Greetings, I'm from a small country town in NSW and I have always been in awe of some of the displays i have seen around the internet. I have run a fair amount of basic lights on my house in past years but they are starting to look a little second hand with dull colours and sections of strings not working so my wife has given me a budget to do some upgrades.
I run my own business that not only deals with computers but also theatrical production gear so I have a good handle on DMX controls, networking and lighting principals plus I can get some equipment at wholesale prices.
My budget for the first year is $500. After a bit of research I have come up with the plan to use Vixen for the software, an E682 controller from SAN Devices and about 30M of generic WS2811 based LED strips plus an FM transmitter. I'm not looking to use any of my existing lights except for a few dumb 240v rope lights which, if i have researched correctly, can be controlled by a bog standard DMX dimmer driven by one of the ouputs of the E682. Cables, power supplies and other assorted nick nacks can come out of my work stock.
I'll try to get a photo up later but the front of my house is pretty basic, there is a bullnose verandah about 10M long at the front that goes right around the house, the front of the house itself is about 7M long and there are extra bits off to each side that is set back about 5M, looking down on the house from above it is roughtly 'T' shaped.
I'm thinking of having 10M of the RGB strip along the top and bottom of the verandah, another strip cut to 4 1.2M lengths hung vertically at equal distances along the verandah and the remaining strip cut to 10 50cm lengths attached to rods scattered around my lawn as mini firesticks.
Any thoughts? It is a basic setup but its my first outing and it will be the only computerised system in town.
I run my own business that not only deals with computers but also theatrical production gear so I have a good handle on DMX controls, networking and lighting principals plus I can get some equipment at wholesale prices.
My budget for the first year is $500. After a bit of research I have come up with the plan to use Vixen for the software, an E682 controller from SAN Devices and about 30M of generic WS2811 based LED strips plus an FM transmitter. I'm not looking to use any of my existing lights except for a few dumb 240v rope lights which, if i have researched correctly, can be controlled by a bog standard DMX dimmer driven by one of the ouputs of the E682. Cables, power supplies and other assorted nick nacks can come out of my work stock.
I'll try to get a photo up later but the front of my house is pretty basic, there is a bullnose verandah about 10M long at the front that goes right around the house, the front of the house itself is about 7M long and there are extra bits off to each side that is set back about 5M, looking down on the house from above it is roughtly 'T' shaped.
I'm thinking of having 10M of the RGB strip along the top and bottom of the verandah, another strip cut to 4 1.2M lengths hung vertically at equal distances along the verandah and the remaining strip cut to 10 50cm lengths attached to rods scattered around my lawn as mini firesticks.
Any thoughts? It is a basic setup but its my first outing and it will be the only computerised system in town.
