New starter

[broomfamily]

Hello lighting family,
Im new to this world and this is my first year having something on display using a light show set up (I'm that new i bought a singing face kit off christmas creations).
After breaking his kit down i realised this is something I can do myself and have alot more fun and enjoyment designing and making my own props and light shows.
So my question is im pretty sure the set up i have is DMX512 running off a raspberry Pi 3 B+, I'm already in the process in upgrading this to a Pi5 but just want to know the best way to start off weather to stay with DMX512 or go another way, cause I want mega trees and my roof and gutter to light up plus I wanna make candy canes and hoops and the list just keeps going on. I just need a little help getting pointed in the right direction and there is alot of info and pros and cons. Im not super rich so wanna do it once and right.
Thanks for anyone that gives me some good advice.

 

[CargoLights]

What you have probably isn't exactly DMX512, but I'm not familiar with the exact kit you purchased. Can you link it so we can tell exactly what it is?

Assuming you're running FPP, upgrading to a Pi5 won't have any benefit, it will just cost you money you could be spending on lights. A good place to start is the 101 on this site. Reading through that will answer most of the questions people have when starting out.

 

[thewanderingpine]

Agree that pi3->pi5 is fine for what you’re doing - no need to upgrade.

I assume the kit was something like this? https://www.christmascreations.net.au/product/2d-singing-tree-faces/

Is the player just using FPP?

If you have existing lights you want to sequence - the spare ports on those controllers would be fine.

But for something like a megatree - you may want to look at pixels - and that will need a new controller. The old one should be able to work alongside any new ones (a lot of people have more than 1 controller in a display).

The Baldrick8 is a good starting point for pixel displays. The 101 manual gives a good overview of a lot of the theory here.

 

[broomfamily]

Agree that pi3->pi5 is fine for what you’re doing - no need to upgrade.

I assume the kit was something like this? https://www.christmascreations.net.au/product/2d-singing-tree-faces/

Is the player just using FPP?

If you have existing lights you want to sequence - the spare ports on those controllers would be fine.

But for something like a megatree - you may want to look at pixels - and that will need a new controller. The old one should be able to work alongside any new ones (a lot of people have more than 1 controller in a display).

The Baldrick8 is a good starting point for pixel displays. The 101 manual gives a good overview of a lot of the theory here.

Hi not sure just yet which player it's running just yet i havnt gone into the rasberry operating settings yet.
That is kind of like the kit I got but in neon lights and they are controlled by a ws-dmx-36ch board.
I have gone through the 101 manual and alot to take in just seeing everyone's opinions on which ways good just collecting everyone's pros and cons.