DMX show controller

[jhoybs]

This will be my first year animating my display and I ran into a problem that I didn't expect.  I have a USB dongle (DMX), 4 Express controllers and I'm using Vixen 3. I was going to use the same PC that I sequence on for the show.

To dip my foot in the water, I put a single LE outside for Halloween and I'm running just a single lightning channel with floods just to see how everything works. It became apparent quickly that using my sequence PC from within my house isn't very convenient. Not being able to sequence stinks and getting RS-485 outside isn't so bad, but for trick-or-treat I wanted to play a lightning track with the floods. There really isn't an easy way to get the sound outside (I don't plan to use music for Christmas, so I don't have a FM transmitter).

I'm curious to see what all of you are using for a (DMX) show controller (PC, conductor, Panther player, FPP on Raspberry Pi, etc.).

Thanks!
Jim

[tbone321]

Since Halloween is only a few days away, you really don't have much time to make changes now.  If you already own a PI, then FPP would be the way to go.  You can configure it to work with the DMX dongle, it is fairly easy to export the show from Vixen to run with FPP and it has a great scheduler.  If you put the PI outside and have a pair of amplified PC speakers, then it will be easier to get sound outside because the PI has built in sound but requires amplified speakers, just like the sound card of a PC. 

[jhoybs]

For now I'm using a compact PC running Windows 7, but it doesn't have much memory and it's cumbersome.  If I use an FPP, is it OK to run outside in the winter (protected)?  Being in Wisconsin, things get cold here, but I do like the FPP from what I've seen.

[tbone321]

For the most part, they deal well with colder temps.  If it gets really cold, many people just put a C9 bulb in the case to provide a little heat.