Help with what I need please!

[kwoodard]

Hey everyone. Complete newb when it comes to LED shows. I have resigned tot the fact that I cannot start a full display in time for 2018 so I am looking to 2019. I plan to do outline of my ranch home (front and 1 side elevation), and single car garage. I have figured on using 12mm 12v bullet pixel nodes with 3” spacing. All told it looks like about 1,050 Pixels. Being green, I am not sure what I will need for power supplies, controllers along with rough ideas of power placement. I found the mounting strips on boscoyo but not positive what to us with those to get everyone up.

I read all the knowledge on here and I am think I am sure to get some good ideas.

Let me throw out some general pointers for you to get started with.

Step 1 - Take a picture of your house and print it out. Take a marker and figure out where you want lights, where you can mount controller boxes, etc. Get a plan together before you purchase anything. If you haven't included vertical lines for your house outline, consider doing that too. In fact, post a photo of your house with your plan and let others give you feedback before you get started.
Step 1.5 (or maybe 0) -- post your location. See if anyone nearby you does a show. If so, go see their show. Hit them up and see if they can give you a behind the scenes tour after they've gotten through the crunch time and their show is up and running (or even after the holiday rush before the take down the display).
Step 2 - Decide what software you want to use and start playing with it. Get your layout in it and play with some sequences. This will give you a good feel for what you want the final outcome to look like. If you plan to use Vixen, lots of good info in this forum. If you decide on xLights, join the Official xLights Support Group on Facebook. Both are awesome software packages.
Step 3 - Now that you have your plan and a general feel for what it will look like, you can get down into the details. If your description above turns out to be accurate, I'd offer up the following recommendations:
- Falcon F16v3 would be my recommended controller as it would allow plenty of growth for your show. If you happen to see a used SanDevice controller (E6804 or E682), that would be my second choice.
- Depending upon the exact final layout will determine how many power supplies you need, but I would start with a minimum of 2 350W supplies for 1050 pixels.

Everyone is right, this is crunch time for most people. Answers to questions not directly related to 2018 shows may be slow right now, but don't let that stop you from asking. We all started somewhere and many of us caught the itch at this time of year.

Oh .... and start stashing away any extra money you have. This hobby has a way of consuming funds pretty quickly. Feel free to PM me.

Enjoy!

[kev]

No problems asking for hekp. If people are too busy with their own setup, they should not necessarily be answering requests for help.

For a start you could use -
A couple of ESPixelsticks would handle the number of pixels that you mentioned.
For 12v pixels, you will probably need three 360 watt power supplies (plus 1for a spare).
A roll of 16 guage two conductor zip code (sp1?) For power injection.
Waterproof containers for the equipment located outside.

[cnbales]

Your thread title is extremely ambiguous. Thousands of threads have been started on this forum and your title "Help with what I need" doesn't give us any idea with what help you desire unless we open the thread and read through your post. When I see thread titles like that it tells me that you probably haven't done much research or aren't willing to dig deep enough to get a full grasp of what you don't understand. Based on your post you might have posted a thread titled "How to calculate power supply needs." Examine what you are asking before you post and maybe you can more clearly define what you are looking for. When you do that you will get better responses and won't have to endure this type of feedback. Respect people's time with a well developed post of what you are looking for help on. Also use the wiki and the Google search button (it's one of the tabs near the top on the forum and when you use that it only searches this site).

Not trying to be insensitive, but it really is good advice for you to take.

[keithsw1111]

Head over to auschristmaslighting.com.au and grab their 101 manual. Hands down the best intro to the hobby.

http://videos.xlights.org/mobile/its...5f5165108.html


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[JB_Frazier]

Alright all. I get it.....poorly timed and vague request. Never intended to ruffle feathers. Those that offered some starter advice, I appreciate it. Lesson learned.


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[Barnabybear]

Hi, I do think that some of the posts have been a little harsh. So to sort of start again.

Welcome to the world of seasonal lighting. You look to have done some research already and a good idea of where you want to be this time next year. My advice would be to follow all that is going on at the moment on the forum, watch the videos and note the specific parts of displays that will relate to what you want to do. As soon as we get to lights off (1/1/2019) there will be a month’s worth of post mortem and this is the best time to tap into all the how’s.