New member from Sacramento, California

[kmccamman]

Greetings everyone! I took the plunge in to intelligent Christmas lights last December and put together a simple show using mainly LED strings , LOR S3, and a 16 channel controller. While doing research on RGB (both dumb and intelligent digital) I ran across this site and found that it is a great resource for building the display I want in the future. I have video I can post of what I built last Christmas, and I will post it if I figure out how to do so.

Kelly

 

[kel]

 

[kmccamman]

This is video of my house last year. Let me know what you think, and keep in mind it was my first time using this equipment and I put it together (including sequencing) in a little over a week.

 

[Bill Ellick]

Welcome to ACL Kelly
Congradulations on your first year with things and get ready to learn a lot about this crazy hobby.
You came to the right place to pick up on many new and exciting things in the lighting world from some of the best people in it. You can be sure that you will find help and useful info all over this forum.
Okay so start reading the threads and absorbing all the good information on here!

 

[fasteddy]

A very impressive display for the little time you had to prepare, looks like you have caught CLAP (Christmas Lighting Addiction Problem), most of us here suffer from this disease.

If you havent already downloaded the ACL 101 lighting manual then i suggest you start there as this should help you fill in some gaps

http://auschristmaslighting.com/forums/index.php/topic,1889.0.html

All the best with it and feel free to pop into the chat and say hello or ask any questions your not sure about.

 

[Bird]

to ACL Kelly

If your wanting to take your display up a notch or 10 notches this is the place to be for RGB.

With LOR S3 you can do DMX which is important but at this moment you cannot do intelligent RGB unless you use LOR CCR's. That said there is new stuff available this year to bridge that gap in case LOR does get around to it this year.

You should start by reading the AusChristmasLighting 101 Manual that was put together by a semi-intelligent person.

Lots more info in the forums and don't pass up the opportunity to jump into chat and ask questions.

 

[fasteddy]

With LOR S3 you can do DMX which is important but at this moment you cannot do intelligent RGB unless you use LOR CCR's. That said there is new stuff available this year to bridge that gap in case LOR does get around to it this year.

This is not entirely correct. Intelligent RGB lighting can be done with LOR and DMX, the only issue is your limited to 170 pixels per DMX dongle until LOR come out with native E1.31 support. And if they dont there is still the option to use the ELOR from Sandevices which converts LOR communications to $ universes of E1.31. So eaither way there are option out there right now for pixels even though there may be some limitations

 

[Bird]

With LOR S3 you can do DMX which is important but at this moment you cannot do intelligent RGB unless you use LOR CCR's. That said there is new stuff available this year to bridge that gap in case LOR does get around to it this year.

This is not entirely correct. Intelligent RGB lighting can be done with LOR and DMX, the only issue is your limited to 170 pixels per DMX dongle until LOR come out with native E1.31 support. And if they dont there is still the option to use the ELOR from Sandevices which converts LOR communications to $ universes of E1.31. So eaither way there are option out there right now for pixels even though there may be some limitations

You are correct .. however I do not consider a limit of 170 pixels much of an option.
The ELOR is why I mentioned the 'bridge'.

 

[fasteddy]

With LOR S3 you can do DMX which is important but at this moment you cannot do intelligent RGB unless you use LOR CCR's. That said there is new stuff available this year to bridge that gap in case LOR does get around to it this year.

This is not entirely correct. Intelligent RGB lighting can be done with LOR and DMX, the only issue is your limited to 170 pixels per DMX dongle until LOR come out with native E1.31 support. And if they dont there is still the option to use the ELOR from Sandevices which converts LOR communications to $ universes of E1.31. So eaither way there are option out there right now for pixels even though there may be some limitations

You are correct .. however I do not consider a limit of 170 pixels much of an option.
The ELOR is why I mentioned the 'bridge'.

Its only the limitation to how many can be used in a universe, you can have several dongles to make several universes. But yes its still a limitation compared to what native E1.31 will do

 

[bdeditch]

Greetings everyone! I took the plunge in to intelligent Christmas lights last December and put together a simple show using mainly LED strings , LOR S3, and a 16 channel controller. While doing research on RGB (both dumb and intelligent digital) I ran across this site and found that it is a great resource for building the display I want in the future. I have video I can post of what I built last Christmas, and I will post it if I figure out how to do so.

Kelly

Hey Kelly
We are having a get together in Merced on Apr. 29th. LMK if you want more info.

 

[kmccamman]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! I'm looking forward to building on my current display for the coming season, with the help from people found on sites like this one!

Kelly

 

[bbayjohn]

Giday kmccamman and welcome.
Feel free to ask here as you will find a very qualified brains trust here. Just hope the answers that come back are simple ones so I can understand them.

 

[kmccamman]

So I did order up a "starter kit" that included some RGB modules, a power supply, a 3 channel DMX controller, CAT 5 wire, and a USB dongle to program the DMX controller and test the lights. I also downloaded the Lightshow Pro trial and had a chance to play with it a little bit. I had limited success getting it to run with the kit-supplied dongle, so up to the attic I went to retrieve my LOR dongle. The LOR dongle seems to work a little bit better. If I should decide to expand in the future I guess I'm good for at least 512 channels. I have yet to try using my LOR controller (ac) in DMX, but I will likely try as the holidays get closer. At this time I have my eye on a RGB module based flood that runs in DMX, I will likely buy that next along with a new software suite for native DMX output.

At some point I would like to get my hands on a pixel controller and some digital pixels to play with, but as money is tight that will have to wait. Thanks again everyone for the great advice!

 

[DougieB]

welcome kmccamman