newbie from netherlands

[movieman4]

Hello here from the Netherlands,

I would like to start a lightshow here in my frontyard using lor

i have bought a starterspack with a 16 channel ac controller and the software

 

had to cut off all of the connectors course we use differend ones in the netherlands.

 

i want to make bows but i dont know how to get the lights "looping" from left to right and from right to left.

how do they do that?

 

tia

Ronald

[dgrant]

If you are referring to "arches", most of us use 7 or 8 segments of lights, wrapped around a pvc pipe in groups of like 100 lights per group. Each of those individual sections are connected to a single channel, therefore if you have 8 sections, you'll use 8 channels. Arches, Megatrees and so on, are huge channel eaters but they look great! In the sequence editor, you'll assign each of those sections as you wish to whatever music you decide on. If you use the "chase tool" in the software, it makes this easy. Welcome to the madness of blinky-flashy lights!

[Tony Shepherd]

Hi from the uk. I started last year so this is my second year. Did you make sure you got the right voltage controller?

[movieman4]

Tony, i have ordered the 240 volt controller yes.

 

dgrand, thank you very much , thats wat i tought most people do but i saw an arch with a hunderd rgb bulbs that was going from left to right going by 1 bulb at the time and that for 4 arches.

i dont think he use 400 channels for that.

so how dus he do that?

[dgrant]

I have a single arch, different from the others, that uses a CCR or Cosmic Color Ribbon. A CCR is just a "smart" strip of LED's where you can address each LED or in the (3) LED groups individually and create lots of effects. A CCR is 150 LED's on a strip but they are in groups of (3) which gives you 16 feet of (50) LED's that can be be used in whatever way you wish and too any color! The communication and power supply come with it and easily interfaces to LOR.

    I bought the one for use with a single song, Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow" from the movie, "The Wizard of Oz". Then I implemented it into other songs as well. CCR's, CCP's and CCB's are powerful tools that you can do a lot with. Look at the LOR store sight for videos of how they work. Many people are moving to smart strips that they buy controller cards for using E1.31 and other protocols to control. I myself, will attempt to do a "pixel" megatree this year using E1.31 and smart strips. The cost is less than CCR's and you can achieve the same effect but you do all the wiring, power supply, controller cards and so on..

[movieman4]

Yes! thats what i ment , thank you very much.

Now quickly reboulding the controller and off i go testing what it can do

When i have something going i will share it ofcourse

 

btw , winner of christmas contest:

1 million lights and 800 channels lol , i ain't that far yet hehe.

 

thanks guys.

[dgrant]

Just FYI, I'm jumping into RGB leds at this moment so that I can attempt a pixel tree this next season. Costs are reasonable so far but at this instant, I have no hardware in-hand. Its all coming... I've ordered a controller card from Joshua1systems.com and WS2811 pixels from RayWu, plus connectors and a power supply. Actually have a power supply on-order from here in the US too, so two PS's are coming. This controller uses TCPIP via E1.31 protocols so once I have everything here, I'll set it up and start playing with it. If I'm lucky, I should be able to create a pixel tree, similar to a CCR tree, for 1/6th the cost...I hope.

[movieman4]

sounds right.

I saw some cheap rgb bulbs at alibaba.com.

they have controllers to who works with E1.31 and it said its light o rama compatible.

i think i buy some bulbs there wit a controller to set up my arches.

i am thinking of 4 arches with 150 rgb bulbs each.

how does that sounds like?

[dgrant]

I'm not an expert yet on RGB so as long as you understand that. I'm learning or hope I am learning. A CCR has 150 LED's but are in groups of 3, therefore 50 channels. If you buy a "smart strip", then it would be similar to a CCR, but you'll need to buy a power supply for the strip, a controller for the strip and then you need to do the sequencing in the software. Obviously you need to set up the controller to talk with the computer then to LOR. So there's a lot involved in doing this. In my case, I'm going to try pixels which I've ordered in strings of 50. One pixel will produce all the colors that 3 CCR LED's do together. There are different levels of protection involved too...IP65, IP67 and I think I saw a reference to IP68. I "think" IP67 is waterproof or weather resistant and IP65 is NOT. I'm truly not sure...still in the learning mode here and at this instant, I have no hardware here yet...its on its way. There are a lot of experts here in the forum, in the Cosmic Color Ribbon area and you should seriously make inquiries there so you don't buy things you might not be able to use together.

[movieman4]

they are all waterproof i think.

even IP44 is waterproof.

I will need the bulbs , an 512 channel dmx controller to control the bulbs induvidually, a dmx editor to set up the adresses of the lights and the largest software from lor to connect dmx to lor controllers.

i have changed the connectors from my ac controller to dutch ones and its working fine.

now need to buy some lights to control

[Max-Paul]

Ok, just a few facts. DMX is 512 channel max per universe. But 512 does not fully divide by 3 (RGB one channel per color). So max is 170 chips per universe. Now some strips have one RGB LED package per chip and some have 3 LED packages per chip. I am also having troubles getting the proper names. Is the chip known as a node, pixel?  Ok so these LEDs (mostly 5050) have 3 leds in the package, and each one is assigned a channel. that is why 170 times 3 equals 510 with two left over to go to never never land.

 

One problem with this 170 is that you can string together 3 five meter strips of 50 chips each. But there will be voltage drops along the way and then when the voltage drops to much they quit working. So many people will run a16 or 18 gauge wires along with the strips. This wire is connected to the power supply and then injected to each strip. So each strip is getting its power directly from the power supply not the strip before it. But the data and clock if your strip needs that too, is supplied from the previous strip.

 

Lots of reading to be done. Like you guys I am in the middle of the learning curve also.