Although I've never gone I am seriously thinking about attending this years Light Up Ohio. You are not allowed to view links.
Register or Login I seem to recall last year there were some good vendor and deals and actual hands on soldering stations setup to solder controllers. Pretty cool stuff to me. Just passing word...
3rd year for me and I will probably be 64 channels this year. What do you need help with? Trust me this stuff is easier than it looks at first!
I've gone the last two years and it has been a lot of fun and very informative. The food alone is worth going for, but the information is invaluable, plus, speaking for myself anyhow, I can start to feel a bit "strange" when all I do is work on my Christmas display all year long, so it's good to get out and actually meet other people who have the same disorder
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