Hi from Corrimal NSW

Grievous8

Grievous8

New elf
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
16
Location
Wollongong
Hi all,
I have been doing Christmas lights for 10years, just standard out of the box stuff and inflatables.
I'm 37 and this is my first forum I have signed up to. :eek:
While putting them up this year I said to the wife I know the kids love this but I'm board I need something more.
And when your the only on in the street that does lights I have no competition.
So I have been looking into controllers etc. and more is what I got. wow
I only know the basics to all this and thanks in advance for all the info you have up on this and for any I receive.
let the fun begin :D
 
Welcome! Corrimal is a nice place to live :)


Plenty of people here to help. Lots of products and information to digest. Give yourself a stack of time to get your 2017 display up and running, contrary to popular belief it's actually a lot of work!


There's always the december clearout sales on static lights so keep an eye open. Everyone is moving to pixels now, but the static/dumb displays are great space fillers, and far easier to sequence, so it's handy to have these as backup. Most things can be rewired to make them controllable, some are more difficult than others so read up a little beforehand.


And drop into chat and say hi :)
 
Welcome to ACL you will find lots of great help and information to help you. For many this is a all year round hobby

Im just south of you in Albion Park but haven't had the energy or time to do anything again this year for myself.

Download the ACL 101 lighting manual as this will help you get started

https://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1889.0.html
 
Welcome and sound you hav C.L.A.P. already but low infection (Christmas Light Addiction Problem)
As fasteddy said, the manual is great place to start and plenty of people to help out.
All the best
Boof63
 
Hi all,
Hope you lights were a hit last year.
I am having a few drams with info overload and need some help. now that silly season is over I thought you might be able to point me in right direction?
I have downloaded X-Lights and I understand that I think lol
my problem is what do I buy? :eek: I don't want to waste money on the wrong thing and most of the stuff says personal preference but I have never used this stuff so I have no idea.
A lot of people seem to use 2811 strip but do I get 30 or 60 lights/m
And I'm struggling with controller types and how many?
I was thinking 1 for garage and window
one for other 2 windows and Matrix
one for roof and one for store bought 2 wire lights.
I have attached a diagram and this is the minimum I want to run this year(if I can get my head around it)
Once I figure out what strip and controllers I should be right

Any help I will be grateful for

Thanks
 

Attachments

  • Lights.pdf
    128.4 KB · Views: 17
G'day Grievous, you're going to get a lot of differing ideas, suggestions and opinions. As a starting point, 2811 strip like this LED STRIP is a great start for windows and roof lines. Take a look at the F16V3 Falcon board with a Differential Expansion Board with some Receiver Boards. This should cover all your requirements + some future proofing. I'm not sure about the 2 wire store bought stuff, but I used a 2811DC15 for my 3 wire Big W lights, that runs off one of my Sandevices E6804 controller. It could easily run off one of the receiver boards I mentioned.
These are just a couple of suggestions out of a myriad of options at your disposal.
 
Grievous8 said:
Hi all,
Hope you lights were a hit last year.
I am having a few drams with info overload and need some help. now that silly season is over I thought you might be able to point me in right direction?
I have downloaded X-Lights and I understand that I think lol
my problem is what do I buy? :eek: I don't want to waste money on the wrong thing and most of the stuff says personal preference but I have never used this stuff so I have no idea.
A lot of people seem to use 2811 strip but do I get 30 or 60 lights/m
And I'm struggling with controller types and how many?
I was thinking 1 for garage and window
one for other 2 windows and Matrix
one for roof and one for store bought 2 wire lights.
I have attached a diagram and this is the minimum I want to run this year(if I can get my head around it)
Once I figure out what strip and controllers I should be right

Any help I will be grateful for

Thanks
Click to expand...



Hi Grevious8, I completely understand 'info overload' I was in your position when I joined the group back in late 2015 but a little over year later and with alot of help from the community I managed to pull together a 2016 show with all of the elements I initially wanted and more and I now have a good understanding of all things blinky flashy (though there is always more to learn). So trust me it soon starts making sense.
You have some solid plans and have given yourself plenty of time to learn and build which is great. There are 101 different ways to do things in this hobby and you're right most of it is down to personal preference which is tough when your just starting. I did some similar things to what you are planning so if it helps I can tell you what worked for me;


House outline and windows I used 12V WS2811 30/10 strip, I found the 30led/m strip was more than adequate in resolution and in brightness (in fact I only ran at 40% and it was still super bright). This stuff is great as you can cover a large area for relatively low cost. I also used the same strip for spiral trees and inside arches. Just keep in mind 2811 strip uses 3 leds per IC, so each 'pixel' lights a group of 3 leds, perfectly fine for outlines, windows etc, if you were considering strip for say a matrix or mega tree you may want to consider something with control of each individual light such as WS2812b.


As for controllers there are different controllers for different types of lights, for my pixels I used just one Falcon F16V2 along with an expansion board which allowed me to use smaller receiver boards in various locations around the yard. Controlling store bought lights requires a different type of controller and can get complicated as you will need to modify the lights but there are plenty of folks doing it and personally I think it really looks great to have 'traditional' Christmas lights along with pixels. For my DC/DMX controllers I used a few of the common Ray Wu 27ch boards. You mentioned your store bought lights are the 2-wire variety, I believe Hanson Electronics has a controller which can run these.


Before you commit to buying anything it is a good idea to post a shopping list and your plans on the forum so you can get some really specific advice on what you might need and possibly save you from paying for stuff you don't. I did this early last year before placing my first order with Ray Wu and it really helped.


Check out my walk-through video if you have a spare 20mins (it's a bit long!) it shows some of this stuff and might give you a few ideas.
Good luck and keep us posted, David.


[font=verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]https://youtu.be/nUg-CD4e7Fo[/font]
 
Thanks David that was a great help now i have a starting point
Interchangeable conduit is a great idea
Good video

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk
 
Habbosrus said:
G'day Grievous, you're going to get a lot of differing ideas, suggestions and opinions. As a starting point, 2811 strip like this LED STRIP is a great start for windows and roof lines. Take a look at the F16V3 Falcon board with a Differential Expansion Board with some Receiver Boards. This should cover all your requirements + some future proofing. I'm not sure about the 2 wire store bought stuff, but I used a 2811DC15 for my 3 wire Big W lights, that runs off one of my Sandevices E6804 controller. It could easily run off one of the receiver boards I mentioned.
These are just a couple of suggestions out of a myriad of options at your disposal.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the help[emoji4]

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk
 
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