Author Topic: Whats going on?  (Read 1288 times)

Offline lboucher

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Whats going on?
« on: May 17, 2014, »
Hi All

Maybe I'm just not looking in the right place, but I'm curious what the latest state of things generally is?

I'v been distracted from lights, with general life and all that other "grown up, house care, job" stuff. Feel like i'v lost track of the latest greatest most awesome Christmas light stuff.

Specifically wondering whats going on with the conductor, last I saw there were some odds and end type issues being resolved. Was definitely hoping to get one this year, but was waiting to hear everything is working great. Any hope for a Coop? Same question for Zues boards?

Also there seems to be lots of various posting of various light suppliers.  Just enough to make someone who doesn't order very regularly wonder where to go and what to get that will work and be dependable. I keep hoping to find an expanded list on the wiki. Is there another list somewhere out in internet land?

Any other exciting news on the cutting edge of Christmas Light craziness?

Thanks
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Offline therealbigjim

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Re: Whats going on?
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2014, »
Seems slow here anyway, ray is still a good bet and the lights in the WIKI work great for me. People seem to be having problems with some newer stuff, the techno color stuff that was badly made.  For me at least I am working on getting RGB into my display and dealing with sequencing    :P
"If you want more lights sell that old mustang"
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Offline taybrynn

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Re: Whats going on?
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2014, »
It's been real slow, especially here lately.  I feel like with the advent of so many new RGB items and even RGB hardware ... that were entering a new 'bleeding edge' phase of sorts.  All these options are allowing people enough freedom to go shoot themselves in the foot very easily.  Personally I'm trying to stay with ONLY the DLA wiki approved RGB items because its far easier to get derailed chasing technology or low cost ... and changing hardware is painful also.   Since I am already very into Lynx and Smart strings it only complicates things for me to expand that now.  IMHO, following the KISS principle is very beneficial to this hobby -- follow it and you'll be much happier and waste less money.  RJ created this site to make DIY more approachable to a larger (less technical) crowd with designs that largely help protect you from yourself.  Lately, I'm hearing a lot of people dealing with voltage or injection issues that RJ really solved with the smart strings ... and while its nice to be able run more than 128 nodes on a string, doing so entails certain risks and knowledge that you know what your doing.  A lot DON'T -- so again, having a design that protects that masses isn't a bad thing in my book, because so many will go and shoot themselves in the foot when they don't understand things well enough, then they end up wasting money and time and getting frustrated.  Not only do I stay to the WIKI list of RGB items, I'm specifically using just the SS Nodes and SS Flex Strips .... because I get frustrated with the differences between certain node types.   Example: I did put DLA wiki approved SS RGB Square Modules into some "mega balls" and also put DLA wiki approved SS RGB Rectangular Modules into some other "mega balls" ... and honestly because those are different from the nodes ... it causes me a lot of un-necessary micromanagement.  I've also got one Northstar running HolidayCoro 3ch RGB modules via. DMX and again, these one-off items are very PITA looking back it.  Had I followed KISS, I could have dones these with nodes just as easily.  I am encouraged by the new hardware that places like Falcon Christmas are doing but again, to switch to that entails certain costs and complexity that I don't need to take on right now.  Right now the Zeus ver.2 addresses everything I care about and allows me to keep things simple.  I value that.  I have a pile of RGB junk that cost a lost of money because I did the same thing (chasing various node types and hardware controllers) -- and I'm done throwing money away chasing technology.
« Last Edit: May 18, 2014, by taybrynn »
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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Offline tbone321

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Re: Whats going on?
« Reply #3 on: May 18, 2014, »
Yea, it does get a bit slow in here this time of year.  Many of the members are getting ready for the summer season.  I would not worry about coops for many of these items, they will be coming.  The last I heard, RJ and his testers were working out a few issues with the Conductor.  The problem is that the issues that they were working on do not occur for everyone using it which makes finding and resloving them especially difficult but I do believe that progress is being made.  The Zeus has been redesigned to allow the univers setting per port instead of per unit.  This is a great idea and testing looks really good so a coop should be coming soon. 

As for the nodes, that is a whole different issue.  The nodes in the WIKI are known to work well and are in spec with the design of the controllers.  You will have the least issues if you stick to the nodes there.  You can really be taking your chances using some of these other nodes.  As said before, the techno color nodes had an extremely high failure rate (close to 50%) and draw more current than the nodes the controller was designed for which will require power injection or risk blowing a fuse on the hub when pushing the node count close to the max.  Some of these nodes are actually DMX and will not work with the SSC controllers.  Some of them a 5V and others are using different protocols that may or may not work with our controllers. 
If at first you don't succeed,
your not cut out for sky diving

Offline lboucher

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Re: Whats going on?
« Reply #4 on: May 18, 2014, »
Glad to hear its just not me. Was afraid I was going to come off pushy or something. Definitely understand non-consistent bugs can be a real headache. Seems alot of others are thinking the same thing I am when it comes to all these "options". I agree, I want a consistent dependable solution, cause I don't have money to do this wrong. (Its painful enough fixing the first wrongs.)

I have some of the first smart strings, and its gotten a bit non-nonsensical keeping them going. But at this point, i'm putting them in vinyl tubing and being done with it. After this if they break, there going in the trash.
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