Hello!

[nolifer]

Hello,

I'm Joris and completely new in this from Portugal! I noticed there is not a lot of shows and things in this area.

We are going to start already for 2024 as making and preparing everything will take of course a long time.

And seeing to make some more people hooked to this hobby in our area. I'm currently still in the process of deciding the controller. And I'm aware that there is a 101 forum for a lot of questions but I'm wondering if anyone has experience with K8-B and M8-PI. I noticed that there is a price difference but I can not find any comparison between the two. So if you have any advise on this let me know.


Thanks in advance for having me in this community!

Joris

 

[Wayne1]

Welcome and good luck, I don't use either of those so I can't comment.

 

[merryoncherry]

The K8-B is one of a family of popular controllers - a "gateway drug" for a much bigger show. Once you consider the cost of the Pi and the cost of the license the price difference isn't much. If you don't think you'd ever want more than 8 ports, the M8-Pi is probably fine, but if you think your show will grow you might as well spend a little more and get a K32A-B or something like that, it's a lot more versatile and you'll get a lot of use out of it before you need to add another controller.

 

[CargoLights]

I have a K8-B, as well as a couple other Kulp controllers. I have never had a problem. The K8-B is the controller attached to my mega tree post and runs it as well as a couple differential receivers. I have not used the M8-Pi, but I have heard of some issues when testing it with an F-test.

One advantage to the K8-B is that it is expandable. You can add an expansion board like this or this and get 16 more ports from it when your show grows. Another note, Dan Kulp designs and sells the Kulp boards, and he is one of the primary developers of FPP. He's also active on these forums and other places, so if you need support you can get it from him. I don't know anything about the people behind the ESPArtStick line.

Now that I sound like a Kulp salesman, if you do go with the M8-Pi, please let us know how it goes. I'd like to know more about them.

 

[nolifer]

Thanks everyone! I will slow and steady build this from the ground up so I think the best start would be K8 and then decide if I want to expend to 16 or K32.
I might buy M8-Pi after I build some more experience on it so I can tell how that works but for now I would not be able to exactly tell if it is my fault or their fault Thanks for the quick replies and the knowledge here everyone <3