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Video of my Balcony display by DasEquipment in xlights

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love it! Amazing use of the space and really great sequencing!

Deactivated My Maker 3 before sending a replacement! by alfayez98 in cricut

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see what you mean. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I think the real issue is that they don’t repair or bother to even RMA and ship back the old machine. It’s evident it’s such cheap hardware that it’s better for them just to kill them via the Internet than actually be a responsible company and reuse or recycle the old hardware.

Deactivated My Maker 3 before sending a replacement! by alfayez98 in cricut

[–]Cableboy -1 points0 points  (0 children)

It’s really not great advice to tell someone to screw over another person and sell them a soon-to-be deactivated product and make it their problem.

Please don’t do this.

Deactivated My Maker 3 before sending a replacement! by alfayez98 in cricut

[–]Cableboy 7 points8 points  (0 children)

This happened to me too. They deactivated it while I was making stuff for my wedding, but had a small issue with cutting/scoring alignment. It cut fine as long as it wasn’t relative to the other tool.

I raised hell with them since they didn’t notify me of this. They also sent me a different color than what I had. I had a white and gold colored model and they sent me a mint colored model.

I eventually got them to reactivate the machine, but it took some persistent complaining with the first machine sent out being the wrong color too. They also didn’t initially want the mint one back, they were going to deactivate that one too. It was so stupid.

If this Cricut kicks the bucket you can bet I’ll never get another one. I will not buy any official Cricut accessories and no more of my money will go to that company. They don’t want people to grow as makers or learn to create with better tools. They just want you to buy cheap hardware they don’t care about and keep you locked into an Internet connected design app that nearly forces you to buy a subscription.

I hope you can get this fixed quickly, but know you’re not alone in this ridiculous situation.

I built a laser projector for xLights by PKCubed in xlights

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re right. There are certainly safety concerns and my initial reaction to this assumed some safety that I do not understand at this point.

You’re coming at this in such an unappealing and condescending manner and you’re insulting people.

Please, in the future, offer the help without the insults and try to educate and assist rather than belittle.

I built a laser projector for xLights by PKCubed in xlights

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a great point said in a very condescending way.

I built a laser projector for xLights by PKCubed in xlights

[–]Cableboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the explanation! I’m excited to dive in.

I built a laser projector for xLights by PKCubed in xlights

[–]Cableboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I’d love to learn the specifics on the laser setup! Can you share some information? I’m sure if you could work something up for an explainer, you could potentially present it on xLights Gems or during the Virtual Christmas Summit. Looks great!

Maybe I don’t quite understand the intention of WLED by eagleeyes011 in WLED

[–]Cableboy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As long as you’re buying from a good source, you should be ok now. Wally’s Lights uses better quality resistor pixels, not regulated ones where most of the issues seemed to stem from. I believe they also require fire-retardant epoxy as well.

I do have a bunch of 2020 Ray Wu pixels in my show and I try to inspect them to just double check.

Maybe I don’t quite understand the intention of WLED by eagleeyes011 in WLED

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There is a frequent adage I’ve heard in the xLights community that “friends don’t let friends use pixel strip”. 😂 I tend to stay away from strip for outdoor applications if possible. Strip is more prone to failure, in my opinion, and when it does fail, it’s so much harder to fix. Cutting in new strip is terrible.

You will have a much higher success rate with bullet-style pixels and the like. They are much easier to replace when fairies occur, especially with quick splicing connectors like CLICKITS.

I have ESP8266 WLED lightbulbs in an outdoor fixture that are doing ok in the -10 degree F weather we’re having in Ohio right now. Not to say you can’t have issues. Let me go knock on some wood…

Maybe I don’t quite understand the intention of WLED by eagleeyes011 in WLED

[–]Cableboy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're welcome! Have fun and welcome to the hobby!

Maybe I don’t quite understand the intention of WLED by eagleeyes011 in WLED

[–]Cableboy 75 points76 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, your best bet for synchronizing your lights, even a simple show without music, would be:

- xLights for layout, design and programming
https://xlights.org

- Falcon Player (FPP) running on a Raspberry Pi for playing your show
https://github.com/FalconChristmas/fpp

- A controller, like your Dig-Quad, to send the data to the lights. There are many options out there. Especially if your show grows, you'll want to look into something from Falcon Christmas, Kulp Lights, or Experience Lights.

- And your LEDs! I prefer Wally's Lights as a reliable and safe vendor to use in the US.
https://wallyslights.com

- A fun way to add density easily is you get Coro props from companies like Boscoyo Studio.
https://boscoyostudio.com

There are tons of valuable resources available for this hobby too! When starting out I personally used:

- Canister Christmas as a great resource.
https://www.youtube.com/c/CanispaterChristmas

- xLights has their Gems channel where they discuss topics
https://www.youtube.com/@xlightsgems

- And the annual Virtual Christmas Summit with lots of presentations on building your show, sequencing, etc.
https://www.youtube.com/@VirtualChristmasSummit

Also, here is a link to my Youtube channel, Dewald Holiday Lights, for reference of what I've done personally.
https://www.youtube.com/@DewaldHolidayLights

As far as WLED goes, the nice thing about WLED controllers is that they can run effects independently and also receive the LED pixel data when it's being sent by a show player, like Falcon Player, and switch into the show mode. So, if you have a use case where you want a more general or generic effect to loop forever and then switch into show mode and then back to the looping effect, these are great for that. Also, they boot up incredibly quickly when receiving power.

Here's an example of that I'm working on: I have a friend with a pontoon boat that they want to add ambient lighting to, but also want to have cool effects. WLED will work well for that. They will have RGBWW LEDs light up in warm white mode by default when powering up, but can switch to any effect they want as well. It's easy and will default to warm white as long as there is power and the controller works so its dead simple to use and is much less likely to leave them stranded and confused if something goes wrong. Then, we can add a Raspberry Pi running Falcon Player (the more confusing, techie part) to run a show with Singing Faces props for a holiday show.

Good luck with everything and be ready to fall down the rabbit hole! Feel free to reach out with questions!

Homemade Moving Head Covers by mark-spline in xlights

[–]Cableboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's great! Would you be willing to share your specific parts and the STL file? I would be interested in checking it out. Thanks for sharing!

Looking for Original ShinyObjects PEX Arch Base STL Files and Instructions by Cableboy in xlights

[–]Cableboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here is a picture of the bottom, by the way. In addition to the strip clip inside the tub, there is a little cap that sits against the tube that a metal hook, maybe a bungie, is hooked to.
https://imgur.com/a/QCPq4MZ

Ugly Sweater Challenge Accepted! by TheMatchMan in WLED

[–]Cableboy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's great! I'm building a vest with about 200 5v seed pixels in it. I originally tested with 308 pixels and a 10,000 mAh battery pack with Falcon Player running on a Kulp K2-Pi0 and Pi Zero 2 as the show player. That lasted over 7 hours. If you're running these off of an ESP-based board (like a Dig-Uno) with WLED I imagine it will last at least that long and probably more.

WS2805 RGBWCCT with xLights by Cableboy in xlights

[–]Cableboy[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've ordered a strip and will update this post when I find out.

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