HolidayCoro is often asked these common questions about how to select a holiday lighting controller:
- What controller is right for my display?
- Will XXX controller work for my display?
- How many lights can I run from the XXX controller?
- What controller will control this XXX?
- What controller should I start with?
It is very common to make the assumption that when planning a display or element - start with the controller. The problem with that assumption is - it's wrong and here is why:
- We sell a wide variety of controller types:
- 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48 SPI Outputs
- Controller Design
- Distributed / Long Range / Differential - House outlines, arches, dispurse props
- Centralized - Megatrees, matrix panels
- 5 to 24 Volt pixels
- Varying banks of output
- Varying watts / amps per Output
- Interfaces
- Ethernet / E1.31
- RS485 / E1.11
- Smart / Dumb controller
- Software driving the controller
- Budget
- Future uses
As a result, it is not possible to properly (and we try never to provide recommendations based solely on assumptions or guesses) provide a recommendation for a controller until the following information can be provided:
- How many lights
- The physical layout of the lights
- For a specific element (e.g. megatree, 5v pixel nodes, 50 pixels tall by 16 vertical strands or snow flake with 100 12v pixel nodes)
- Within the context of a group of elements (e.g. 4 arches, spaced in a single line, each arch is 12 volt 30/10 pixel strip of 50 pixels, controller in center of four arches, 1 ft gap between arches, arches are 8 feet wide)
- The physical distance between elements connected to the same controller (4 snow flakes, one per output, snow flakes are 10ft, 20ft, 30ft and 40ft from controller location)
- The voltage of the lights (5v, 12v)
- Type of light (bulb, module, icicles, node, strip)
- Sub type of light (Spacing between lights, 30/10 or 30/30 or 60/60, etc)
As you can see, the proper way to start a display design is not with a controller but with the Design, then the lights, THEN the controller. To learn more about the entire display design process, see our blog:
http://blog.holidaycoro.com/2015/01/where-do-i-start-when-designing-new-rgb.html
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