[TriEmbed] Anyone have their own Christmas light show?

Rodney Radford ncgadgetry at gmail.com
Wed Jan 3 10:14:58 CST 2018


Thanx for all the good suggestions.

I definitely agree that relays are not the best way to go, but I already
have 9 boards of 16x relays each that can be controlled via I2C (thanx to
SoutheastCon 2017 hardware competition leftovers and Pete's help on making
the boards). If they last 1-2 years, I am very happy for them. They will be
used only for turning on lights on the shrubs and a large conical tree I
plan to put in the yard and will definitely be fast enough for that sort of
control.

I already have 10x rolls (50 meters) of the 12v WS2811b rolls rated for
outdoor use. These are 30 LEDs per meter, but are controlled as 10x groups
of 3x LEDs. The plan is to mount these under the facia board along the
front of the house. I plan to run them as two strings, meeting in the
middle at the front porch. That allows me to put the two controllers (for
each half) under the porch, along with a Raspberry Pi, and then wire the
RPi back to the main control switch. I initially considered WiFi, but am
concerned with the high numbers of WiFi channels already in use in my
subdivision and did not want to rely on that for something that is timing
critical. I plan to run power at the start and end of every 5 meter string,
but daisy chain the control through the two strings. The reason for putting
it as two strings is to allow the control boxes under the porch for easy
access if any work is needed to minimize the number of times I have to buy
high on the ladder on the gable ends.

I have seen the DMX control sequences and have considered it, among several
other choices out there.  Have not quite decided what to use there yet.

Currently I am considering setting up 3x boxes of 16 channels - one for the
left side of the house bushes, one for the right side, and one for the
conical tree. I can run Ethernet and power out to each of them.  That will
give me 48x channels of lights (so about 4800 lights total), plus the 1500+
neopixel LEDs (I say plus as I may end up buying more), a couple RGB floods
pointing up at the side of the house, and hopefully a set of
animated/singing lightbulbs (7x channels each, for 4x light, so controlled
with two of the 16x channel relays).

The boxes could easily be modified in the future to replace the relay
boards with MOSFET boards, but for now, I can save that cost if the relays
work and I can use them to experiment.



On Wed, Jan 3, 2018 at 10:54 AM, Robert Gasiorowski via TriEmbed <
triembed at triembed.org> wrote:

> 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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