Is there a basic solution for led’s?

[VicJim]

hi all, I’ve been doing xmas light for a few years now just using shop bought led strings and motifs but I would like to have them run in a pattern/sequence, not to music just timing!
Is there a simple solution to this or do I have to go LOR or all raspberry Pi and that..?

 

[OzAz]

To get lights to sequence either to music or not is never simple, or cheap.

To use 'shop bought' led lights, you'll need some sort of DC Controller. @AAH of http://www.hansonelectronics.com.au/ sells some.
See page 54 of the 101 manual for further information.

No need to go the LOR route, locally purchased or Chinese controllers will usually cost less. Software of choice around here is xLights which is free. The xLights Scheduler (program to run your show) is run on a PC, but if you don't have a spare PC, you can get a Pi and run FPP to run your show.

Apart from LOR, there are a few other companies that sell complete ready to run packages that basically all you have to do is plug in your lights. But like LOR they cost more and you can get stuck in vendor specific hardware and/or software. eg http://www.christmascreations.net.au/lightshowz-all-in-one.html

 

[AAH]

There's a kinda option that is intermediate. As OzAz said I have a few things that will help out.
The simplest method is to use a pixel tester to drive my new 2811DC2-30 for the 2 wire 2 channel led strings You can also use the 2811C15 or 2811DC30 for the older style led strings that had 3 or more wires from the multifunction controller to the lights. They can also do low voltage incand lights if you still have any of them.
The tester is designed for RGB pixels really but you can get interesting timed effects when using with standard 1,2,3 channel lights. Depending on the effect chosen the whole lot of light strings can be doing the same thing or there can be chases.
I'm currently testing the 2811DC2-30 and I expect it will be on the market either Friday or early next week. It will do 15 led strings (30 channels) of the 2 wire 2 channel leds that are now common from Big W, Bunnings etc.
If you eventually want to go to computer control and do it to music then it's just a matter of disconnecting the pixel tester and using any source of WS2811 data as the signal source.