Pixels - mega xmas tree

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Kilack

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#311835 18-Feb-2024 20:42

Last few years I've found it fun to decorate my house with loads of christmas lights, combinations of string lights and icicle lights and also some rope lights

These look great but are pretty "dumb".

I have been recently looking at all the youtube videos of all the rgb strips etc that are individually controlled, and what can be done with them, looks amazing.

The mega christmas trees look crazy 25feet tall, programmable LED lights 32 strand type stuff..

I am not sure I can be bothered doing it all myself, so just wondering if there is anyone here in Auckland that is doing this kind of thing?

Cheers

RickW

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#3223056 26-Apr-2024 12:06

We made one a few years ago, happy to answer any questions you have.

Mega Tree

eracode

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#3223058 26-Apr-2024 12:19

@kilack I saw this new Nanoleaf product reported recently. Available in NZ shortly. There's a long version and all lights are individually controllable. Might be of interest to you depending on budget.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

eracode

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#3223073 26-Apr-2024 13:21

RickW:

We made one a few years ago, happy to answer any questions you have.

Mega Tree

I was keen to see this but wasn't prepared to sit through 2-3 minutes of unavoidable YT ads first.

Sometimes I just sit and think. Other times I just sit.

Oblivian

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#3223168 26-Apr-2024 19:46

Finding pixel LEDs and laying them out, planning the schedules. Easy.

Finding chunky power supply for all the strings.. hard.
I started down the road. The controllers can be complex. Require chunky power supplies with reasonably high current input, where the controller then takes it and splits across multi outputs

Or you can end up with dim one end and IC dips

MarkM536

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#3273634 20-Aug-2024 00:18

Kilack:

Last few years I've found it fun to decorate my house with loads of christmas lights, combinations of string lights and icicle lights and also some rope lights

The mega christmas trees look crazy 25feet tall, programmable LED lights 32 strand type stuff..

I am not sure I can be bothered doing it all myself, so just wondering if there is anyone here in Auckland that is doing this kind of thing?

(Came across this searching other things..... and requested unlock).

I'm in East Auckland with a large Christmas light display of my own if you'd like to catch up in December. https://www.youtube.com/@NorthparkLights

It's very much a DIY hobby for pixel lighting. Rick & Myself use xLights software and buy parts from China and USA. (Rick's display looks awesome in person btw).

IMO a cheap way to start out is WLED running on an ESP microcontroller. Like a DigUno board from QuinLED. Pixels can be bought cheap from AliExpress. WLED has an app for built-in basic effects and supports xLights sending it data for musical synchronised shows. Good videos on Youtube about this.

Oblivian: Finding pixel LEDs and laying them out, planning the schedules. Easy.

Finding chunky power supply for all the strings.. hard.
I started down the road. The controllers can be complex. Require chunky power supplies with reasonably high current input, where the controller then takes it and splits across multi outputs

Mouser electronics and Digikey are the life savers! ~$70 for a LRS-350-5/LRS-350-12 PSU 350W.