Introduction, Questions, the usual

[jseymour84]

Hello everyone - I found this forum after doing some Google searching to try to figure out how to do a project I have in mind.

I don't have much electrical engineering experience (it's fancy word day today :p) other than installing mod chips in video game consoles which require some small scale soldering.

I'm also a big Myth Busters fan who loves Christmas and light displays so I figure this was one way I could scratch the building itch I've been getting.

I have an extremely simple project in mind. I want to re-create a Christmas tree display that my parents had accomplished way back when with the use of simple flasher bulbs. This project contains 6 strands of 100 count lights and one angel (that would be 7 channels, right?).

Here is the sequence I am trying to achieve (times are in seconds):

START
:01 - Turn angel on
:02 - Turn angel off
:03 - Turn light 1 on
:04 - Turn light 1 off
:05 - Turn light 2 on
:06 - Turn light 2 off
Repeat for lights 3-6 and then loop back to start

For my first shot, just blinking the lights is fine but I can already see myself wanting to add fades to the sequence to make the flow a bit smoother.

The final effect would be like a "light waterfall" that cascades down the tree. Music is not important at this stage.

I figured this would be a good project that would allow me to focus on sequencing and controller boards without worrying about long cable runs and extension cords all over the place.

I have access to some old 250 Watt computer power supplies and a laptop that I can use to run the display. My laptop runs Windows 7 but I also have an older laptop that I could turn into the control station which runs Windows XP but I can change the operating system to anything that would work best (except Mac). The laptop doesn't have a serial port so I would need to buy/build a USB to Serial Converter.

I would like to get the equipment now to be able to build a larger outdoor display after doing this project. I live in an apartment with a balcony so the largest display I could possibly get away with there would probably be 6-10 strands of lights, no music or other fun extras.

My question, before I start to ramble (too late), is what would be a good approach for a beginner to tackle this project? I don't mind learning how to program chips or investing in a programmer to flash the chips with either.

Second question - I've seen some nice looking schematic drawings on this site, what software is everyone using to create them? I prefer to use free open source software or just plain freeware, any good recommendations?

Well I think I'll wrap it up here and if this isn't the right place to post this stuff where should I have posted it? There's no forum that specifically says Introductions on it so I don't want to inadvertently end up breaking the rules.

[deplanche]

I'd recommend the RenSS8 for you. It will give you 8 channels, and you will be able to dim them if you so desire.

Here is a link to more info on the Renard controllers in general. http://www.christmasinshirley.com/wiki/index.php?title=Renard_Main_Page

You will need to pick up the USB to serial converter for that, but those can be obtained fairly cheap.

If you didn't want to get a programmer for the chips, there are always kind people on here that will do it for you. But if you stick with this, you will want to get the programmer so you don't have to wait for the postman when something goes wrong.

You also said you can't do music, but that is not entirely true. Search the forums for FM transmitters. They let you broadcast your music over a FM station for a few hundred feet. It lets people on in cars hear your music, but doesn't force your neighbors to hear it all night long.

[jseymour84]

Thanks for the advice! I'll look into the RenardSS8 that you mentioned.

I'm building this display for my parents who are always talking about that one Christmas where they had the waterfall tree and I think that it would be a great treat for them to see it again because every year my dad tries to re-create it using just standard flasher bulbs in light but never does so.

I didn't think about the FM option so I will look at adding that in the second stage - I want to keep the first stage as simple as possible until I get my feet wet. :D

I already downloaded the Vixen software so I will try my hand at setting not only the Waterfall sequence but maybe some musical sequences on the tree as well.

[WireWrap]

Welcome!

Welll, now you've done it! You've found the wildest assortment of loose nuts on the Internet, and you're already thinking like one of us.

I'd suggest one of the Renard series of controllers, either an 8-channel or maybe 16-channel (to allow you to go wild, of course). I haven't heard of anyone on here who says they have too many channels.

The Renard protocol is quite mature, [Thanks, Phil !!] It scales very readily as your interests (and investment) grow, as it is available in 8-,16-,24-,and 64-channel flavors. These cards will all daisy-chain with each other via Cat-5 cable (or wirelessly, with additional hardware).

The sequencing software we use is Vixen, which has capabilities that I only dream of utilizing, and new features are constantly being added in response to users' requests, [Thanks, K.C. !!] If you can imagine it, you can probably do it with Vixen. If you can't, someone else on here will be glad to help...

Enough of my babble -- I'm sure others will chime in also. (We're all such a shy, soft-spoken group -- NOT!!)

Again, WELCOME!!

:)

[bobkeyes]

This is my first year at this. I want to attest to the abundance of knowledge and, more importantly, the willingness to share it freely and free.

I have a Renard64 and it is filled. Next year I hope to have 2 more 64's. As said, you can never have too many channels.

Ask your questions and someone here will have the answer or be willing to help you find it. These are great people. But, they would have to be. It's Christmas 365 for us.

Good luck.

[dirknerkle]

as said, you can never have too many channels.




is this a great hobby or what?!?!?


:lol:

[WireWrap]

is this a great hobby or what?!?!?


:lol:

Definitely "WHAT in the...???"

[jseymour84]

I never expected this many replies so soon :) This is definitely one of the most newbie-friendly zones I've encountered so far.

I'm trying to find a good freeware application that would let me draw wire frame drawings easily. Basically I'm looking for something I can use to draw the plans for my projects including a wire frame of the scene I want to make.

Does anyone have any good recommendations?

[dirknerkle]

Are you looking for freeware cad software? I doubt that any of them have any image libraries of blinky-flashy gear.

I'd think just any type of graphics program -- even the lowly Windows Paint would be adequate for what you want to do.

Or maybe just a sketchpad. Most of the stuff folks create here comes from tinkering and the plans are developed afterward so as to create a roadmap someone else could follow.

[deplanche]

Google sketch.

But if you are using Vixen (which most of us do) for sequencing the lights, you might not need to even draw a wire frame. When you go into the adjustable preview in Vixen, you draw where the lights go. For a simple wire frame like it sound like you are talking about, you really don't even need a photo or sketch, just use the light locations to draw it.

By the way, it sounds like your waterfall tree is similiar to a mega tree, just horizontally instead of vertically. Take a look thru the forum, and you'll find some sequences and videos of what you can do besides just the waterfall. And, if you are looking for a nice smooth waterfall, might I suggest taking a look at people's leaping arches. If you make the arch stright, that is pretty much the waterfall effect i think you are looking for.

[jseymour84]

My brain is now running wild with ideas...

I like to plan out my projects before I jump into them. It all stemmed from a bad college-age experience in which I decided, at 3:00 AM, that I wanted to move my media center PC across my apartment which, short story, led me to attempt to splice together 6 5' lengths of Cat5 cable using wire nuts and electrical tape. (Mind you, I was drunk at the time).

I never thought about using a sketchpad - that would really be ideal because then I can quickly and easily generate 10 different ideas to try out without fiddling with the computer. Plus with the sketchpad I can draw up how all the parts interconnect (light strand 1 to controller port 3 for example) and then either scan them into the computer if I want to share or just file them in my file cabinet.

Side note, I have a wild infatuation with file cabinets. Every idea I ever have had in the past has been written down and filed in a file cabinet somewhere - my wife hates this until that one moment where having that information on hand makes our life really simple.

So with the RenardSS8 is that pretty much a plug and play unit or am I going to have to start soldering components on to it? I don't mind having to build stuff myself, just trying to get an idea of an equipment list so I can put together a budget for this.

I know I will need a programmer for the chip (maybe? is this right?) so my initial equipment list looks like:

1x RenardSS8
1x Chip Programmer
1x USB to Serial converter

Does this sound about right?

[disneynut]

We are very sick individuals in the way we suck people into our realm of christmas lights, build-a-board, soldering til our noses bleed, and losing all self-control when yourshow finally starts with precision timing!!!! ......with all that said, Welcome Blinky Blinker. !! Soon you will be strung out on lights or stuck in your house flickering your bedroom light for a quick fix.

[jseymour84]

My head hurts...

I've been busy doing some more research and learned that the Renard SS8 is just a PCB that you have to attach the rest of the components yourself. I've find the Mouser BOM in the Wiki for the parts and the total price tag at Mouser is roughly $35-$40.

However I can't find where to get the actual Renard SS8 PCB... what am I missing?

I also found dirknerckle's videos and am thoroughly impressed - mostly by the demo board. How do I go about building one of those?

[dirknerkle]

My head hurts...

I've been busy doing some more research and learned that the Renard SS8 is just a PCB that you have to attach the rest of the components yourself. I've find the Mouser BOM in the Wiki for the parts and the total price tag at Mouser is roughly $35-$40.

However I can't find where to get the actual Renard SS8 PCB... what am I missing?

I also found dirknerckle's videos and am thoroughly impressed - mostly by the demo board. How do I go about building one of those?

WayneJ has the SS8s. It's a fully, self-contained board with 8 channels, triacs, power supply, fuse, zc control and once built, all you have to do is plug it into A/C power and plug the lights into the outputs from the triacs. Then connect it to your serial port and blinky-flashy-dimmy is ready to go.

On the demo board, I just took a piece of perfboard and a marking pen, drew out a simulation of my house, put appropriate resistor/led pairs on it for each channel and wired it to cat5 cables. It's not something you can just plug into a Renard though because the SS board's output is 120vac! I use a Ren-C/Olsen595 board for development and as such, it can plug directly into the Olsen595 outputs because those are low-level 5vdc and can drive LEDs directly.

[jseymour84]

Ok so I have to get the PCB from WayneJ (if he has any available, I would imagine that he would be out of them as it is so close to Christmas) and then get the components from Mouser to build it all.

Do I need to program the PIC chip or is that only for the more advanced controllers?

Also does anyone have a link or two about some of the more basic skills involved in doing all this (like building a LED demo board) or any suggestions of books to check out at the library?

I would really hate to wear out my welcome with basic questions on stuff I should already know before jumping into this pool...

[dirknerkle]

Ok so I have to get the PCB from WayneJ (if he has any available, I would imagine that he would be out of them as it is so close to Christmas) and then get the components from Mouser to build it all.

Do I need to program the PIC chip or is that only for the more advanced controllers?

Also does anyone have a link or two about some of the more basic skills involved in doing all this (like building a LED demo board) or any suggestions of books to check out at the library?

I would really hate to wear out my welcome with basic questions on stuff I should already know before jumping into this pool...

Every Renard board has at least one PIC. The SS8 has a single 16f688 chip because each chip can control 8 channels. It's not hard to flash them with the firmware (it's already prewritten for you) but the PICs come blank. You can't order them pre-flashed with the code from Mouser. Lots of folks here at DIYC can help you with that -- perhaps some folks are even right in your area. Update your profile with your location and others can see where you (generally) are and can offer quick help. If Renard is the route you want to take, you will want to pick up a PIC programmer board, either the PicKit2 or PicKit3. Also available from Mouser (and other places) for about $40 or so) It will save you ALL KINDS of time if you have your own. Flashing a pic with program code is easy and takes only seconds. WayneJ made some videos on doing that -- they're available somewhere here on DIYC, probably in the HOW TO area.

Others may have blank SS8 boards as well -- perhaps wjohn as well (he lives in Australia, so it takes a little longer for them to get here. WayneJ lives in North Carolina)

All this stuff is DIYC of course, and while you can learn as you go along, the more electronic-related skills you have, the easier it will be. You will be soldering your own circuitry (none of this is pre-built unless another member is selling-off some gear), making your own cables, creating your own displays out of PVC, plywood, steel, or what-have-you (get creative!), so the handier you are at using tools, the more fun you'll have.

By the way, Merry Christmas. I should have said that first. That's why ALL of us are here.

-dave

[jseymour84]

Wow, tons of great info here. I'm trying to soak all this up as fast as I can but I think now the best thing to do is to get together a budget and parts list, and then just sit down and relax for a while.

I live in Antigo, WI USA. I saw another display in town last year that was coordinated to music but I think that was done with a commercial unit from Menards ($80, pre-built with music, speakers and I think 6-7 channels). My apologies to the home owner if he is a member here and built his own stuff.

Making cables is no big deal, before becoming a project coordinator I was a network cabling specialist (running wires, terminating to RJ-45 ends and patch panels, that kind of stuff).

So now I need to find some good web sites on basic DIY electronics so I can get a grip on capacitors, resistors, etc... as well as brush up my soldering skills.

[dirknerkle]

Wow, tons of great info here. I'm trying to soak all this up as fast as I can but I think now the best thing to do is to get together a budget and parts list, and then just sit down and relax for a while.

I live in Antigo, WI USA. I saw another display in town last year that was coordinated to music but I think that was done with a commercial unit from Menards ($80, pre-built with music, speakers and I think 6-7 channels). My apologies to the home owner if he is a member here and built his own stuff.

Making cables is no big deal, before becoming a project coordinator I was a network cabling specialist (running wires, terminating to RJ-45 ends and patch panels, that kind of stuff).

So now I need to find some good web sites on basic DIY electronics so I can get a grip on capacitors, resistors, etc... as well as brush up my soldering skills.

Good deal. Lots of folks in Wisconsin -- spread out a bit, but then, there are probably a lot of state ordinances about letting too many DIYC members into a state (:lol:)

From your background, most of the cat5 cabling issues should be off the table! Surprizingly, it's one of the most common problems users encounter. The only cat5 you might use with an SS8 is the communication wire from the PC to the controller, and that's only if you need to use RS485 instead of RS232. Otherwise, the SS8 BOM includes a standard 9-pin connector for your basic, RS232 cable. Piece of cake.

Soldering skill needed is moderate -- some of the solder pads can be a bit tiny and of course, some components are heat-sensitive. A 15-25w iron is all you need. Some of us use temperature controlled soldering stations while others use a 15w pencil iron from Radio Shack. Both can work just fine.

Most of the Renard boards are professionally made and cost anywhere from $12-20 each. They could be home-etched, but some of them are pretty complex, and etching a 2-sided board that has very close traces is probably more than most hobbiests can successfully accomplish. If you've looked at the WIKI for the SS8, then you've already seen that the boards are extremely well defined, masked, and labeled. Not hard to build them at all. The most difficult part of building them is holding back the anxiousness in wanting to finish it and PLUG IT IN!!! :mrgreen: So take your time, use a checklist and check, double-check and triple-check the part to the solder points before you hit it with the iron.

This is a great hobby!

-dave

[deplanche]

So now I need to find some good web sites on basic DIY electronics so I can get a grip on capacitors, resistors, etc... as well as brush up my soldering skills.

If you are trying to make this work by Dec. 25th 2009, I would work on the assembly and sequencing now, rather than the electronics basics. That is what Jan. thru May is for!!! Not trying to discourage you from learning here, because this is a great place to do so. But time is running short, and trying to figure out why we need a capacitor takes much, much longer than just soldering it to the PCB. :)

[jseymour84]

I have no delusions about getting something together for '09 :)

I plan to start my assembly and sequence next summer (around June or so) so in the time being I am going to be getting some old non-functional electronics to work on perfecting my soldering skills and spending some time brushing up on my electrical knowledge so I can at least talk the talk here.

Plus gives me time to build up a stockpile of parts, Christmas lights, plywood and lumber scraps so I can start building displays and what not.

[dirknerkle]

I have no delusions about getting something together for '09 :)

I plan to start my assembly and sequence next summer (around June or so) so in the time being I am going to be getting some old non-functional electronics to work on perfecting my soldering skills and spending some time brushing up on my electrical knowledge so I can at least talk the talk here.

Plus gives me time to build up a stockpile of parts, Christmas lights, plywood and lumber scraps so I can start building displays and what not.

Admirable. "Talk the talk?" Hey, I'm a moron compared to most of the others here, but that doesn't stop me from putting my foot in my mouth!!! Do it all the time!!! :lol:

Seriously, the timetable for Christmas 2010 is certainly easy to do, but I'd encourage you to get started a bit before June. The time goes sooooo quickly, and before you know it, the season is here and you find you're already behind. You don't *really* need to know digital or electronic theory to build or use these things. A *little* electrical/electronic experience is helpful, as is the ability to use tools and solder neatly, but other than that, a good share of this hobby is actually rather mechanical. The directions for building/troubleshooting the gear are easy to follow, but if you're careful building them, they tend to work right away. Most of the problems people encounter *seem* to be connectivity-related and since you're a communications expert, the wiring/connection issue should be moot.

BTW, you can build an SS8 in about an hour. The real time-consuming part of all of this is generally (a) picking the music you want to use and (b) designing the sequencing of on/off/dimming/effects you want to use. Given the time it takes to build one SS8 controller, you'll spend about 4 or 5 times that in sequencing just ONE SONG! I have 22 songs in my show this year... ARGHHH!... that was a lot of bench time looking at the sequencing design screen! But sequencing is also the really fun part -- where you dream up the story you want to tell in lights and make the vision a reality. Can't wait to start next year (already have, by the way...)

So, another big welcome to the hobby that has no end!!! HAH! YOU'RE ALREADY HOOKED!!!

[jseymour84]

I knew I was hooked from the moment I joined this forum :D This is something I've been wanting to do for a few years know and I finally got the courage to take the plunge.

Right now I have three play lists already setup (2 for Christmas and 1 for Independence Day) and several sketches of cutouts and frames. I've downloaded Vixen (haven't installed it yet) and told my wife about the hobby and she is off taking pictures of her mother's house to use to plan out some shows for there.

I'm thinking my next year will consist of building hundreds of channels of controllers, sequencing quite a few songs and building wire frames and other devices to make light shows.

Now all I need is a good camcorder (and a bigger paycheck) so I can make videos of the displays to share :)

What time of year are group buys common for the stuff to knock together a few SS8's and SS16s?

[WireWrap]

I'll add one more thiing. If you can get the PCB and the parts, you COULD have your original plan for this Christmas for your folks. Since you weren't going to sync it to music, but just reproduce what they used to have, the sequencing for that would be trivial. Probably would take you less than an hour starting from scratch -- and there's plenty of help available.

But TIME IS SHORT if you want to try to make it. Get hold of WayneJ & see about a PCB. That's the most critical item on the timeline. If he's got one, then a quick order to Mouser for the BOM to stock it. If you don't get a programmer (PICkit 2 or 3) then you'll have to allow time for someone to program a PIC for you & mailing to/from unless there is someone nearby you.

It'll be very tight, but I think still possible.

Edit: Buy as many lights as possible when they are on sale this year -- they'll be a lot more next fall!!!!!


:)

[jseymour84]

I would try to get it in this year but there are extenuating circumstances (mainly the one that holds the purse strings in my household said wait until next year when we can do it right, not rushed) :D

Besides, judging from what I've been reading and from what dirknerkle said it's nothing to knock together an SS8 and sequence it for next year.

[dirknerkle]

I knew I was hooked from the moment I joined this forum :D This is something I've been wanting to do for a few years know and I finally got the courage to take the plunge.

Right now I have three play lists already setup (2 for Christmas and 1 for Independence Day) and several sketches of cutouts and frames. I've downloaded Vixen (haven't installed it yet) and told my wife about the hobby and she is off taking pictures of her mother's house to use to plan out some shows for there.


Lucky you! Getting your bride involved is a great move!



I'm thinking my next year will consist of building hundreds of channels of controllers, sequencing quite a few songs and building wire frames and other devices to make light shows.

Now all I need is a good camcorder (and a bigger paycheck) so I can make videos of the displays to share :)


You better not wait until June to start if that's your vision! Most of us work on this stuff year 'round. I started working on my show last January.



What time of year are group buys common for the stuff to knock together a few SS8's and SS16s?

You should expect them to start again *probably* in January. Before even starting to take the displays down, (and RIGHT NOW!) many DIYC'ers are working on next year's display -- thinking of things they wanted to do this year, etc. They're stockpiling lights now, too so they'll have them to build new displays during the summer. Don't know if you've been following other forums, but solid-color mini-lights are already getting scarce. You DO NOT want to try to buy Christmas lights in the summer. You can't afford it. Nobody can. You'll pay 500% more for them in June than you will in November. The after-Christmas sales will likely have lots of clear, maybe some multi-color strings, but probably not many all red, all green, etc. Yellow and blue are especially tough to find. LEDs will likely be cheaper after Christmas, but again, the color selection will be narrower.

The group buys are a good thing, and they can shave about $10-$15 off the price of a controller if enough sets are bought. I've used a few of them and they've been very, very well organized and managed. Where you get killed in pricing is in shipping. Order $5 in parts from Mouser and pay $12 in shipping! The BOMs often specify you need 2 of this resistor, 6 of that one, one of these zener diodes, etc. Always look at the parts individually and find out what the price breaks are. A single resistor is about 9 cents, but you can buy 200 of them for only a couple bucks. You'll find a lot of common parts throughout all the designs -- 180ohm resistors, 680, 750, 1k, etc. And always, always, buy extras. Stuff happens and you sure don't want to be short just that one, single 680ohm resistor you need to fix a problem... So if you can swing it, buy in bulk. It's cheaper over the long haul and much, much more convenient. Example: I have 250 MOC3023M optocouplers and as many triacs, resistors, RJ45 jacks, etc. at home just waiting to be built into controllers or SSRs or whatever... Many of the others have much greater stock than that!

Last thing: you're doomed. You are caught in the big blinky-flashy! :D

[jseymour84]

I guess I need to get my butt moving and figure out just how many shows and where I am going to do them. Since my wife and I currently live in an apartment we don't have a lot of room to work with but if my mother-in-law wants us to decorate her house that will give me the playground I need.

I think I've settled on using a sketchpad to make drawings of all the individual pieces of my shows (wire frames, cut-outs, light decorations) as well as drawing a connectivity map to see how many channels, extension cords, etc... I will need.

I will definitely be aiming to get my hands on a PicKit 3 and at least one SS8 and the stuff to build a demo board so I can start playing around with sequencing. I read that Vixen has a preview window but I never liked computer generated previews - they always seem to be different than the real thing.

This is going to be more of a time filling hobby than brewing beer is :D and the results are just as enjoyable.

[dirknerkle]

This is going to be more of a time filling hobby than brewing beer is :D and the results are just as enjoyable.

LOL!!! And perhaps easier to remember as well!

[jseymour84]

Well I learned so far that Vixen is not liking Windows 7 (at least not for me). I'm going to have to dig out my old towers after all (which have serial ports) so I won't need to worry about getting a USB converter.

What OS seems to be the best for Vixen? XP? 2000?

[dirknerkle]

I have Vixen running on Win7 -- both Vixen versions 2.1 and 2.5, and so have many others. No problem. It's certainly possible you're running into the UAC issue -- user account control.

Also make sure you've installed the right version of dot.net before you go on. That's *critically important* to Vixen.

Try turning UAC off. Vixen tries to talk to some of the hardware and UAC can easily prevent it from functioning properly. At the very least, configure UAC to allow Vixen to run unencumbered by UAC.

(UAC was a nasty, nasty thing Microsoft implemented with Vista. They made assumptions about permissions that were too harsh and while Win7 is better, it's still a pain in the gagungie...)

However, for the cleanest implementation, XP is still best.

[jseymour84]

I'll disable UAC and give that a go later tonight. I'll probably re-build some of my old mini-towers with a minimal Windows XP load and just the basics needed - Vixen, .NET and whatever else is useful to have for a show computer.

That way I can port it around a bit easier for doing shows at my in-laws and other places. My wife's family are all yard decorating fanatics and once they see one of these shows in action I just know they are going to want me to build them their own setups and teach them to sequence.

[dirknerkle]

Great idea. My show PC has virtually nothing else on it other than XP Pro SP3 and Vixen. It's a Dell GX-something (I can never remember those dang model numbers...) but it's a rather compact 2.6 or 2.8ghz box with a couple gig of RAM but only a 40gb hard disk. Truly a plain-Jane machine yet more than enough horsepower to run the show and store years and years of audio files, sequences, etc. I've had zero problems with it and one of the reasons why is because it's dedicated to one and only one thing. No firewall, no anti-virus, etc. because it's standalone -- it's not even on my network at home and not on the Internet, either. Therefore, it runs really fast because it has virtually no overhead apps to worry about.

[WireWrap]

...
I read that Vixen has a preview window but I never liked computer generated previews - they always seem to be different than the real thing.



The preview lets you use a photo of your yard/house as the backdrop and place colored light pixels corresponding to each channel over the picture. As you play the sequence, the preview displays the channels you've placed, in real time. You want to use a low-res picture, as preview redraws the backdrop each time also, so it can become a load on the processor. Some folks have to turn off preview while running their shows for that reason, but it is helpful in sequencing.


:)

[jseymour84]

Sounds like a good setup, my mini-towers are 512 MB memory with 40-80 GB hard drive space. Should be more than enough to hold the music and show files. I'm already planning on burning my shows each year to DVD so I can pop them in the DVD player and re-live them whenever I want, as well as burning the MP3s and other show files to a CD to keep for archival purposes.

Good, I got a weekend project this weekend to keep me occupied until the group buys start in January :)

[jseymour84]

The preview lets you use a photo of your yard/house as the backdrop and place light pixels corresponding to each channel over the picture. As you play the sequence, the preview displays the channels you've placed, in real time. You want to use a low-res picture, as preview redraws the backdrop each time also, so it can become a load on the processor. Some folks have to turn off preview while running their shows for that reason, but it is helpful in sequencing.

I guess I'll have to give the preview option a try if I can get Vixen stable on my Windows 7 machine otherwise I don't think my XP mini towers will be able to handle the strain.

It would be good if the preview function worked well enough so I didn't have to build a demo board (yet) - that way I can start practicing sequencing some songs right away and get the hang of it.

[51fordf2]

I am running my show, two Firegod controllers with 200 channels programmed, on a 1.3 ghz, 512 memory, XP SP3. No problems at all. You don't need to put a picture in the preview, just draw out your lights pixel by pixel. I just use boxes for my windows, rectangles for my columns, triangles for my mini-trees, and curves for my arches. Allows me to program to my heart's content. The show has run 3 nights now, without a hiccup.

I also have a Vista Qosmio laptop, rip-snortin' gamers computer, that I take with me, and sequence on that. The sequence doesn't care WHERE it's sequenced, just that everything is ok, when you go to run it. So, I sometimes sequence, then take it to the "show computer" and run it, to see what it looks like.

You'll be surprised how easy, it really is, as you go along. You'll learn a lot, as well, plus there are a lot of pretty smart, knowledgable, amiable folks here, to help you along...

This is my first year computerized, and loving every minute of it...

Roger

[jseymour84]

First off I just want to say thanks to everyone for their much appreciated advice and support. Oh and a big merry Christmas to everyone as well!

Second, I found that after sleeping on it I am even more excited and anxious to get started. I'm in the middle of re-building two old towers into show computers and then I was going to head down to the hardware store to put together a tools budget.

That's when it really hit me - I have very little idea for what tools I need. I know I'll need solder, a soldering iron, electrical tape, an RJ-45 crimper, a punch down tool and a RJ-45 cable tester.

Beyond those, are there any other helpful tools to have at the start? Things like welders and band saws are going to have to wait until future years but are there any other smaller things that would be helpful to have up front?

[deplanche]

You are going to need wire cutters and wire strippers, to wire the lights and or extension cords into the controller. It's not a tool, but do count on needing an extension cord for each channel unless you hard wire the lights into the controller. Most of us don't do that, but some do.

A small non-magnetic screwdriver is good to have.

A multimeter is also a very good tool to have when working on any of this stuff. Many people, including myself, check the resistance of each resistor before we solder it to the board just to be sure it is the correct one. It is easy to order the wrong one, install the wrong one, or even be send the incorrect one. And there are many other uses for that as well... like for going thru the troubleshooting guide if things don't work.

Depending on your soldering skills, some type of desoldering device or braid can also be useful.

Plastic wire ties always come in handy.

You are probably going to want to mount your board in some type of case to keep people from touching it, or from shorting out on aything. You can buy some good cases online or you can make something yourself. But you may need tools for that too.

Lots of good early gifts for yourself. :)

[jseymour84]

I'm thinking having extension cords wired up instead of lights would be much easier to work with than wiring the lights directly. I had forgotten about the multimeter (and how to use it) so I guess I better get one and start learning how to use it.

This is going to give me plenty to look at while at the hardware store today.

[dirknerkle]

Beyond those, are there any other helpful tools to have at the start?... are there any other smaller things that would be helpful to have up front?

Several buckets, each filled with cash, but nothing smaller than a $20. :lol:

Bandaids. You probably won't be wearing gloves a lot when you're putting this stuff out, so your hands will take a beating.

Aspirin/Tylenol/Advil. You'll find yourself standing, kneeling, hanging at angles your body won't be used to. BTW, it NEVER gets used to it, so stock up...

Movie tickets. These are so you and your bride can go out and spend some time together away from the lights. This hobby will consume you like you won't believe and you'll most certainly need time out.