Hello from Boston, MA

K

Kjax

New elf
Joined
Jul 15, 2019
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11
Hey everyone!
I've wanted to do an animated Christmas display for years now, and I've decided this is finally the year I'm going to make it happen. I'm thinking I'll start small for this first year, but we'll see how ambitious I get between now and Dec.
Also - I want to give a huge thank you to this forum for the ACL101 manual - what an amazing resource!!
 
Welcome to ACL. The forum and the ACL members now make it so easy to get Xmas lights computer controlled now. Good luck with your 1st year.
 
Hi AAH - I have what may be a stupid question. I tried to post a thread in the 101 Display Basics with my draft plan, but got an error saying that the content I want to post is not allowed. Any idea why? The post has a couple embedded images/diagrams from imgur and some weblinks, but nothing out of the ordinary beyond that.
Thanks!
 
I was just thinking, I wish someone told me this when i started out......

although my show is decentralized. (I went the arduino route I would not recommend this to anyone) The F48 Differential Controller is a piece of art just buy it immediately or you could go with a few pi and some Falcon PiCap. (it’s a great way to get your feet wet)
also, falcon pi player is gold.

12v leds are the best (your time is worth something and implementing power injection is slow) I always read about guys talking about "power efficiency and blaw blaw" but what's a fart to a guy who sh@! his pants?

Do not skimp on waterproof connectors or make long waterproof solder whips, I find the less connectors the better (the snow will always turn to ice and work its way in to every connector)

these are your best friend maybe not year one but most likely year two you’re going to get a few dead pixels from freezing water. they come in handy when making whips.

I'm also a really big fan of this video.

This is just my honest opinion at the very least it’s something to think about.
There are plenty of ways to get a show up and running.
 
Last edited:
shanebou24 said:
I was just thinking, I wish someone told me this when i started out......

although my show is decentralized. (I went the arduino route I would not recommend this to anyone) The F48 Differential Controller is a piece of art just buy it immediately or you could go with a few pi and some Falcon PiCap. (it’s a great way to get your feet wet)
also, falcon pi player is gold.

12v leds are the best (your time is worth something and implementing power injection is slow) I always read about guys talking about "power efficiency and blaw blaw" but what's a fart to a guy who sh@! his pants?

Do not skimp on waterproof connectors or make long waterproof solder whips, I find the less connectors the better (the snow will always turn to ice and work its way in to every connector)

these are your best friend maybe not year one but most likely year two you’re going to get a few dead pixels from freezing water. they come in handy when making whips.

I'm also a really big fan of this video.

This is just my honest opinion at the very least it’s something to think about.
There are plenty of ways to get a show up and running.
Click to expand...


This is really helpful, thank you! Esp the waterproof connector info.

If you're curious, this is my current plan, tried to keep it small for year 1. Went with the F4V3: https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/request-for-review-before-first-order.11674/

I did decide to go with 12V. Hoping I can completely avoid power injection. Currently waiting for all of my parts to arrive, so the sequencing video is really timely. Guess what I'll be doing this weekend... :)
 
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