batten
New elf
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2026
- Messages
- 1
Hey Folks
Just a 53 year old bloke living his best life in Peregian Springs QLD (just moved here from Brisbane 2 months ago), work in boring Finance, but also a professional musician (plays keys) live and in the studio recording & producing, have a strong IT background, fiddle with electronics and gadgets.. just a bloke who loves his toys and gadgets..
I've always wanted to play with addressable lights, and finally committed (with wife's approval) to buy some gear to play with, with one of the aims being to use externally for a xmas light show (which I've always wanted to do) - not wanting to go overboard, just step it up from the tradition dumb lights...
Over the years I've accrued many lights, small medium large, some I kept, some didnt last.. and some of the solar lights I just upcycled by cutting off the crappy solar panels, and joining many up using an array of buck converters and the like.. it was fun, but messy and time consuming as it was slap job (not tidy) just to make everything work..
So I did some reading... watched some videos, to get a feel and understanding of where I should start and where it could take me and I must admit, being a little impulsive at times when it comes to buying stuff online, I ended up getting some small ESP32 type controllers, a few rolls of 12V WS2815 IP67 strips, assorted pixel lights, a few different power supplies... so I could start small, to get the hang of it and work out what I'm gonna do moving forward... make sense so far? .. probably laughing ... you're feelin me lol
I just bought some props because I fell in love with the showstopper flakes and spinners after seeing these in some FB groups I joined, and I just had to have these - they look amazing! I got these just the other day from Coroprops Australia (still waiting for the pixel lights to come from China) for context, I purchased: 1 x Showstopper Mini Snowflake (Large (70cm)) and 2 x Spinner24 (as they come with the sequences as well)
I've also got some spare Coro flute sheets to use for some props as they were inserts used in packaging for stuff I purchased months ago..
So far I've played around with the controllers and WLED and about to starting using xLights.
I'm learning quickly as I'm a sponge head; bought enough wire plus 2 & 3 pin xconnect lead pigtails to use for extensions so I can connect everything up neatly (especially the older lights), but still working out ideas on what to do with my xmas light setup including the usage of props and mapping out via photos what would work, as I will be using some props, selection of different pixel lights for effects, borders etc.. BUT.. what I'm wanting to know is your thoughts on using old dumb lights and how to best make use of these and integrating them in my setup, am I on the path?
I do intend on procuring at least a more advanced controller something like a 4 or 8 port controller to run everything as I progress more while establishing which controller(s) will best suit my needs, based on what I will be running, which is likely going to be a mix of SPI and PWM lights
Question I have - since I have a collection of different LED lights (outlined above earlier), as in string lights and cannibalised LED lights from solar setups (in 5V & 12V varieties), I'm keen to make use of these in my Xmas Light setup and from what I've read, these lights work off PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), and I likely need to run these off separate controllers (likely some of the cheap ones I purchased recently as some of them support PWM).
- batten
Just a 53 year old bloke living his best life in Peregian Springs QLD (just moved here from Brisbane 2 months ago), work in boring Finance, but also a professional musician (plays keys) live and in the studio recording & producing, have a strong IT background, fiddle with electronics and gadgets.. just a bloke who loves his toys and gadgets..
I've always wanted to play with addressable lights, and finally committed (with wife's approval) to buy some gear to play with, with one of the aims being to use externally for a xmas light show (which I've always wanted to do) - not wanting to go overboard, just step it up from the tradition dumb lights...
Over the years I've accrued many lights, small medium large, some I kept, some didnt last.. and some of the solar lights I just upcycled by cutting off the crappy solar panels, and joining many up using an array of buck converters and the like.. it was fun, but messy and time consuming as it was slap job (not tidy) just to make everything work..
So I did some reading... watched some videos, to get a feel and understanding of where I should start and where it could take me and I must admit, being a little impulsive at times when it comes to buying stuff online, I ended up getting some small ESP32 type controllers, a few rolls of 12V WS2815 IP67 strips, assorted pixel lights, a few different power supplies... so I could start small, to get the hang of it and work out what I'm gonna do moving forward... make sense so far? .. probably laughing ... you're feelin me lol
I just bought some props because I fell in love with the showstopper flakes and spinners after seeing these in some FB groups I joined, and I just had to have these - they look amazing! I got these just the other day from Coroprops Australia (still waiting for the pixel lights to come from China) for context, I purchased: 1 x Showstopper Mini Snowflake (Large (70cm)) and 2 x Spinner24 (as they come with the sequences as well)
I've also got some spare Coro flute sheets to use for some props as they were inserts used in packaging for stuff I purchased months ago..
So far I've played around with the controllers and WLED and about to starting using xLights.
I'm learning quickly as I'm a sponge head; bought enough wire plus 2 & 3 pin xconnect lead pigtails to use for extensions so I can connect everything up neatly (especially the older lights), but still working out ideas on what to do with my xmas light setup including the usage of props and mapping out via photos what would work, as I will be using some props, selection of different pixel lights for effects, borders etc.. BUT.. what I'm wanting to know is your thoughts on using old dumb lights and how to best make use of these and integrating them in my setup, am I on the path?
I do intend on procuring at least a more advanced controller something like a 4 or 8 port controller to run everything as I progress more while establishing which controller(s) will best suit my needs, based on what I will be running, which is likely going to be a mix of SPI and PWM lights
Question I have - since I have a collection of different LED lights (outlined above earlier), as in string lights and cannibalised LED lights from solar setups (in 5V & 12V varieties), I'm keen to make use of these in my Xmas Light setup and from what I've read, these lights work off PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), and I likely need to run these off separate controllers (likely some of the cheap ones I purchased recently as some of them support PWM).
- batten