[TriEmbed] Anyone have their own Christmas light show?

Wed Jan 3 09:54:14 CST 2018

I would suggest using WS2811 or other pixels with the following hardware:
Falcon F16V3 (this is the latest, greatest, but there are older and smaller
models)
Sandevices' e682 or e6804
ESPixelStick (e1.31 over WiFi)

Here's more information:
http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 10:28 AM, Scott Hall via TriEmbed <
triembed at triembed.org> wrote:

> Rodney (and any interested),
>
> As a semi-expert in this (I have been designing my display for over 10
> years), you want to consider these points:
>
>    - the going standard for the controls and channel signals is DMX,
>    originally a theater and stage light controlling system
>    - you DO NOT want to use relays, as they will quickly fail, and cannot
>    act fast enough
>    - typically MOSFETs are used as they can be switched much faster, and
>    are suitable for PWM average power control; for experimental purposes
>    Darlingtons can also be used
>    - normal DMX uses 3-wire or 4-wire microphone-like cables
>    - I have several articles on specifically using ESP8266s as DMX
>    endpoints decoding the DMX protocol, and firing 4 channels of PWM outputs
>    (through a mux) for multistring or RGB control
>    - neopixels take a serial data stream, which is something else that
>    the ESP's are good at
>    (I did this this year, neopixels in luminaries, where they all
>    emulated candle-light flicker & colors until the show, then each became
>    individual RGB lights to the soundtrack, and then went back to luminaries
>    after the show)
>    - there are quite a number of open source DMX software out there
>    - MIDI is exactly a good source material, and the DMX controller
>    software can start with those files or signals; check out this YouTube
>    video of the Piano Guys who rigged a MIDI pickup to a piano to control a
>    DMX-based system:
>    "88 Piano Keys Control 500,000 Christmas Lights! I Saw Three Ships -
>    The Piano Guys"
>    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2IBGlDJ3lg
>
> I have a couple of co-workers who do this, and can forward their contact
> info off-list if you ask me.
>
> On 01/02/2018 11:03 AM, Brian Henning via TriEmbed wrote:
>
> I'd encourage you to consider solid-state control instead of some of the relays, as it would give you the option of dimming.  I find instantaneous on/off displays, especially when really bright, hard on the eyes.  Of course, I'm a lighting designer by night, so I'm particularly opinionated about such displays. :-D
>
> John's suggestion of using MIDI is not a bad one.  I'd encourage you to consider it, at least as a format for your sequencing data.
>
> Aside: A family near where my parents live has had a large music-synched display for the past few years; I think they're trying to get noticed by local media.  It's huge, bright, and dazzling, but (imnsho) not artistic at all.  Don't be that guy. X-D
>
> -B
>
>
> On 12/28/2018 12:33 PM, Rodney Radford via TriLUG wrote:
>
> For years I have been reading about, researching, and wishing for a fancy Christmas light show on my house and I have decided next year I will put together my first setup.
>
> My plan is to build several 8 and 16 channel light control boxes that have power in to the outlets, and be controlled from an esp8266 (arduino + wifi) controller fed to a 8x or 16x channel relay board. This would mean I only need to run one power line to each board and all control sequences can be controlled from one system inside the house.
>
> I plan to put one on each side of the house for the bushes/trees and porch railing, and one on a large cone christmas tree (16x strands of 100 lights each).
>
> I already have 165' of neopixels that I bought for this project about 2 years ago and I want to put them along the roof line.
>
> I am researching different open source control software and have several that look promising, but have not downloaded and tried out yet.
>
> I am reaching out to see if anyone else on the TriLUG and TriEmbed lists already have their own lights and if so, would you be willing to trade a few emails on ideas, suggestions, things to stay away from, etc?
>
> Btw, this is the first video of a long series showing how to build the control boxes and using Vixen software to control the lights. I like the general idea, but I plan to use the esp8266 for the control link instead of a Raspberry Pi and wired ethernet.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvG9c84ApFA
>
> I have 11 months until Thanksgiving... that is my deadline.
>
> ;-)
>
>
> --
> Scott G. Hall
> Raleigh, NC, USAScottGHall1 at GMail.Com
>
>
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