Raw beginner first project

[burto51]

Hi all,
Have read and reread 101 manual and browse lots of threads, now is the time to jump in, but at first with a simple project ??
Have a Santa/chimney wire frame that had AC rope light now dead, want to replace it with low voltage lights in three configurations.
Chimney in white LED light that will be on all the time.
Bottom and top santa both in red led, bottom one to be ON then Off as top santa frame comes on and then fades, sequence then repeats. Sounds simple no music etc.
I think I need
One string of white led lights say 8mm dumb led
Two strings of red or RGB smart LED as need a fade effect
Switched power supply
Controller to operate the display
Something to run the controller everything so far seems very complicated,

Am I on the right track ?? as I said this is a beginning project

Thanks in anticipation
Greg

 

[scamper]

You can get all as you have described and as far as a dumb controller, if you are only wanting a fade of the one string you could use a simple 3 Chanel controller and not hook it up to a programmer, it will run in demo mode.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-3-CH-dmx-dimmer-Controller-3CH-dmx512-decoder-for-led-Light-Bar-Module-RGB/32315903981.html?spm=2114.01010208.3.173.EnTLDP&ws_ab_test=searchweb201556_0,searchweb201602_4_10057_10056_10065_10068_10055_10054_10069_301_10059_10058_10032_10073_10017_10070_10060_10061_10052_10062_10053_10050_10051,searchweb201603_2&btsid=3b10b96e-8a40-44b8-8ddd-739674077192
You could get just 3 sets of dumb rgb strings and drive each string in the colour you want, which if that is all you did may be a waste, but if you got hooked and wanted to go further, at least you have that option down the track.

 

[burto51]

Thanks for your reply, your advice seems to be the go, as I said this is a first project, probably will get hooked and use the knowledge for other projects. As they say one step at a time.
Again thank you
Greg