Light show programs: Which program is easiest to use and set up for RGB LED strips?

gazer

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Mar 26, 2015
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Hi,


I've got 5 x 5M rolls of WS2812B RGB strips which have three wires: +- for power (5V) and one green for Data.


I also have a Pixelate 4 controller and a 240/5V power supply.


I want to join all the lights into one long length and have them all flashing in colours, to the music.


What is the easiest program to use? I will suss it out and buy if it suits my needs.


Guys, I do not have the technical input as most of you have, so any help for a dummy like me, to set up my LEDS would be great.


[SIZE=78%]Thanks,[/SIZE]


James
 

AAH

I love blinky lights :)
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Re: Light show programs: Which is program is easy to set up for RGB LED strips?

For simply fading the lights up and down or doing a chase then da_e131 from http://www.da-share.com/software/da_e131/ is easy to use.
Depending on how complex you want to do things then either Vixen 2, Vixen 3 or Xlights 4 is what I'd go with. For all 3 of these you probably need to watch a youtube tutorial or 2. There's regular totorials for Xlights 4 been going up on ACL as XL4 gets developed.
 

AussiePhil

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Re: Light show programs: Which is program is easy to set up for RGB LED strips?

All the current software packages have a learning curve, the easiest becomes the one you spend the time to learn, the ease of learning is helped by up to date online video tutorials.

forget vixen2 for RGB, it's just painful to work with.

I prefer Vixen3 but it has a learning curve to configure things but there are some tutorials around.

Xlights 3.x has a lot of video tutorials to help you learn.
Xlights 4.x is new this year and the tutorials are growing in number but not sure if they yet cover the absolute basics. xlights4 is definitely on my radar for use this year

All of the above are free.

I'll let others comment on the other choices.
 

Habbosrus

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xLights is quite easy to use. xLights 4 is currently in development as AAH & AussiePhil said, but looking very good. If you want to get up and running quickly, you may want to look at trying xLights 3 first and wait for the bugs to be ironed out of xL4.
Just a thought.
For 5 strips you will need some power injection otherwise the pixels at the end of the strip will be awfully dull. Also, I'm not sure you will be able to drive 5 strips out of 1 output on the PixLite 4. That would be 750 pixels from one output.
I use HLS and find it quite easy, but it too has it's learning curve
 

mborg10

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I'm biased for LSP. At first I could of pulled my hair out if I had any but now I know the basics it is really fast and quick to do powerful effects.
 

gazer

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Habbosrus said:
xLights is quite easy to use. xLights 4 is currently in development as AAH & AussiePhil said, but looking very good. If you want to get up and running quickly, you may want to look at trying xLights 3 first and wait for the bugs to be ironed out of xL4.
Just a thought.
For 5 strips you will need some power injection otherwise the pixels at the end of the strip will be awfully dull. Also, I'm not sure you will be able to drive 5 strips out of 1 output on the PixLite 4. That would be 750 pixels from one output.
I use HLS and find it quite easy, but it too has it's learning curve


I'll use two of the 4 Data outlets on the Pixelate 4 board and run power to every 2nd strip. That should give enough oomph to the run. As for setting it all up, I'll suss out Vixen 3. I do have LightJams on trial, but find it too complicated to set up. There must be an easier way! lol..
 

AussiePhil

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gazer said:
I'll use two of the 4 Data outlets on the Pixelate 4 board and run power to every 2nd strip. That should give enough oomph to the run. As for setting it all up, I'll suss out Vixen 3. I do have LightJams on trial, but find it too complicated to set up. There must be an easier way! lol..

Oh yeah, anything after lightjams will be easy :)
 

nzlongfellow

Dennis from NZ
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I started with Animated Lighting, Tried LOR, won a free copy of LSP but eneded up using xLights 3 for my show last year. With the Whole House Model and Auto-generating of sequences I got some pretty impressive shows with 10mins programming once I had my house model made.
Now xLights 4 is out and am working with that.
As others have said there are lots of tutorials for xL3 and 4.
Have fun and ask, ask, ask away.
 
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