Newbie. Help needed please

welcome to ACL dez. yeah do not be afraid to ask questions in chat we all do. Eddy is right it has been a long time since I have kicked anyone out of chat ( except BP a few weeks ago as a joke. it worked out good for him he had 30 mins out of chat and sorted out what he was working on then came back into chat lol ::) ::) ::))
 
Welcome. Lots of great information (in this thread alone as well as the whole forum). My only add is depending on what props you want to build, I would suggest doing a prototype with what you plan on using and then deciding if you want to go full scale. Two examples - 1) I want to add house outline with strobe pixels, standard pixels, and my own version of icicles this year. I bought 1 string each of what I think I need from Ray and then built a 4 foot section of what I want to do over the whole house. 2) I want to add snowflakes this year so I bought just enough materials (including one string of lights from Ray) to make one snowflake and see if I like 'em in person.
Last year, I put together a small plan and then just bought off my plan. I ended up spending more than I needed because when I got to the actual build, I was able to use less. Yes, I can use those extra things for new ideas, but I could have saved money if I had done some prototyping first.
Just my two cents worth.
 
G'day Dez, welcome to ACL mate. I think many of us come into this hobby with little knowledge and that's the great thing about ACL. It really is a place full of information, inspiration and very helpful people. You are streaks ahead with your knowledge of electrical work and being a chippy. It does seem overwhelming at first, but again, that's the great thing about ACL. Many others have had similar thoughts, fears and ideas as you have. I knew absolutely nothing (and I really do mean notttthhhiiinnnggg!) before I started in 2013. ACL members have helped so much and I now have a little light show that I'm proud of.
 
What you are looking at in LOR is easy-to-use plug and play for store bought lights BUT.... research the lights you buy. As others have said think of what you want . I bought the same thing last year, thinking that I could just use the lights I have at home . Yes I did use them controlled by stand alone and to music. Yes it looked good. But in doing so I now know a lot more than before. You have to make sure there is no delay in power response to lights , make sure there is a memory built in to the controller of thr bought lights unless you want to hack them. This year I am looking into rgb and trying to figure out the best way to add into the controller's that I have. Even dumb rgb?
 
This is just my opinion but I wouldn't recommend LOR hardware for store-bought lights in Australia. If you use a DC controller you can get control of the channels within the light sets and LOR DC controllers are relatively expensive. The main case in which this won't work is if the light set has only two wires between its original controller and the lights themselves.

Other ACL members have told me that the lightweight plugpacks can catch fire if you try to dim them with an AC controller.

In some countries the light sets may not have plugpacks to convert the voltage; these wouldn't have the same problems.
 
Hi All,


Sorry for the late response. Am I best to go with a 12v system and why? How much is this likely to cost to get a basic set up started?
 
If you're wanting to use store-bought lights for computer control then you're almost definitely going to want a 27 - 31V system for those. It would help to know more about your existing lights if you want to include them. What voltage(s) are their plugpacks? AC or DC plugpack outputs?

If you're wanting to have new RGB lights (pixels or dumb RGB) then 12V and 5V are the main options. You can have a mixed system of you want both.

You'll find it'll always be a bit more expensive than you planned. A bare minimum to run your existing lights would be the following:
  • Your existing light sets $0
  • A cheap 27 channel DMX controller US $42
  • A cheap power supply (I never personally recommend these but they do work) US $20
  • shipping US $25 (ish)
  • An enclosure for the power supply AU $12 to AU $30 (ish)
  • Fan and flyscreen for the power supply enclosure
  • A USB to DMX dongle (not the most reliable option) AU $37 including shipping
  • Diodes for adjusting the voltages of your light sets (inexpensive)
  • Heatshrink (inexpensive)
  • Soldering iron (prices vary)
  • Solder
  • A multimeter for string testing (you probably have one)
  • A CAT5 cable (you might have one lying around)
  • Cabling to extend the lead-in wire lengths on your light sets
  • A computer (you probably have one)
  • Spare time
  • Free sequencing software

In reality there are more things that you might want to have
  • A FM transmitter and/or speakers for audio
  • An E1.31 to DMX bridge or any E1.31 controller with a DMX output (more reliable than a USB dongle but harder to set up)
  • A second CAT5 cable for the E1.31 controller
  • A 2801 or 2811 DC controller instead of a DMX one
  • A spare power supply in case the cheap one stops working
  • Pixels to run from the E1.31 controller
  • Power supply/supplies or DC-DC converters for the pixels
  • Spare pixels to replace blown ones
  • Enclosures for the controller(s)
  • Fuses
  • A good quality soldering iron makes a big difference but they are over AU $100
  • A Raspberry Pi to run the show without your computer connected
  • A network switch to run multiple E1.31 devices (some may require a switch on their own)
  • Anything else I've forgotten

It would be a big task to get it up and running this year but you could still do it. Keep asking questions.
I'll edit this post if I've missed anything.
 
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