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Kiwigirlsteph

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Hi all
I'm brand new to this christmas light obsession. Last year was the first year I entered our house it was cool but this year I want to Amp it up. I have brought a bunch of Bluetooth transformers from lytworx to begin with.. am I wasting my money? Also how do I plug all my lights in without blowing my entire power board? Please help lol I am ready to learn! The videos I have seen on here are amazing!
 
Hey Kiwigirlsteph! Welcome!

Ultimately it all depends on what sort of a display you're looking for. If you go for something completely pixel based, then the Lytworx option won't be much use. But there's nothing stopping you having a hybrid setup.
First step would be to check out the 101 Manual that explains most of the bits and pieces.
auschristmaslighting.com

AusChristmasLighting 101 Manual

The AusChristmasLighting 101 manual is released for download for all registered site members. This manual provides guidence to the introduction and setup of different types of computer controlled Christmas displays that many of the members here have used. It is by no means a complete list of...
auschristmaslighting.com auschristmaslighting.com

As for power - given everything is LED based, it draws pretty minimal power in the grand scheme of things - your lytworks controllers would be lucky to use 2% of what your kettle does. You need to get up into the 10,000 light range before you start pulling serious amounts of power.

I would suggest to download xLights and start putting together a layout for your place. It'll give you an idea of what's needed light/prop/controller/etc wise, and will let you see how it all pieces together too.
 
For reference, I have about 150-200 of the little transformers you talk of (not bluetooth however) and only draw around 1500W with all of those running.
To connect these, I use multiple dedicated circuits, but still end up having about 8 multiboards daisychained together, some may see this as unsafe, though the total loading of the entire "daisychain" is less than 200W well under the rating of the power boards.

If you chose to go down the animated/musical sequence route:
The transformers you have will not be suitable for controlling the lights with a sequence, as switching them on and off rapidly can destroy them and they have a very delayed on/off time, they won't like being dimmed should you chose to control the mains side, it would be advised to get a dedicated power supply and run them through a control board for example, one of the DC2811 2 channel controller boards that @AAH sells on his website.


With 60,000 LEDS on the roof running from a dedicated 30V power supply only drawing about 250W with all of them on. Bunnings/Kmart LED strings are very low power, each string is about 3.6W up to 15W when you dive into the 2000 LED strings. If you are concerned that a lot of Christmas lights may overload circuits in your house, try splitting them up to run from different circuits, this will eliminate overloading initially until you really get into the hobby, and if you are still unsure there, contact an electrician who will be able to sort something out for you.
Pixels are where the power draw goes up significantly as they can draw about 70W (@12v) at full brightness with only 100 lit leds.
 
Welcome along to ACL @Kiwigirlsteph !
We're slowing dominating the Aussies!


Pixels work a lot differently to regular strings of lights.

In my opinion:
  1. A cheap way to get started with pixels is an ESP based board and something like WLED software installed on it. Surplustronics in Auckland sell ESP32's for $20 each. A string of pixel (addressable RGB lights) can be bought from Jaycar or online. This will require some wiring, so it's a great project to start small with. WLED software has enough built-in effects to get started. Once you've played around with that, then you could try xLights on your computer and synchronise to your favourite songs.
  2. If you are confident with more tinkering, a Raspberry Pi cape designed for pixels and a Raspberry Pi computer is a good setup for a few thousand pixels.
There is plenty of options to get started.
The 101 manual is a big gulp to take in. This hobby is not plug and play.
Let us know your skill level, we can skip ahead if you already know parts.

Where about's in NZ are you? There might be another Kiwi nearby who can help you getting started.
 
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