Looking at the mass migration to RGB for the common hobbyist

[taybrynn]

I am reading about a lot of people trying to get into RGB this year.  I'm seeing (as expected) that the LOR folks are really scrambling and running for solutions.  They want to know everything and don't really know what they "dont't know" yet. 

The thing which concerns me is that there are frankly "too many options" for these newbies to handle.  I am generalizing here.  The very technical folks will be fine.

But many folks who are not really DIY'rs at heart, are struggling with which kinds of RGB lights to buy, voltages, controllers, protocols, sequencing software and even fairly seasoned LOR users are going through the grinder with too many choices and opportunities to fail on the bleeding edge of RGB.

I reflect back to the year I found DLA and how I was struggling even then, with less options than there are today.  I count my blessings that I found DLA because RJ really did design this hardware to help the more "common" hobbyist and made DIY a lot more approachable.  Some might consider his smart strings designs as a bit "limited" but preventing you from shooting yourself really isn't a limitation ... its a great design, IMHO. 

[t.jo13]

+1

[drlucas]

Beyond the HW side of this is the sequencing of RGB. The work Sean and team have done really compliment the HW to drive the lights.

Last year was my first year in Xmas lights and I was 50% rgb and 50% lynx express (traditional lights I suppose you can call it) and I didn't feel that I was limited at all. Only limited by time, budget and my imagination.

Ive looked at LOR and chose the diy approach because of costs and options available. I think RJs products for learning and personal consumption are all that anyone would need coming from the LOR world to make an awesome show.

I'm not saying there isn't competition to RJ and other options out there that have other features...

Anyways I've lost my train of thought. Glad it's the weekend. Time to get to work on some props for the upcoming season

[arw01]

+1 on the "simplicity" of pixelnet, not dealing with universes as I stayed under 4096, hardware you could put together yourself and understand what it does.

I almost went LOR and cosmic ribbons last year, but missed the sale (thank goodness) so ended up here with SSC's and Ray's pixels.  No failures at all last year, probably doubling the channel count this year and mixing in some minleon for that "mega" tree, but the rest of the strings will all be lynx on the tree, ssc's, hubs, etc.

Software wise, I'm very happy with my LSP choice, we will get a few minor updates this year, but I didn't have crashing issues, just a steep learning curve!

Alan

[therealbigjim]

I did and do still have LOR, (both hardware and software)  and have been fighting getting pixels sequenced. Cut and pasting XL/NC back into LOR will crash it. XL/NC does not have the grid and music wave I am used to using so I added a second monitor and I am working with both LOR and XL/NC open at the same time.    I like building  my controllers and started by building 3 LOR controller kits.  I found this site looking for lower cost equipment and have really enjoyed being a part of this community and building this cool stuff.  Everything I have from RJ, the USB and ED, SSCs, DSC and Zeus' are working very well in a network controlled by LOR. I just can't seem to get the integration of pixels to work in my show like I envisioned. I bought and tried Light Show pro but did not buy the recent upgrade and the program is useless now. Never worked well for me anyway. And every time I tried to play with Vixen or Hinkle's it just did not click.  I have used and sequenced with LOR I did not want to change, I just hope they can pull their heads out of their nether regions and get something usable out this year. The two monitor sequencing feels very slow and I have so much to do and don't feel like I am making ANY progress.   Sorry for the rant      

[taybrynn]

Last year, after using only LOR since 2008 .... I really had no choice but to find a way to convert my 20+ lor sequences and add rgb programming using nc for all the "new rgb stuff" ... Which was mainly just a new rgb megatree and an rgb matrix.    So I found that I could import into xlights/nc and then add rgb sequencing for the new.    In fact I also found I could go back into LOr and change and then re-import and retain all of my nutcracker rgb programming.    This was never discussed much by Sean or others but turned out to be much better than exporting from nutcracker back into lor and then having a LOR choke on all the rgb sequencing.    So the part that wasn't so slick was the timing marks on the nutcracker side.   I finally just went I it LOr and wrote,down major timing events (30-50) and then manually entered those into the imported sequence in xlights/nc grid.    I found as clunky as this was I was able to convert about one song per hour and add rgb sequencing .... And maybe 2 hours max.    To me, that got all my sequences into the rgb world and I can continue to add things easily going forward with xlights nc only.    For new sequences I'll probably just use xlights/nc only.   Im hoping the timing and grid improves a lot.   If not, it'll stay clunky again.

[GrumpkaXmas]

I truly hope RJ and others will continue to support us simple minded folk who just enjoy LYNX Express.  I'm not ready for RGB pixels and the rest.  Might not be for another year or three.  I still really love "simple" traditional setups. Best of all, I love the fact that I can grab LED light sets and decor for pennies on the dollar after Christmas at all the retailers.   Until Pixels are just as cheap as LED strings (.75 cents to $3.00 per set),  I'll be more than happy with my super string setups, and just plain o'l dumb single color LEDS.    just my 2 cent

[tbone321]

If you are waiting for nodes to drop to the price of basic strings, that's probably never gonna happen but I agree with you that there are plenty of situations where basic controllers like the LE are the way to go.  There are plenty of cool effects that can be accomplished with single color icans or LED strings and DMX controllers.