Christmas Light Control - Light O Rama etc!

[yzguy96]

Hi,

I am looking into controling my christmas lights and syncing them with music. I have been looking at Light-O-Rama but I was hoping I could leverage Homeseer to accomplish the same thing....has anyone tried?

[Rupp]

I'm not sure you can accomplish the same speed using HomeSeer. All of the protocols to control lights wouldn't appear to be as fast as the Light O Rama controller. Having said that it may be worth trying. What do you have to loose but a bit of time.

[mrhappy]

I have often wondered this as to whether HS would be able to keep up with cues for music - I would say that it could on its own but no idea if the background performance (timed events/condition running etc) would be hindered or slowed down.

Then you have to look at your interface, discount X10 straight away as its not quick enough - anything else I am not sure. DMX or 0-10V would be the standard but theres no plugin as such that I am aware of that can support either as of yet.

I have some PIC boards about that I will wire 8 LED's to and simulate some patterns and see how HS responds...

[reidfo]

I've done some work with Vixen (wrote a LOR plugin for it) and have also used Light Show Pro. Using the event interface you will not be able to keep up with the timing required for synchronizing to music. You could potentially control the lights via LOR through a plugin though. You would probably be limited to just doing static scene changes instead of full sync.

One thing I have thought about though is building a plugin that controls Vixen, essentially becoming a scheduler and external trigger for Vixen shows.

[reidfo]

Another issue with the Light O Rama and compatibles (e.g. D-Light) is that the controllers require a keepalive command to be sent every 2 seconds or so to keep the lights on. If they don't receive the command then all lights shut off. That's doable in a plugin on its own thread but you still have to come up with some sort of interface to define each scene. Since Vixen and others already have this interface (and more) I still think you're better off with a plugin to control Vixen.

[jgary]

you can't really do the real music with HomeSeer. You need a dedicated controller like the one you mention. I have Animated Lighting Controllers which do the same. They are used more in the commercial market, but some diy have these controllers as they work the same, just different software. http://www.animatedlighting.com/

You need to go to http://www.planetchristmas.com Christmas Planet where all the folks hang out who do light shows with light-O-Rama. You can stay there for days reading and looking and peoples displays from years past etc. Amazing.

[mrhappy]

well I hooked up an Arduino (with Firmata), eight LEDs (as a simulation) and tried with a script - interesting results, chases/strobe/patterns can be done - music things start to go a bit awry. Its probably a case more of the lack of a proper cueing system than a limit on HS's part - if you had a GUI with a timeline (even if it just read from an excel spreadsheet) and a proper plugin then it should work.

The ideal solution would probably be linked to perhaps the WMP/iTunes plugin, triggered on track change and then looked to see if the cue list existed and then started the show.

As to actually how to do it in real life I would be inclined to just try and trigger software/hardware that already exists...probably alot easier

[Pete]

I noticed that the speed of the on/off LED lights makes for an ideal display. No comparison to incandescent lighting there.

Its been a few years (maybe 5 or 6) I modified one of the laser light show boxes refitting it with different lasers cuz I couldn't see it from a distance shining on the house. It worked really good; then my wife for whatever reason made me take it down. (it was always pointed to the house though - so not really a saftey issue). I only really went from the little tiny mW lasers to the closer to 1 watt laser diodes.

[jgary]

well I hooked up an Arduino (with Firmata), eight LEDs (as a simulation) and tried with a script - interesting results, chases/strobe/patterns can be done - music things start to go a bit awry. Its probably a case more of the lack of a proper cueing system than a limit on HS's part - if you had a GUI with a timeline (even if it just read from an excel spreadsheet) and a proper plugin then it should work.

The ideal solution would probably be linked to perhaps the WMP/iTunes plugin, triggered on track change and then looked to see if the cue list existed and then started the show.

As to actually how to do it in real life I would be inclined to just try and trigger software/hardware that already exists...probably alot easier

You will also discover that incandescent lighting is easier to program than led lighting Animated Lighting or Adorama Controllers. A lot of the off the shelf led lighting will not respond well to these controllers plus they also do not hold up well outdoors after a couple years, unless you buy very expensive commercial led lighting from someone like Animated Lighting.

[orthoman]

Light o Rama

I've been a loyal light o rama user for about 4 years now, and we do some pretty amazing stuff with it. Usually I win the city decorating contest, so we get really into it! I guess I like using computers do to cool stuff! In fact, Im using the garage computer that I use for Light O Rama right now as my computer for HomeSeer.

Anyway, I don't see how one could use HomeSeer for the same purpose. The most job specific task is the software synchronization of the lights to a time versus channel graph and music. Within that software, each individual cell can be programmed to simply be on or off, to flicker, to shimmer, etc. I typically program in tenths of a second - in other words, each little box on the graph represnts one tenth of a second. Additionally, you have to hook the lights up somehow. Light o Rama accomplishes this with controllers, each of which can handle 16 different inputs, collectively spanning around 8 amperes of current per controller. Since a typical home circuit allow only 15 to 20 amps, then you need to hook up a maximum of two light o rama controllers on one home circuit. When Im done with my display, Ive got cables going literally everywhere, and I have to carefully plan this so I don't overload any one circuit.


Also, these controllers are "daisy-chained" in series through the use of cat5 networking cable, and the whole thing works off of RS232 interface with the PC.

So, I'd say the main thing preventing efficient use of HomeSeer would be the software program. If you have thousands of strings of lights like we do, managing that many channels, synchronizing those with a song, and getting the speed you need to stay with the song, you are really talking about a specialized application there.

If you are talking about just a few strings of lights, then maybe using events to turn them on and off in Homeseer could be done, but I don't see how you could synchronize with music without the specialized software.

Hope that helps.
CW

[cadillackid]

I used for LOR for several years and also AL as well.. LOR has the advantage that it can utilize an X10 interface and also can be controlled with digital inputs. . so its very possible to use Homeseer to control when the light show starts and stops.....

I had homeseer set up to not run my light show if it was heavy rain or snow outside, and would trigger a sequence that said (sorry folks no lights tonight).. something that the LOR software wouldnt do on its own...

so I see homeseer along with dedicated lighting controllers as a great way to go.. or homeseer to control a static display that just needs on and off.. but to musically sync you really need dedicated hardware designed for that purpose...
-Christopher