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First you'll need a controller. Falcon Christmas is sort of the gold standard. You can buy just the board and assemble it yourself, or you can get a prebuilt

First you'll need a controller. Falcon Christmas is sort of the gold standard. You can buy just the board and assemble it yourself, or you can get a prebuilt controller. I'd suggest a prebuilt for your first one. Then you'll need LEDs. My favorite vendor for LEDs is Wally's Lights[0], but there are others. The big choice you have to make is 12v vs 5v. Most people do 12v because you can make a much longer string of lights before you have to do what's called power injection, which is where you splice in a power boost. However 12v lights obviously use more power. Also, most of the pre-built things are 12v. I actually use primarily 5v, but at this point I'm about 1/3 12v because I got props from other people. You're actually starting at exactly the right time, all the vendors do big sales in January. Then you'll need something to put the pixels into. There are lots of options here. Strips, props, grids. After you watch some videos you'll have a better idea of what you want. Also after you figure out your layout. Then you need to get Xlights[1]. Xlights is actually a good place to start, because it gives you an idea of what kind of things you can make. You can actually start with putting a layout on Xlights to see what you want to buy. But, before all that, you'll want to learn. These are my favorite YouTube channels: https://www.youtube.com/@CanispaterChristmas https://www.youtube.com/@CanispaterChristmas https://www.youtube.com/@NiFamilyLights https://www.youtube.com/@NiFamilyLights Watch some of the starter videos to get an idea before you buy anything. :) [0] https://wallyslights.com/ https://wallyslights.com/ [1] https://xlights.org https://xlights.org

wolrah 2y ago
> However 12v lights obviously use more power. This is incorrect. The same number of lights at the same brightness will use give or take the same wattage. The increase in voltage leads to a decrease in amperage. Larger installs should actually use slightly less power because the higher voltage loses less to resistance in the wires, the same reason utility-scale power distribution is done at higher voltages than anyone actually uses. There are some individual "12v" LEDs that are just a lower voltage LED plus a big resistor to bring 12v down to a level the LED can survive which do obviously waste a lot of power but that would be a really silly design for a multi-LED assembly.
- jedberg 2y ago
  > There are some individual "12v" LEDs that are just a lower voltage LED plus a big resistor to bring 12v down to a level the LED can survive which do obviously waste a lot of power but that would be a really silly design for a multi-LED assembly. But yet it's how every one of the LED lights that we are talking about are designed. So like I said, 12v will use more power.
  - wolrah 2y ago
    Almost every multiple LED 12v strip I've ever used has the LEDs grouped in threes wired in series, likewise 24v strips are divided in to groups of six. I don't entirely understand the electrical science behind it but I think it's something like the voltage experienced by each LED is within tolerances even though the overall input voltage isn't, and if you were to try to cut the strip within a group it'd blow up that group quickly. Those strips should use slightly less power for a given number and brightness of LEDs than their lower voltage counterparts because the higher voltage is losing less power to resistance over a given distance, same as high voltage transmission lines.
    - jedberg 2y ago
      Yes, those are the consumer ones that are generally not individually addressable. I'm talking about WS2811 LEDs. Pretty much every WS2811 controller board is 5v, because there is only one manufacturer and that's all they make. The strips with 12v have a resistor on each one because people like to use 12v since you can power more lights before you have to inject more power. Like this: https://wallyslights.com/collections/12v-pixels/products/12v-ws2811-xconnect-resistor-bullet-pixel https://wallyslights.com/collections/12v-pixels/products/12v...

wolrah 2y ago

> However 12v lights obviously use more power. This is incorrect. The same number of lights at the same brightness will use give or take the same wattage. The increase in voltage leads to a decrease in amperage. Larger installs should actually use slightly less power because the higher voltage loses less to resistance in the wires, the same reason utility-scale power distribution is done at higher voltages than anyone actually uses. There are some individual "12v" LEDs that are just a lower voltage LED plus a big resistor to bring 12v down to a level the LED can survive which do obviously waste a lot of power but that would be a really silly design for a multi-LED assembly.

jedberg 2y ago
> There are some individual "12v" LEDs that are just a lower voltage LED plus a big resistor to bring 12v down to a level the LED can survive which do obviously waste a lot of power but that would be a really silly design for a multi-LED assembly. But yet it's how every one of the LED lights that we are talking about are designed. So like I said, 12v will use more power.
- wolrah 2y ago
  Almost every multiple LED 12v strip I've ever used has the LEDs grouped in threes wired in series, likewise 24v strips are divided in to groups of six. I don't entirely understand the electrical science behind it but I think it's something like the voltage experienced by each LED is within tolerances even though the overall input voltage isn't, and if you were to try to cut the strip within a group it'd blow up that group quickly. Those strips should use slightly less power for a given number and brightness of LEDs than their lower voltage counterparts because the higher voltage is losing less power to resistance over a given distance, same as high voltage transmission lines.
  - jedberg 2y ago
    Yes, those are the consumer ones that are generally not individually addressable. I'm talking about WS2811 LEDs. Pretty much every WS2811 controller board is 5v, because there is only one manufacturer and that's all they make. The strips with 12v have a resistor on each one because people like to use 12v since you can power more lights before you have to inject more power. Like this: https://wallyslights.com/collections/12v-pixels/products/12v-ws2811-xconnect-resistor-bullet-pixel https://wallyslights.com/collections/12v-pixels/products/12v...