Simple Stand Alone Animation

[NewfieGuy]

Is there a cheap controller for stand alone animation?   I mean for creating stand alone animated decorations with LED (moving reindeer, santa, etc).  Or is the Lynx Express + conductor the only solution?

Doesn't have to be DIY if price is right.

I would like to create stand alone displays along with my main display that don't run off the main controllers/software.  Simple animation like what you see in this train display (just clouds, possible track moving, etc).   

Thanks,
Shannon

[rm357]

Uhhh, your question is a little open ended.

What type of animations?
If you are wanting a specific pattern to play on a bunch of smart strings, that is very different from 3 or 4 channels worth.

If you want it running independent from a computer, the conductor is the only setup we currently support.

[NewfieGuy]

Lol, true.  I guess it's an open ended question because I'm just thinking out loud and curious about options. 

The animation would depend on the decoration so I know there's no one-size-fits all solution. 

Thinking just standard LEDs (not smart strings) and small channel counts of 5-10.

:-)

Shannon

[chrisatpsu]

are you looking for stand alone like what you see where a single display might be Santa waving, and it's not really moving, but 3 or 4 sets of lights turn on one after another to sorta simulate movement? they wouldn't be synchronized to other display elements, but just "animated"

these might do
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[NewfieGuy]

are you looking for stand alone like what you see where a single display might be Santa waving, and it's not really moving, but 3 or 4 sets of lights turn on one after another to sorta simulate movement? they wouldn't be synchronized to other display elements, but just "animated"

these might do
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Yes! Exactly.  This is along the lines of what I was looking for.   Thanks!

Shannon

[NewfieGuy]

They have cheap boxes at home depot with a couple of songs and the ability to connect a handful of strings.

LOR (Light-o-Rama) has a MP3 player device that can connect to a bunch of controllers -- and each controller can do 16 separate strings of lights.  You'll be limited to about 16 controllers for 256 channels.

With RJ's solution (in this forum) there is another take on a MP3 player, and it can control 16,000+ channels of lights, oh... it also can be expanded to an unlimited number of these 16,000+ setups.

LOR is a formal product, RJ's DLA solution is a community of DIY'ers who solder the kits and use them in many innovative ways.

The cheapest and most limited is the home depot product. :|

Thanks Steve!  I love RJs stuff and plan on doing a show with his gear.  :-).   Chris' link for the controllers are great for simple decorations.

Shannon