Author Topic: What happened?  (Read 4003 times)

Offline Penfold

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What happened?
« on: June 16, 2017, »
It seems like this community is slowly dying off :(.  Is it due to people just getting too busy with real life?

I really haven't seen much activity on here.  There hasn't been any Co-ops, or updates on the status with the Lynx Express components and potentially making the chip change to SMD for members?  <yk.. I haven't seen Robert on the forums in a while, but that's not to say that he is on and has responded to people.  I personally, just haven't seen him.  Maybe I am needlessly concerned, but I just wondered.   
♪Chicken go cluck, cluck
Cow go moo
Piggy go *snort* *snort*
how bout you?  ♪

Offline emcee

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2017, »
It's been quiet... don't know why except time of year.

Sent from my SM-G530P using Tapatalk


Offline caretaker

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #2 on: June 18, 2017, »
RJ has a life and after spending a large amount of time invested in creating products for our light shows he may have moved on to other things in his life. In the mean time there has be an explosion of other DIY technologies out there.  With that said with no new developments in the Lynx line and no coops many have moved on to other boards to stay up to date. The fact the RJ has kept this board up I think is a very nice thing for him to do.
« Last Edit: September 19, 2017, by caretaker »
Jeff Squires
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Offline Segull

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2017, »
I understand. And I am always reminded of this wonderful place  :) Every time I look at my Aeon clock.
I miss all the great discussions.  :'(  Miss all the wonderful people!!!
I two check back once in a while just to see if anything is going on.

And I agree thanks to RJ for keeping this board up.

Joe

Offline zwiller

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #4 on: September 19, 2017, »
I believe there is still a niche for DLA.  Some people like building their own gear.  Also, not everyone wants a single controller controlling 100k pixels.  There seems to be lack of focus on port per prop concept and I think that could be the niche. 

That said, I think designs could be updated and improved based on how David Pitts took Pixelnet with web based programming etc.

To me being port per prop my ideal controller would be like a smart hub where each port was as transmitter for smaller 4 or more port receiver boards where they are powered. 

I bet others have some seriously good ideas too. 
Sam, who is happy he flashed his etherdongle with newest firmware!

"Now, I had heard that word at least ten times a day from my old man. He worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium; a master."

Offline oj70chevy

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #5 on: October 01, 2017, »
same here took a year and half off due to putting my son in college and other life things. now I'm back and its sad to see it slow down so much. ill keep an eye on this post to see what's the new thing everyone is doing.
Thanks
Ralph

Offline kidcole

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #6 on: October 02, 2017, »
I just sold 24 LOR boxes this year.  I am dropping LOR software in favor of xLights and I didn't want to mess with special cabling.    Just wanted everything pixels and DMX.  So I'm soldering my brains out making Lynx Express.  Finishing the last two today.  My whole display will simplify technologies to Falcon, Sandevices and Lynx with xLights software.  I hope to get a couple Pi players running but I'll run direct off xLights if I run out of time.

I very much appreciate RJ keeping this site up.  People will need the Wiki and all the discussion boards to keep their gear running.
Thanks,

Denny Cole
ChristmasCarolina.com

Offline smeighan

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #7 on: October 02, 2017, »
I think the short answer is RJ left. DLA hardware is proprietary and only developed by RJ. When he left there has been no new features released in years.

I looked at posts by RJ

2013 - 507 posts
2014 - 173 posts
2015 - 31 posts
2016 - 1 post
2017 - zero

I spend most of my time on
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From 2011 to 2013 DLA was the happening place.
Sean
Littleton, CO
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Offline rjhodgefamily

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #8 on: October 03, 2017, »
I would be extremely happy if RJ would just open source the PIC software and the board designs. I know they represent a large commitment on his part. But I think the LE is great at what it does. It serves my need for straight up dumb controllers at a reasonable price. And I enjoy putting them together. Having 13 different houses in our light show makes switching a little difficult we need the wireless capabilities and the LE meant people could join with what they already had. No need to go out and buy Pixels and other stuff.

Granted most houses have at least one LE with a EX/RX daughter board at this point. So I would just need a replacement for the LE to add on. I know they are out there I just like the LE.

Offline arw01

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #9 on: October 04, 2017, »
I think it has become a business for a lot of folks now.

Second the convenience that Zwiller mentioned.  Sure beats packing a pipe bomb controller off the prop into the house, program it, pack it back out, turn the lights back on, realize you messed it up, pack it back into the house, rinse repeat ad-nasuam.

I it really nice to sit in your car with the heater going, a laptop and restructure your whole channel count, colors, nodes etc from a webpage..

Offline nvizzini

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2017, »
I got ill, moved to Houston  and not designed a show for three years.
I hope to have a show this year but it will be small.

talk to you soon
nicholas
Nicholas-Foster
Houston, TX

Offline naztrain

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #11 on: October 19, 2017, »
Wow... this is kind of depressing.  I built my first display (on my parent's house) in 2008 as a freshman in college (RJ helped me troubleshoot a burned-out SSR4 while I was on the roof as a snowstorm rolled in).  I just finished graduate school, bought a house of my own, and came back here to see about upgrading my system to include some pixel elements for next year.  I had visited a few times annually to see where the technology was going, but with school it was hard to keep up and I didn't notice how slow things had gotten until tonight.  Back when I started, the Lynx system was one of the only ways to get the blinky-flashy going. Now as I look around the internet, the options are a bit overwhelming, especially given the added complexities of RGB/Pixels.  I wonder if too much diversification in the hobby and the rise of major social media platforms had a hand in the decline of the community here.  It's certainly not lack of interest--when I started my display, I was one of maybe a dozen synchronized light shows in the county.  Last year there were 5 in my small town, and dozens more in the neighboring city.

At any rate, I hope that, whatever RJ is doing these days, he knows how much joy his work here brought to us and all our "audiences" through the years. We had a mostly blind neighbor boy who would come over to my display as soon as it got dark to dance with the lights.  It was one of the only times he could see the world around him.

Offline taybrynn

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Re: What happened?
« Reply #12 on: October 21, 2017, »
RJ stepped out, but did keep this board going which to this day I am thankful for.  Basically there is nothing wrong with the DLA hardware or designs, it was state of the art in its day, if not bleeding edge  ... and at some point there were rumors of disagreement over the direction of the new hardware (most of which never materialized on DLA) ...  I theorize that some wanted to move on from the DLA mindset of keeping things simple and easy for the masses (and somewhat limited, like the use of TM1804 nodes and the 128 node limit per controller, etc.) ... and moving towards a more techie solution which you could somethings shoot yourself in the foot if you didn't know what you were doing (injection, crazy amount of nodes per controller, etc.).   I think RJ had already left anoither board that became super techie and perhaps unapproachable to the average joe (not techie) ...  and created DLA with his focus being to ensure his designs would take a lot of the technical gotchas out, but as I said, some may have felt restricted by those built in design safeguards.  Maybe he felt frustrated or just burnt out ... but it doesn't matter because he gave so much to so many ... and honestly, everyone has a burn out point, or should.    I think in most respects, FalconChristmas essentially took over and has continued to provide some level of backwards pixelnet compatibility with its remarkable new Falcon controllers ... since David himself a big DLA user before he created the Falcon boards. To this day I continue to use DLA active hubs and smart string controllers (on my homes/roofs only) ... but I have used the Falcon firmware on my newest V3 smart string controllers sp they could be reprogrammed 'in the field' if needed.
Scott - Castle Rock, Colorado   [ 2 homes, 100% RGB in 2016; since 2008; over 32k channels of E1.31 ]
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