friskybri Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 My daughters high school marching band is wanting me to do some type of work on props to make them light up. They are thinking like connections show with circuit boards like in TRON. I am guessing with only having so little time to set up for the show performance trying to AC everything would be out of the question. High school marching bands don't have a lot of money so I am buying the lights for them knowing I will get them down the road. I have a few San devices 6804 that can be powered off a car battery to make them wireless. I looked at the Easy light linkers but for getting 4 props and the laptop we are looking at $750. I was wondering if there might be a better and cheaper way? Any thoughts on this. It would be cool to have a marching band light show that LOR could put on their website as a new market to tap into. Let me know what you think any ideas will be looked at. I will meet with the band director Tuesday and go over the ideas we came up here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iflights Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Just did something with the drum line of our school. It was sound activated LED strips mounted on drums and driven with a microphone and small cheap microprocessors. Search for Sound Activated Drum Lighting on google. You'll find a ton of stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Maue Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 My daughters high school marching band is wanting me to do some type of work on props to make them light up. They are thinking like connections show with circuit boards like in TRON. I am guessing with only having so little time to set up for the show performance trying to AC everything would be out of the question. High school marching bands don't have a lot of money so I am buying the lights for them knowing I will get them down the road. I have a few San devices 6804 that can be powered off a car battery to make them wireless. I looked at the Easy light linkers but for getting 4 props and the laptop we are looking at $750. I was wondering if there might be a better and cheaper way? Any thoughts on this. It would be cool to have a marching band light show that LOR could put on their website as a new market to tap into. Let me know what you think any ideas will be looked at. I will meet with the band director Tuesday and go over the ideas we came up here. Not sure how you want to activate the lights, Brian, or if you want them sequenced to their music, but one option to consider would be the Raspberry pi running the Falcon Pi Player software. I haven't tried it myself yet, but some people use this to run their whole show. The pi is only about $40 - $50. The software is free. You can sequence in LOR or xLights/NC. xLights will convert to the Falcon Pi Player format. That would eliminate the need for the laptop. FYI... You can't "talk" to the e6804 via the ELL. The ELL is only for the LOR protocol, to my knowledge. That said, if you don't have a lot of lights, you could use a wireless router and access point to transmit wirelessly to the e6804. Haven't tried this either, but I know there are people who have at least experimented with it. I recall them saying that bandwidth becomes an issue if you try to send too much data. iflights above seems to have a really good approach as well, if something like that would work for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybri Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) That's good but I am wanting it to move with the movement. Like first movement one section does its thing then at the right time the second movement another prop lights up and is sequenced. three or four props on the football field where a tarp would look like a circuit board and use smart pixels to kind of draw out like on tron.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V70QMpoRmhc We could use a generator on the field. So we could use ac for the props we would have to run from the 6804 to the main prop kids would be marching around them. The more cables run could cause one to trip. less cords would be better. I will have to look into using wireless wifi. That might work. The lights would have to be sequenced to the music. I did let the band director know that the software would have to dictate the drum majors and keep them on speed. I would like not having AC cords or data cords running on the field. Using a generator we can centralize the Laptop and power it would have to started by command. Plus each movement there is a few seconds break so I am not sure if we would have to run separate sequences or run one 15 minute one and the drum majors will have be on time. I figured I could used one Pixel where it keeps the drum majors on target. Edited January 10, 2015 by friskybri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybri Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Here is a great one where you can tell its controlled. This was done on country music awards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSw8bQkPt7M#t=234 Edited January 10, 2015 by friskybri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybri Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) another great example Check out around 2:30 seconds, at 5:15 6:15 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IJrNjssKeM#t=82 Edited January 10, 2015 by friskybri Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smeighan Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 My daughters high school marching band is wanting me to do some type of work on props to make them light up. They are thinking like connections show with circuit boards like in TRON. I am guessing with only having so little time to set up for the show performance trying to AC everything would be out of the question. High school marching bands don't have a lot of money so I am buying the lights for them knowing I will get them down the road. I have a few San devices 6804 that can be powered off a car battery to make them wireless. I looked at the Easy light linkers but for getting 4 props and the laptop we are looking at $750. I was wondering if there might be a better and cheaper way? Any thoughts on this. It would be cool to have a marching band light show that LOR could put on their website as a new market to tap into. Let me know what you think any ideas will be looked at. I will meet with the band director Tuesday and go over the ideas we came up here. there is a thread about someone who wants 10 dancers on stage lit up and the rgb lights synced to the music of the dance.thread is over on falconchristmas. http://falconchristmas.com/forum/index.php/topic,2123.0.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Tell your daughters band. People in hell want ice water too. Cough up some dough or get lost. Seems now days everyone wants something for free or by another's hard work. I am sorry that I sound harsh but really were is the end? I do wish you the best, really. But tell your daughters band director to come back down to earth. This stuff is not cheap and your not a Jinn (male genie). You cant blink and do this overnight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 BTW I forgot to say this, so I will add it in. First, no cheap way of doing this. But here is the hardware I would use. Smart pixel RGB strips, driven by a E6804, driven by a WiFi bridge unit and a 12V battery to drive it all. Now at the control end you will need a laptop with S3 installed and running a show on demand and an WiFi access point. Now if you have items that wont be moved much and tripping over cables would not be a problem. A standard AC controller would work. But make sure that ALL cables are tied down in a manner that the cables will not put stress on the circuit board, esp the comm cables at controller and computer/adapter. But hey this is way over the bands budget. Hence the reason for the earlier post. Tell band director to come back down to earth till he raises funds for this kind of equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Why not just dress them as sheep and light 'em up the same way as in that sheep video from a few years ago? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) I have been pursuing this slowly for about a year and am coming close to a great workable solution using equipment from www.komby.com Looks like about $25-$30 per regular band member and $40 for drumline. This is using dumb RGB LEDs. (drumline gets sound-activated option). Input to the transmitter would be one DMX universe with 3 channels per regular band member and 4 channels for drumline. Uses 2.4GHz band. As Max-Paul said above, it's not cheap. More details as things progress. Edited January 11, 2015 by Ken Benedict Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybri Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Ken, thanks for the website. This might work out. I could see using the 2.4GHz rf with the RF1 pxc board to control the Dumb strips. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 For programming (sequencing), my thoughts were to record a typical field song, put it into LOR S3 for sequencing and have a "clicker" channel that only the Drum Major can see, which is used to keep things on beat and in sync. Some lighting boards have a Tap Sync, to keep the lights on beat automatically. Not so with LOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shfr26 Posted January 13, 2015 Share Posted January 13, 2015 Dang Max, when did friskybri complain about paying for it? He said the band does not have much money but he never said he wanted the band to pay for. If friskybri wants to do and pay for it, what is the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Maue Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Dang Max, when did friskybri complain about paying for it? He said the band does not have much money but he never said he wanted the band to pay for. If friskybri wants to do and pay for it, what is the problem? I kinda like the project. We see similar stuff on TV and I've often wished I had an excuse to try it. Sounds like a fun (albeit maybe not cheap) project to undertake. Wish I was closer. I'd love to help. One thought on the break between movements... You could use an interactive show where the press of a button (likely from the drum major) could start the next sequence. That would allow for some variability in between each movement, in case something doesn't go 100% to plan. They could press the button when they're ready for the next sequence to start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
friskybri Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Tell your daughters band. People in hell want ice water too. Cough up some dough or get lost. Seems now days everyone wants something for free or by another's hard work. I am sorry that I sound harsh but really were is the end? I do wish you the best, really. But tell your daughters band director to come back down to earth. This stuff is not cheap and your not a Jinn (male genie). You cant blink and do this overnight.Comments reflex's on the insecurities of MAX in that skirt. I can be the first to tell the director what it would cost. I'm am no noob when it comes to cost or putting on a show. Sounds like MAX had a bad experience with a band director in her childhood. I have no idea what you have against band directors but it sounds like some director didn't make you number one bag blower in the band. Maybe if you had someone to care about in your life, like a child or friends, other then yourself. You would do what you could to help someone out. I see so much negativity in most of your posts in every forum. http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?37051-Using-Standard-2-and-3-core-wire-outside-between-controller-and-pixels&p=363585#post363585 No wonder most of the really good old timers like George, Jeff M, Surf ect don't post much in the LOR forums and DIY. Thanks Ken, Smeighan and Aaron for giving me great ideas to my issue. Not much has changed here on LOR. I think I will head back over to SCL where there is more ideas then negativity. http://www.synchronizedchristmaslights.com/forum.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shfr26 Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Maybe friskybri, you just got to the "core" of the problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I did an LED jacket this year to greet cars with down the street. I programmed it to go with all the rest of the lights but you could do it many ways. I used Komby stuff.. was inexpensive and drove the WS2812B pixels directly.. I used a five AA battery pack with LDOs to keep the voltage constant to the pixels and rf1. I wound up only using one set of batteries for the entire season. I was surprised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Maybe friskybri, you just got to the "core" of the problem. LOL! The leading candidate for post of the month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iflights Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 Comments reflex's on the insecurities of MAX in that skirt. I can be the first to tell the director what it would cost. I'm am no noob when it comes to cost or putting on a show. Sounds like MAX had a bad experience with a band director in her childhood. I have no idea what you have against band directors but it sounds like some director didn't make you number one bag blower in the band. Maybe if you had someone to care about in your life, like a child or friends, other then yourself. You would do what you could to help someone out. I see so much negativity in most of your posts in every forum. http://doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?37051-Using-Standard-2-and-3-core-wire-outside-between-controller-and-pixels&p=363585#post363585 No wonder most of the really good old timers like George, Jeff M, Surf ect don't post much in the LOR forums and DIY. Thanks Ken, Smeighan and Aaron for giving me great ideas to my issue. Not much has changed here on LOR. I think I will head back over to SCL where there is more ideas then negativity. http://www.synchronizedchristmaslights.com/forum.php My idea wasn't any help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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