Where to start??

[adamlapay]

Wheres a prime place to start? I don't own any LOR equipment or software, and I'm looking to incorporate LOR individual addressed pixels into halloween and 4th of july special effects. For example I'd like to choreograph lightning using a CCR of some sort. Would also like to have visual programming of the ribbon.

Thanks for your time!

[Don]

I'd start with the LOR page under the Getting Started section.

https://www1.lightorama.com/

[adamlapay]

Thanks don, checking that out and your course. 

[dgrant]

Don is the expert with LOR stuff. In my case, I generally suggest that a new person, take a photo of their house and print out several copies. Then draw lights/strings and so on, and decide how you want them to appear. Things such as just light strings, changing colors or not, chasing colors, animation and all sorts of other ideas. This will dictate your hardware requirements. Several different types of controllers for different usages depending on your hardware requirements. There's essentially AC, DC and Pixel based controllers. Some use the same communication protocols and others use different. Basically most LOR controllers use RS485 but is done so using a Cat5/6 cable. They did this because those cables are cheap compared to a formal RS485 cable. Most pixel based controllers use Ethernet via Cat5/6 cables. Before anything else, you Must know that the two different protocols are NOT compatible in their hardware. Connecting an ethernet to an RS485, will fry something. So in regards to your cabling, its rather important that you label/identify or somehow make sure of which type is which and never mix them up.

     First year, most of us suggest going easy as there's a steep learning curve. Possibly get an AC controller or two, appropriate license then design your first sequences. Test everything in-house or garage and see if you have the appearances you expected. Once you are happy, you can move forward.