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Newbie looking for some advice...

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 11:34 am

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26^th Post

SteveMaris
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Jeff Millard wrote:
harrison0550 wrote: ...I dont want to get on his ignore list LOL...

I was starting to wonder if you'd put me in yours.

I've placed my sights on a complete RGB and pixel display over three years. The first year I'll have the house and windows outlined with pixel ribbons and nodes. I'll also have CCArches. I've got a bunch of GECE, large C9 bulbs on stakes. We'll see how they work with a controller and replace the LED lawn lights I made with them. I'll be keeping my molds, wireframes and incan mini trees along with the 23' mega. The second year will replace the mega with several pixel trees, also drippers from the big trees along the street. Then I'll have random coro decorations that can be changed out, similar to my Heart prop.

I'll part ways with A/C controllers as I go. Don't ask, they've already been spoken for. I'll keep a couple PC boxes for Halloween, but I already started working on making my little pumpkins work like Cracker's. Sequencing is always gonna be the hardest part for me. I'm lazy and have a short attention span. I'm easily distracted by a little hardware project I see across the room when I should be programming.

I used to have an opinion as to how to enter this hobby. I don't anymore. It's changing too fast. Someone recently pointed out that they thought pixel and RGB displays take away from the whole Christmassy look of the thing. I agree very much with that. I've hated LEDs since the very first time I saw them. The glow of lights in our town has been dotted more and more with the color cyan coming from cheap LEDs and it makes me sick. Looks like an early 80's CGA computer monitor.

But, there's so many things you can do with pixels. I'm really impressed with the things I've done so far, and the versatility of loose pixel nodes. I agree the controllers for them leave something to be desired, but I think we can make due with a couple of the current designs.

One more thing. I actually like Brian B.'s 12 ribbon mega. I think over the course of 3 years I minght have to come up with something like that too. I look forward to the summer's fun.

Jeff

I agree with you 100%.
The color changing ability makes the strips very cost effective. Assuming they hold up, set up will be much easier as well as long as a permanent frame type solution is made. I am looking at using them for the windows and outline of my house, and plan to only use the "regular" R,G,B,W, Christmas colors. Baby blue is cute, but not Christmas. But who knows what I will be doing three years from now. It will be nice to have more options.

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 11:48 am

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27^th Post

beeiilll
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Location:	Long Lake, New York USA
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DCHMRT wrote:
Thank you all for your responses! They have been both helpful and eye opening!!! I am still on the edge about whether to invest in LED strands or go RGB ribbons.

Part of me is saying go RGB because in the long run the mounting will be easier and will provide more options in the future. However as pointed out it might be easier to learn the ropes with several strands before jumping into RGB...

I will keep you all posted as to what I end up doing and keep the suggestions going I really do appreciate them!

Thanks!!!

Your welcome and applogies for stealing your thread (or at least steering it off in different directions)! LOL

I know how you feel. If RGB had been around when I was getting started with this animated lighting thing in 2008, I certainly would probably gone more towards it rather than the large purchase of LEDs that I made.
Now I don't regret getting the LEDs mind you, but RGB does have a lot of capabilites that plain LED strings don't.
It does come down to what are your plans looking ahead? If you can say that you just want to make your house sparkle and shine, then you can get away with regular incandescent light strings for a year or two and spend that time learning the software and more about RGB stuff. Of course you can always get LED strings too if you want a little more "pop" in the brightness and colors, but not really necessary from the start.

The RGB route will make it a bit easier to mount but they also come with their own set of drawbacks as well. They are more fragile, smaller, and more direction oriented than regular lights (the strips need to be placed so that the led pixels will point towards the viewer). More importantly the sequencing and time involved with sequencing is a much larger commitment with RGB than regular strings and will take up a lot of your time in the beginning if you are not at all familiar with the software and sequencing in general.

Then there is the tradeoff with going a mixed route of using some RGB for just certain parts of a display and then either incandescent or Led strings for the other parts.

Of course you have to consider that the "world of RGB" is also brand new in technology, manufacturing, and sales too. So who is to say that the nice pretty new RGB strips that we all are going crazy over right now won't turn around and quit working in a year or so? That is another thing to consider as well as RGB is the forerunner of "Do It Yourself" lighting so you will be pretty much on your own with things if there is a problem. It is a part of this hobby that is for the adventureous and those that enjoy a challenge and tinkering with stuff.

Well enough rambling for me. Good luck with whatever you decide to do or whichever direction you take. There will certainly be people out here who are right there with you making the lights blink and some of us who are quietly cussing some silly problem in the background (but we enjoy the torment and thrill of it really).

Bill

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 11:58 am

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28^th Post

beeiilll
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My jump to RGB will be to use them for my windows and doors for the coming year to figure how to mount, sequence, and understand the RGB thing for a year before jumping too far into it.
I agree that the strips just seem to "make sense" to me too as they offer the ability to make so many different color combinations as well as the fact that it is one strip rather than however many strings of different colors to use for around one window.
I wish I could afford to get into the intelligent strips but that is going to be a very large jump when it happens. I think that the dumb strips will be plenty good for a bit and will give me a "new toy" to incorporate into the display for a while.
So dumb strips for windows for now and maybe more strips for the roof line next year.
Of course next year will see some great new product that will make all this obsolete and we all have to have it - LOL.
It may seem like a no win hobby (well at least some folks think I am crazy to spend so much money on Christmas lights), but it sure is fun to play with all this stuff! And the look on peoples faces makes it all worth it in the end.

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 01:10 pm

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29^th Post

olmsb4d2
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Jeff Millard wrote: olmsb4d2 wrote: I haven't seen an explanation of how you mount RGB strips on the house.
I have two intended ways that I will use. The first is vinyl siding "J" channel, If oriented correctly it just clips to the J channel on the house. You can hang it one gutters. Clip some C9 clips over it and that holds it in place. I'll use 3M pads to hold it wherever I don't want to do damage. The wider nialing side faces out and makes a perfect flat space to wire tie the ribbons in place. Also, Cenote drilled it and created a frame with 12MM holes, that the 8MM pixel nodes pop into. I'm making that for three large windows and the front door. It's a very clean look. (You can see it in the funny "auto sequencer hoax" video from the NJ epic this past summer)

The other has already been discussed. PVC with wire ties. For the roofline I'll use 3/4" PVC with Tees and sandbags to hold it in place. My CCRs are already cut to 8' lengths and tied to 3/4" PVC. 6 CCArches with 2' rebar stakes. I have drip dry molex connectors on each arch, so I can easily remove them each day at the end of the show. They are just too close to the sidwalk for me to be able to rest. It's really easy to unplug them, flex them and pull them off the stakes an take them in overnight.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff and everyone else that shared ideas

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 01:31 pm

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30^th Post

johnm160
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beeiilll wrote:
DCHMRT wrote:
......SNIP More importantly the sequencing and time involved with sequencing is a much larger commitment with RGB than regular strings and will take up a lot of your time in the beginning if you are not at all familiar with the software and sequencing in general.....SNIP

Bill

I thought the superstar software was supposed to take a lot of the hassle out of sequencing these?

I am thinking about working on the "Cracker principal" and getting RGB's for the vertical elements and sticking with Incans for my roofline and trees this year, maybe I will see if I can swing LED's for the mega tree depending on how many strings it will be and how much I have to spend on controllers for the RGB

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Posted: Thursday February 16th, 2012 01:39 pm

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johnm160
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beeiilll wrote:
johnm160 wrote:

Take a look over on the Australian Lighting Forum (link is in post #12).
That will give you info on the dumb as well as the intelligent strips and much more. A great place of starter and advanced information on the world of RGB out there.
Studying is the best thing before jumping for sure!

Thanks just bookmarked it for when (if) I get some spare reading time.

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