txag2008 said:

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Yearly bump

Even have a few new songs added for the first time in years.

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I got into pixels last year and its been fun. Here's my display in Spring (North Houston). I think you're up in the DFW area?

I have some videos up at https://www.facebook.com/LawrenceFamilyLights/

Great job on the lights.
This interests me because I could see enjoyment in programming the lights for hours on end. But would probably want to get into it slowly to make sure its something I would really want to do. So I'm thinking of building out a frame for an 8' x 8' window I have, and make a light display there. It would give me a small area to work with, and if its something I technically figured out, and enjoyed, I could expand from there. From a technical standpoint, what lights, controllers, software, etc would you recommend?

Lights: ws2811 pixels are pretty much the standard. They come in bullet and square form factors, I've got a display with a about 10,000 of them, all bullets. The squares have their place though. They also come in strips, but these can be finicky, break easily, and are hard to repair. Some "domestic vendors" (everything comes from China) are Wired Watts, RGBMan, diyledexpress, and Wally's Lights. They all use the same 3 wire connectors, but there are different connectors (basically slightly different form factors for the plug). Xconnect is the "standard". Most of mine have diyledexpress connectors...but everyone has xconnect as an option now, so if I were starting from scratch, I'd go with these. You can also get pixels in both 12v and 5v voltages. My show is mostly 12v. You can get away with more lights on a single run. 5v are a little less expensive.

Controller: Both falcon and Kulp Boards have a good reputation in the hobby. There are some other ones out there too (I think the OP has a bunch of little ESP controllers). Based on your description, I'd get a Kulp K8-PB. It's a controller that basically plugs into a small single board computer (a PocketBeagle, hence the -PB on the name). Both wired watts and Kulp sell this board, and include having the PB already attached included. The K8-PB is a very capable board at its price point (around $100 with the beagle installed and a USB wifi dongle). It's powerful enough to run a few thousand lights, has some nice expandability, and is cheap enough to not feel bad about using it to drive a few props in your side yard if you ever have a huge show.

Power: you'll need power supplies for everything. Meanwell are great, but the cheaper ones work fine. Some people also use HP server power supplies.

Software: I use xlights to do sequencing. It's free and has a great user base. You could play around with sequencing on a virtual representation of your house without spending a cent. Vixen is also popular, but I've used xlights exclusively.

Thanks. That is really helpful.
So taking a quick look at things, I could possibly go with what is listed below. 500 lights should be enough to play around with in an 8x8 square. I think I will research this more tonight (when I'm not wasting time on a conference call)

_______________________________________________________
SOFTWARE:

Xlights
https://xlights.org/
_______________________________________________________
CONTROLLER:

K8-PB
https://kulplights.com/product/k8-pb/
_______________________________________________________
LED POWERSUPPLY:

Meanwell
https://led.meanwell.com/productSeries.aspx#tag-6-56

Meanwell NPF-120 series
120W Constant Voltage + Constant Current LED Driver
https://led.meanwell.com/webapp/product/search.aspx?prod=NPF-120
_______________________________________________________
LIGHTS:

Alling 500pcs 12V WS2811 WS2811 LED Pixel String Lights with Xconnect Waterproof Pigtail Black Wire 12mm Bullet Pixel Nodes RGB Addressable Dream Color Round LED Pixels (12V500pcs with Xconnector)
https://www.amazon.com/Alling-Waterproof-Addressable-12V500pcs-Xconnector/dp/B088W7NQ8R?th=1

_______________________________________________________

Amazon pixels can be good, but sometimes they'll skimp on the wire thickness, use CCA instead of copper (which degrades faster). Really, all the pixel manufacturers will do this to some degree. I'd buy from here over Amazon. But you've got plenty of time for all the retailers to get things back in stock.

https://www.wallyslights.com/collections/12https://www.wallyslights.com/collections/12v-pixelsv-pixels

I'd also get the 350W meanwell, 105W will be strained pretty quickly.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0109IMRPS/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_N742Fb5V77KNZ

You'll also need a lot of little things. You'll need to get or build an enclosure for your board. Make or buy extensions to plug your lights in, etc. Just keep that in mind as those sneaky little purchases can really add up if you're on a budget.

And if you're in/near Katy, I'd gladly show you my setup. I imagine most people would as well if you're located somewhere else.

https://m.facebook.com/NFCLights

exitone said:

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Great job on the lights.
This interests me because I could see enjoyment in programming the lights for hours on end. But would probably want to get into it slowly to make sure its something I would really want to do. So I'm thinking of building out a frame for an 8' x 8' window I have, and make a light display there. It would give me a small area to work with, and if its something I technically figured out, and enjoyed, I could expand from there. From a technical standpoint, what lights, controllers, software, etc would you recommend?

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Thanks

Looks like Aggietony has beaten me to the punch. He is giving you good advice.

• Pixels: I have bought all of mine from diyledxpress.com or though RayWu (vendor on alixpress)
• Power Supplies: I use a 700w atx power supply (the same kind a desktop computer would use) for about half my show. The other half is powered from 350w meanwell controllers
• Props: check out https://boscoyostudio.com/
• Controllers: I'm a bit out of the loop on this as I have been using the same controllers for the past 4-5yrs. I run half of my show from a Falcon controller and would definitely recommended these controllers (https://www.pixelcontroller.com/store/index.php). The rest of the show is run off some oldschool smartstring controllers.
• Programming: when I used to do a non-pixel show I used the original Vixen. When I started doing pixels I used Vixen 3 on a handful of my songs. The rest are done with xLights. If I were starting today, I would definitely go the xLights route.

Smart String 'brain' and individual controllers



Falcon controller & power supplies

@aggietony2010
Thanks. This is great info.
I'm in Allen (north of Dallas), but I checked out the Facebook page and its awesome. How long does that take you to setup?

@txag2008
Yep, I knew there was more to it.
I have a feeling I will have to dive in and do some more research to get a step by step listing of what I would need to do. I might run it by you guys before I pull the trigger.
We were talking about where to see lights this year, we will probably have to give your area a drive by.

exitone said:

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@aggietony2010
Thanks. This is great info.
I'm in Allen (north of Dallas), but I checked out the Facebook page and its awesome. How long does that take you to setup?

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If I don't add anything for next year, I'm thinking I could get it all up in a weekend (that's hiring someone to put up the roofline lights, I don't do heights). All the snowflakes on the house have washers and magnetic mounts now, so that's like a 1 minute install. I've got anchors that make my megatree a quick install. The matrix over the window just pops onto a couple hooks. The stuff in the yard just requires hammering a 2 foot piece of rebar halfway into the ground and sliding the prop over.

It's the adding and reconfiguring that's the timesuck. Fire example, the aforementioned magnet mounts required drilling into mortar and fastening a washer to the house for each mount. I recommended xconnect, but until this year, everything I had was diyledexpress, so I had to swap the outputs on a few of my controllers to have connect outputs. Lots of little things.

I usually put up about half for Halloween and run a few halloween songs during trick or treating. Then in mid November I'll spend a weekend swapping bats/spiders out for stars/snowflakes and putting up the megatree. It all comes down in like 3-4 hours working mostly alone.

But I'd be lying if I said I hadn't spent large chunks of 2-3 weekends each year setting stuff up. I'm about as maxed out as I can be with the electrical outlets I have, so maybe next year actually will go fast.

I think you have a very reasonable plan/expectation for someone in their first year. And as evidenced by my posts here, I love talking about this stuff, so feel free to keep asking questions.

aggietony2010 said:

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exitone said:

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@aggietony2010
Thanks. This is great info.
I'm in Allen (north of Dallas), but I checked out the Facebook page and its awesome. How long does that take you to setup?

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If I don't add anything for next year, I'm thinking I could get it all up in a weekend (that's hiring someone to put up the roofline lights, I don't do heights). All the snowflakes on the house have washers and magnetic mounts now, so that's like a 1 minute install. I've got anchors that make my megatree a quick install. The matrix over the window just pops onto a couple hooks. The stuff in the yard just requires hammering a 2 foot piece of rebar halfway into the ground and sliding the prop over.

It's the adding and reconfiguring that's the timesuck. Fire example, the aforementioned magnet mounts required drilling into mortar and fastening a washer to the house for each mount. I recommended xconnect, but until this year, everything I had was diyledexpress, so I had to swap the outputs on a few of my controllers to have connect outputs. Lots of little things.

I usually put up about half for Halloween and run a few halloween songs during trick or treating. Then in mid November I'll spend a weekend swapping bats/spiders out for stars/snowflakes and putting up the megatree. It all comes down in like 3-4 hours working mostly alone.

But I'd be lying if I said I hadn't spent large chunks of 2-3 weekends each year setting stuff up. I'm about as maxed out as I can be with the electrical outlets I have, so maybe next year actually will go fast.

I think you have a very reasonable plan/expectation for someone in their first year. And as evidenced by my posts here, I love talking about this stuff, so feel free to keep asking questions.

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It sounds like you got the mounting / assembly down to a science. I might take you up on the questions. This will be my first time, so I'm sure a few will come up. Thanks!

Well now I know the lights in my neighborhood suck. All these are much better than anything I've seen.

exitone said:

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@aggietony2010
Thanks. This is great info.
I'm in Allen (north of Dallas), but I checked out the Facebook page and its awesome. How long does that take you to setup?

@txag2008
Yep, I knew there was more to it.
I have a feeling I will have to dive in and do some more research to get a step by step listing of what I would need to do. I might run it by you guys before I pull the trigger.
We were talking about where to see lights this year, we will probably have to give your area a drive by.

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If you swing by, let me know. I'd be happy to show you the behind the scenes of things.

txag2008 said:

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Aggietaco said:

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Any new videos?

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Not now but I might in a week. Filming/editing is one of the parts that I dread for some reason

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Got one of the new songs filmed.

Christmas Everyday

txag2008 said:

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exitone said:

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@aggietony2010
Thanks. This is great info.
I'm in Allen (north of Dallas), but I checked out the Facebook page and its awesome. How long does that take you to setup?

@txag2008
Yep, I knew there was more to it.
I have a feeling I will have to dive in and do some more research to get a step by step listing of what I would need to do. I might run it by you guys before I pull the trigger.
We were talking about where to see lights this year, we will probably have to give your area a drive by.

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If you swing by, let me know. I'd be happy to show you the behind the scenes of things.

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Awesome. Thanks.

Can't say I'm a huge fan of the song (Frozen), but the kids like it.

Into the Unknown

Yearly bump. Come by and watch if you're in the Dallas area

txag2008 said:

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Yearly bump. Come by and watch if you're in the Dallas area

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Always have been impressed with your setup, going back to the Nazareth display.
I've considered getting started with pixels (for a couple of years). Question, are any of your runs long enough where you have to do power injection? With my house's layout, I'm thinking injection would be needed, but seems like a pain and is somewhat of a detractor for me. Maybe it's not that huge of a deal?

Thanks. It's come a long way since the Nazareth display (and it's actually a lot easier now days).

I don't do any power injection. I use all 12v pixels and don't have more than 100 pixels on any port/channel. You're right in that power injection does make things more complicated IMO. Once you wrap your head around the concept it's not all that bad, but I've decided to avoid it. I do use a few of these little guys to boost distances between pixels or distances between controller and pixels.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

bco2003 said:

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txag2008 said:

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Yearly bump. Come by and watch if you're in the Dallas area

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Always have been impressed with your setup, going back to the Nazareth display.
I've considered getting started with pixels (for a couple of years). Question, are any of your runs long enough where you have to do power injection? With my house's layout, I'm thinking injection would be needed, but seems like a pain and is somewhat of a detractor for me. Maybe it's not that huge of a deal?

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Power injection isn't that bad, especially if you plan ahead. I've got injection on my tree and a few other props...It's really just a few more wires to deal with.

Lights go live tonight. Come on by.