Newbie Guide to Do It Yourself Christmas (DIYC)

MANOWAR....

Budude's right. It only takes a willingness to learn a couple manual skills such as soldering (piece of cake) and figuring out how to use zip ties (commonly known as cable ties). Why, when budude started, he had six thumbs and two left feet. Now he has eight thumbs but he's got the feet figured out! :)lol:)

Seriously, you don't have to know how to design the equipment. That's already been done. All you have to do is assemble it and almost all of the DIY gear presented here has pictorial assembly guides to follow. Some of the more challenging tasks are deciding what you want to do and sticking to your budget.

There is an incredible sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in building your own show, and there are literally hundreds of DIYC members who stand ready at to help at virtually every step of the way. C'mon and join the fun. You can do it.

dirk the nerkle...
 
dirknerkle said:
MANOWAR....

Budude's right. It only takes a willingness to learn a couple manual skills such as soldering (piece of cake) and figuring out how to use zip ties (commonly known as cable ties). Why, when budude started, he had six thumbs and two left feet. Now he has eight thumbs but he's got the feet figured out! :)lol:)

Seriously, you don't have to know how to design the equipment. That's already been done. All you have to do is assemble it and almost all of the DIY gear presented here has pictorial assembly guides to follow. Some of the more challenging tasks are deciding what you want to do and sticking to your budget.

There is an incredible sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in building your own show, and there are literally hundreds of DIYC members who stand ready at to help at virtually every step of the way. C'mon and join the fun. You can do it.

dirk the nerkle...
Click to expand...

Thanks! Also, nice to see that you're local!! Any MN folks ever do meet & greets?
 
MANOWAR said:
Thanks! Also, nice to see that you're local!! Any MN folks ever do meet & greets?
Click to expand...

It's happened, but it's a little bit rare. We're spread so far apart (usually) that it's hard to get people together. I live in Plymouth -- western suburb of Mpls. Where are you?
 
Manowar

i can speak as a newbie on here because i have only been here a few weeks and i will say without a doubt if you read (quite a bit starting out) on here and can follow directions even somewhat they folks here will help your take care of the rest...dirknerkle and budude have already along with other have already answered many questions for me and didnt make me feel in the least bit dumb(and i am when it comes to this) i just ordered my first board and material and am fixing to start building my first controller this week...so i would definitely say you have come to the right place....im pretty sure someone on here knows about everything you could possibly ask...so come join the fun...
 
FIRECOP252 said:
Manowar

i can speak as a newbie on here because i have only been here a few weeks and i will say without a doubt if you read (quite a bit starting out) on here and can follow directions even somewhat they folks here will help your take care of the rest...dirknerkle and budude have already along with other have already answered many questions for me and didnt make me feel in the least bit dumb(and i am when it comes to this) i just ordered my first board and material and am fixing to start building my first controller this week...so i would definitely say you have come to the right place....im pretty sure someone on here knows about everything you could possibly ask...so come join the fun...
Click to expand...

The good thing is that I'm still very small. I will be building my display as $$ permits. I think I am legitimately 2 years away from going full-on motion. That gives me time to learn things like "how to solder" and "how to sync music". I'm on other "display" message boards, and this one is definitely more technical than anything I've come across. Until now, I never even considered anything other than the most simple plug & play LOR unit. The thing is, I want to learn as much as I can because I have a feeling this hobby is going to be in my blood for the long haul!
 
Don't feel pressured to do any more than you want to. And this site is fairly technical, but there's lots of folks who are willing to help you out.

As for LOR vs DIY vs others....There are 3 levels, in my opinion, of folks that want motion in their lights. Mr. Christmas and similar "plug it in and it works" is level 1. LOR is plug it in, but you have to program it level 2, and DIY is build it and program it, or level 3. You can achieve the same effect with LOR or DIY, but DIY will be less expensive per channel, but require more effort on your part.

Note that some folks here will offer boards with parts kits or partially assembled. That's a little easier on the effort level, and makes it quicker to get it done. Some will offer just the PC boards, and you have to order all the parts and put it all together. It's not that hard, as dirk and brian have mentioned. There's even opportunities to buy fully built and tested boards, since folks tend to upgrade or just need to unload some stuff to buy more stuff. Watch out for those sales, and you can get started with just a little effort.

Just remember, it's a hobby, and don't get too carried away - cause it's been known to happen!

Again, welcome to DIYC!
 
Hello !! I just finished building my first Renard ss24 board and performing the basic tests to make sure it is correct.
So far all tests are good, but I am confused about how to connect the board to my laptop. I do not have a serial
port on my laptop. I have a usb port and the phone plug-type socket (I forget the technical name !!!). I have downloaded
and installed the Vixen software. I need basic information on how to connect the Board to my laptop. I am not computer
illiterate, but have to admit that I need advice on the best way to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks, Rick
 
Amigorick said:
Hello !! I just finished building my first Renard ss24 board and performing the basic tests to make sure it is correct.
So far all tests are good, but I am confused about how to connect the board to my laptop. I do not have a serial
port on my laptop. I have a usb port and the phone plug-type socket (I forget the technical name !!!). I have downloaded
and installed the Vixen software. I need basic information on how to connect the Board to my laptop. I am not computer
illiterate, but have to admit that I need advice on the best way to do this. Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks, Rick
Click to expand...

Hey, Rick -- welcome to DIYC!
Connecting a PC to a Renard is pretty easy. You do need some kind of serial connection, and since your laptop does not have a serial port, you'll need a USB adapter of some kind. There are lots of USB to RS232 adapters around, and then you can just plug in a standard serial cable to the end of the adapter to the 9-pin jack on the SS24. Piece of cake. However, you may want to look into a USB to RS485 adapter instead since it will provide longer cable distances to your controller than RS232 will. Lastly, you might consider a USB to DMX adapter (another type of RS485) if you envision going the DMX control route.

The best place to find all this information is the Wiki -- there's a link to it at the top of the DIYC menu page. Lots of information there about how to make cables, info about adapters, etc.

BTW, the little phone plug type socket on your laptop is probably an ethernet network connection. Don't connect that to the SS24 -- it won't work and it could damage your laptop.

Visit the Wiki. It'll become your best friend!
 
Manowar

A year ago I was a total newby. I now have built 3 Renard SS24 and 2 SS8. I use the Vixen, It is the way to go!
You will be suprised at how fast you will learn!! Get a 15 watt soldering iron and solder from rad shack and learn soldering
and you can build any controller!
 
My turn. Last year I used LOR. Then a person I had met to do some light trading with told me he used Renard and explained that you build them yourself and save a ton of money. I did not think I had the knowledge or capability to do this so I just let it go. I ventured over to see his display last year and was blown away. I phoned him and we talked for some time and I knew it was time for me to learn how to do this. He helped me with my first board and the next 13 are now history. It has been a learning curve but I only had a couple of hick ups with solder pads lifted. I have gone from 64 to 288 channels this year.

Of course I had to change software and write new sequences. I did use the lor2vix converter to convert some of my old ones and tweak them to the new show. I had a little trouble getting my computers to like vixen but that was easily resolved with the help of the forum.

For all that are interested in DIY it is the way to go. If I can do it I am sure any one can.

Thanks Randy for all you have done to help get me into this insane hobby. I doubt that I would have been able to do it on my own.
 
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Hi,

I'd like to introduce myself to to you guys/gals.

My name is Darren and while I am new to this forum, I am not new to lighting animation. Over 12 years ago, me and a friend of mine were using software called Dasher Digital to control a whopping 24 channels of lights (no dimming) with a Pentium MMX PC with Windows 95. The lights were controlled by an ISA slot digital I/O card hard wired to a bunch of light dimmers modified to be solid state relays with an optoisolator. Crude stuff compared to what is available now!

I stopped the madness when my buddy moved across the country, but always wanted to get another animated display going. My wife forbid me from doing it all on my own because of all the time involved, but now the kids are grown and can even help now. My problem is that I lost my copy of Dasher Digital, the company is gone, and a PC with ISA slots is as rare as hen's teeth. I've been lurking these forums for a few years now, and decided now was the time to join and try to get in on a group buy deal for some modern controller boards. Hopefully, I can get a small animated display for this Christmas and work up from there. I am going to be using Vixen with a few Renard 24 channel boards. Looking forward to finally being able to dim lights!

Hope I'm not too much of a pain!

Darren
 
Darren,
Welcome to DIYC!

Dasher didn't totally go away, it just got absorbed into Animated Lighting when Drew moved over there...and morphed into some other stuff. Drew is still around at his own company called Holiday Technologies, and resells LOR hardware these days.

I might have a copy of the old program somewhere in an old backup.

But Vixen is a good choice to replace it and the Renard or DMX controllers available here on DIYC will do so much more!
 
Thanks for the info Mark!

I remember that I/O board costing a few hundred bucks, and logic level SSR's being quite expensive at the time too. That's why we hacked 5 dollar rotary dimmers. Looks like the cost per channel has dropped dramatically with the new hardware. My friend was a programmer and the very first system we used, he wrote the programs that would toggle the pins on a parallel port. Each routine was a separate program and it took weeks just for one song! Dasher made the process a whole lot easier! My job was interfacing the low voltage bits with the high voltage bits without any "shocking" consequences. It is good to hear that the "grandfather" of home lighting animation is still in the business. Our transmitter at the time was a kit from Panaxis. (looks like they are defunct) It was a separate PLL FM exciter, power amplifier and multiplex unit. It sounded better than broadcast. These new transmitters with the Rohm "all in one" chips don't have great stereo separation and sound quality IMO. They are also set up for 50us pre-emphasis (Europe/Asia) where we use 75us pre-emphasis in the US. This leads to a loss of high end response. I wish I could find that old Panaxis equipment...

So it looks like the Renard controllers are the most bang for the buck. I was thinking maybe Vixen with DMX, but DMX dimmers are very expensive.

Can't have too many channels to control!
 
arceeguy said:
Thanks for the info Mark!

I remember that I/O board costing a few hundred bucks, and logic level SSR's being quite expensive at the time too. That's why we hacked 5 dollar rotary dimmers. Looks like the cost per channel has dropped dramatically with the new hardware. My friend was a programmer and the very first system we used, he wrote the programs that would toggle the pins on a parallel port. Each routine was a separate program and it took weeks just for one song! Dasher made the process a whole lot easier! My job was interfacing the low voltage bits with the high voltage bits without any "shocking" consequences. It is good to hear that the "grandfather" of home lighting animation is still in the business. Our transmitter at the time was a kit from Panaxis. (looks like they are defunct) It was a separate PLL FM exciter, power amplifier and multiplex unit. It sounded better than broadcast. These new transmitters with the Rohm "all in one" chips don't have great stereo separation and sound quality IMO. They are also set up for 50us pre-emphasis (Europe/Asia) where we use 75us pre-emphasis in the US. This leads to a loss of high end response. I wish I could find that old Panaxis equipment...

So it looks like the Renard controllers are the most bang for the buck. I was thinking maybe Vixen with DMX, but DMX dimmers are very expensive.

Can't have too many channels to control!
Click to expand...

Renard controllers can be flashed with a DMX version of code as well. There's a couple caveats in the way it treats the data but other than that they can be driven like most other DMX devices/dimmers.
 
budude said:
Renard controllers can be flashed with a DMX version of code as well. There's a couple caveats in the way it treats the data but other than that they can be driven like most other DMX devices/dimmers.
Click to expand...

That's cool!

I was considering DMX because someone gave me some old DMX lighting, but I don't have any cables or any way of testing them. It's nice to know that I can tinker with DMX if I want to. These Renard boards are very flexible. Hats off to the architect!
 
And there cheap:) just got into this last year. I like the ren16SS but any of the SS go together really easy. Heck I had my little brother put one of my controllers together.
 
Welcome to the madness arceeguy :twisted: great bunch here and are very willing to help when you have a question. Just get your checkbook out and send some blank checks the rest will be fun. Just kidding but welcome to the forum.
 
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