It's been a while... and have some questions

[mattpatt]

Hi Everyone,

Six years ago I had a fairly big LOR setup.  Three 16 channel controllers and two 24 channel Dumb RGB boards.  Then six months after my final show that Christmas I had a heart attack at age 35.  Actually a couple of heart attacks but who's counting?  Anyway, triple bypass happened and it really knocked me back for some time.  It took a year just to get my energy back and for all the soreness to be gone.  Obviously a show did not happen that year and I eventually just sold all my equipment.  My wife never really cared for the show anyway as she didn't like strangers pulling up and staring at our house so she was happy it was gone as well.  Fast forward, six years and now I've been able to talk her into letting me have a "small" light show again.  This time it won't be on and around our house it'll be on the .5 acre property we own next to it.  My thoughts were to just start out this year with a relatively simple pixel tree that I can have some fun with then slowly add more elements as time and money allows during the off season next year.

I currently own an Advanced license of LOR with 8 CCR Superstar feature level.  My max version is currently 3.12.  I'll be looking to upgrade to the latest version soon.  I'm a DIY type of person so I've been looking at the Pixie16 controllers and will purchase some WS2811 strings to go with it to make up my tree.  My questions are...

Can I purchase the WS2811 12V strip lights from ebay , etc and they'll work with the LOR controller?  I want to be able to control each pixel individually as I want to be able to have designs and words scroll across the pixel tree during the sequence.  Looking for recommendations on which pixels are best and where to buy them.  Also, I understand that I'll need a red USB485 dongle as I will run the sequences from a dedicated PC.  Is there anything else that I'm missing?  I already have an enclosure and power supply for the pixel board so I'm good there.  I'll also need a FM transmitter.  Any recommendations for one of those?  Any help would be appreciated.  I'm on a budget so the cheaper the better.

 

Thanks,

Matt

 

[Mr. P]

First of all, upgrade to Pro as the Pixie16 will need an enhanced network plus that gives you access to PE to help sequence your tree and the latest S5 software if you wish to use it. You will also need the USB485HS Red adapter so you can access the higher network speeds.

As far as Pixels, any of the WS2811 pixels will work but I recommend since you are creating a tree that you get them all from the same place so there is no variation in colors.

[mattpatt]

1 hour ago, Mr. P said:

First of all, upgrade to Pro as the Pixie16 will need an enhanced network plus that gives you access to PE to help sequence your tree and the latest S5 software if you wish to use it. You will also need the USB485HS Red adapter so you can access the higher network speeds.

As far as Pixels, any of the WS2811 pixels will work but I recommend since you are creating a tree that you get them all from the same place so there is no variation in colors.

Thanks for the info.  So if I read it right the upgrade from my Advanced 3.12 to the latest version of Pro is $50?

Makes sense to get all the strings from the same place.  Does anyone have a particular vendor they are happy with?  Now to decide on how many to go with.

 

Thanks Again,

Matt

[Mr. P]

17 minutes ago, mattpatt said:

Thanks for the info.  So if I read it right the upgrade from my Advanced 3.12 to the latest version of Pro is $50?

Makes sense to get all the strings from the same place.  Does anyone have a particular vendor they are happy with?  Now to decide on how many to go with.

 

Thanks Again,

Matt

That is correct, $50 will upgrade you to Pro and renew you for the most current version.

I usually get my lights during sales when they are cheaper so you may just have to do a search and shop around now.

You also mentioned that you have a enclosure and power supply. Depending on the power supply but if you have the standard 350w, 30 amp that seems to be the most popular you may need two of those to power the Pixie16 depending on the specs of the lights you end up getting. If you use pixel strings of 50 you may get away with one but strings of 100 or ribbons will definitely need two.

[dibblejr]

As Me P stated you will need to update to at least 4.3.13, I believe that is when the pixie series was added to the software.

So if you happen to get the pixie and plug it in HU will not be able to see it.

If you have time I typed the instructions on setting up the pixie16 from brand new.

Just search for pixie 16 in the past couple of days. It is the step by step way. You may want to save it to your computer.

Cant link from cell phone but look under “new content “ for the subject “Pixie16 Help”

 

JR

Edited October 3, 2018 by dibblejr