Hi from Melbourne

A

AndiK

Apprentice elf
Joined
Nov 1, 2015
Messages
53
Location
Melbourne
Hi all. Ivw been following for a while now off and on.. I know I'm so later for this year, but I was wondering if anyone could recommend a controler that maybe a plug and play one, (already put together) till I get my head around making one up myself. There are so many places I've seen on line, but I'm not sure who is great and can give me a good package or help with any questiona, I may have, or when I need to add more controlers to the mix. Hope someone can point me in the right direction....
Thanks heaps in advance..
 
Hi cozbert.
Yes I have read it a few times, It's amazing, I keep learning new things every day, I'm thinking of running pixels.. Yes I've seen heaps of them on line, I'm not confident that I would be able to do it on my own, unless it came with instructions, so that's why I thought of getting one already made up, if that's possible...
 
Hi Andi. Yes I believe there are a couple of plug & play options available, but you will end up paying for that convenience.
Whilst you could find the controller and possibly power supply in an all in one box, you would still need to buy the lights, and again if buying locally will end up being expensive. This community largely utilities the DIY approach to help reduce costs because this can become an expensive hobby.
I'm not trying to put you off at all, just setting a realistic expectation.
 
Yes.. I've seen veryone talk about Ray Wu, And others aroubd too... I know it's a very expensive hobby, that's why Ivw been an observer for so long, but now can afford at least start up. Just wondering if I was to do the DIY option, do you know if there's any you tube or anything for begins to learn to put it all together? Thank you... Your not turning me off... :)
 
Plenty of videos, I guess a first stop would be the ACL YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AusChristmasLighting/videos
But it does come down to what you want to achieve and formulate a plan. Most newcomers get advised to sit back and watch, see some elements they'd like to have/build and then look into the materials and equipment required to get them: lights, cables, connectors, power supplies, controllers, enclosures, etc.
What most people forget about are all the incidentals that go along with it. Soldering iron, solder, helping hands (tolls to hold whiile soldering) wire cutters, crimping plugs, heat shrink, heat gun, zipties. If actually building framework for elements, materials like timber, metal, corflute, screws/nuts/bolts... the list can be endless!!

My advise: let us know what you've seen that you'd like to achieve and then we can go from there. And feel free to hop in to chat for some instant(ish!) feedback :)
 
It's certainly possible and despite what a lot of people will tell you a reasonable way to get into the hobby. Once you've got one of these R2R controllers you'll have a better idea how they are put together and what you may need in the way of tools and hardware to build more for yourself in the future. Also, despite what many people will tell you, the R2R controllers aren't that more expensive (especially if you get one during a sale) than buying the board and hardware and building it yourself. If you take into account all the hardware required, all the tooling required (if you don't already have it) and the time required.

The R2R controllers listed will only run, approximately, 50 pixels per output (if 5V) or 100 pixels per output (if 12V) but have the capacity to run many more pixels; you would have to get into power injection in order to do that.

For RGB LEDS (Pixels) there are several choices for "Plug and Play" or "Ready to Run (R2R)" Controllers as follows - 16 Channel ones listed, but 4 channel ones also available from most of these vendors:

Falcon Controller
HolidayCoro AlphaPix
Advatek PixLite
LightORama PixCon
 
goto the media section at top of screen and lots of videos for info. if looking for this year order lights NOW from Ray - should be here in 2-3 weeks at worst, order from Advatek a pixlite 16mk11 (local made board very good and available), pwr supplies can come from Ray or local sellers of meanwell supplies - Hanson electronics.
While you wait for bits, start building the megatree or arches etc (25mm pvc pipe and zip tie lights to pipe), or outlines for your house (20 mm pvc pipe ziptie), use xlights- free and very powerful (there are free sequences you can download and map their effects to your specific models.even if you dont start till middle of december, not everyone cranks up on Decemeber 1st.
Cheers Boof63
 
djgra79 said:
Plenty of videos, I guess a first stop would be the ACL YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/AusChristmasLighting/videos
But it does come down to what you want to achieve and formulate a plan. Most newcomers get advised to sit back and watch, see some elements they'd like to have/build and then look into the materials and equipment required to get them: lights, cables, connectors, power supplies, controllers, enclosures, etc.
What most people forget about are all the incidentals that go along with it. Soldering iron, solder, helping hands (tolls to hold whiile soldering) wire cutters, crimping plugs, heat shrink, heat gun, zipties. If actually building framework for elements, materials like timber, metal, corflute, screws/nuts/bolts... the list can be endless!!

My advise: let us know what you've seen that you'd like to achieve and then we can go from there. And feel free to hop in to chat for some instant(ish!) feedback :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the link I'll have a watch, I'm waiting to start off with either a mini/mega tree, And/or jumping arches, start with that and work up to more, And other amazing things Ive seen. The tools are sorted, as I can everything already over the course if many jobs I've had in the past. And working with my hands is something I love doing anyway, so I'm looking forward to doing more. I will head to the chat area, just thinking maybe if I catch up woth someone in melbourne and get an idea of what they do, And how they set up I'd figure it out.. I've a visual person, so need to look at something once and then I'm fine... Thanks again for the link.
 
OzAz said:
It's certainly possible and despite what a lot of people will tell you a reasonable way to get into the hobby. Once you've got one of these R2R controllers you'll have a better idea how they are put together and what you may need in the way of tools and hardware to build more for yourself in the future. Also, despite what many people will tell you, the R2R controllers aren't that more expensive (especially if you get one during a sale) than buying the board and hardware and building it yourself. If you take into account all the hardware required, all the tooling required (if you don't already have it) and the time required.

The R2R controllers listed will only run, approximately, 50 pixels per output (if 5V) or 100 pixels per output (if 12V) but have the capacity to run many more pixels; you would have to get into power injection in order to do that.

For RGB LEDS (Pixels) there are several choices for "Plug and Play" or "Ready to Run (R2R)" Controllers as follows - 16 Channel ones listed, but 4 channel ones also available from most of these vendors:

Falcon Controller
HolidayCoro AlphaPix
Advatek PixLite
LightORama PixCon
Click to expand...
Thank you, I've been looking at the advatek pixlite one for a while, but wasn't sure if they are good, I was thinking that if I get one made up then I can get an idea of hiw it all works and when I'm ready to expand I'll have an idea of what it all looks like..
Thank you for all your info.. This is great.
 
Boof63 said:
goto the media section at top of screen and lots of videos for info. if looking for this year order lights NOW from Ray - should be here in 2-3 weeks at worst, order from Advatek a pixlite 16mk11 (local made board very good and available), pwr supplies can come from Ray or local sellers of meanwell supplies - Hanson electronics.
While you wait for bits, start building the megatree or arches etc (25mm pvc pipe and zip tie lights to pipe), or outlines for your house (20 mm pvc pipe ziptie), use xlights- free and very powerful (there are free sequences you can download and map their effects to your specific models.even if you dont start till middle of december, not everyone cranks up on Decemeber 1st.
Cheers Boof63
Click to expand...
Thanks heaps, I've started on Achesr already and a tree... Just no lights... I forged if I didn't have time for all the pixels this year I'd just throw some static ones on from big w or something.. :) thank you I'll head to the media section here too... Tha ka everyone for all your input.. Your all great.
 
Hi Andi and welcome.
You're in the exact spot I was a year ago and I can't praise the good members at ACL enough - their passion and knowledge will be the best help you can get.

My first effort was a 12 string megatree and 6 x 25 node arches. The first 2 controllers I bought were a Jsys ECG-P2 (as it was cheap at the time) followed by a SanSys E682 (which was a kit and easy to assemble). I would have to say as far as value for $ goes the E682 was better.
I have since purchased another E682, an Advatek Pixlite-16-MkII (comes assembled), and a Falcon F16v3 (comes assembled). The Falcon does the most and you get what you pay for. If you are handy with a kit the E682 appears to be a good entry level controller (with the promise of future firmware upgrades).
I am very much a hands on tester type so was happy to buy and try - plus it gives me an excuse to buy more pixels if I have spare controllers laying around ;-)

The pixel purchasing was something else, but I have been successful so far with purchasing 2011 and RGB type 12mm pixel from AliExpress with nothing but great experiences so far.

As all above have said, the best advice is the 101 manual followed by YouTube clips and then figure out what you want followed by lots of questions ;-)
 
Thank you all for your warm welcome and info, it's all amazing.. I'm looking forward to getting in to the hobby and the passion you all have.. So much information... It's great..
Thanks again.
 
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