I've been thinking of upgrading the outside lights for sometime and this is probably the best instructional video I've seen. Great job Rob and thank you!
Thanks Rob. Love your succinct explanations, no nonsense , get to the point presentations. I love having you guys 2.5 yrs ahead of my budget. You save me so much time and $. ;-) (Oh, and let me mention the link you have to the WS2812B IP65s was dead last I checked.) Thanks for all you do!
I highly recommend this video if you are into making your display from static lights to sequenced lights. Love the informative video as this is a pretty good intro to the hobby of the Christmas lights. It also turns into many other holiday lights too, i.e 4th of July, Halloween. I also recommend XLights TH-cam classes as well as the forums from Xlights and Light O Rama. The only complaint I have with the video is your comment of it takes a week for a novice to do an impressive show in a week. Only if you have deep pockets (purchasing a ready made display and sequenced or having some else do it) or you are a anywhere from a intermediate to complete nerd in electronics. And still not a week to do it all. Not trying to scare anyone away but it takes a lot longer to wade thru what you want to do versus all of the different electronic items to do it as well as the programming aspects. If you have a music background, that helps too when sequencing your lights to music. Your advice to start small is the best solution for a novice as it can easily get overwhelming. It has taken me almost 10 years to get my display where I want it to be. Last year was the very first year to setup, sequenced and happy with the display. It is not big or small but it fits the area I have and it took over a month to setup. That does not include selecting the songs to sequence, going thru checking each light (ws2811s, rgb spotlights, static led lights) and checking for anomalies. Can't wait till I retire so I can really do it spectacularly!!
Thanks for the kind words! The "under a week" part was definitely referring to kit stuff. You can get really creative in this hobby (which is I think why most of us like it), but you can also buy the kits to get up and running quickly if that's what you're after.
Haha, had some friends come over for dinner that night but I was SO close to finishing when they got there that I had to keep going. They kept me company, good friends and unwitting participants in my youtube video.
Love the video and love the channel, too! Your channel is now on the top of my list! I even printed out the input / output diagram from your "which pins to choose" video on the ESP8266. By the way you look like a young Michael Keaton in the thumbnail for this video ha ha!
I'm super excited. I've been wanting something to do since retirement. Knowing me, if I start today I might be able to have my "mega strand" of lights programmed in time for Christmas next year.
Great info. Good subject would be how to expand a single effect across all channels and universes as I saw this season. It was spread over someone's entire house ever so often to match intensity of music. Very cool effect.
Thanks for posting this. Wow when I drove by a house with this type of led tree I had no clue what's involved. I always wanted to do this but I feel now I need a degree in IT to do it. When you were going back and forth on the pc my brain went into over load. Lol
First, love your vids. You're literally the reason I even ended up in this hobby. Starting with your holiday lights vids and now into the full show. That said, "less than a week to a full show" is fairly misleading. I suppose with a Ready to Run kit for the mega tree, that element's doable in that time frame, but a whole show is not. It's my first year, I've been at it since August/September and I'm only at about 65% complete. Wiring, soldering, attaching pigtails, power injecting, building props for window outlines, and trouble shooting is all very time consuming. And that's before the dozens of hours you'll spend sequencing. This is still a great tutorial and your xlights section will definitely save me some time!
It's possible if you have general IT skills (installing software, IP addressing) and you use out of the box sequences along with a ready to run controller. Going Ready2Run assembled alone will save you many, many hours since the controllers are shipped 100% assembled and tested and you don't have to make a bunch of mistakes not purchasing or purchasing the wrong items to complete the project. Power injection is a "level 4" skill that even we don't support for customers due to the likely-hood for damage to hardware and thus we generally have customers using Long Range instead of power injection which is cleaner and easier and just about the same cost.
Just subscribed today and watched a few videos so far. My brain is smoking because I haven't even reached novice level. I'm a "I'm new, I don't know what to do" beginner, beginner level. I'll watch them a few dozen times again and maybe I'll start to understand. I do love the videos and do want to learn.
J check out videos on the video section of xlights.org, or Canispater Christmas and Listen to Our Lights all here on youtube. You'll probably get a better idea from those guys.
Great intro, Rob...I'm an IoT hw/sw developer and just getting into xLights and animated shows. Yours is the first video that has actually brought all of the pieces together in an understandable, cohesive manner that, thanks to you, I know understand! Kudos. You mentioned in the vid that you permanently mounted pixel strips to outline your house. Could you share what products/tools you did to do that? Has that been installed for awhile, and if so has it withstood weather/sunlight/snow/rain etc.? I also loved the discussion around PVC pre-fab mounting for your doors and windows. Let's see how you did that!? Thanks again!
First I want to say that I have subscribed to you page. I have been sequencing a light show for a few years now. While I have considered going with Pixel lights I have too much invested in regular LED lights, (about 25,000), to change my set up. I also wrote my own program to run my lights. I use Digital I/O boards in my display and build all my own circuit boards. I still do the flashy blinky type of display, (no dimming). Even with what I know this set up seems like it would take a lot of study to get a grasp of everything. I have even tried to contact DIY web sites but no ones seems willing to help me out with questions and problems that I encounter. You at least are willing to show how some of these things go together. I did at one time try and purchase systems from people, but no one would explain how to diagnose problems with the systems I bought. It would be nice to see something like this broken down into easy to understand steps to do a display as complex as this. All of the terms you are using need to be defined in every day language for the average person. Thank you for you effort to explain your system.
Thanks for a great overview. Helped me accelerate my setup. I’m not clear why you have the same e1.31 controller listed multiple times in the controller setup. My understanding is Xlights supports multiple universes under a single entry.
That's REALLY impressive... a bit out of my budget.. didn't realize the big controllers were that expensive. I look forward to more of this series and I'll be ingesting more of your original LED outline to build my own.
you can use nodemcu lolin boards (espixelstick firmware) that cost 4$ each to control up to 250+ pixels per controller. you can waterproof them in cheap pvc pipe. you can diy a 18 strand pixel tree for about 250ish dollars and that includes 18 strands of cheap pixels,6 controllers, and a powersupply. how you mount the pixels dictates the rest of your cost. mounting strips are nice, but slicing 1/2 inch pvc pipe in half lenthwise on a tablesaw and drilling 50 1/2 inch holes every 2.4 inches will only cost you 2$ per 20 feet! thats 20$ to mount all the strands. to support it you can create a frame from emt piping, or use conventional megatree methods.
The DIY route is definitely the way to go in my opinion. You learn more this way, so that you can add more in the future, AND you save a LOT of money. I use ESP8266 boards controlled via E1.31 with Vixen Lights software. The ESP8266 boards control my LEDs, and I have a separate power supply. It really isn't too hard to build if you do your research.
@@alexelliott9733 Thanks Alex. I now have lights along my soffits and one other element running on D1 Minis with Dig-Unos. Planning a 7-8' Mega Tree for next year and I won't lie, I'm intimidated by Xlights (for now), but I realize how much it adds to it all. Fortunately, I got a bit of time to learn. The tree will be where I more to nodes and may be where I step up to 12v from my current 5v lights.
@@ein57ein That's awesome! I've also been thinking about building a full-fledged mega tree, but it didn't happen this year, so hopefully I'll get around to it for next year as well. Hope yours goes well!
@@grimninja2004 man! I've got a lot to learn lol... I didn't see your comment before, but now (specially that I'm plotting for next year). I'm thinking about a 180 degree 8' with ~13 strings on a D1Mini or ESP32 with WLED. I know WLED can listen for e1.31, I just gotta figure that part out before next year.
Thank you, I'm 12 and I begged my parents for years to get me a controller and lights and they did. I got the programming and it didn't work out. Like it was supposed to. It was off beat. I guess that's not to bad considering I did it by myself but u really helped
Can you do a video on how to physically mount the wiring/lights to your house. I’m pretty lost on injecting power. If you want a house to do you can come over. Haha
I love all the videos and thanks for them. I don't have a Raspberry Pi to setup Home Assistant and I want more functionality than wled for programming the leds. Could you help with other options for MQTT setup? Or do you think it is possible to use the buttons on the nodemcu to toggle through the different "light shows" once it is programed, no wifi needed? Thanks
Hello Sir, Thanks for your videos, really helpful to know about the latest trends. One question - Is there any way to control SONOFF devices using the app without an Internet connection. I mean to use the app and control devices through LAN. Kindly share about it really useful for solving this problem at home.
this is really cool! hey, is there a method for syncing music with the display of lights you're aware of? for example: pitch corresponds to color, and volume corresponds to brightness and a sequence corresponds to patterns in a song. something like that?
Interested what all you had for your first setup you showed for the whole house. In a similar situation starting about thinking about moving to something similar. Thanks.
Very helpful video! Here's the one question I have that you actually didn't cover lol. Where is your main controllers mounted and how does one typically run the pixels cables to it without having awful cables covering your house? Go through the attic? And can the pixel strands be daisy chained or each 50 have to run back to the controller?
Very clear explanation ! Thank you !!. One question (I am a beginner with RGB). I just bought the Pixie 16 LOR controller. How many stands can I attach to each of the 16 outputs (cables that comes from the controller). Sorry about this silly question but I am a newbie. My understanding is that I can only control 16 stands of lights. is that correct? Thank you for your help and time answering.
I was looking for guidance in using an input from an xbox one rumble motor to then RF to a receiver to make the led strip light up red with the same pulse of the rumble motor. I'm 100 percent doing this project but I just don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated.
Great video! Thanks. I'm new at this and have a few questions. Doesn't using the HolidayCoro Ready2Run setup require you to use the HolidayCoro pixels also due to the connections they use? Or can you buy a the Ready2Run and buy pixels from another source? (aliexpress, amazon, etc.)
Rob, am getting a early start on the x-mass show for this year. (I have to show the wife that progress is being made with all the stuff I purchased..). My tree is going to be about 70" tall, so Im not totally sure of how to connect the lights, Im going to have 16 strands (up and down). So if I start on the bottom left and go to the right, I shoudl start at the bottom, then on the second strand start at the top, go to the bottom, then start at the bottom of the 3rd strand, go up and down and up and down until I get all the strands connected in one huge line? Or do I need to cut each strand and start at the bottom or top of all.. thanks..
HI Rob, perfect timing on tis video! I just received my Falcon controllers 2xF48 and 2xF16V3 with the smart receivers. For the network on your unifi did you create a separate VLAN or an entire new network on a different controller (USG). Thanks!
Hey Dave, I haven’t done it yet because I need to change some rules for my porch and carriage lights to be in the show, but it’s on my short list of things to do.
Hola, como podria conseguir todas las instrucciones en español? Me gusta mucho tu trabajo y quisiera empezar a aprender a hacerlo y decorar mi casa asi como la tuya. Espero y puedas ayudarme. Saludos...
Can the Mega Tree be controlled by WLED nodemcu's instead of the pre-built controller from holidaycoro? For example using the dig-quad from quindor and attaching 4 strips to each 4 channels.
Could you possibly tell me how I could implement the christmas light addressable systems with my DMX control board and lighting? Hardware wise, do you have any input into how it's done? The end result I want to achieve is using my moving head LED stage lights with Christmas show but I've never dealt with these addressable LED systems
I think you might want to switch over to using some sort of software (I use Vixen Lights) to control the individually addressable LEDs as well as your DMX lights. I've used a moving head light along with a few DMX spotlights and a DMX-controlled Laser machine in my display, and I ended up making a simple E1.31 to DMX converter to make it work with the other lights. That way they are all using the same control method in the software. I don't think it would be a good idea to use a DMX light board to control individually addressable LEDs (if that's what you mean), because each LED needs its own channel (actually 3 channels per led, usually), but it is doable I guess. One idea would be to build a separate DMX-to-LEDs controller that uses just a few DMX channels (like 5 or something like that) to determine what patterns the LEDs should do. For example, you could have one DMX channel control the speed of the various LED effects, and have another DMX channel determine the type of effect (chase, strobe, etc.), and have three more DMX channels determine the colors. Just an idea.
Power injection should be well understood before implementing. It's a bit like installing a turbo kit on your stock car - all good if you get everything 100% right and really bad if not done correctly. Here are some diagrams that show the basics: www.holidaycoro.com/kb_results.asp?ID=173 Given the number of cheap long range expansion systems (www.holidaycoro.com/Ready2Run-AlphaPix-Flex-Long-Range-Receivers-p/935.htm), the move has been more towards long range and away from power injection due to the complexity.
My favorite hobby, This year will be my 5th year running a light show. One thing I noticed that will cause issues is using DHCP. You just can't do this. I don't use xlights but on Vixen it asks for controller IP, if you're using DHCP this is liable to change after a day or a week depending on router settings. Using a manual IP should be the only option. Also never used Falcon boards because they're quite pricey. I've stuck with SanDevices, they also sell their boards fully assembled which is the option I took. My first SanDevices I got 4 years ago (an E682 ) and it's still running like a champ. Now they have a $99 board that assembled with 4 outputs. Perfect for placement on a display element.
While the E682 was one of the first crop of pixel controllers back in 2010, it has not kept up with all the modern innovations common to newer controllers like - multi-line OLED screens, network switch for daisy chaining, Wi-Fi interface, modular construction allowing 2 times or more outputs per controller, no long range support, no temperature / voltage monitoring and shutdown (for safety), blown fuse monitoring, sequence playback from controller, FM transmitting and other improvements. When factoring in these huge improvements since the release of the E682 years ago, the difference in cost makes sense.
I would like a little more information on installing LED walls or Displays and integrating them into my light shows. How do I add music videos to my light show? Do I use the same software? What hardware should I be using other than using RGB WS2812B lights?
Great mega tree! I have 14 stings just arrived, I was going to do 2 in spacing but seeing yours I believ 3 in looks nice also. Other note, didn’t you have a video on how to build that wreath? I couldn’t find it. Scanned through your other holiday vids but may have missed it.
Thank you, they help me a little bit I'm trying to figure stuff out but the only thing is I still have questions about is the universe. So I have 200 pixels on the front of my house and they go through one channel does that mean I need to put 150 lights on one channel and 50 lights on the other channel because I seem to work fine with 200 on that one channel. That's where I'm just getting confused
New to this venture, but your video has given me the kick in the butt I needed to get started. Thanks for your recommended controllers and pixels, I will be purchasing them soon. I have a pressing question though, How can I incorporate some of my current yard lights (deer, snowman, sleigh, etc) into the light show, since its all 120V. What type of controller would you recommend that could tie those things into x lights?
Those are done with AC light controllers: www.holidaycoro.com/16-Output-AC-Animated-Lighting-Controller-AlphaPix-p/942-2.htm?Click=12722 xLights can still send the data.
After watching the video I decided to throw a couple of led strips on my roof, plug them in and call it a day.
I'm with you. If this is a beginners guide, I'd hate to see an advanced version.
Ya fuck this lol
Before this video I was like "how hard this shit be" now I'm like "fuck this"
@@javi1373 check this one out.
th-cam.com/video/tXvtxwK3jRk/w-d-xo.html this dude explains it very well!
This is why people pay professionals to do it. To hell with this bs.
You must be the best teacher ever. The way you explain stuff is really clear and understandable.
Said no one ever
out of everybody producing content on this subject, you are the most straightforward and informative. thank you! i will consider patreon.
Thanks!
That xLights guide was really all that I needed. Thanks for keeping me busy doing projects Rob!
This really helped tie all the bits together I've learned so far. Thank you!!!!
Phenomenal video !
Thank you for bringing us closer to our dreams !
And
Your LED obsession is well understood !
I've been thinking of upgrading the outside lights for sometime and this is probably the best instructional video I've seen. Great job Rob and thank you!
Thanks Rob. Love your succinct explanations, no nonsense , get to the point presentations. I love having you guys 2.5 yrs ahead of my budget. You save me so much time and $. ;-) (Oh, and let me mention the link you have to the WS2812B IP65s was dead last I checked.) Thanks for all you do!
Love your presenting style. Refreshing and straight to the point
You’re the man. Love your channel and what you do! #respect
Importing the sequence is definitely one of the most confusing parts to do on your own. Thank you for explaining this so well!
Omg! I’ll stick to string lights; props to all of you who do this! Impressive
I highly recommend this video if you are into making your display from static lights to sequenced lights. Love the informative video as this is a pretty good intro to the hobby of the Christmas lights. It also turns into many other holiday lights too, i.e 4th of July, Halloween. I also recommend XLights TH-cam classes as well as the forums from Xlights and Light O Rama. The only complaint I have with the video is your comment of it takes a week for a novice to do an impressive show in a week. Only if you have deep pockets (purchasing a ready made display and sequenced or having some else do it) or you are a anywhere from a intermediate to complete nerd in electronics. And still not a week to do it all. Not trying to scare anyone away but it takes a lot longer to wade thru what you want to do versus all of the different electronic items to do it as well as the programming aspects. If you have a music background, that helps too when sequencing your lights to music. Your advice to start small is the best solution for a novice as it can easily get overwhelming. It has taken me almost 10 years to get my display where I want it to be. Last year was the very first year to setup, sequenced and happy with the display. It is not big or small but it fits the area I have and it took over a month to setup. That does not include selecting the songs to sequence, going thru checking each light (ws2811s, rgb spotlights, static led lights) and checking for anomalies. Can't wait till I retire so I can really do it spectacularly!!
Thanks for the kind words! The "under a week" part was definitely referring to kit stuff. You can get really creative in this hobby (which is I think why most of us like it), but you can also buy the kits to get up and running quickly if that's what you're after.
Oh my gosh! Thank you SO MUCH for this! NOBODY explains any of this as well as you, truly appreciated!
This really helped me make the decision to skip the lights this year
Another great video Rob, really informative!! Good to see at 09:00 you had plenty of supervisors helping!!!
Haha, had some friends come over for dinner that night but I was SO close to finishing when they got there that I had to keep going. They kept me company, good friends and unwitting participants in my youtube video.
Dude, you are an absolute magician!
Wow this is extraordinary clear! Thank you.
Fantastic videos. You are doing a great job breaking down the topics you cover. Keep it up!
Thanks for such a thorough video, you answered like 20 of my 10 questions
Nice movie! And nice tree. Now a movie of the total house
Love the video and love the channel, too! Your channel is now on the top of my list! I even printed out the input / output diagram from your "which pins to choose" video on the ESP8266. By the way you look like a young Michael Keaton in the thumbnail for this video ha ha!
I'm super excited. I've been wanting something to do since retirement. Knowing me, if I start today I might be able to have my "mega strand" of lights programmed in time for Christmas next year.
January is a great time to start planning for next December.
Great info. Good subject would be how to expand a single effect across all channels and universes as I saw this season. It was spread over someone's entire house ever so often to match intensity of music. Very cool effect.
Thanks for posting this. Wow when I drove by a house with this type of led tree I had no clue what's involved. I always wanted to do this but I feel now I need a degree in IT to do it. When you were going back and forth on the pc my brain went into over load. Lol
The part about the universe was really helpful. Thanks!
He would have been my favorite teacher in school. Very cool projects!
Thanks to TH-cam, he still can be your favorite teacher! I know he is mine, and I am 52.
Thank you so much for sharing for point lights.
Wow sick! This is that next level lights I install commercial holiday lights and if I start offering things like this there is way more money in it!
Thanks for the time stamps!
First, love your vids. You're literally the reason I even ended up in this hobby. Starting with your holiday lights vids and now into the full show. That said, "less than a week to a full show" is fairly misleading. I suppose with a Ready to Run kit for the mega tree, that element's doable in that time frame, but a whole show is not. It's my first year, I've been at it since August/September and I'm only at about 65% complete. Wiring, soldering, attaching pigtails, power injecting, building props for window outlines, and trouble shooting is all very time consuming. And that's before the dozens of hours you'll spend sequencing.
This is still a great tutorial and your xlights section will definitely save me some time!
Yeah, that time frame is for kits of course. I know I’m not exactly a beginner, but I completed my tree +sequencing in one Saturday.
It's possible if you have general IT skills (installing software, IP addressing) and you use out of the box sequences along with a ready to run controller. Going Ready2Run assembled alone will save you many, many hours since the controllers are shipped 100% assembled and tested and you don't have to make a bunch of mistakes not purchasing or purchasing the wrong items to complete the project. Power injection is a "level 4" skill that even we don't support for customers due to the likely-hood for damage to hardware and thus we generally have customers using Long Range instead of power injection which is cleaner and easier and just about the same cost.
I'm lights KraZee! But I'm not participating anymore. I've got a
new perspective and much more appreciative of folks who do these GREAT displays. Thnx
Love your wife's shirt. "I don't need Google, my husband knows everything" Ha! XD
Musicman247 is it missing “thinks he” ?
Gotta buy one of those to my wife.
@@lordgarth1 I try to learn more and more each day, but sadly I'll never know everything... not until the FDA green-lights direct brain implants.
I'm hooked! Subscribed...
AMAZING 💡💡💡💡💡🎄, THANK YOU!
Awesome channel!
this was a great video thank you
You’re the best. Seriously.
Nice Project !!!👍👍
9:08 - Glad to see the union supervisors on the job.
Just subscribed today and watched a few videos so far. My brain is smoking because I haven't even reached novice level. I'm a "I'm new, I don't know what to do" beginner, beginner level. I'll watch them a few dozen times again and maybe I'll start to understand. I do love the videos and do want to learn.
J check out videos on the video section of xlights.org, or Canispater Christmas and Listen to Our Lights all here on youtube. You'll probably get a better idea from those guys.
Great video!!!
Greatly appreciated the Timestamps
SUPER ...100% BEST... Thank you...
Great intro, Rob...I'm an IoT hw/sw developer and just getting into xLights and animated shows. Yours is the first video that has actually brought all of the pieces together in an understandable, cohesive manner that, thanks to you, I know understand! Kudos. You mentioned in the vid that you permanently mounted pixel strips to outline your house. Could you share what products/tools you did to do that? Has that been installed for awhile, and if so has it withstood weather/sunlight/snow/rain etc.? I also loved the discussion around PVC pre-fab mounting for your doors and windows. Let's see how you did that!? Thanks again!
th-cam.com/video/N5Ln_3Ygv9I/w-d-xo.html
First I want to say that I have subscribed to you page. I have been sequencing a light show for a few years now. While I have considered going with Pixel lights I have too much invested in regular LED lights, (about 25,000), to change my set up. I also wrote my own program to run my lights. I use Digital I/O boards in my display and build all my own circuit boards. I still do the flashy blinky type of display, (no dimming). Even with what I know this set up seems like it would take a lot of study to get a grasp of everything. I have even tried to contact DIY web sites but no ones seems willing to help me out with questions and problems that I encounter. You at least are willing to show how some of these things go together. I did at one time try and purchase systems from people, but no one would explain how to diagnose problems with the systems I bought. It would be nice to see something like this broken down into easy to understand steps to do a display as complex as this. All of the terms you are using need to be defined in every day language for the average person. Thank you for you effort to explain your system.
Наконец-то нормальное описание! Спасибо👍
You are a legend
Thank you you have been a big help.
Good presentation.
Thanks for a great overview. Helped me accelerate my setup. I’m not clear why you have the same e1.31 controller listed multiple times in the controller setup. My understanding is Xlights supports multiple universes under a single entry.
Nice one. I got idea for our christmas decoration competition at work.
I really wanna make my own light shows for Christmas and Halloween for my future house. I’m sure this video can help me.
A novice can put together an amazing show in about a week...Ha! I'd love to see that
Kits only of course...
Thank you !!
Nice presentation
That's REALLY impressive... a bit out of my budget.. didn't realize the big controllers were that expensive. I look forward to more of this series and I'll be ingesting more of your original LED outline to build my own.
you can use nodemcu lolin boards (espixelstick firmware) that cost 4$ each to control up to 250+ pixels per controller. you can waterproof them in cheap pvc pipe. you can diy a 18 strand pixel tree for about 250ish dollars and that includes 18 strands of cheap pixels,6 controllers, and a powersupply. how you mount the pixels dictates the rest of your cost. mounting strips are nice, but slicing 1/2 inch pvc pipe in half lenthwise on a tablesaw and drilling 50 1/2 inch holes every 2.4 inches will only cost you 2$ per 20 feet! thats 20$ to mount all the strands. to support it you can create a frame from emt piping, or use conventional megatree methods.
The DIY route is definitely the way to go in my opinion. You learn more this way, so that you can add more in the future, AND you save a LOT of money. I use ESP8266 boards controlled via E1.31 with Vixen Lights software. The ESP8266 boards control my LEDs, and I have a separate power supply. It really isn't too hard to build if you do your research.
@@alexelliott9733 Thanks Alex. I now have lights along my soffits and one other element running on D1 Minis with Dig-Unos. Planning a 7-8' Mega Tree for next year and I won't lie, I'm intimidated by Xlights (for now), but I realize how much it adds to it all.
Fortunately, I got a bit of time to learn. The tree will be where I more to nodes and may be where I step up to 12v from my current 5v lights.
@@ein57ein That's awesome! I've also been thinking about building a full-fledged mega tree, but it didn't happen this year, so hopefully I'll get around to it for next year as well. Hope yours goes well!
@@grimninja2004 man! I've got a lot to learn lol... I didn't see your comment before, but now (specially that I'm plotting for next year).
I'm thinking about a 180 degree 8' with ~13 strings on a D1Mini or ESP32 with WLED. I know WLED can listen for e1.31, I just gotta figure that part out before next year.
Thank you! I’m making the move so.
great video
Thank you, I'm 12 and I begged my parents for years to get me a controller and lights and they did. I got the programming and it didn't work out. Like it was supposed to. It was off beat. I guess that's not to bad considering I did it by myself but u really helped
Great Video. Thinking this is a 2021 project.
Do you have a video on how you made the PVC frames for your doors and windows and attached them? Thanks
I have no idea what u were talking about (setup). It’s a nice outcome
Can you do a video on how to physically mount the wiring/lights to your house. I’m pretty lost on injecting power.
If you want a house to do you can come over. Haha
That's cool
I love all the videos and thanks for them. I don't have a Raspberry Pi to setup Home Assistant and I want more functionality than wled for programming the leds. Could you help with other options for MQTT setup? Or do you think it is possible to use the buttons on the nodemcu to toggle through the different "light shows" once it is programed, no wifi needed? Thanks
Hello Sir,
Thanks for your videos, really helpful to know about the latest trends.
One question - Is there any way to control SONOFF devices using the app without an Internet connection. I mean to use the app and control devices through LAN.
Kindly share about it really useful for solving this problem at home.
Great videos. Did you ever do the one on FM transmitters as you spoke about in the 101 RGZ video? Would love to see that. Thanks.
I would love for you to do an in-depth show on power injection. I don't really understand when or how to do that.
this is really cool! hey, is there a method for syncing music with the display of lights you're aware of? for example: pitch corresponds to color, and volume corresponds to brightness and a sequence corresponds to patterns in a song. something like that?
Interested what all you had for your first setup you showed for the whole house. In a similar situation starting about thinking about moving to something similar. Thanks.
i just want the lights on my eves and rakes , do i need 1 of those ready to run controls? or the one you recommended on the last videos ?
Very helpful video! Here's the one question I have that you actually didn't cover lol. Where is your main controllers mounted and how does one typically run the pixels cables to it without having awful cables covering your house? Go through the attic? And can the pixel strands be daisy chained or each 50 have to run back to the controller?
Very clear explanation ! Thank you !!. One question (I am a beginner with RGB). I just bought the Pixie 16 LOR controller. How many stands can I attach to each of the 16 outputs (cables that comes from the controller). Sorry about this silly question but I am a newbie. My understanding is that I can only control 16 stands of lights. is that correct? Thank you for your help and time answering.
Ha I’ve been watching your channel for over a year now, just realized you are in Tampa. Funny local coincidence.
I thought he was somewhere in Fl when I saw him decorating in shorts
I was looking for guidance in using an input from an xbox one rumble motor to then RF to a receiver to make the led strip light up red with the same pulse of the rumble motor. I'm 100 percent doing this project but I just don't know where to start. Any help would be appreciated.
Now I know why I’ve never saw a light show in my town. As simple as a trig problem.
Great video! Thanks. I'm new at this and have a few questions. Doesn't using the HolidayCoro Ready2Run setup require you to use the HolidayCoro pixels also due to the connections they use? Or can you buy a the Ready2Run and buy pixels from another source? (aliexpress, amazon, etc.)
The connectors are readily available on the holidaycoro site or even on aliexpress.
Is there a Holiday Coro equivalent store for Canadians?
Rob, am getting a early start on the x-mass show for this year. (I have to show the wife that progress is being made with all the stuff I purchased..). My tree is going to be about 70" tall, so Im not totally sure of how to connect the lights, Im going to have 16 strands (up and down). So if I start on the bottom left and go to the right, I shoudl start at the bottom, then on the second strand start at the top, go to the bottom, then start at the bottom of the 3rd strand, go up and down and up and down until I get all the strands connected in one huge line? Or do I need to cut each strand and start at the bottom or top of all.. thanks..
HI Rob, perfect timing on tis video! I just received my Falcon controllers 2xF48 and 2xF16V3 with the smart receivers. For the network on your unifi did you create a separate VLAN or an entire new network on a different controller (USG). Thanks!
Hey Dave, I haven’t done it yet because I need to change some rules for my porch and carriage lights to be in the show, but it’s on my short list of things to do.
Hola, como podria conseguir todas las instrucciones en español?
Me gusta mucho tu trabajo y quisiera empezar a aprender a hacerlo y decorar mi casa asi como la tuya.
Espero y puedas ayudarme. Saludos...
I haven't slept in 7 weeks but thanks to your video I'm now ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Great video. I'm starting with pixels and currently have a falcon pi cap
Can the Mega Tree be controlled by WLED nodemcu's instead of the pre-built controller from holidaycoro? For example using the dig-quad from quindor and attaching 4 strips to each 4 channels.
@The Hook Up Thanks this video is very informative, you used PVC around your doors and windows.. Are you using strips or pixels in them?
Pixels around the doors and windows
100% sure that I never want to do this now. Jeez Rob!
Ha! That's just as useful as being inspired to do it. Sometimes it's good to know what you don't want to do.
Lmao me to
Waiting for next Video
Could you possibly tell me how I could implement the christmas light addressable systems with my DMX control board and lighting? Hardware wise, do you have any input into how it's done? The end result I want to achieve is using my moving head LED stage lights with Christmas show but I've never dealt with these addressable LED systems
I think you might want to switch over to using some sort of software (I use Vixen Lights) to control the individually addressable LEDs as well as your DMX lights. I've used a moving head light along with a few DMX spotlights and a DMX-controlled Laser machine in my display, and I ended up making a simple E1.31 to DMX converter to make it work with the other lights. That way they are all using the same control method in the software.
I don't think it would be a good idea to use a DMX light board to control individually addressable LEDs (if that's what you mean), because each LED needs its own channel (actually 3 channels per led, usually), but it is doable I guess. One idea would be to build a separate DMX-to-LEDs controller that uses just a few DMX channels (like 5 or something like that) to determine what patterns the LEDs should do. For example, you could have one DMX channel control the speed of the various LED effects, and have another DMX channel determine the type of effect (chase, strobe, etc.), and have three more DMX channels determine the colors. Just an idea.
Hey dude. Congrats for the nice video. Can we see your first show somehow? :D
Can you do a video specifically on power injection? Methods, techniques and tools required? Great videos cheers!!
Power injection should be well understood before implementing. It's a bit like installing a turbo kit on your stock car - all good if you get everything 100% right and really bad if not done correctly. Here are some diagrams that show the basics: www.holidaycoro.com/kb_results.asp?ID=173 Given the number of cheap long range expansion systems (www.holidaycoro.com/Ready2Run-AlphaPix-Flex-Long-Range-Receivers-p/935.htm), the move has been more towards long range and away from power injection due to the complexity.
My favorite hobby, This year will be my 5th year running a light show. One thing I noticed that will cause issues is using DHCP. You just can't do this. I don't use xlights but on Vixen it asks for controller IP, if you're using DHCP this is liable to change after a day or a week depending on router settings. Using a manual IP should be the only option.
Also never used Falcon boards because they're quite pricey. I've stuck with SanDevices, they also sell their boards fully assembled which is the option I took. My first SanDevices I got 4 years ago (an E682 ) and it's still running like a champ. Now they have a $99 board that assembled with 4 outputs. Perfect for placement on a display element.
While the E682 was one of the first crop of pixel controllers back in 2010, it has not kept up with all the modern innovations common to newer controllers like - multi-line OLED screens, network switch for daisy chaining, Wi-Fi interface, modular construction allowing 2 times or more outputs per controller, no long range support, no temperature / voltage monitoring and shutdown (for safety), blown fuse monitoring, sequence playback from controller, FM transmitting and other improvements. When factoring in these huge improvements since the release of the E682 years ago, the difference in cost makes sense.
Most modern routers keep matching the same IP to a MAC address, so the IP given by the DHCP shouldn't change.
I think it's easier to let it take DHCP, then reserve the IP on your router.
You should be able to make DHCP static leases on your router. This will ensure the controllers get the same IP address every time.
I would like a little more information on installing LED walls or Displays and integrating them into my light shows. How do I add music videos to my light show? Do I use the same software? What hardware should I be using other than using RGB WS2812B lights?
Great mega tree! I have 14 stings just arrived, I was going to do 2 in spacing but seeing yours I believ 3 in looks nice also.
Other note, didn’t you have a video on how to build that wreath? I couldn’t find it. Scanned through your other holiday vids but may have missed it.
That will be in the next video I do on this subject.
The Hook Up awesome! Thinking it might be similar to what I am trying with my pex. Love to see other solutions to a similar problem.
Thanks!!
Loved the video, thank you very must. Just wondering if you went with WS2812B strings or WS2811 Strings, I can't seem to find it in the video?
The LED strips on my house are WS2812B, the LEDs on the megatree are WS2811 pixel strings.
How you secure the lights to the gutters, eaves, windows, doors etc???
Thank you, they help me a little bit I'm trying to figure stuff out but the only thing is I still have questions about is the universe.
So I have 200 pixels on the front of my house and they go through one channel does that mean I need to put 150 lights on one channel and 50 lights on the other channel because I seem to work fine with 200 on that one channel. That's where I'm just getting confused
New to this venture, but your video has given me the kick in the butt I needed to get started. Thanks for your recommended controllers and pixels, I will be purchasing them soon. I have a pressing question though, How can I incorporate some of my current yard lights (deer, snowman, sleigh, etc) into the light show, since its all 120V. What type of controller would you recommend that could tie those things into x lights?
Those are done with AC light controllers: www.holidaycoro.com/16-Output-AC-Animated-Lighting-Controller-AlphaPix-p/942-2.htm?Click=12722 xLights can still send the data.
Where did the configuration screen come from how do I get to it?
“Don’t attempt to make a show that’s visible from space your very first year”. Ok 👍🏻 got it 😂😂😂
and... my first year i have a 16 foot high tree with 1000 pixels... gocttha
Ohh why not
@@commiccannon592 They will crash the International Space Station