Fun > The Porch
What happened to DLA???
ghethco:
I was active here back in 2013-2014, looks like now this community has gone inactive for some reason. Reading around I find no explanation or discussion of what happened??? I still have a bunch of stuff I built (Lynx Express, LED controllers, etc). I was thinking about getting it all out this year and doing a new display. I would appreciate advice on what to do now... Looks like the COOPs/builds are long dead, has this moved elsewhere? Sure seems a shame to let the work of RJ and so many others go by the wayside...
Gary
tbone321:
Unfortunately, times and things change and this includes Christmas lights. Where RJ was king when it came to DMX AC light dimming with things like the LE and SSR4, the new craze is with LED RGB nodes. RJ got many of us started with them with his PixelNet equipment like the EtherDongle and smart string controllers using nodes available from Ray Wu. He always said that he built his equipment for use at his home and was willing to share his ideas and equipment with the rest of us. He design required minimal configuration and basically you just plugged it in and it just worked but people wanted more flexibility and options and RJ just didn't have the time or desire to go that route.
Many of the people who were here are now at FalconChristmas.com. It was created by one of the former members of DLA and is all about RGB node controllers . He has some advanced RGB controllers and a scheduling and control software called Falcon Pie Player that is quite impressive. They have nothing for AC light dimming but as I said before, many have moved away from mini lights and went with nodes so there is not much demand for that type of dimmer anymore so no real need for LE coups here either. RJ has been kind enough to keep the site up for those of us that still use the LE and some PixelNet equipment but there is not much activity hear anymore. I used to really enjoy the conversations and posts on here.
bigwavedave:
I'd add that some of the other forums are also seeing a decrease in participation. I think most of the people coming into the hobby now, are utilizing Facebook groups to get their information. I suspect many of them don't even know about the forums. The Facebook groups are quite active.
I still check 5 different Christmas forums each (well most) days, and this is definitely the least active... but not by much.
ghethco:
Thanks guys, very helpful! I've signed up on falconchristmas.com. From what I've gathered, all of the sequencing software out there is compatible with the SSCs that RJ designed (PixelNet?). I was using LightShow Pro, which has also disappeared. The computer where I had it installed died, and I can't even find the LSP software for download anywhere. So, I guess I'm going to have to start over with something else.
Gary
tbone321:
A version of Light Show Pro combined with Nutcracker and became XLights. The newer versions of LSP are owned by Minleon and is available but is no longer free. XLights and Vixen are the current free sequencing software packages and Xlights seems to be the more popular over on Falcon Christmas. That is the one that I am using and while it is quite powerful, it also comes with the steep leaning curve or as I refer to it as learning walls. The sequencing software doesn't care much about the output protocol unless you are also using it to schedule and output to the controllers and yes, many of the more popular ones understand Pixelnet. You may also want to take a look at FPP. That is a separate scheduler and player software that runs on either a Raspberry Pi or a Beagle Bone Black (mini computers) and frees up your development PC and it was developed over at Falcon Christmas. It can directly output to RJ's EDT and USB dongle and if something were to happen to your dongle, you can purchase a PI hat from them which will allow FPP to directly output either Pixelnet or DMX from its built in RJ45 jack as well as directly control two strings of nodes.
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