F16v3's over the Holiday Coro stuff. Better product in my opinion and you'll find much more support for it. Still running my F16v3's, have 3 F16v4's for spares in case of failures. Can't go wrong with a Falcon. Lots of options out there now, most of which are better than Holiday Coro

 

[djgra79]

Team Falcon here purely from widely used so lots of community support and it just works. That said I've also branched out this year with a new HE123 from @AAH which has gotten plenty of positive reviews and (for Aus) local support (but he supports world wide)

 

[gingrbredman]

Based on the 5V pixels, and looking for support from the vendor, I wouldn't look at the Experience Lights controllers. Experience Lights officially doesn't support 5V on their controllers, though technically you could use it, and I have seen others do it with success. I guess their position is it will work, but they do not want to spend time on supporting the unique issues that may come with using 5V, so they only officially support 12V on their line of controllers.

 

[darylc]

Team Falcon here purely from widely used so lots of community support and it just works. That said I've also branched out this year with a new HE123 from @AAH which has gotten plenty of positive reviews and (for Aus) local support (but he supports world wide)

If you want FPP based controllers I'd steer towards Kulp based BBB controllers instead because the HE123's don't come with a programmed EEPROM, so its all a bit of a messy experience for the end-user.

 

[merryoncherry]

Kulps work well. If you use 12V, though, keep extra data amps handy, as they're touchier than some of the others. I might try an HE just for fun.

 

[TerryK]

Based on the 5V pixels, and looking for support from the vendor, I wouldn't look at the Experience Lights controllers. Experience Lights officially doesn't support 5V on their controllers, though technically you could use it, and I have seen others do it with success. I guess their position is it will work, but they do not want to spend time on supporting the unique issues that may come with using 5V, so they only officially support 12V on their line of controllers.

I don't see that as a significant issue. Essentially it just means that for someone that wants to run 5 Volt, any pixel power would need to be sourced from a separate 5 Volt supply or a depending upon amperage requirements, a properly sized DC/DC Converter. Put another way, for 5 Volt pixels power injection needs to begin at Pixel #1.

From a design side, Experience Lights would eliminate the possibility of board damage from feeding 12 Volts into a 5 Volt configured board.

Another note, they are rather 'close lipped' about their location. I generally like to know where a company/business ships from. Only a small mention in the Terms/Conditions about Kansas.

 

[gingrbredman]

@TerryK I wasn't suggesting it was an issue so much, but since there was talk here of support from the vendor, I just remember reading posts from either Experience Lights, or the ones who are part of it, they specifically, and "officially" do not support 5V pixels with their boards. Thank you for addressing the technical part of it, like I said, I have seen others do it, and you noted how it can be done.

I guess I would still give it a second thought if I were using 5V pixels and looking at Controllers. So many of the other brands mentioned are great for 5V and are "officially" supported, so why not go with one of those? Nothing against Experience Lights but cannot see an advantage of that controller over say a Kulp or a Falcon when you are using 5V pixels.

Regarding the location, I picked up a Pixel2Things from them late last year and shipped from WICHITA, KS 67230

 

[merryoncherry]

So weird to worry about where a company "is". Where is Amazon?
A small outfit might have incorporation papers in one state, leaders and contract designers in 2 or 3 other places, manufacture in China, and parcel out the contents of the shipping container in the garage of one of those leaders...
Yes, some have an office, warehouse, shipping/receiving, CNC machines, and staff in one particular building... but hard to insist on that given the nature and volumes of product used in this hobby.

 

[Skymaster]

If you want FPP based controllers I'd steer towards Kulp based BBB controllers instead because the HE123's don't come with a programmed EEPROM, so its all a bit of a messy experience for the end-user.

I think this has changed now and Alan is sending boards with programmed EEPROMs.

 

[Danielr]

I would recommend looking at a build kit from CCL controllers https://cclcontrollers.com/. That way you can choose from a variety of different types of controllers (I belive Genius is also going to be an option soon) and it is cheaper then a ready to run and the instruction videos are great. I had no idea how to build a controller when I first started so I purchased the K32 build kit and it was the best decision I made. From there it gave me the knowledge for future builds and I do all my own receiver boxes and controllers now.

 

[cslampman]

Thanks for all of the input. I decided to go with a Falcon16V3 controller. I plan to build a power supply box that I'll piggy back on the main box, so I can switch between 5V and 12V, depending on how I design my light show. I did order a Genius receiver, just so I can play with more of the features of the Falcon controller. Reading only gets me so far, and I want to get more hands on experience. Expansion boards are in short supply, so I got what I could.

I found the 5' LED trees from Walmart, that were regularly priced at $150 for $37 each, so I bought 4 of them after Christmas. They are the reason I was looking at 5VDC options. DrZzs on Youtube has a good video where he connected the same trees to his DigiUno using wLED.

 

[djgra79]

Can I ask why you want to switch between 5v and 12v? Using both in a show can potentially cause issues. The main one being plugging in 5v pixels into a 12v PSU (ask me how I know )
If you do go down this route then can I suggest you clearly label PSUs, enclosures and connectors. Another trick is to use different connector types and/or coloured connectors/cable per voltage, so you can't physically connect them together by accident.

 

[cslampman]

Can I ask why you want to switch between 5v and 12v? Using both in a show can potentially cause issues. The main one being plugging in 5v pixels into a 12v PSU (ask me how I know )
If you do go down this route then can I suggest you clearly label PSUs, enclosures and connectors. Another trick is to use different connector types and/or coloured connectors/cable per voltage, so you can't physically connect them together by accident.

I do plan on labeling and color coding all wires/cables. Most of the lights that I intend to use will be 12V, but like the 5V led trees I stumbled across, I don’t know what else I may find when looking for props. When I build the controller, I just want to give myself the versatility, so I’m not constantly rebuilding.
I plan on installing and labeling 12VDC fused power terminals and a separate labeled 5VDC fused power terminals.

 

[merryoncherry]

If I had to run a mix of 5V and 12V on one controller, I would get a controller that took several receivers and get 5V and 12V receivers that were clearly marked / cabled for use with the appropriate props. Already did to a limited extent, but mostly the 5V things have their own dedicated controllers to sit right next to them.