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AusChristmasLighting 101 Manual
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[QUOTE="Whitey-, post: 133426, member: 39146"] Hi all! It's been a busy month but I'm ready to get back into this, being very concious I've got some ordering to do. I'm pretty sure if I can get what I need shipped before the end of October (seems feasible with local suppliers), I can spend October and the first half of November testing before putting everything out to mount. I've set up a little 16x16 matrix to fiddle with in the last few weeks to see if my soldering skills are still up to scratch (two JST connectors on every line) and to ensure I understand how to control with my own controllers (arduino here, but the principles apply to ESP32). [ATTACH type="full"]23752[/ATTACH] I'm now ready to start ordering, but after reviewing the different things everyone's doing (including [USER=38601]@Johnnyboy[/USER] 's fantastic build thread!), I thought I might ask if anyone has any inputs on my house: [ATTACH type="full"]23753[/ATTACH] Sorry about the dodgey stitching. I plan to grab a proper 3D model once the birds in the area have settled (they've got babies and they're not at all fans of my drone flying around). A few points: - There will likely be fences/a gate on either side of the house filling the gaps to the back yard. - The mount of dirt there will likely be behind a retaining wall and from street level, level with the bottom of the windows - Unfortunately the street light pole isn't moving and is annoyingly going to be in the display (maybe I can run a string up it?) I've been fiddling around in xLights and watching a few hours of Keith Westley's excellent videos on YouTube, and I'm thinking something like this: [ATTACH type="full"]23755[/ATTACH] I do really want to incorporate singing faces, although these look to be a challenge. I'd also like to set up a large LED matrix somewhere (the garage door makes the most sense to me). I guess my other big questions are: 1. Recommendations on LED types. After reading [this thread](https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/gs8208-12v-pixel-strings-a-wildcard-third-option-for-the-5v-vs-12v-ws2811-question.14464/), I'm reasonably sure I want 12V GS8208 after reading this and the 101 guide. 2. Power injection/power supplies. I'm currently running my test 5V WS2812B LEDs off a 20A/5V power supply as pictured above, and I expect I can grab the same form factor 20A/12V. I'm assuming I can inject ad infinitum off a single supply assuming a) I don't exceed the number of LEDs required for 20A (thankfully Ryan in the above thread has calculated the draw, so I can work this out) and b) I don't exceed the length of wiring to cause a voltage drop below a certain percentage (need to work out what the tolerance is. I'm expecting I'll need to buy a number of supplies to handle both A and B here. 3. Bullets vs strips. Looking around, most people seem to go the bullet path generally. This makes sense given prop runs etc. I'm unsure what the general rule is for roof outlines and other types of "straight runs" though. Maybe for a matrix too? It seems P5/P10 panels snapped together are most cost effective and common though? 4. Connecting things together. Lots of people seem to be running whizz-bang water proof boxes with silicon tube exits for cables and really lovely 4 pin connectors. I'm expecting to run everything from within a base of operations (probably in the garage or run out a side window), but I assume there's a reason not everyone does this. Maybe cable lengths for power injection? Either way, I'd love some pointers on the connectors. 5. Speaking of cables... I'm expecting to run 18 AWG copper cable for basically everything (12V, ground, data and clock/backup data). Is this the standard? I'm hoping I can grab 4 big reels of different colours. I expect most people go solder + heatshrink on these. Thanks for reading this if you've gotten this far. I appreciate any input. I've been reading/watching heaps, so this is a bit of a brain dump of where I'm at. [/QUOTE]
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