Hello from Long Island, NY

[Valentinorx]

I was encouraged after much online chatting to introduce myself on here. I'm Valentino from Glen Cove, NY and this will be my first year with animated lights. I had HUGE plans of doing strips all over my house, arches, etc. However, I did come to my senses and have a new plan, which is easy for me to change because I haven't bought anything yet. All I have are my led and Incan lights. So what I want to do is the house, mini trees, and arches with my LEDs and incans, and do a pixel mega tree. I will ultimately use HLS and if things work out I have controllers lined up from a member here. I have my layout for the house set. The only thing left to decide is what kind of tree, half or whole. I have seen great examples of each. Then lastly what pixels to use, etc.

Any input is greatly appreciated.

 

[Bill Ellick]

Welcome to ACL from upstate from you !!
I live up in the Park about 45 miles from Lake Placid so nice to see another NYer on here.
Tons of great information on this forum for you to digest about this stuff. I too have LEDs and am presently using LOR to control my display http://www.longlakelights.com but will be switching probably this year to LSP since I have so much LOR hardware to run along with the new pixel stuff. I started with LOR in 2008 at doing an animated show.
It generally seems that the 2811 pixel stuff is the one to have due to pricing and reliability. For a pixel tree you will probably want to use strip rather than strings as they can be mounted to stay pointed towards the audience easier. The number of channels is a consideration as well since it can easily get very carried away if you want to - LOL. One of the popular strips seems to be:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/5m-led-digital-strip-DC12V-input-WS2811IC-256-scale-10pcs-IC-and-30pcs-5050-SMD-RGB/568458133.html as this tends to use less channels (30 channels per meter versus 90 channels per meter if you get strips which have 1 IC per 1 LED) but gives you a really nice tree to work with. Unless you really need to have very high definition, this strip seems like the way to go as it can do pretty much anything you need.
You will also need to figure out which controller you will want to use for it. I am playing with the J1Sys P2 right now and will order a P12 http://http://www.j1sys.com/ecg-p12r/ for my pixel tree in a bit but the SansDevice controllers http://http://www.sandevices.com/E681info.html are also very well thought of and capable. I chose the J1 stuff due to the ease of setup in the web browser interface as well as I am going to be using some of his pixel extender units for some things later on as well.
As far as the building of a pixel tree there are several threads on here about them and how people have gone about doing them as I am sure you have seen. All depends on your situation and how you want it to look.
Well anyway, welcome aboard and read, read, read! Good luck.

 

[fasteddy]

An official welcome to ACL, you will find all you need to know here and if not then just ask, plenty of great help here. Beeiilll has covered most of what your asking as well as whats been discussed in the chat room. Good luck with it all

 

[Bird]

to ACL

WARNING:
Joining these forums and entering the chat room can give you CLAP!!!
Christmas Lighting Addiction Problem

If you haven't found it yet the AusChristmasLighting 101 manual is a great resource.

 

[Valentinorx]

Thank you all. I truly appreciate all the guidance.

 

[Blickensderfer]

Welcome!!

 

[Valentinorx]

Also. I can't get Alanis Morsette off my avatar on Tapatalk!!!

 

[kel]

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[harrison0550]