Everyone should do a Halloween setup even if it is only for one night as it tests a lot of things for you like your communications between PC / Donlge / controllers / wireless, etc. It also lets me get my radio station up and running and tested. This year (with smart strings) it also lets me put up a lot of my Christmas display but using Halloween colors. This is my 5th year for doing animated lighting and every year a 1 or 2 night Halloween show has helped me debug things so I know that the Christmas show will go much better. Consider Halloween your early warning system for things that could go wrong....at least some of the things. For me there is always a lot more stuff out at Christmas.
100% agree. I started my build using the DLA stuff back in Jan this year and I've hit all sorts of issues. None of them were solder / build issues, that was the easy bit. The tricky bit was getting the addresses correct, programming the Smart Strings with the correct addresses, DMX universe addressing issues.
Getting LSP pro working with the Hubs etc etc.
Most turned out to be user error issues
My test rig is in the garage, with the etherdongle, hubs and smart strings all connected together so I can test as I go along.
Even now, I'm getting ready for the release of LSP 2.5 which may or may not cause issues (with fall-backs in place if I do hit and issue)
I've got a DMX laser on order which I want to integrate into my lights, and that's another level of complexity, with DMX addressing and accessing the Laser's commands
If I was just staring to put this all together now ready for Halloween, it would be an epic fail
