Christmas Lights - Part 1

Well like a lot of people in the past I have put up a few lights on the house during December, having shifted from a house that had no street frontage this became something I could do.  I have not done this for about 7 years. So the result is a number of strings of lights of various types (incandescent and led), strings, icicles etc that all are driven from wall warts.

A couple of years ago I saw my first sequenced light show on a local house, the idea of computer control, music synchronization etc appealed to me.  I went home did a number in internet searches, realised the cost involved and then parked the idea.

2017 - found the 101 Lighting Manual on https://auschristmaslighting.com/  did some reading.  Great document but still really hard going.

Leap forward to 2018 the 11.11 sale on aliexpress and the lower prices of rgb led strips.  Then the research started properly.  It quickly became apparent that the only way I was going to get anywhere was to buy a few samples products and have a play.

• 4x 5meters DC5V 30LED/M WS2812b led strip 30IC/M SMD5050 led, IP67 waterproof
• 5v 40A LED power supply
• USB to DMX Interface
• DMX decoder 30 channels RGB LED strip lights driver DMX 512 Dimmer no Plastic Box DC 9V-24V

Anybody that knows anything about the above will know that this is a completely useless combination of parts to do anything, I was heading in two different directions at the same time.  As I read more in the evening I came to this conclusion, as a result one day later the next purchase was.

• 5M 300Led waterproof RGB led strip light 5050 DC12V 60Leds/M
  (to use with the DMX items above)
• DC5V ws2812B rgb controller decoder board ic led strip LED SPI Converter
  (to use with the LED strips in the first purchase)

Research continued....