Parts Breakdown (Layman Style)

[Auggy]

After reading about the equipment and stuff related I was wondering if there is anyone who can explain what the equipment can do. Like what can the Lynx express do to the lights hooked up to it. Do they just flash them on and off at a high rate of speed. Then what does the FS do that the LE doesn't....

Hope this isn't off topic

Thanx
Auggy (Newbie)

[dmaccole]

Auggy:

Welcome aboard.

The controllers RJ has designed all do dimming as well as on-and-off. Ramping up lights slowly or fast and then ramping them down can make for cool effects. The quality of the effects is often dependent more upon the software (Vixen, LSP, Prancer, whatever) than it is on the hardware.

Into the mix you have to determine the topography of your yard and decide exactly what philosophy you're going to follow. Some people prefer a centralized approach, where they keep all the controllers and SSRs (solid-state relays) in the house or garage and use long extension cords to distribute electricity to the lights, while other people distribute the controllers and/or SSRs around the yard, with shorter extension cords.

Pretty much whichever direction you go, you're soon going to own a lot more extension cords.

The difference between a Freestyle and an Express is the difference between discrete and integrated hardware.

The Freestyle is designed to allow you place your SSRs in a distributed manner around your yard, with the Freestyle centrally controlling the individual SSRs. It supports 128 channels and most SSRs handle four channels, so a typical Freestyle installation would have 32 SSRs -- so you have to have the controller and the SSRs, each discrete devices. It wouldn't be a generalization to say that a Freestyle installation would use lots of Cat5 cable and fewer extension cords.

The Express is an integrated device, with the SSRs built into the controller board. To achieve that same 128-channels, you'd need 16 Expresses. You would distribute the Expresses around your yard, close to the light or lights it was driving. An Express installation could be typified as one that uses less Cat5 cable and more extension cords.

I initially adopted a mix of discrete and integrated devices and found that the discrete devices had a number of potential points of failure -- the controller could be bad, the Cat5 between the controller and the SSR could be bad or the SSR itself could be bad. My first year I experienced all those problems and between Years One and Two I eliminated my discrete devices and concentrated on integrated devices.

While I have had problems with the integrated devices, the solution -- swap out the bad controller with a spare -- makes the ease of in-the-dark, mid-show troubleshooting well worth the cost of the change.

I think I've answered your questions; I hope this helps.

\dmc

[tbone321]

To put it into a general overview what the equipment can do is allow you to create computer controlled light shows for you holiday lights.  The equipment does not just blink the lights plugged into it real fast.  It can turn the lights on and off as well as dim them and does it when you tell it to do it.

There are many components that makeup the system and everything required to do it is here.  The Express is the primary light controller in the Lynx line.  It is a 16 channel self contained DMX dumb controller.  Calling it a dumb controller simply means that it only follows DMX commands and has no self contained ligh contol functions like chase, dim, shimmer, ect.  Being self contained means that it doesn't require any add-on equipment to control the lights.   

The Freestyle is a 128 channel DMX controller but it is not self contained.  It controls Solid State Relays which deal with the power requirements of the lights.  The Solid State Relays are here as well and are calle SSR4's which are 4 channel solid state relays with dimming capability.  A Freestyle can control up to 32 SSR4's.  One of the cool things about the SSR4 is that it can be build with the DMX option.  If you do that then it changes from a simple 4 channel solid state relay  to a 4 channel self contained DMX controller. 

Being that these are DMX controllers, they will do nothing without a DMX signal to control them.  While anything that outputs DMX can control them, RJ has designed the Lynx DMX dongle to allow you to run sequences from your computer to control the lights.  It is also a smart dongle which means that it does the work of creating the DMX signal which take a lot of the load off of the computer that is controlling the show. 

In order to create that sequence you will need some software to create and edit your show sequences as well as schedule nd run your show and and there are links to a few different packages here on this site.  To get the signal around the Lynx line uses simple CAT5 cables and if the cables may be a problem, there is also a good selection of Lynx wireless equipment available here to make long wire runs a thing of the past. 

There is a lot of stuff here not even mentioned and a lot more comming such as RGB strings as well as a lot of people more than willing to help you get what you want to make your lighting dreams come true.  I would look into the express coop currently running as it will get you the best price on the Express controller kit. 

[rrowan]

Please take the time to read the info that RJ posted here

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Cheers

Rick R.