The controllers are done.......

[davetv102]

My family has been gone the last five days and guess what I've been up to. I am quite happy to have all my controllers done and out of the way. Here's a pic of the last seven I had to build..... opps I see Al is drooling, quick Walter get the paper towels handy. LOL Sorry Al, I knew you were still waiting on your LE's and just had to rub it in.

The picture shows three Lynx LE's and four DMX SSR4's.

[Al in Raleigh]

Nice job Dave. You have been a busy beaver getting all that done. I want some SSR4s. You can mail me a couple since you have so many.

For everybody's information the SSR4s are 4 channel mini controllers which would be excellent on the back of a multicolored wreath. It would cut down on the number of drop cords running across the front of your house. This thing interfaces to LOR with the proper interface. How much did the LEs and SSR4s cost you Dave (each) for the group's edification?

I'll quit drooling now.
Al

[Carl B Zachary]

Well done David. They look good.

[davetv102]

Nice job Dave. You have been a busy beaver getting all that done. I want some SSR4s. You can mail me a couple since you have so many.

For everybody's information the SSR4s are 4 channel mini controllers which would be excellent on the back of a multicolored wreath. It would cut down on the number of drop cords running across the front of your house. This thing interfaces to LOR with the proper interface. How much did the LEs and SSR4s cost you Dave (each) for the group's edification?

I'll quit drooling now.
Al

On the LE COOP I was in the kit was $61.00 (circuit board and parts), the case from the broadband store was $9.89 and the 16 (15ft) cords was $15.52 (.97 each) from Lowes with coupon for a total of $86.41 assembled and ready to run. $5.40 per channel. I assembled each in about 3 hours.

The SSR4 with the DMX option was $22.00 for the kit, $3.15 for the case and $3.88 for the 4 cords (15ft) for a total of $29.03 assembled and ready to run. $7.26 per channel. I assembled each in about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

The input power cords were ones I already had on hand that I removed from other equipment. (work)

Your assembly time will be different according to how much soldering experience you have so dont sweat it taking you longer to finish, the important part is to take your time and take breaks so as not to make mistakes. I've pushed a soldering iron for 20+ years so I've been around the soldering station a few times.......

The COOP prices vary according to the current pricing the COOP managers happen to get when the order is placed but they don't vary too much. Unless copper goes through the roof again.

[Al in Raleigh]

Thanks Dave. I was just discussing the SSR4s. The "River of Dropcords" that I had in my yard last year can be reduced with the SSR4s. I plan to mount 2 on each leaping arch and 3 on my wreaths. That effectively eliminates 40+ drop cords. If you look at the cost of drop cords versus the cost per channel it is about the same or less with a far cleaner setup and a boatload less off season storage.

I have 3 huge tricolored wreaths on the front of my house. Last year I had a mess of drop cords that looked horrible running all over the front of my house. I was embarrassed by the messiness. If I use the wireless comm card on each SSR4 I can have 1 SPT cord with multiple taps on the same cord feeding all 3 SSR4s. That means ONLY 1 cord across the front of my house instead of 9. Now that is too cool.


Thank you for Dave.

[davetv102]

That sounds like a great idea, I didn't have a plan for using the SSR4's this year other than a quick backup for a dead channel. Next year they will be on RGB trees I will add and also have strobes for the 4th channel. You need to look into getting some of the Lynx splitters as well so you will only have to run one cat 5 and one SPT cord to the wreaths if you don't get into the wireless this year. I will be using a couple of them this year to simplify some wiring. They help out with the 32 devices limitation for the DMX so you can have one DMX input and four outputs that can each have 32 devices each. Maybe next year I will move into the wireless but I already installed the drops from my office to the outside of the house in a weather proof box for the Cat 5 termination so I will stick with that for now. If I can talk my neighbors in my cul-de-sac into getting into the show I could control 5 houses lights. Ouch, that made my head hurt for a moment, thats my long range goal, let them supply the lights and power and I provide a 16 channel wireless controller and FM transmitter and sequenced show. We'll see.........

[walter]

Ok you twisted my arm you can put the controlers in my yard.. I have the power and boy do I (200A@240V) and the lights. Anytime you want to start is ok with me!

[wbuehler]

Nice work Dave

Bill

[mschell]

Just got back into town from a business trip and found both my wireless DMX and 3 LE kits boxes sitting waiting to be assembled....

Guess I'll be busy the next few days...

[Al in Raleigh]

Mark you don't need that wireless DMX stuff. Send it to me and I'll take care of it.
Al

[davetv102]

Ok Mark, get comfortable, fire up the soldering station, have something cold to drink in reach, crank up the Christmas music and get to building.

Well at least that's what works for me.......

Were not all lucky like Al, he has Walter to build all his stuff for him.

Just got back into town from a business trip and found both my wireless DMX and 3 LE kits boxes sitting waiting to be assembled....

Guess I'll be busy the next few days...

[wbottomley]

Nice job!

So my question would be... if you implimented the four channel controllers in an LOR network environment, what would you have to do to get them to work?

I want four channel controllers so bad that it's killing me!

[davetv102]

I'm afraid I don't know anything about LOR, I use Vixen and since the controllers are DMX you can program them to any channels you want. You can even program them all to the same channels and only need to sequence 4 channels. An example would be to have 4 mini mega trees that are RGB and strobes, if you wanted them to all do the same thing you could program them each to the same channels.... say 1,2,3,4 or you could program them each to different channels, one controller to 1-4 the second to 5-8, etc. Then you could control then independently as 16 channels ( 4 controllers each programmed to 4 sequential channels). They are programmed via the DMX signal and moving a jumper to change them from operate to program mode. The DMX signal is varied using the 0-255 levels of dimming and the dimming level is the channel. So now that you are confused, I would program a 4 channel controller by using the test mode in Vixen, set the dimming levels from % to 0-255 steps, then on channel one output I would set the dimming level to the channel I wanted to program. So to program channel 4 I would set the dimming output level to 4. Then moving the jumper from operate to program then back would make the controller operate on channels 4-8.

Yes I was confused the first couple of times I did it as well then it finally made sense. The good thing on the LE's is the start channel is programmed via pushbuttons on the board. MUCH easier......

Hopefully I gave enough information that you can translate this to what LOR can do and get what you need.

Is there anyone else that has experience in LOR and Vixen both?

[Al in Raleigh]

Dave you are just jealous that Walter lives near me and not you. I call Walter my Swiss Army Knife or just Swiss Army Walter. You should get your own Swiss Army Walter.

William, the DIY stuff interfaces to the LOR stuff one way currently. I am not thoroughly up on this Mark is light years ahead of me, so I expect him to chime in and correct me--I will learn too. LOR needs a "translator" of sorts. That would be a RS485 to DMX protocol "translator". I bought the LOR DMX module but I expect the DIY version of the module will work just as good but for far less money. Walter has one of the DIY rs485 to DMX modules built and we will start testing it with the LOR network soon. When Walter and I get it to work with the LOR network I promise that Walter and I will write a white paper on it that LOR folks will understand. The 4 channel modules we don't have yet but we may when the next group buy comes available on the DIY forum. That could be several months. In summary, I bought the LOR DMX translator and Walter has the DIY translator and both will get thoroughly tested on the LOR network in the upcoming weeks/months. We will test S2's and Light Show Pro's ability to talk to both modules.
Al

[mschell]

Nice job!

So my question would be... if you implimented the four channel controllers in an LOR network environment, what would you have to do to get them to work?

I want four channel controllers so bad that it's killing me!

If you want to use the SSR4, you need to talk DMX. To use these in an LOR network, you'd need an iDMX and run the SSR4's off the iDMX, with LOR software.

Of course, if you use another light control software, like Vixen or Light Show Pro, you could use the same cables you use now and run DMX to everything, since your LOR controllers also speak DMX. You would need some cable adapters, since the LOR controllers use different pins on Cat-5 to talk.