Have you checked how much power your pixels are actually drawing, to ensure you’re within limits on your controller?
This week we run through how to check the amount of current actually being drawn by some 12v Resistor Pixels, some Seeds and some 12v Native 12v pixels. We show how to connect the meter and how to get a real life measurement.
You’ve set out your layout, put a good number of pixels on your verts & horizontals – then you import a vendor prop and the scale all looks wrong… what gives ? – In this weeks video we demonstrate how to tell xLights the real size of your background image so you can setup your props correctly from the start!
Last week saw the annual Florida Mega Mini lighting event in Plant City, nr Tampa USA. Featuring over 50 classes, 5 intensive classes, 25 vendors, speeches, dinner and more – its certainly a show not to be missed. We took a visit to see what all the fuss was about.
In this short video we look at different options for terminating (finishing) strings when you have excess pixels. We run through the options & then demonstrate a method of cutting pixels from the end of a string and sealing it with heat shrink.
At some point you’re going to have a pixel fail. Never at a convenient moment, or location – you need to be ready & practiced to fix such an eventuality, In this weeks video we explain which pixels to change, why and then run through cutting out the old ones and fixing the break with solder seals for a complete and permanent fix.
This week we continue with our layout – taking a look at xLights models, sub-models & groups – running through each & explaining why they should appear in a certain order. I also fix a problem with my string of fairy lights running the wrong direction!
This week we test the new Colorlight E80 Card with LEDVision 8.6 and FPP v9.5 and get it up & running.
We have a couple of mintor hiccups, but get it all up and running buy the end of the video,
After last weeks video on setting up a new controller in xLights, a few folks asked how you go about adding multiple controllers in xLights. All covered this week.
This week we take the layout we setup in Week 2 & start allocating strings to controller ports, push the config to the controller and test !
Thanks to Build a Light Show ( https://buildalightshow.com ) for sending me the Baldrick 8 Controller and Build Kit used in this video.
In our first look at xLights for ’26, we install the software (and QMVamp Plugins) then take a quick look at the three main tabs, Controller, Layout & Sequencer.
We then import an image of a house to help design our layout and finish up by starting to add some props.
xLights download from: https://xlights.org/
QM Vamp Plugins from: https://www.vamp-plugins.org/download.html
Background image from https://gregmacaree.com/assets/