House outline only

[BruinGuy]

Hi, noob here.  I searched the forum but didn't find an answer, so bear with me.

This year I'm dipping my toe into pixel lighting.  I will be outlining my house in Brilliant C9 type lights using an AlphaPix 4 controller from Holiday Coro.

I am experimenting with xLights and some of the simple things I can do with a house outline.  No show with music, just animation.  Chases, etc.

However, I'd like to have periods of time during the sequencing where the lights just look like traditional old C9 Christmas lights.  That is I'll have five colors and alternate them (red, blue, green, yellow, white) on the strings.  That part I get and can do pretty easily by changing the colors node by node.  Pretty tedious, though.  But, I'd also like to have some of the lights flash like I used to have on the old style C9 lights.  I'm not sure exactly how to do that.  In fact, I'd like to let the flashing be random if possible. 

Can this be done easily?  Is the tedious method the only way?  Also, once I create a sequence for 10 seconds or so can I save that effect and then copy it in enough times for it to repeat for, say, 10 minutes?  Or can I take a single sequence and tell xLights to repeat it for 10 minutes.

Sorry if I'm so wordy, I'm just trying to get the hang of this.  Hopefully I can catch on quickly and will be able to post helpful information later as repayment.

[Gilrock]

Editing node by node is almost always not the way to do it.  Just use an effect that will alternate the colors.  You can use the Marquee effect to alternate between those colors and set the speed to 0 so it doesn't move.  Then just chain a bunch of them together for whenever you want it to change.  Not sure what kind of flashing you want.  You can add Sparkles to the effect to make them randomly flash white.

[flyinverted]

Once you figure out what effect works best for you, that effect and it's settings can be saved as a 'preset' and then recalled as many times as needed.

- Steve

[mararunr]

I would also suggest trying the Single Strand effect (along with Marquee as Gil suggested).

[BruinGuy]

Thanks for your help.  That did exactly what I was looking for.

Is there a good tutorial just on how the effects work?  Also, are there any places to get more effects?

[Phrog30]

Thanks for your help.  That did exactly what I was looking for.

Is there a good tutorial just on how the effects work?  Also, are there any places to get more effects?

Go here: http://nutcracker123.com/nutcracker/releases/, there is a manual you can download as well as some tutorials.

James

[Gilrock]

The best thing is just create a dummy matrix and start dropping effects on it and play with the settings.  There are still effects I've never used and don't fully understand.