Ready to Learn

[LAG]

I have always loved putting up holiday lights for both Halloween & Christmas since as far back as I can remember. Last year I bought a Mr. Christmas show device & it was fun but really basic and did not teach me anything I needed to learn that would help me with starting my own holiday show. This year, I bought a strand of addressable RGB's, an uno microcontroller, and I have been learning how to use arduino code to get different effects. Recently, I downloaded the xLights software to start to understand more of how to sequence and then realized I am fully out of my depth when it comes to all the electrical components needed. My goal for this year was to be able to do a small Halloween show with pumpkin props (talking) and then a Christmas show with a tree prop and some basic lighting. I am having a hard time connecting all of the dots -- Holidaycoro has a great pumpkin prop with easy to follow installation but it appears the available model & sequence is really only compatible using LOR software. When I find someone who sells props not LOR based, there is no model & no sequence so I'm on my own. I am one of those learners who needs a step-by-step process for prop building (especially connecting strings to channels) and a ready-to-run sequence then I can work backwards to DYIing. Any suggestions if I want to start with xlights?

 

[TerryK]

Welcome to ACL.

If you have not already, I highly suggest you download and read the ACL 101 Manual. Let it digest for several days and read it again. The 101 Manual covers most if not all of the typical hardware used with RGB animated lighting. I also suggest watching the YouTube Canispater Christmas videos. Those videos cover a lot of the hardware from a hands-on perspective. A significant number of ACL members use xLights and the software has a good help function built in. You can also find help videos at xlights.org.

And finally, there are the ACL sections. There is the Wiki and Media sections, the Chat Room for a real-time conversation and/or questions. In the Forum you will find archived threads of issues, problems, and questions others have encountered; opinions of various topics and solutions. These sections are searchable.

I already mentioned xLights; Falcon controllers are popular as are Raspberry Pi small board computers. Holiday Coro and LOR are not highly thought of on ACL and as such not too many individuals purchase or use their products.

 

[OzAz]

Hi @LAG If you are in France as your flag suggests, if you're looking to buy items check Build A Light Show they are a UK re-seller of controllers and coro props.
As far as Coro props go, xLights has most of the Boscoyo prop models available as built-in downloads. Other manufacturers, like HC, sometimes have them on their website, or you can find them from various other users, or you can use the custom model to create your own.

There are plenty of xLights sequences with lyrics tracks, you don't have to buy the ones from HC. Check the xLights google drive for some free ones. That drive has sequences, lyric tracks and coro models (including some of the HC ones).

There are heaps of sequence vendors these days, several of them have free sequences, RGB Sequences' Blinding Lights was very popular last year.