WELCOME!!!!!!!

Hello. I guess this is the greetings and introduction thread?

I am just starting to experiment with WS2811 and Arduino/Raspberry Pi. Having mixed results, and wanted to hop in here and see what the experts do :)
 
MikeKrebs said:
Welcome j on the wis e! Have fun!
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Thanks! I'm having trouble getting my first post through, it's stuck in the moderation queue I guess, but I'm trying to build an Arduino controller for some ws2811 leds. The logic level shifter seems to be messing with me. Are there any docs on how to wire stuff up properly?
 
Hello. Mark and Nadine here.
I mark, use to decorate for the season years ago until life happen to get really busy. Well it finally slowed down in 2019 and we decided to break out the old Christmas lights from storage, and as we were going through them and finding they all crispified and half didn't work we started looking at ordering new lights and ran across an Xlights video on YouTube! We decided that was what we wanted to be able to do. I use to in my younger years help out doing stage lighting and sound for a local band and figured it wasn't going to be much different from that right? Now we are knee deep in one of the most rewarding holiday hobbies out there! My wife Nadine has some crazy crafty ideas and a DIYer can make 99.9% of the ideas come to life, and we have so much fun doing it. With all the help from this forum and others like it, The first year i believe we had 1,300 pixels, the second was 6,700, and this year we are up to 20,000.... Big shout out to all the help from doityouselfchritmas, xlights, any and all who take time out of there life to help the new generation of Christmas lighters!

Merry Christmas form our house to yours!

Sorry guess I already had posted on here. Sorry still trying to figure out the forum's. Never use them much.
 
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Hi there.
My name is Hannes and I'm living as an expat in the middle east. I got interested in the hobby maybe 3 years ago but suffered a tragic accident that kept me from really getting into it until now. I've purchased a Falcon Pi-cap as a starting point in 2021 but only now finally got around to start building my display in XLights after struggling with Vixen for a while, guess my learning curve is better with the one than the other.
My current setup is small, no more than 1300 pixels over 11 props including a tree and a singing face (my wife insisted on them).
Anyhow I'm excited to be here and to learn and grow in the community.
 
Hello newbie here from PR moving to Houston by next summer, looking forward at learning from this forums and maybe locals.

Thanks in advance
 
My name is Giovanni. I'm from Italy. I've never setup a light show before but I'd like to try. I have an electronics background but I have a lot of questions about controllers. I'm here to get as much info as I can. Hopefully I'll have something to show off soon.
 
Welcome. It is a bit late in the season to purchase the parts needed to put together a big show. If you describe what it is you want to do, we will be happy to help get you started.
 
Hi my name is Tom and I'm from New Hampshire. I have a project started to create a lighting controller using an Arduino Uno that I hope, will take an audio output from a projector, check the frequencies and use solid state relays to synchronize some LED trees to the music. I'm not sure what the best way to get this done from a software perspective but I would prefer to not have to do do sequencing. I have most of the hardware to build the controller but struggling with the software piece. Thank you.
 
picman said:
Hi my name is Tom and I'm from New Hampshire. I have a project started to create a lighting controller using an Arduino Uno that I hope, will take an audio output from a projector, check the frequencies and use solid state relays to synchronize some LED trees to the music. I'm not sure what the best way to get this done from a software perspective but I would prefer to not have to do do sequencing. I have most of the hardware to build the controller but struggling with the software piece. Thank you.
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What hardware are you thinking of using besides the Uno itself?
 
You might want to look up "Color Organ" for arduino projects. There are a few mechanisms for doing FFT processing and outputting lighting information. I wrote a plugin for Vixen 2.5 that did something similar.
 
MartinMueller2003 said:
You might want to look up "Color Organ" for arduino projects. There are a few mechanisms for doing FFT processing and outputting lighting information. I wrote a plugin for Vixen 2.5 that did something similar.
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I was going to wait until they gave some indications of their intended approach. That said, depending on the answer, I was going recommend looking in to getting an MSGEQ7 board and hooking up it to the Arduino.
 
Hi Phil,

I have a SainSmart 8-Channel 5V Solid State Relay Module Board to use to control the trees, with outlets (pigtails) connected to the relay board built in an Light-O-Rama box. A 3.5 male jack from the projector to the Arduino that could have some code or ... to take in the signal and depending on the frequency open a relay for single or group of trees to turn on. Basically, something to turn LED trees on and off to the beat of a song playing on the projector. I was thinking it would be around some FFT processing but I'm not that familiar with Arduino coding.
 
Hi Martin,

I'll take a look at the Color Organ and would be interesting in looking at what the Vixen plugin does as well. I'm still learning and would look at all possibilities. Thank you.
 
picman said:
Hi Phil,

I have a SainSmart 8-Channel 5V Solid State Relay Module Board to use to control the trees, with outlets (pigtails) connected to the relay board built in an Light-O-Rama box. A 3.5 male jack from the projector to the Arduino that could have some code or ... to take in the signal and depending on the frequency open a relay for single or group of trees to turn on. Basically, something to turn LED trees on and off to the beat of a song playing on the projector. I was thinking it would be around some FFT processing but I'm not that familiar with Arduino coding.
Click to expand...

The point of using the MSGEQ7 part/board is that it obviates the need for dealing with FFT processing. And there do seem to be Arduino+MSGEQ7 color organ examples out there. The remaining question is about where your sound is coming from - is it from a file in a PC, or some sort of external audio source, such as an mp3 player or the like. That determines whether you have access to FFT routines in the PC or not.

Also, what is your timeframe? It's pretty close to Christmas already.
 
I thought this would be something I could do in a couple of nights but it can be for next year as well.
As I mentioned above the audio will be coming from a video playing on an outside projector using a 3.5mm jack that would be input to the Arduino as one possibility.

The MSGEQ7 looks like an interesting alternative. I will have to do some investigating on what is involved with using this method vs FFT processing. Thanks for the suggestion.

Tom
 
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