lytnin
Full time elf
Hi All,
Well I've had serious CLAP withdrawal for a few years now, with various illnesses in the family and time issues and what not.
This year was also looking to be another no tree zone. We are in the midst of selling our house, as the wife now has trouble with the stairs of the two storey place. SO leading up to the light season all my time was devoted to getting the house in order for sale, so light preparations were non existent.
Once all that was done, and this being the last year at this location, I was determined to get my CLAP fix this year. Also many of the new neighbours have never seen the display they've all heard so much about.
By hook or by crook, I was having my last Hoorah.
I had all the lights and controllers I had been collecting over the years sitting around, waiting to be put to use.
In the last 10 days or so I have converted the following to WS2801 pixels:
- 19 minitrees (50 each)
- 6 stars (48 each + 2 null)
- 1 Mega Star (144 + 6 null)
- 1 Mega Tree - 15m high - (16 strands of 50 @300mm)
I already had the Pixels mounted to rods for the vertical posts of the verandah from last year.
I have also built 3 control boxes for P12R's.
So here are a few specs.
- All pixels are 5V WS2801 from Ray.
- The Mega Star sits at about 16m from the ground. The data cable run and Power Injection is 20m. No drop out that I've seen yet.
- The tree is a Cypress pine approx 16m tall. A tiny bit of pruning this year to give a good shape (first time ever).
- Raspberry Pi into a 24port switch out to the controllers.
- 3 x P12R (1 for the house, 1 for the minitree forest, 1 for the main tree & mega Star)
- 1 x ECG DMX/Ren8 - Outputting to a Tiger120 to run the RGB sticks (not shown). Was going to also use one of my Ren-C's, to run some 240V bells, but that is packed somewhere in storage.
Sequences.
- My original sequences were programmed in Vixen 2 (non pixel).
- Used Vixen 3 to import and then modify. (Mostly still on/off/fade single colour - due to lack of time)
- Background sequence being used is a two minute test I was using to "play/learn" the features of V3
- Exported sequences to a Raspberry Pi (I see why people are raving about them. Runs so much smoother than from a PC)
Still to do:
- Rewire 2 Arches to take Pixel Strip (INK1003)
- Update firmware of P12R for above strip (WS2811 equivalent I've been told)
- Rewire 16 candy canes for the verandah.
- Put up another horizontal line at the verandah floor level.
- Work out where water is getting into the RBG strips and stopping them.
- Put out some static display items (Rope light train, reindeer etc)
- Get some good video.
Last night was the 1st time I've lit up everything (except the water logged RGB strips) in a few years and standing out in the rain admiring my handy work felt awesome. Encouragement from the neighbours small kids since I had the cherrypicker over the weekend really spurred me on too.
Thanks for reading, Video's to come soon
Dave
Well I've had serious CLAP withdrawal for a few years now, with various illnesses in the family and time issues and what not.
This year was also looking to be another no tree zone. We are in the midst of selling our house, as the wife now has trouble with the stairs of the two storey place. SO leading up to the light season all my time was devoted to getting the house in order for sale, so light preparations were non existent.
Once all that was done, and this being the last year at this location, I was determined to get my CLAP fix this year. Also many of the new neighbours have never seen the display they've all heard so much about.
By hook or by crook, I was having my last Hoorah.
I had all the lights and controllers I had been collecting over the years sitting around, waiting to be put to use.
In the last 10 days or so I have converted the following to WS2801 pixels:
- 19 minitrees (50 each)
- 6 stars (48 each + 2 null)
- 1 Mega Star (144 + 6 null)
- 1 Mega Tree - 15m high - (16 strands of 50 @300mm)
I already had the Pixels mounted to rods for the vertical posts of the verandah from last year.
I have also built 3 control boxes for P12R's.
So here are a few specs.
- All pixels are 5V WS2801 from Ray.
- The Mega Star sits at about 16m from the ground. The data cable run and Power Injection is 20m. No drop out that I've seen yet.
- The tree is a Cypress pine approx 16m tall. A tiny bit of pruning this year to give a good shape (first time ever).
- Raspberry Pi into a 24port switch out to the controllers.
- 3 x P12R (1 for the house, 1 for the minitree forest, 1 for the main tree & mega Star)
- 1 x ECG DMX/Ren8 - Outputting to a Tiger120 to run the RGB sticks (not shown). Was going to also use one of my Ren-C's, to run some 240V bells, but that is packed somewhere in storage.
Sequences.
- My original sequences were programmed in Vixen 2 (non pixel).
- Used Vixen 3 to import and then modify. (Mostly still on/off/fade single colour - due to lack of time)
- Background sequence being used is a two minute test I was using to "play/learn" the features of V3
- Exported sequences to a Raspberry Pi (I see why people are raving about them. Runs so much smoother than from a PC)
Still to do:
- Rewire 2 Arches to take Pixel Strip (INK1003)
- Update firmware of P12R for above strip (WS2811 equivalent I've been told)
- Rewire 16 candy canes for the verandah.
- Put up another horizontal line at the verandah floor level.
- Work out where water is getting into the RBG strips and stopping them.
- Put out some static display items (Rope light train, reindeer etc)
- Get some good video.
Last night was the 1st time I've lit up everything (except the water logged RGB strips) in a few years and standing out in the rain admiring my handy work felt awesome. Encouragement from the neighbours small kids since I had the cherrypicker over the weekend really spurred me on too.
Thanks for reading, Video's to come soon
Dave
