Control Lights without a musical sequence?

[shinydiamond]

Hi all,
I'm new to Xlights and RGB lighting but I've spent a lot of time watching some of the posted videos, reading the user guide, playing around with the software and searching for an answer before I decided to post my "dumb", simple question.

All I want to do is use the software to manually change the colors of my light strings which are on part of my roof line.  I don't want to use music or anything like that. I just want to be able to set the lights to different colors for an hour or so and then have them change.

I've been playing around in the section that comes up when you create a new sequence but choose animation instead of musical sequence but for the life of me can't figure out what to do in this screen and can't seem to find info online about this screen.  (plenty of info on the sequencing screen)  Every time I try to add a style to the string, it only adds a small blue block in the picture.  If I try to add another style, that original blue block disappears.  Perhaps I'm not even in the right place for what I'm trying to do....?

I'm sure the info already exists on how to do this, but I can't find it.  I'm guessing it's probably similar to how you set your lights once your show is over.

Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Many thanks in advance!!

[Gilrock]

Sounds like you are trying to add an effect to the grid?  Is that what you mean by a "style"?  Surely at least one video showed how to do that.

[shinydiamond]

Yes, add an effect or even simply just set the colors of a string.  The videos all show this done in the musical sequence section where you have intervals in the music.  I'm in the animation screen and things look a little different.

[sean]

you create an animation, make it as long as you want. i suggest 3-4 minutes and then have it repeat rather than making an 1 hour animation.

you already have your models defined so do a quick start and then put done some timing marks. (Ctl-t). Now drop any of our 40 effects in between those new timing marks.

save the file.

[shinydiamond]

Thank you for the guidance. Every time I tried to add an effect to a 2nd string of lights, the effect would disappear from the one I had placed it on and only appear on the recent one.   It might be because I'm missing timing marks.  I'll give that a try when I get home tonight.

[Gilrock]

Yes either add timing marks or just uncheck the timing track and then you can drag effects down in freeform mode.  That's usually my preferred sequencing method.

[shinydiamond]

Thank you for all your help.  I got this working the day before Christmas!  Turns out I wasn't dragging the effects down.  I kept clicking on the button thinking that would make my cursor active with the effect.

One follow up question - do people typically build their show and then create another one to display static lights for when the show is done and then use Xscheduler to stitch them together?  Then also use Xscheduler to loop the static light one?  I have been watching the Light fight TV show and trying to figure out how they get them to go from a show to just on.

[Gilrock]

Yep either xSchedule using a PC or with the Falcon Pi Player software on a Raspberry Pi.

[shinydiamond]

Got it.  Thank you!  I bought my equipment from Holidaycoro so I'm stuck with having to use a PC.  I didn't know this Raspberry Pi thing existed until I started reading posts on this forum and watching Xlight tutorial videos.

[Ebuechner]

You're not stuck running your show from a PC.
A Raspberry Pi with fpp should be able to run anything that holiday Coro sells.

[Gilrock]

Yep all the HolidayCoro controllers will work with E1.31 input from the FPP.

[shinydiamond]

Got it.  A quick google search and I now understand that a Raspberry Pi is a low cost computer.  I originally thought it was another brand of controller.  I wish I had known about that before I decided to drill a hole through the wall of my house to run an Ethernet wire to my controller.   

[Gilrock]

I think the Ethernet to the yard will serve you well.  That's what I have and I use a Pi.

[Ebuechner]

You still need an ethernet connection to talk to the pi.
Most people will use a wireless connection and Bridge in the pi to their Show Network.
But you're a step ahead if you have a wired connection, your upload speeds to the pi would be much faster.

[shinydiamond]

Thanks all.  I was thinking about sticking the pi outside and using wifi or a USB flash card to load it up then I can plug the hole in the wall of the house before my landlord notices