Why Pixels
My old store bought GE LED Christmas Lights were dying after 11 years (water rusting the connection in the unsealed sockets). I wanted a very bright display with straight lights, easy to setup & take down, more granular control beyond controlling just an entire string of lights, and the ability to make the lights any color. Not only will this make the Christmas lights look great, but I can also use the lights for Halloween giving me a good reason to put the lights up before it gets freezing cold up here in Minne-snow-ta.
Fun Fact: Many of my neighbors decorate outside for Halloween. No I am not living near Hogwarts or next to Ghost Busters headquarters; however, the Halloween capital of the world – Anoka, MN is just a short drive from where I live.
Permanent Mounted Lights
If I was going to buy new lights I thought why not see if anyone has created permanently mountable Christmas lights yet? I found several companies and as DIY Nils found, the EverLights solution appears to be the best DIY permanent mount Christmas light install. I ended up deciding this might be a good option for a typical homeowner inspired with holiday spirit, but for a true Christmas Light enthusiast the permanent mount falls short. I only saw the permanent lights being used on roof and gutter outlines. I’ve not found anyone outlining windows, doors (house or garage), etc. I was also unable to find integration with major light show software; xLights & Light-O-Rama S5. Permanent mount light solutions appear to have their own software that focuses on control from a smart phone instead of integration with musical light shows. Let’s face it the permanent mount solution is targeting a broader audience, not the light show enthusiasts. Besides what other reason do you have to stand on your roof twice a year? So I decided to go with RGB Pixel Strip lights.
Tricks to Pixels
The most important thing to know about upgrading to RGB Pixels is they run off controllers that put out DC current so there are distance limitations from the controller to the first pixel and also the total length of a strip/string before you need to inject power. If you plan your design properly it’s possible to stay within distance limitations which makes them simple to install. It is a lot of work the first year you put the pixel strips up (80+ hours). The time it takes to design the outline, make the custom length sections of lights, and installing mounts takes a lot of time. Once the initial setup is done the lights go up and come down fast in 4-9 foot sections. The lights are always perfectly straight and very bright!
Working with pixel strip requires DIY skills including soldering wire, waterproofing with hot glue and heatshrink, plus cutting and mounting 1/2″ PVC pipe all over your house. This is not hard, just time consuming. Pixel strip is directional and is marked with arrows that point away from the controller. Strip can be cut on marked points where you can either solder pigtails or hot glue the end closed.
Vendor Decision
After having been a Light-O-Rama customer for years and doing my research I decided to use HolidayCoro for outling my house with pixels. Light-O-Rama continues to promote their 1970’s RS485 / proprietary LOR network and have adapated it to run DMX to support pixels. LOR’s design seems like an overpriced hybrid solution with small controllers attached to each section of pixels or expensive stand-alone controller(s). I prefer the HolidayCoro architecture of the HinksPix Pro Main Controller + Long Range Receivers using TCP/IP between my PC and the Main Controller. I like the idea of being able to split the signal using standard Ethernet network switches if needed, only having to buy 1 Main CPU to run 25,000+ pixels, and being able to daisy chain the Long Range Receivers together off the main controller which simplifies wiring.
Cost of House Outline
Costs of outlining the house in Pixel strip can vary widely based on how much area you plan to cover. My house outline uses 914 pixels, or 2,742 channels (individual LEDs) spanning 305 feet. I spent around $1,600 at HolidayCoro on the pixel strips, lexan pipe mounting clips. extension cables, pigtails, and controller/receivers. I had two full rolls of pixel strips, several extension cords and pigtails left over. I purchased forty 1/2″ x 10′ Schedule40 (white) PVC pipe and cutters, and a 1,000 count contractor bag of 8″ zip ties (used about half of them) from Home Depot. I bought clear hot glue sticks, .325″ Roof Grip Clips, and large spools of heat shrink tubing from Amazon. Lastly, I purchased a variety of parts including J-bolts, pipe clamps, angle brackets, etc. from the local Ace Hardware. I estimate I spent around $400 including parts for making Singing Christmas Tree Frames and upgraded the license level for the LOR S5 software for a total of around $2,000.
Cost TIP #1: You can save on pixels and controllers by purchasing in the “off” season which starts in January and runs through mid-summer.
Cost TIP #2: LOR Sequence software is not cheap, but it was what I had become used to using over the years. While moving to pixels I did not have time to learn a new software package. Once you move to pixels the cost of the LOR Pro level license and SuperStar add-on for doing amazing effects with pixels can become cost prohibitive. I will be looking into the free, open-source xLights software that is also very popular in the Christmas lighting community.
Design Goals
I decided to outline my house in 12v 30/10 RGB Pixel Strips using one HinksPix Pro main controller with 16 channels and two Long Range Receivers (slave units) having 8 channels each. The idea behind this design was to keep the distance from the start of all pixel strips to less than 25′ from its controller and no run of strip(s) is greater than 24′. Other design goals included making the display easy to setup and take down, avoid climbing the 2nd story roof to install lights, and to allow for less expensive future expansion (i.e. more long range receivers to power future mega tree, arches, etc.). Check out the pages on Controller, Gutter, and Roof mounts to see how I accomplished all these goals. The steps to outline a house in pixel strip are shown below.
Steps to Outline House
1.) Decide what sections you want to outline, create a sketch of your house with distances as accurate as possible.
Outline TIP #1: You cannot have too detailed a plan, you can start with estimates but ultimately you will need accurate:
- measurements for lengths of PVC pipe & pixel strip
- number and type of pig-tails (male/female) for connecting strip together and to controller(s)
- number and length of extension cables (5′, 10′, 20′)
Outline TIP #2: 20 awg (gauge) pigtail is much easier to use than heavier 18 awg or larger wire that is less flexible during installation. You will also likely use more Male pigtails because those are always needed to connect to the controller or other section of strip, where you may choose to not solder a Female pigtail on the last section of strip in a run.
2.) Determine the best method for attaching the 1/2″ PVC pipe to the sections of your house. You may need to use different mounts for different sections/materials like Roof, Gutter, and Wood mount areas, see below.
3.) Research and decide the type of RGB Pixel strip to use. I went with 12v 30/10 Smart Pixel RGB LED Strip which means there are 30 LEDs and 10 Pixels per meter. This allows me to control each 4″ section of strip (3 RGB LED’s = 1 Pixel) independently from the rest. Denser pixel strips are available to control even smaller areas of strip, but from a distance the pixels can start to blend together making them not necessarily worth the extra cost and complexity. Over 70% of pixel house outlines use 30/10 strips.
4.) Finish your house outline design by using the distance parameters for your Pixel strip to determine the ideal locations for controllers to minimize the need for ghost/null pixel amplifiers and power injection as I discussed at the start of this article. Utilize your vendors pre-sales support to help validate your design and answer all the questions you have. The folks at HolidayCoro.com are very helpful.
Outline TIP #3: You can connect strips together any way you want to minimize extension cords and number of controller channels needed. For example, I am connecting the roof verticals next to the windows to the roof peak above them.
With the Creed Roof System I do not climb on the 2nd story roof to connect lights together. Instead I wire a Vertical section to the Roof dormer above it. When I map the lights in the software I tell it the first Vertical are pixels 1-21 and the first Roof section above it are pixels 22-46, see image. The right side has the same pixel numbering except it’s assigned to DMX Universe 11.
NOTE: DMX is easy to use. You get to make up the Universe numbers and assign them to ports on your controller(s), for more on this read the documentation that comes with your controller and light show software.
5.) Now you have enough information to determine what Pixel Controller / Receiver(s) to use and where you are going to install them on your house. Use the pre-sales support from your vendor of choice if you have any remaining questions.
6.) Purchase your pixels, controllers, and mounting parts (pvc pipe, zip ties, etc.)
7.) I started by installing the lexan pipe mounting clips and cutting length of 1/2″ PVC to outline areas of my house. Make sure to leave 2″-4″ extra pipe (1″-2″ on each end) to secure the pigtail(s). When wrapping windows and doors determine if its best to have the sides inside the top/bottom or vice/versa. Remember the start of each run must have a male pigtail (female ends have the big plastic nut) and the strips run in one direction – arrow on strip pointing away from the controller.
Example
If I had an 8′ (96″) side to my garage door I would do the following calculation: 96″ / 4″ (between Cut points) = 24 Pixels but this gives no room for securing the pigtail so we round down to 23 Pixels x 4″ = 92″ and now we have 2″ at the top and 2″ at the bottom of our pipe to secure pigtail(s) and snap into the mounting clip. We count out 23 pixels from a 50 pixel strip and either solder a pigtail or hot glue the end shut if its the end of a run (i.e. will never be connected to another section of lights) like the last section of a window.
If the top of the garage door was 96″ but there is enough room to make the pipe 102″ then we can cut a 24 pixel section (24 pixels x 4″ = 96″) length to outline the top of the door and we can use the extra 6″ (3″ on each end) for securing pigtails and positioning the lexan pipe clamps so any zipties don’t get in the way of mounting.
Outline TIP #4: Don’t worry about small 1-2″ gaps. At night the bright lights glow between the gaps minimizing their visual impact.
Check the other Build pages for mounting pixels via Roof Mount, Gutter Mount, and mounting the Pixel controllers.
You can also find good information on HolidayCoro.com under the Education & Support menu.
See the other pages in the Build menu to learn more details about each display element or click here to read about the Roof Mount.