In need of your opinion

[AVJunkie]

Hi everyone,


I have been reading through the forums for a while know and want to get some opinions about my soon to be implemented setup.


I am not going the full-on xmas route just yet, but rather want some pizazz for my new pad. I want my driveway to be a thing of, well.....art I guess. I will have 10 ornamental pear trees lining the driveway upon which I want to shine some rgb floodlights/spotlights and also have about 10 warm white flood/spot lights to light up the driveway. These lights need to be controlled so that I can configure a kickass display when someone enters the property so they all light up in sequence in a sort of runway type scheme.


I was thinking to go the LOR route with a couple of CMB24D's which should more than cover the 10 RGBs and 10 single channel 12v lights, but then I got caught up trying to work out if they would be better off or perhaps even cheaper off going the DMX route.


I guess I'm just getting caught up with having no previous experience in this field trying o pick the best route for this kind of project. I also need to be able to have different triggers for the lights - ie. gate opening, daylight/sunset switch, simple switch, etc.


LOR seems to be able to achieve all I want, but alot of people say LOR is expensive (I can't argue with that...shipping alone is $200++).


Any ideas people??


I also want to be able to add a kickass xmas display down the track.


Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Cheers everyone
John

 

[MikeKrebs]

If I were starting from scratch, I would try to go all pixel based on everything including the floods.

 

[djgra79]

For a quick plug and play display, you can use LOR but as you already know, it is very expensive to setup, and not as flexible for future additions including pixels.
It may be a bit late in the year to plan, buy, build and sequence pixels for this year, but you could always start with dumb rgb. Most of us see this as a year round project, slowly building on the existing display each year.
But you gotta start somewhere! Jump into chat particularly in the evenings if you want some live feedback.
Good luck!

 

[marmalade]

And for a remote run like this, consider wifi for data comms (e1.31), that way only power is required. For pixels you can't beat the ESP pixelstick for price & performance, and it can output dmx with some simple diy interfacing for off the shelf devices.

 

[bbayjohn]

The lor CMB24D can also run in stand alone mode. Great for landscape gardening.
You would also need to buy a licence for the program + Lor RJ45 dongle to send the sequence to the controllers.
http://www1.lightorama.com/sequencing-suite-software/
http://store.lightorama.com/uscoad.html
What it sounds like though is you would like a trigger to run a short sequence.
The CMB24D Can support only one trigger & one sequence
Run when power is on, or Input from a switch to power on. So the switch would need to be powered on.
If you want to store more than one trigger in standalone mode you will need a show director.
http://www1.lightorama.com/stand-alone-show-directors/
(Edit to remove input pup, this does not work in standalone mode)
http://store.lightorama.com/motiondetector.html

 

[MikeKrebs]

[The input pup link says that it needs a computer to run so you would need a dedicated computer in your scenario unless that is outdated information. ]

For a controller, your needs depend on your ability and enthusiasm for playing around with things. I like both diy and ready to roll but since you mentioned christmas display at a future date, why not get familiar with the raspberry Pi computer. You can interface sensors directly to the pi and trigger events to FPP to play sequences. Of course this means if you want to spend time plaguing around.
On the other end of th he spectrum, security companies have a wide variety of known to work sensors and the knowledge to interface them back to some software which means you have someone else to blame when things go wrong!

 

[cdjazman]

I have gone from 100% "Big W" style lights to 99% pixels in the last 3 years.

I have found that pixels are easier as you go and you are always learning - That is where this great community comes to the forefront and helps whenever needed.

Next year will be 100% pixels - ran out of time and money this year.

I did look at the LOR route in the early research days but was but too expansive for me.

I have also found that storage of pixels has been, in my case, easier. As I have mine on conduit and for the rest of the year hang in my garage on a few hooks.

Just my opinion and everyone will have differing ones.

 

[bbayjohn]

welcome to acl John

[The input pup link says that it needs a computer to run so you would need a dedicated computer in your scenario unless that is outdated information. ]

Hmm sorry didn't realise the input pup wont work with a director. However both directors do support there own triggers. Also the CMB24D can support one trigger so it could have the sensor connected down the driveway

A Motion Detector such as the (PIR-MD-1) can be used to trigger a Light-ORama(LOR) Controller that is running in Standalone Mode. When triggered by input such as a Motion Detector, a LOR controller will execute the entire sequence once and then wait for another trigger.