New to ACL and Lighting!

toddoak83

toddoak83

New elf
Joined
Nov 17, 2020
Messages
4
Hi All,

I am a complete newbie and, like all other newbies, looking for some help! My plan is for Christmas 2021, but would love to get something basic up and running this year. I'm not a real technical guy, so if you're answering perhaps pretend like you're explaining it to a 5 year old...!

I've got a few items on the way (should be here Monday) including HE123MK2 Pixel Board, Beaglebone Green and (quite a few) WS2811 5v Pixel Nodes - I'll also have an SD card with Falcon Player 3.5 installed. I've downloaded and had a play around with xlights, which the design side of things seems to make some sense. My questions are:

  • What have you found is the best way to mount the nodes and get straight lines - I've heard people drilling holes through and using both round and rectangular conduit?
  • What's the best way to mount conduit (or other recommendation) to a rendered house, eaves and tiled roof?
  • What software is required to get the design from xlights to the nodes? Something to do with Falcon Player??! :unsure:
Any advice, behind the scene videos (etc) or websites you can recommend would be beyond appreciated! You guys are awesome - I'll hopefully pay it back to new users one day, once I know what I'm talking about! :p

Cheers, Todd
 
Where are you located? There might be some ACL member nearby that can show you their display.

Thanks David - I was just about to edit the post and include that info! I'm in Seaford Rise, South Australia... If there's anyone who's happy to show me around their display, I'd be extremely greatful!
 
Hi Todd, I would start by reading the 101 manual. One thing to remember is that this time of the year there are a lot of members running their own shows so if you just do a quick search of the forum you should be able to find most of what your after in the search. Most of the displays take months and months of planning and building and being almost mid December and wanting something I personally think will be a big struggle.
 
Thanks Dale, appreciate there's a lot of time that goes in to creating, programming and maintaining the displays! Really planning for 2021, but think it'd be cool to get something very simple just around the eaves this year. I've got a few people who are willing to help with the labor, so I'd like to take advantage of that! I'll keep trawling the forums and see what I can find :thumbsup:
 
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