Hello from the central coast

Imstevil

Imstevil

New elf
Joined
Feb 16, 2022
Messages
8
Hi All,

I'm just starting to research into world of xmas lights and came across these forums. I haven't read the 101 guide as of yet, but will start having a look through soon. My experience so far is running 450 ws2811 string lights just off a bench top power supply and a NodeMCU, so I'm sure there is going to be plenty of helpful information in the beginners guide to get me going. I'll some what be throwing myself into the deep end with this, where I live the gutter lines are very long so going to have lots of power issues to solve, and the gardens are all a long way from the house meaning I'll have networking issues to give me plenty of head aches. Looking forward to having a read through it and getting my teeth stuck in though!

As I'm just learning I don't have any real plans for what I'm trying to achieve as of yet, as I learn I'll start thinking about design I'll be looking for (focused on just the gutter line to get started). Not silly enough to think I'm going to do anything amazing with no knowledge and limited money to get started. I'm thinking once I've done my research I might do my design up on top of some my photos of the house and post it here to see if anyone can give me pointers on where I have gone wrong or ways to improve it.

If anyone wants to give me tips on things I should be focusing on knowing that my longest strand is going to be about 75m, and I won't have cabled network access (I do have a WiFi Mesh that covers MOST places though) I'm happy to hear it so I know where to focus my efforts of reading up on things. Otherwise I'll just work through the guide and ask questions as I start coming up with them.

Look forward to learning more and posting as I go!
 
Imstevil said:
Hi All,

If anyone wants to give me tips on things I should be focusing on knowing that my longest strand is going to be about 75m,
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This may well be a key issue, even 12v pixels would need a number of power injection points, and if you need to run DC power 80+m to get to the end injection them that cable needs to be thick enough to minimise the voltage drop on the injection cable itself.
Imstevil said:
and I won't have cabled network access (I do have a WiFi Mesh that covers MOST places though) I'm happy to hear it so I know where to focus my efforts of reading up on things. Otherwise I'll just work through the guide and ask questions as I start coming up with them.
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WiFi can have some limited use but it is normally expected that wired access is best to the controllers. considering you need to get power and data cabling out to the yard, getting wired ethernet is usually not a big issue, unless you need to go across driveways/roads.
Imstevil said:
Look forward to learning more and posting as I go!
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Ask away, the knowledge bank is huge here.

Cheers
Phil
 
Thanks for the tips!

I'm lucky in the fact I have power at the start, and 2 places for power in the middle, and at the end of the run. There will be some work involved but using this calculator http://spikerlights.com/calcpower.aspx I should be able to inject power in enough places to keep things running easy enough. The issue (which is addressed in the guide but not up to it yet) will be the housing of the power supplies and keeping them cool. I know that's addressed already an no doubt is a common issue.

For the WiFi, we already have power run under ground to other locations, trying to fish a cat cable through it is near on impossible, and it is over a driveway. I have tried a power line adapter to up there and it's way to flaky for proper use. I tried using it for a security camera and it was just to unstable which is why I went the wireless mesh option instead. Guess this will be my biggest issue moving forward to over come, if I can't I may need to stick to just doing near the house. This is why I don't want to plan to far ahead until I know what I'm doing!

I have attached a picture of the house just for reference, green squares are power, purple are my wireless mesh points.
 

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I'm from near Berkeley Vale, I've been meaning to look at the list of shows in the area to see if there are people near by. I figure everyone is finished for the year so not much point until closer to Xmas again.

I haven't seen any proper shows on the coast to be honest. Lots of good houses with just standard fairy lights, but no light shows as such. Good to know there are others around I can check out when the time comes. Though it may make me feel depressed with how ever my year 1 effort turns out 🤣
 
Cathelest said:
Gotta start somewhere,
I dipped my toe in a few years ago and got hooked lol,

Theres 3 of us up at wadalba who do shows,
Brad, Troy and myself,

Troy also sells the coro products aswell and stocks a bunch of other things, https://www.extremelightingdisplays.com.au

Let us know if you have any questions, happy for a chat etc,
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Awesome, thanks for the site. I'll def check it out!

Had a look at your videos as well, very impressive. What time of year do you start putting yours back up, I'd love to come for the drive and check them out!
 
Imstevil said:
Awesome, thanks for the site. I'll def check it out!

Had a look at your videos as well, very impressive. What time of year do you start putting yours back up, I'd love to come for the drive and check them out!
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Showtime december 1st,

We Start mid november, especially if we have a bunch of new things, to allow time to get lights up and everything wired and tested,

And with the heat and rain it always delays things,

And then you have testing and config changes etc to iron out,

But happy for a chat anytime,
 
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