So I know it is way to late in the season to be getting started on a display but I have kinda caught the bug. I just don’t really know where to start. I have worked with WLED so Im familiar with the hardware side of all this. Thanks drzzs….lol Its really more xlights that’s a little imitating. I guess my main question is where did everyone start when it comes to making a display. What was everyone first display. What is an easy display to get started with.
My first display was about 750 pixels 300 on a mini megatreeZ. But it allowed me to learn. The other pixels were in some 3D printed ornaments.
My suggestion on starting is get a small prop like a mini tree figure that out in xlights. Then go from there.
My first experience was this year. I have 6 candy cane props (4’ each) and each cane hold 1 strand of 300 pixels wrapped around it. I have two ESP8266 managing those 6 and synced.
I also have a mini tree that i experimented with running off a single ESP8266. I took 7x 16’ strands of LED strips with 300 pixels each and created an 8’ tree by “folding” each strand in half and binding them all at the top giving me 14x8’ strands to my tree. They all all run in parallel essentially displaying the same effect on each. After using the mirror function it displays a nice uniform display all around. All the controller wires run in parallel back to the controller.
On top of the tree i made a star and attached plain white LEDs to it and run straight to power so they run independently of the tree and are alway steadily lit.
This was my first attempt and learned a lot and hope to upgrade controllers next year to something more powerful so u can line my entire house which requires about 7x16’ strands of 300 pixels (2100 pixels) which is too much for those little controllers.
For wrapping the house with 2100 pixels, you could use QTY (2) @Quindor QuinLED Dig-Quad with ESP32.
That would put 4 x 16’ strands on one Dig-Quad, and 3 x 16’ strands on the other Dig-Quad.
That’s a safety savings because everything gets a fuse. That’s a configuration savings because it’s only 2 WLED installs to manage.
Hope that helps.
Thank you. I don’t suppose they work with xlights fo they? My understanding is that my ESP8266 doesn’t work with it.
Both work with xlights. Enable E1.31 in wled and limit led’s to 510 per wled instance.
Ok then i must be doing something wrong. I’ll keep playing with it.