New Around Here... Planning for next year already!

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slw2206

New member
Hello,

Just found this community and am intrigued by some of the things I've seen. My Christmas displays have always consisted on traditional LED lights (25,000+ of them!), but I've got a bug this year to start making custom motifs/displays and that has led me down a rabbit hole of researching addressable LEDs.

I know very little about addressable LEDs, what controllers to use, and the programming required (though I am an engineer so will figure it out quick), so if there are some good tutorial threads feel free to link them and I'll read up!
 
Welcome

The AUS Christmas site has a great pixel 101 intro document. After that we have a lot of people here that can help you out.
 
Welcome to the community! If you're looking for some ideas check out this thread or this one. Both are worth your while to check out. If you have any questions, just post them here and someone will help, as this site is full of knowledge and always ready to assist when needed. Also, consider becoming a supporting member it's cheap and well worth it.

slw2206 said:
I know very little about addressable LEDs, what controllers to use, and the programming required (though I am an engineer so will figure it out quick), so if there are some good tutorial threads feel free to link them and I'll read up!
Click to expand...
I use traditional LEDs for my lights I use a mix of controllers like Renard SS8, SS24, MiniRen 8/3, 8/4, 8/8 and TW-16. This year I did a mix of addressable PIC's (used to control the lights) and Wi-Fi (much easier.) Here is a link for addressable PICs (16F688) just look for "Renard Start Address Firmware" if you are going to use a Renard base system. Have you read the WiKi for the "Renard Starting Address Configuration?"
 
HI
slw2206 said:
Hello,

Just found this community and am intrigued by some of the things I've seen. My Christmas displays have always consisted on traditional LED lights (25,000+ of them!), but I've got a bug this year to start making custom motifs/displays and that has led me down a rabbit hole of researching addressable LEDs.

I know very little about addressable LEDs, what controllers to use, and the programming required (though I am an engineer so will figure it out quick), so if there are some good tutorial threads feel free to link them and I'll read up.
Click to expand...
If you need any help with the PIC programming let me know. I had to re-learn it after starting down the path of converting my xbees to wifi.
 
jValue said:
HI

If you need any help with the PIC programming let me know. I had to re-learn it after starting down the path of converting my xbees to wifi.
Click to expand...
Same here, just let me know. Now I need to figure out what to do with all these Xbees. :unsure:
 
BillW said:
Now I need to figure out what to do with all these Xbees.
Click to expand...
It depends on your relationship with your neighbors but the Xbee's could be used to extend your display to your neighbors yards. Those transmitters are capable of reaching a couple of miles.
 
25000 lights would require quite a few controllers, with the exact number depending on how many LED strings would be made addressable. That might be a formidable task.
 
I have 14K pixels it takes 4 F16 controllers to control them and have reasonable spare capacity if a controller dies. It really is good to have less than 600 pixels on a port. I usually limit my ports to 200 pixels.
 
I have 11,038 pixels, 31 ESP8266 D1 Mini's, 1 ESP32 and 1 ESP8266 D1 Mini DMX converter to a Renard-64 for AC lights.

Those ESP8266 D1 Mini's only cost me $1.23 and I have about 60 more. Pretty simple to program WLED and configure and resolder 3 pins. Might take an entire 5 minutes. They're only using one port but the most I have on a port is 460 pixels.

They're all WiFi and though it wasn't a straight "piece of cake", it wasn't complicated either.
 
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