Hellooooooo

[Hobes]

Hey Guys
A total noobie to this thing so bear with me. Alltho I can rebuild bikes cars and even build you a house, I am at somewhat of a loss to this. So, ill check out the newbies download book and research as much as I can. hopefully I wont ask to many dumb questions.

But first, is there an Aussie suppleier of the SS24, and the E 682.?

I am still not quite sure if I need both or not. I am buying smart pixels from Ray Wu as he seems to be the man. My first project will be a couple of light hoops to see how and what is involved in getting them to dance with the music.. then as I get better ill break out into more elaborate stuff. I really like the moving mouth and eyes, as I have plans for one of those on my house....anyways, glad to be here, time to get reading..

Hobes.

 

[fasteddy]

Welcome to ACL, its a steep learning curve but after some time the pieces will fall in place. But you need to stick at it through out the year to ensure relative stress free success and not leave it to the last month or 2 before Christmas.

 

[i13]

Hi Hobes

Not sure that there is an Australian supplier of the E682. There are Australian suppliers of the J1sys and PixLite pixel controllers so you'll be able to get pixels up and running even if you can't get hold of an e682. If you're lucky then you might be able to get hold of an F16v2.

The SS24 is not required for pixels.

Give yourself a couple of months of thorough research and asking questions. There are no dumb questions; they're worth asking because they lead you to make the right purchases. It is a good idea to post your first shopping list on the forums to get feedback.

 

[djgra79]

Welcome to ACL Hobes. Plenty of helpful folks around here and there's no such thing as a dumb question, so ask away!

 

[Hobes]

cheers Lads.

im losing my mind with all the jargon..

I think I am looking at DMX512, so, can anyone show me some pics of what they have and what items they have, so that I can get a better understanding of what is involved. there are too many options on the forum and in the beginners manual. I understand what I need, but without an example of sorts, I am overwhelmed....

I want to use 12v RBG in flat section, bullet type and square mounted.. I want to run lights around the gutters and eves on the house, up some columns, around windows, make some arches, maybe a tree or 2 and I would love to have large pixel board that I can have a moving mouth and eyes, like some of the You Tubers have. BUT, without having a start point, I get lost in all the mumbo jumbo.....

 

[i13]

You're saying that you want pixels with the individual control. DMX512 would be a severely limit the number of pixels and the choices of controllers that you can have. E1.31 is the recommended option but there are ways to convert E1.31 to DMX if you ever require both. I suggest becoming more familiar with pixels versus dumb RGB to clear up some of the confusion. DMX512 is often used with dumb RGB.

Also consider 5V pixels especially if you have lots of pixels in a small area. 5V struggles with distance but it is more efficient and often brighter. You need power injection to get long distances with it. The pixel boards are often referred to as a matrix in case you want to search for them. Pixel trees are similar in how they're wired. Did you mean P10 panels?

Don't worry too much if you're confused at this stage. I think you have a very good chance of getting a decent 2016 display up and running because you're so keen to learn now and not waiting until the last few months. Keep reading the forum posts, ask more questions and it will gradually make more sense

 

[Hobes]

ok, so dmx can be used to control, standard lights, and or fixtures, like spot lights. NOT the IC RBG pixels, which are the programmable ones. ws2811 are the ones to create different colors within a wave sequence.

so, a tree made of ws2811,12vdc, pixels, using 3 strands of 4 lines containing 22 pixels each line. each strand is daisy chained, with power injection from the first pixel and the last pixel, should give a uniform color thru out. this will be my first item to be made.

with e1.31 in mind, i wish to buy a controller to not only run this tree, but to allow further items to be added at some stage. i still dont understand, universes..

my tree is an element, made up of 3 elements. each inner element is divided up into individual elements, ie each light.. then each light can be programmed to do something different...am i getting this right or over thinking it...

 

[Hobes]

also, i am stuck as to the term universe, most of the E1.31 controllers have universes ranging from 4 upto 16 or more. i suppose the more i have the better for later? im still reading....

 

[djgra79]

Jump into chat hobes and we can talk you through it if you like.
Basically a universe is 512 channels.

 

[Benslights]

welcome to acl and great to see you in chat tonight

 

[Hobes]

all good..you might not get rid of me now...

 

[Bird]

to ACL

Reading the new revised 2nd addition AusChristmasLighting 101 manual 3, 4, 5 or 6 times will start to help with the jargon.

But never fear, if reading several times doesn't do the trick, always friendly folks here willing to help out.

 

[Hobes]

 

[i13]

I'm assuming that's your house. If you want to continue using those lights, they need to have at least 3 wires going to the lights if there's an 8 function controller. My first task when converting to computer control was modifying my existing lights. It was worth the effort in my opinion but I had nearly 10,000 of them.

 

[Hobes]

yeah, my place. But those lights wont be changed, until I get my head round it all. slowly slowly catchy monkey