Hi and first year help - save time or save money?

Iain

Iain

Full time elf
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Messages
243
Location
Darwin
Hi all,

great to see my fellow Aussie nutters doing light shows! I've been asked to help a local not-for-profit do a small-ish display and given it's so close to Christmas already I'm going to try and build something simple - eg just some smart LED strips around eaves, roof and stars, doing some simple fades/sparkles etc. with the aim to reuse and improve next year.

My total budget is about $1k for parts and as easy as possible for my time. I was going to get a LOR Pixie16 and 40-50m of Cosmic Color ribbon/bullets etc, with the LOR software as it looks fairly easy to get going (programming/networking/audio I do for a living)

Then I discovered this place and Ali Express and I'm wondering if I should go down that route instead as it looks a bit cheaper:
  1. Ray Wu's pixel strip instead of the LOR CCR-II (can't post links)
  2. PixCon16 instead of a Pixie16 so I have more compatibility with different strips
  3. still get the LOR software
It looks like Ray's strips are 72W instead of the CCR 36W - are they really that much better than LOR strips and half the price?

What do you experts think? If I can get it delivered in 2 weeks, that leaves 1 week for setup to have it running all December.

Thanks for your help :) Looking forward to seeing what you all do this year!
 
Welcome to ACL!
Getting stock from China in 2 weeks at this time of year is a tight timeline. It probably wont make it to be honest.
There may be some options locally but you will pay more for it. I'll let any others chime in if they know of stockists, but going down the LOR path can be expensive and you'll find not many membes are using that system any longer.
Good luck!
 
Welcome to ACL
I'd go with Xlights for a start as it does a whole lot more than LOR and it's free.
There's pretty much no dearer option than LOR CCR's if you're wanting pixel strip. The chances of getting any anywhere between now and December are pretty slim. If you're only after a low number I usually have some on my site. I have more that I expect to leave China tomorrow and landing Monday so if you aren't after many then I have some in stock that are usually overnight delivery to the civilised parts of Aus ;)
The wattage of the strips depend on the number of leds per metre. You can get from 30 leds per metre all the way up to 120 which are blinding.
If you're in a hurry for a controller then you may be able to get 1 through a wanted post on the forum, through Advatek Lights who are based in Melbourne. Trying to get any LOR one of any sort at this time of year is likely to be pushing the friendship. I haven't compared prices but I would expect that Advatek or Falcon would be much better priced than LOR.
 
I agree with the previous posts about strings etc, the other option for programming is Vixen, which is also free and with all the new upgrades is very user friendly.
I even read a post recently on a FB page someone was asking about pixie16 which I never heard of and others chimed in and said it is pretty much defunct.
The easiest road would be get some software, either vixen or xlights and start playing with it to get an idea on how to setup and program etc as that will be a steep learning curve. (not that hard once you get your head around it) get a controller, you may find someone has one available locally, Try the for sale section on here, someone may have one to sell you or check this post, there may be some left from a bulk buy.
https://auschristmaslighting.com/th...e1-31-pixel-controller-2018-buy.10499/page-13
Ask around, like Alan said he has some pixels you can get.
Read the following manual
https://auschristmaslighting.com/threads/auschristmaslighting-101-manual.1889/
You can still order some stuff from China and get overnight shipping, but the problem this time of year is they don't process the order for days sometimes a week or so, so even fast shipping can be slower.
Anyway, welcome and good luck. If you have questions you can jump into chat, someone is usually lurking there that can help.
 
Awesome, thanks for the welcome and advice :D
I find it interesting that you guys are moving away from LOR, which probably means I would too eventually so I should at least get gear that's compatible with DMX or E1.31 rather than something LOR specific like the pixie.

Tis a shame about the delivery times, I'll go through the options from AAH & Scamper and hopefully I can get something in time.

thanks again!
 
Iain said:
Awesome, thanks for the welcome and advice :D
I find it interesting that you guys are moving away from LOR, which probably means I would too eventually so I should at least get gear that's compatible with DMX or E1.31 rather than something LOR specific like the pixie.

Tis a shame about the delivery times, I'll go through the options from AAH & Scamper and hopefully I can get something in time.

thanks again!
Click to expand...
I used LOR gear from when I started getting into blinky and used LOR sequencer through until 2015 when Xlights made it's appearance in a big way. Before the advent of pixels LOR was great as it pretty much just worked when you plugged everything together. The software was never really designed for pixel displays and it became a hodge podge trying to get some sort of pixel compatible sequencer going. It's hard to justify spending a few hundred dollars on something that does less than the the sequencers Xlights 4 and Vixen 3.
 
this advice is gold, thanks! I hadn't seen XLights till now, it looks great.

"Its mid November I want to create an animated Christmas Display"! :laugh: There's a powerpoint for people like me!
 
I have a few spare controllers both new and second hand. Give me a yell if you are interested. These are from the display i brought from Kane earlier in the year. I've just been too lazy to put all the details up to sell them
 
I use the Falcon controllers heavily and they work great. I also prefer Vixen 3 as my sequencing software and use the Raspberry PI as my show player (running FPP software). Using the FPP software running on a PI frees up a computer to run the show. The FPP can drive a show with greater than 100000 (yes that is 5 zeros) pixels.

Since you are doing a commercial installation you have a few additional worries. You need to use special care to ensure no person can come in contact with your equipment. Care to ensure everything is properly fused and that the mains runs meet local electrical codes. You must use power supplies that are grounded or protected and have housings that meet local codes.

Vixen and xLights (both free) are the current workhorse sequencers for the DIY lighting community. They have very different ways of looking at your show and applying effects. For some people it is easier to understand xLights, for others Vixen makes more sense. I suggest you spend a few hours with each. Take a small effect and try to setup and sequence it on both programs. Then use the one that was easiest for you to understand.
 
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