Starting 2023 Hopefully - Perth

[someoneAUS]

Hey all.

Complete newbie here. Been lurking the forums for nearly 10 years tho I see... Have a couple of the Bunnings strings up at home but went on a night time adventure with our 3 year old this year looking at lights and the Mrs has approved me improving our lights next year.

I have done a bit of reading so far. Made my way through the 101 guide. Although some of the info seems to be getting old I hope it got me the basics down. Downloaded xLights and had a bit of a play... I can see this taking WAYYY too much of my free time.

The Mrs and I both like the look of arches. So I think lighting across the eaves and arches will be the first two projects. I have a few ESP32s laying around from building my retic controller and home temp monitoring so WLED on one or two of those as a controller looks to be the cheapest way to start in terms of controllers.

Software and programming is the easy bit for me I guess. building the actual blinkies is where I feel I might start to get a little lost.

Strips in airseeder tube seems to create the nicest effect for the arches but I have questions around LED density. 30/m vs 60/m for arches/eaves?

This thread makes me think that GS8208 is probably the way to go in terms of LEDS I'm thinking strips for both the arches and eaves and probably mounting the eaves in diffused aluminium channel and leaving up all year round.

If anyone has any tips/tricks for me on getting started I am all ears or if there are any locals in Perth I figure now is the best time of year for me to come have a squiz at how things are done.

 

[thewanderingpine]

Welcome to ACL. I know @paullyxmas76 is in Perth and has a pretty impressive display from the pictures I've seen. (He also sells a bunch of the gear you are likely to need (pixels/PSUs/etc) -- and given how fast shipping is to the East coast -- you should get anything pretty damn quick.

What you're proposing sounds a fair bit like my setup (permanently mounted strip in aluminium under eaves, strip in tubes for arches). I'm hopefully recording a bunch of show video tomorrow -- I'll show you what they look like (for me - 30/m in eaves, 60/m in arches).

WLED is great - I've got ~1000 pixels running off two WLED boards via wifi -- and while I'm sure that's not ideal -- I'm not able to visually fault it. It seems to run fine without issue. (would be happy to demo -- but I'm in MEL)


Main advice -- you've got plenty of time. plan out what you need

 

[Skymaster]

I am running 30/m of 5v strip (so individual nodes) in my arches. Didn't think the 60/m was worth it. They look fantastic.
I think if you go 12V strip you'll want the 60/m so you have the 20 controllable nodes per metre. 10 might be a bit to coarse.

My window outlines are nodes at 50mm spacing (20/m). Gutters and Ridge lines at 75mm spacing (16/m)

Have a look at the photos and videos on my site below for what they look like.


Edit. I should note that if you go gs8208, then all nodes in strip are individually controllable at 12V, rather than in groups of 3 like ws2811.

 

[someoneAUS]

I'm hopefully recording a bunch of show video tomorrow -- I'll show you what they look like (for me - 30/m in eaves, 60/m in arches).

Ill keep a lookout for this . Im sure that WLED is probably not the long term solution at least not over WiFi if we decide to go bigger but controllers seem to be few and far between at the moment. WLED will also integrate with home assistant for the permanent lighting in the eaves if we have other uses for it that don't involve full on sequences. So if it does work I am keen to keep it around.

My window outlines are nodes at 50mm spacing (20/m). Gutters and Ridge lines at 75mm spacing (16/m)

Hello fellow NetEng, your design and build blog was a good read. 24v bus with a 5v DC/DC locally seems like a good way to overcome voltage drop issues. Something for me to think on if gs8208 has some issue I am currently not aware of.. availability potentially for the pixels seems poor, but I have a year.

I also really like the idea of the button for speakers. We are in a horrible place to get any vehicular traffic (which is one of the reasons I have been lurking the forum for 10 years without doing anything) but end up with a fair bit of foot traffic as we are near an alleyway that leads to the local shops.

 

[Skymaster]

@Kent has just put in a bunch of 8208 after upgrading from 5V 2811. He may be able to comment on how voltage drop affects those pixels and strip. I believe @ryanschristmaslights also has some too.

On the button side, there are a few different ways to do it. Most just use a timer relay board to cut the line to the speakers, probably a more appropriate way to do it, i just didn't go down that path because that meant getting the appropriate hardware; i already had everything in place to do the amp power method.

 

[ryanschristmaslights]

Yes, I do use a bunch of GS8208 12V bullet pixels (since 2021) and posted a thread about them - have a read through for details :

GS8208 12V pixel strings - A wildcard third option for the 5V vs 12V WS2811 question?

'5 volt versus 12 volt, which one do I choose?' How many times have you seen someone ask the above question? More than likely they are not sure whether to buy WS2811 5V or 12V RGB pixels. Well how about a third contender, GS8208 12V pixels? Not all 12V is the same, as it turns out! Spoiler...

auschristmaslighting.com

I also use GS8208 12V 30L/m strip around my windows and in four air seeder leaping arches - these were purchased 2018 and were the first GS8208 thing I tried. In my opinion, 30L/m looks just fine in my arches due to each LED still being controllable. @BradsXmasLights shared a video comparing the one versus three LEDs per IC (GS8208 vs WS2811):

GS8208 Vs WS2811 LED Pixel Strip - 1 vs 3 LED Resolution

• BradsXmasLights
• Sep 15, 2018
• gs8208 ws2811

Do you really need single LED pixel control with GS8208 or will the cheaper WS2811, 3 LED per...

 

[someoneAUS]

@Kent has just put in a bunch of 8208 after upgrading from 5V 2811. He may be able to comment on how voltage drop affects those pixels and strip. I believe @ryanschristmaslights also has some too.

On the button side, there are a few different ways to do it. Most just use a timer relay board to cut the line to the speakers, probably a more appropriate way to do it, i just didn't go down that path because that meant getting the appropriate hardware; i already had everything in place to do the amp power method.

Im thinking if I can setup a board of say 5 buttons each with a song attached I can leave the lights twinkling and then if someone presses the button make them do the things and play the music and then go back to twinkling after. Which hopefully has the added bonus of being less annoying to neighbours as most of the time the lights wont be doing much.

I have not played around with the controllers side of things enough to see what is and isn't possible in that regard first step is actually getting some working lights.

Sounds like 30/m is the popular vote in terms of LED density. One thing that I have not quite understood before I pull the trigger. How do you deal with the two data inputs? Connect one? Connect both to the one output? Connect both to different outputs with the same signal?

 

[Cranzy]

Welcome

Good to have another join in Perth.

We are around 15 of us I know of in and around Perth doing displays.
If you have time, make sure to go and checkout a display or 2 and have a chat.

Where in Perth?
*EIDT: I am blind, saw your location has postcode specified.
I am in Alkimos if you wanted to do a drive

 

[someoneAUS]

Welcome

Good to have another join in Perth.

We are around 15 of us I know of in and around Perth doing displays.
If you have time, make sure to go and checkout a display or 2 and have a chat.

Where in Perth?

We are in Stratton, out Midland way.

For sure keen to meet some people and get some hands on knowledge. I'm sure the boy wouldn't mind another drive to see some lights.

 

[Skymaster]

Two data inputs would imply ws2815 or gs8208 strip. On the start of the string, the data in goes to the controller. The backup data in gets connected to ground.
The backup data allows a single pixel to fail and the following ones to continue working. In the first pixel, no backup data exists (ie data with n-1 start point, instead of just n) so we ignore it

 

[Cranzy]

We are in Stratton, out Midland way.

For sure keen to meet some people and get some hands on knowledge. I'm sure the boy wouldn't mind another drive to see some lights.

I would then suggest starting here in Alkimos -
Search Alkimos Beach Lights on google maps .. (8 Malleefowl Way, Alkimos)
then going to Tony's display in 6 Samson Court Duncraig,
followed by Dan's display 3 D'Ercole Court, Gwelup.
Not sure if Steve at 130c Newborough street, Karrinyup has his display up this year as I haven't chatted to him.
Dale has a display close to you 8 Prospector Loop in Bassendean.

 

[someoneAUS]

I would then suggest starting here in Alkimos -
Search Alkimos Beach Lights on google maps .. (8 Malleefowl Way, Alkimos)
then going to Tony's display in 6 Samson Court Duncraig,
followed by Dan's display 3 D'Ercole Court, Gwelup.
Not sure if Steve at 130c Newborough street, Karrinyup has his display up this year as I haven't chatted to him.
Dale has a display close to you 8 Prospector Loop in Bassendean.

We made a run last night as far as Ellenbrook. 76 Tickner Parade had some arches that basically looked like what we wanted to build so was cool to see those in person.

Its an hours drive to Alkimos so just debating with the Mrs if that's viable as we have a 3 year old who is excited and a 14 week old that wants a lot of attention that time of night and apparently going without the wife n bub isn't an option coz she is excited tooo haha.

If we can sort a time that works I might send you a PM.

 

[Cranzy]

We made a run last night as far as Ellenbrook. 76 Tickner Parade had some arches that basically looked like what we wanted to build so was cool to see those in person.

Its an hours drive to Alkimos so just debating with the Mrs if that's viable as we have a 3 year old who is excited and a 14 week old that wants a lot of attention that time of night and apparently going without the wife n bub isn't an option coz she is excited tooo haha.

If we can sort a time that works I might send you a PM.

Sounds good.
I have a 4 year old and 12 month old.. so I can relate.

If you plan it you can have dinner at The Landing here in alkimos and then from there do some light watching.

Here's a little gif of the display this year.

 

[Gilrock]

FWIW....Several years ago when I tested WS2811 30 leds/m in 2" HDPE I thought it looked too choppy when an effect was moving across the arch so I went with 60 leds/m. It sounds like those GS8208's are individually controllable so 30/m individual should be fairly close to 60/m in groups of 3.

 

[ryanschristmaslights]

It sounds like those GS8208's are individually controllable

They certainly are! Here's an old video of mine showing the GS8208 strip in air seeder tube:

View: https://www.facebook.com/RyansChristmasLights/videos/leaping-arches-new-for-2018/2239644986273120