Recommendations for Golfcart / portable setup

T

thevenz

New member
Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with a small battery-powered portable set up. I am looking to put lights on the golf car this year but I'm not sure where to start in terms of controllers. I do have experience with the alphapix controllers for a light show on the house last year; but wondering if anyone can give me some guidance and direction into a smaller, portable battery powered controller setup (or if this is even feasible).

Thank you so much in advance!
 
I’d second the PiCap, if corn o other reason than it can run on 12v and you can tie into a couple 6v golf cart batteries for that. ESPixelStick would also work well if you want some simple stand-alone effects.
 
You can also run WLED on pretty much any controller that runs ESPixelStick and get a whack more stand alone effects....
Super easy to use with a ESPixelPOP...
 
I just go for what's the least work. If 12v batteries are what I have, I go 12v. But instead I have those batteries you jump start your car with, and they have those USB charging outlets. Since 5V is better on the energy efficiency, I go 5v. Pi3 can handle USB very well, but you might not have access to one. So I would go with Kulp or Arduino (Espixelstick being a superior version of Arduino). Next question:. bullet pixels? Some of the reasons those are liked don't apply here. I would prefer ws2813 led strips for a golf cart. But--again--it's a lot of work to cut them up. So I probably wouldn't bother, and just use the bullets I already have. But--can the USB power enough bullets? Probably it'll power 200 or 300, which is enough. But need to test. LED strips absolutely provide more bang for your amp.

Sorry I didn't offer any hard answers. But--that is my design process. I've been asked to do lighted stage props, costumes, kiosks at marketing events. It's always a side project (as it might be the case for you), so I dont want to spend too much time on it.
 
I have a few cases (I use plastic battery boxes) that I fill with some 12V SLA batteries and use a buck convertor to lower the voltage to 5V...
Then I use various controllers to run the LEDs as required.
In the picture below I have two ESP32 controllers running WLED that drive two seperate displays.
These just use the effects that WLED has, they are not sync`d to audio...
IMG_2373.JPG
IMG_2374.JPG
 
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