DiyLightAnimation
Hardware => Lynx Express => Topic started by: peteywhit on December 17, 2014,
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Hi guys!
I joined this forum back in January in hopes of getting some LE's for this season but that didn't happen.
Does anyone know when a COOP might get started for LE's? I'd like to get 2 to get started and was hoping to figure out what else I'll need to start up a minimal show.
Thanks,
Blake
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it will be several months before you see a coop. best bet is to post a want to buy add in the for sale section. don't forget you need a dongle in order to operate the express. get into the wiki and start doing some reading. figure out which sequencing software you plan on using and start learning it. you have NO time to put a show together for this year so start with the wiki, figure out what you want to do, and start sequencing for next season.
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Mark the coop forum to notify you of new post. This way you won't miss it if there is.
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Thanks for the replies guys!
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What would be a reasonable price on a dongle?
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You might find a PCB in the store. The bill of materials (BOM) can be found next to the dongle in the wiki. Add the two of these plus shipping and that should get you close.
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There was a Lynx Express coop last February.
We will have one early next year if there is enough interest.
John
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There was a Lynx Express coop last February.
We will have one early next year if there is enough interest.
John
I am interested, looking at 15 maybe 16 boards, going to dump all my Lor controllers and go with the Lynx Express
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So my question is... Where are the PCB files to create the board with? Who has them?
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RJ is the creator, owner and controller of most of the designs on the site. I don't think any are open source.
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Bummer, I could had made some of my own, maybe redesign them a little.
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Bummer, I could had made some of my own, maybe redesign them a little.
LOL, which s exactly the reason that he doesn't release the boards.
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There was a Lynx Express coop last February.
We will have one early next year if there is enough interest.
John
I am interested, looking at 15 maybe 16 boards, going to dump all my Lor controllers and go with the Lynx Express
why dump you LOR controllers? They work just fine side by side with the express I have many of the LOR and express and SSR-4DMX all together! depending on the firmware on the LOR's they may need to upgraded to accept DMX
my 2cents!
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I sold 8 lor controllers for ckose to what i paid and used the proceeds to buy 2x the number of LE-controlled channels.
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I sold 8 lor controllers for ckose to what i paid and used the proceeds to buy 2x the number of LE-controlled channels.
where is the like button :D
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I sold 8 lor controllers for ckose to what i paid and used the proceeds to buy 2x the number of LE-controlled channels.
Ditto and bought some wireless with the leftover.
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I sold 8 lor controllers for ckose to what i paid and used the proceeds to buy 2x the number of LE-controlled channels.
Same here plus pixels and pixel controllers.
Two years ago I had 56 LOR controllers. Today, Zero.
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just expressing interest in a few lynx express boards. australia.
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Do you guys that left LOR land feel like you lost some of the magic with the LOR hardware based Shimmer and Twinkle vs the software based ones?
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Twinkle. After a few years you forget what it was like.
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Twinkle is close enough for me, and i never used shimmer much anyway. So to answer your question, no.
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I never used shimmer and I even turn it off if NC generates it when using random effects. Twinkle is close enough for me.
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Sounds like a lot of interest for a co-op hint hint. :D
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I did the same thing (took me 3 years to convert from 21+ LOR controllers) ... but the LE can do wireless DMX and has been very reliable, no complaints. I also just like having PIXELNET & DMX only ... the LOR stuff required one more thing to remember with its non standard DMX wiring and somewhat restrictive channel assignments (based on unit #) were just annoyances after a while. Again, trying to go KISS with most things, going to all LYNX was my goal. Finally got that accomplished in 2014.
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id take 10 if it helps get the ball rolling quicker :)
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Blake, I was where you are a year ago. Didn't have any idea what to get to do a show. I got advise from the master, (RJ) who happens to be my nephew. He told me to keep it simple. Choose your software, I chose Light Show Pro because it is a powerful software and can be used with all sorts of equipment in the furure. I also chose an etherdongle instead of a DMX dongle because I can move forward with more sophisticated equipment with it. I purchased 3 Lynx Express kits and built the etherdongle and LE's myself. Did not have a problem with any of them following the do it yourself build instructions in the WIKI. I sequenced 4 songs and used the 48 channels of the LE's. I had a 15 minute show and it was simple and very rewarding. The community loved it. Hope this will give you an idea of how to get off the ground. The people in this forum and the Light Show Pro forum helped me so much. The whole project was a load of fun and rewarding. I had some roadblocks on the way and would be glad to help you in anyway I can. You can PM me if you would like more info. Good luck!
Jim
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Thanks Jim. That's what I'm wanting to do. I'd rather get into a Co-op for an etherdongle and 3 LE's to help me save some money. Having a 2 year old and a baby on the way and just starting a new job offshore doesn't leave much room for fun expenditures lol. I just stocked up on some lights that will allow for some small simple shows, but I eventually want to be able to build a large pixel tree. But for now, simple will be better until I save some money. Thanks for all the info from everyone.
Blake
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Personally, I'd skip Light Show Pro ... its far more than you'll need as a beginner. I'd suggest xlights as your software because its free and pretty easy to learn by comparison. I expect its user interface will also become a lot better in 2015.
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Welcome Blake , I agree with not worrying about lightshow pro software right now. I would look at Vixen ( Free ) Xlights/Nutcracker ( Free also) This will get you going without hurting the wallet right now. Just my thoughts though
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Just a come back on the Light Show Pro. The reason I chose it was because I did not want to learn to sequence on different software. I was told it can be difficult. The guys are correct though, it costs a hundred bucks but will be the only software you will ever need. Good Luck
Jim
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I used vixen to program my first tree/present combo but long term i think i will roll over to lsp.
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LSP in my opinion has been going backward in the last two years. I think it showed so much promise, but it has failed to materialize. I own a copy and learned how to use, but there have been so many issues with scheduling and other stuff that I stuck with Vixen 2.1, but this year I am 100% nutcracker and the future there looks tremendous. Lots of activity and some very good people working on it. Hard to go wrong with free stuff that works.
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The scheduler has been rock solid for 2 years. The sequencer has a bug or two, but I think I managed to crash it only once this year in dozens of hours of using it and did not loose any work.
Nutcracker certainly upped it's anty this year and will be interesting next year with the version 4.0 twist to the grid, but when you get serous about your pixels and your sequencing, LSP is where you will end up.
Hopefully we will see the re-write in a few months, but I'm just continuing on with the sequencing as I was behind last year with wifey projects. Time to rotate over nearly all the songs this year to new ones. Maybe have a retro day once a week.
Join the facebook group, it's a WAY more active than the forum for LSP, occasionally even the developers chime in.
Alan
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I used vixen 2.1 for the last 3 years and it was great for free. I own LSP and did not like it very much although I have not updated it in the last year. I used xlights/nutcracker for help with sequencing and as the sole scheduler for playing my show since the second year.
That is until this year when I switched to Vixen 3. I loved the setup this year and it was very customizable. Sequencing was way easier, especially for pixels. The scheduler was a little laggy but I converted my sequences and played them on the Falcon Pi Player and it was rock solid and smooth as butter.
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I haven't looked at the software yet, but by scheduler do you guys mean being able to have your show start and stop at certain times of the night without any action from the user other than setting it up?
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i scheduled mine by using Falcon Pi Player on a raspberry pi and it was faultless. i just exported from vixen to the pi system and away it went. couldnt have asked for better. i mean, everyone has their personal opinions on it all, try it all and see where you end up from there.
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"i scheduled mine by using Falcon Pi Player on a raspberry pi and it was faultless. i just exported from vixen to the pi system and away it went. couldnt have asked for better. i mean, everyone has their personal opinions on it all, try it all and see where you end up from there."
That's awesome!! ;D
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I haven't looked at the software yet, but by scheduler do you guys mean being able to have your show start and stop at certain times of the night without any action from the user other than setting it up?
Sorry for the late reply, I missed your question.
The scheduler is the show player, and it could start and stop certain times of the night. I only start one show of 8 songs (about 17 minutes long) at 6pm and the scheduler gives the option to keep repeating until the time I specify at 10pm.
Problems with the scheduler can cause your show to be out of sync, laggy or jumping because it is struggling to keep in sync, or crashing and your show is not running at all. Worse feeling is when you are not home and you get a call from a neighbor or friend that your show is not running when it is suppose to be running. I use Teamviewer now to remotely control my computer and it allows me to fix scheduler software problems, but still cannot fix hardware problems without physically being at my show, lol.
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Sorry for the late reply, I missed your question.
The scheduler is the show player, and it could start and stop certain times of the night. I only start one show of 8 songs (about 17 minutes long) at 6pm and the scheduler gives the option to keep repeating until the time I specify at 10pm.
Problems with the scheduler can cause your show to be out of sync, laggy or jumping because it is struggling to keep in sync, or crashing and your show is not running at all. Worse feeling is when you are not home and you get a call from a neighbor or friend that your show is not running when it is suppose to be running. I use Teamviewer now to remotely control my computer and it allows me to fix scheduler software problems, but still cannot fix hardware problems without physically being at my show, lol.
Yeah that makes total sense.
Have you had much trouble using it? I've been reading on falcon's wiki trying to figure it all out, but without all the necessary equipment, I can only read and learn, however I learn best by doing it.
I have a new B+ and I've assembled an etherdongle and programmed it with the dmx hex file, but can't really test anything until I get some expresses.
Blake Whittington
Offshore ROV Technician
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If you have a B+ you can get it running and use the web interface to look at and change all the options. You can even tell it that there is an etherdongle attached and load a sequence with music. Plug in some speakers and play the sequence. The Pi will think it is sending out the data and work fine. The music should play on the speakers. You can then create a playlist and once that is done you can create a schedule and run it. You don't have to have all the controllers and lights attached to run the FPP. You have lots of time before next Christmas or Halloween to get that done.
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Thanks for that bit of info. I've been trying to install the wrong files on my pi tonight, but I'm going to fix that in the morning and try that out. Thanks
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Have you had much trouble using it? I've been reading on falcon's wiki trying to figure it all out, but without all the necessary equipment, I can only read and learn, however I learn best by doing it.
I have a new B+ and I've assembled an etherdongle and programmed it with the dmx hex file, but can't really test anything until I get some expresses.
I used the getting started videos and only had to check the forums for some basic info. The forum over at Falcon Christmas is very responsive to answering questions if you have any.