Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Posted on
Sun Dec 01, 2019 3:18 pm
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

I’m live!
Four windows setup, in indigo, and synchronising generally well.

Right now just using twinkle fox (blue effect) matched with a blue and white stripe on my twinkly lights

Indigo turns an appliance module controlling my dumb lights and sends an on, a sync, and a twinkle fox command to the wleds, 45 minutes after sunset,

I need to buy one more set I think for indoors to use as a master set and test set.

Reason for this is that the master leads the others by maybe 0.5s so if I have another as the master the four windows will be all in sync

Changes in effects generally seem to go well but now and then one window set will misbehave and not follow.

Next steps

Find more effects that I like and have waf!

Have a recurring (timer/pester) based trigger to send off commands throughout the day and night when I don’t want them on (found a random window on this morning)

Monitor carefully to see if udp packets traversing the network cause issues with anything else.

For instance previously Powerline networking devices caused havoc with sonos apparently due to lots of broadcast traffic.

Probably coincidence but sky box has been a pain on Wi-Fi today

The WLED plugin v 1.03 appears great to me :) that’s some awesome work

If anyone has an ideas for how best to make the most of the plugin then inspiration is all I need!

I’m thinking of putting together a little playlist of effects and time those using indigo maybe, trigger some build up/lightning each quarter of the hour etc

Can seriously see how people get really into this, start adding music, fm transmitters etc etc slippery slope!!

Right chaps (would love to think there’s some ladies following this thread but one suspects not!!!) what should I do next?!

Btw scaffolding will be up in the spring so definitely be fitting strips up around the frame of the house
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Posted on
Sat Dec 07, 2019 11:33 am
noel1983 offline
Posts: 446
Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Any other progress anyone?

I’ve just built a ‘mega tree’ today albeit I’m chopping it down tomorrow to be a midi tree

Aka a 2m copped pipe in a parasol stand buried in the ground that’ll have strings of lights up and down cone style

Nice effect and reasonably priced plus diy fun

No led strips for that one although maybe addressable leds on it next year.

Been watching YouTube videos of the next level of controller software where you can map the lights on top of your house and really do cool effects!


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Posted on
Sat Dec 07, 2019 1:21 pm
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Still waiting for my addressable lights. Hopefully on Monday, but need a big waterproof enclosure for the power supply first. I hadn’t appreciated how big it is and it doesn’t fit in the large one I had.

Posted on
Sat Dec 07, 2019 1:33 pm
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

If you got the same power supplies as me then the enclosures linked earlier in the thread work perfectly :)


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Posted on
Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:54 pm
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Yeah same power supply, everything is BTF, but don't need the mains as I'm connecting into a external mains lighting circuit. I'll grab one from screwfix.

Posted on
Sat Dec 07, 2019 8:13 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

I got a 30’ run across my roof line, front door and windows to follow- will post pics

Posted on
Mon Dec 09, 2019 8:10 am
siclark offline
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Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

noel1983 wrote:
If you got the same power supplies as me then the enclosures linked earlier in the thread work perfectly :)


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What did you use for the cable joins?

Posted on
Mon Dec 09, 2019 3:28 pm
noel1983 offline
Posts: 446
Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

siclark wrote:
noel1983 wrote:
If you got the same power supplies as me then the enclosures linked earlier in the thread work perfectly :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


What did you use for the cable joins?


Just connector blocks


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Posted on
Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:10 pm
mundmc offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

The color is off in the pics, and I still have more to do, but, you get the idea:
Image[img]https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20191218/a08e09f31f16290a32fafa5998d54db0.jpg[/img]

Posted on
Tue Dec 17, 2019 11:55 pm
noel1983 offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Awesome that looks great!


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Posted on
Wed Dec 18, 2019 9:55 am
mundmc offline
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Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

noel1983 wrote:
Awesome that looks great!


Thank you! Everybody in this thread really motivated me :)

Posted on
Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:49 pm
siclark offline
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Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

And finally. Lesson learnt to not solder at 11pm. 2 loose connections but now all fixed but despite the rain I finally got the addressable led strings into the trees. 4 X 50 led strips.
Love the crazy effects but that also there is WAF white effects.

Posted on
Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:50 pm
noel1983 offline
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Joined: Oct 17, 2014

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Awesome where’s the pics?! :)

Loving mine but not played much yet really
Node minis don’t always respond perfectly and are very slow to reappear when opening the app, like minutes of delay.

Will investigate alternative hard wired controllers for next year but more than sufficient using the minis to get started


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Posted on
Wed Dec 18, 2019 4:52 pm
siclark offline
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Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

Image

Posted on
Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:10 pm
siclark offline
Posts: 1960
Joined: Jun 13, 2017
Location: UK

Re: Outdoor Christmas Lights....recommendations please

noel1983 wrote:
Awesome where’s the pics?! :)


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Anyone know how to post videos?

My nodemcu is responding pretty fast, under a second in most cases. Is your WiFi weak outside?

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