I need help and advice with LED Strip Lights and Light O Rama controllers

[Brettlws]

I have the starter kit with the mini director and 2 residental controllers. I have had good luck so far with keeping it simple  and just using LED mini lights and the basic setup recommended by Light O Rama. I have just been setting every thing up in 4 sets of 4 and put on a pretty nice show. I have now been given a bunch of props with LED strip lights on them. I have a couple of 12 volt power supplies, but I was wondering if I can plug the 12 volt power supplies into the standard Light O Rama gen 3 controllers. I am looking for a way to use all of these LED props that I was given but I don't know how to plug them all in. Plus most of them have a round plug on the end with 3 prongs inside of them. I am sorry I don't even know what that type of plug is called. I was also given 4 singing Christmas Trees but they all have standard incandescent lights on them. I was wondering if the songs that I got with the show time starter kit will run the singing faces or not. I am trying to learn how to use all of these props that I was given or if I should just get rid of them all. 

[TheDucks]

😲 AC controllers should never be connected to (AC in) DC supplies, or ANY device with a wall wort/effects module.

Those have electronics that HATE being jerked around (power wise) and will let you know by letting expensive smoke escape.

-----

On to your strings with small 3 pin plugs. These are almost always SMART strings that need a controller like a Pixie to send data packets on one of those pins (the others are + and Ground). Power alone will not cause them to light. The data is the instruction on which of the 3 LEDs in each node lights times the number of nodes.

[Brettlws]

Thank you so much for your help. So do I need to get a pixie controller like a pixie 16 or one of the smaller ones?

[Jimehc]

A picture is worth a thousand words... What are you working with and asking questions in regards to ?

[TheDucks]

2 hours ago, Brettlws said:

Thank you so much for your help. So do I need to get a pixie controller like a pixie 16 or one of the smaller ones?

As @Jimehc says, we need a picture of those strings (the IN end and 1 or 2 nodes) IF you don't have the datasheet info (pleas post that or a link)

I am a fan of just a bit bigger (ports) than you need. Why?

Pixies are  distance limited (port to 1st node) without other fussing

Pixies have special modes...BUT, those apply to the whole controller

[dgander]

Just to add, you will need the singing faces seq to go with the bought sequences. If you are going to convert then to led you will need their associated controller(s). I believe the LOR singing faces are all controlled as dumb rgb. Their faces are each controlled with a pixie2 each that has been modified. You should read the description of those sequences to be sure of what you are buying.

[Orville]

The only Pixie controllers that can run RGB Singing faces are the Pixie 2D, 4D, 8D or 16D controllers.  However, the Pixies 4 and above can have their ports changed to Dumb RGB, I set up a Pixie4 to run one of my singing trees for a test, singing faces when setting up a Pixie will take up 2 ports, I had mine set for Port 3, which also includes Port 4.  The other 2 ports, 1 and 2 were left unchanged, and used for regular smart RGB lights. 

My Pixie16D is the one that I use for my singing faces.  

You also need to know what version, name of the prop, like Zuzu, Ralphie, comany that created it  LOR, HoludayCoro, etc. to set up the ports for the prop(s) correctly.

You will also need a PRO License to run Pixels, as it seems your LED props are RGB Strings that have the 3 pin(12volt usually) connectors.

With the number props you have, that sound like RGB, a "Basic" starter kit isn't going to work. 

And depending on the type controllers you have, you might need to upgrade that N2-G2 Director to an N4-G4, especially if you're using any older Gen 1 CTB16PC Controllers, as you made need more than 2 ports for all you have. 

And the older CTB16PC controllers can not run higher than 115.4k, and NON-Enhanced Network, whereas, Pixie Controllers need a MINIMUM of 500K speed(and can use up to 1,000K speed) and REQUIRE an ENHANCED Network to function correctly.

Good luck!

Edited October 22, 2023 by Orville

[Brettlws]

Here is a picture of the connector.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Brettlws

[Brettlws]

Okay, so if I understand this correctly then I will need to add on a Pixie controller to my existing system in order to power the new props that I was given. The singing trees are old incandescent lights and I don't have any sequences for them yet. The picture above shows the connector that I am dealing with. How do I know if they are smart or dumb pixels and what is the difference?

[TheDucks]

The link did not show an image (and is weirdly long) broken-link 🥴

AC (wall plug strings. No effect modules or Low Voltage adapters ) uses a CTB16

DUMB RGB (4 wire) uses a CMB24

Smart RGB (usually 3 wire) uses a Pixie  Note while a Pixie can behave  DUMB, the whole controller is affected. A case where biggest is no bestest 😛 )

💡 Go to https://store.lightorama.com/ and scroll down just a bit and there are useful links on how it goes together.

[Jimehc]

If your Props have or use a regular Household type male Plug on them - then they are AC Props and they are controlled by an AC Controllers with female receptacle ends...

The Strings with 3 Pin Round Ends are most likely Pixels and they require a Pixel Controller, which is different from the AC Controller...

Since the Faces use Incandecent bulbs - the AC controller is used..

[Orville]

45 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

The link did not show an image (and is weirdly long) broken-link 🥴

AC (wall plug strings. No effect modules or Low Voltage adapters ) uses a CTB16

DUMB RGB (4 wire) uses a CMB24

Smart RGB (usually 3 wire) uses a Pixie  Note while a Pixie can behave  DUMB, the whole controller is affected. A case where biggest is no bestest 😛 )

💡 Go to https://store.lightorama.com/ and scroll down just a bit and there are useful links on how it goes together.

That's very odd, as I have 4 ports set as dumb on my Pixie16  ports 3 & 4 control a gen 1 Ralphie, ports 5 & 6 control a gen 1 Zuzu, all other ports are normal, smart RGB. 

Setting those ports to the LOR gen 1 singing trees I have has NOT AFFECTED any other port  even set up a Pixie4 with ports 1 & 2 for one of the trees, ports 3 and 4 controlled smart RGB lights normally.

However, the Pixie2 is the only one you can't set port 1 to dumb and port 2 to smart, it's either both dumb or both smart.  But that's because most RGB singing faces use 2 ports to control them, even though you only use X amount of channels, in my case 8 for gen 1 LOR trees.

But with my Pixie4's and my Pixie16  I can have both dumb and smart on the same controller.  My Pixie16, as stated is set for Dumb on ports 3, 4, 5 & 6  ports 1, 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16 are controlling smart RGB strings.

Been using it this way for going on 2 years now.  Never any issues having both dumb props and smart RGB strings or props on the Pixie16D.

[Jimehc]

LOR Singing Trees use "Smart" Pixels...................................

[dgander]

11 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

LOR Singing Trees use "Smart" Pixels...................................

However, read this document because LOR does do customization with the pixie2 controllers to work with "their" (LOR) singing faces sequences

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0628/2969/1125/files/ReadMeFirst-Singing_Face_Set_Up_Instructions.pdf?v=1671466551

 

 

[Jimehc]

Actually the Faces work with all the Pixie Controller via the "Advanced" Configuration...

Edited October 24, 2023 by Jimehc