Remembering the Beginnings

[Onesmoothhead]

It is amazing to me how things change so quickly. 

Back in 2009-2010 I was very frustrated with the scheduler in the free software I was using. I had issues and more issues.  There were delays of up to 2 minutes between songs.  Then came xLights and with a little learning curve and I mean very little I have a perfect, non-crashing scheduler and I can now leave home knowing my show will run.  I have used xLights ever since, thank you Matt.

Back in 2010 to present I jumped on the original DLA Smart Strings and purchased hardware.  It was taking me over 50 hours to program Tune To 92.9 in only red using my sequencing software.  I pled with the hardware but never used it in a show until this year. Interesting  as it is a guy showed up on every Christmas light site and said he had a few ideas on how to handle the high channel count. One of the huge problems with the software lagging the hardware in design.  If I remember he did not own hardware at the time. It was amazing what he was doing in such a short order and he had a RGB tree animation spinning and we were cheering in the back ground.  He stiles that same tree in his signature. We asked him to name his software.  Since he already was building massive Nutcrackers it only seemed appropriate for the massive sequencing to be named the same.  I am glad he choose the name. His new software knock my sequencing time down from the 50 hours to a few minutes.  Thank you Sean for all you have done.

Now in 2013 we get Matt and Sean and many others and only one software with more capabilities than I could have imagined in 2009.  Really off the charts!  By the way I can scroll Tune To 92.9 in real time now and use it at a moments notice.

I hope people will add their stories? If I am remembering wrong please correct me. My perspective is from the DLA site.  It is very amazing to live through the time.


Best Regards,

Kevin

[sean]

Wow, you take me back. DLA was the first forum i posted on. I just looked at my first post in the new members section posted dec 19,2011.

"I am interested in learning and setting up a Christmas display for next year. My twin 10 yo boys love the Christmas time. We just built two 9 foot nutcrackers to surprise their mother. You can see them here http://meighan.net/nutcrackers

I play the flute and piccolo in the VFW (Veterans of Foreign War) band, the Littleton community orchestra, the Highlands Ranch Concert Band and two orchestras at St Andrews Methodist Church here in Highlands Ranch.

I have downloaded Light Show Pro and started sequencing some music.

I have been working as a programmer and involved in computers since 1971. Hughes Aircraft, Memorex, Unisys, Sun Microsystems, BEA and now Oracle Corporation. I have composed music using Finale and Siebelius. With programming and music as a background i feel i am ready to automate my Christmas display.

I look forward to the journey as i learn from all of you...

sean meighan
4217 greenfinch dr
Highlands Ranch, CO
sean.meighan@oracle.com"

two weeks later (jan 13,2012)  i had decided to build a tool and had a prototype.
http://diylightanimation.com/index.php?topic=7657.msg109770#msg109770

"I am new to all of this. I have only used the Mr Christmas 6 channel light controllers from Home Depot. Over the next year i plan on getting 6 Lynx express, some of the smart strings and build a mega tree,
I want to have various patterns on my megatree next Christmas.
I prototyped a web page and wondered if anyone has done this before?
I modeled the tree with a cone and have various effects (spiraling lines, vertical lines, cross hatched lines,fireworks, text, stars, .etc.) The models are stored as an animated gif. I then built a model of the megatree, 16 segments, 60 pixels each segment. As the math model runs it projects the data onto the model of the tree. I have paramaters for changing the length of the sequence and for changing the models.
I next want to export the sequence as an xml file to import into lsp/vixen.
I plan on the web page allowing you to select which animation model you want ( radio buttons will allow selecting as many as i have in the gallery) and then projecting the animation onto the model of the tree.
i could also build other targets. i was thinking , for example, of modeling a snowman made of rgb strings. or a wall of strings. By separating the math models from the target physical models i think i will be able to get some interesting effects.
so ...
am i duplicating some tool that already exists?
where can i find out the format for the xml file i would need to create to import into vixen?
thanks sean"

So what does this mean? Nutcracker is two years old! I never knew ..

sean

[Onesmoothhead]

Sean, it is amazing where you have taken us in the RGB world. It has been two years. Good history for sure.  I remember your first post.  Amazing how it has grown as you predicted, though I am still looking for the blue prints for the Pixel snowman.  I get on that tonight.  Thanks again for all you have done for us. You have placed many smiles on many face through many displays. 

Kevin


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[JonB256]

While we're remembering -

I had read about Nutcracker and been to the original website in 2011, but didn't have any Pixels. Then I went to the Ultimate Academy in Conroe, TX that summer.  Matt Brown was there and gave a presentation about xLights.  Sean was there and gave a presentation about Nutcracker. When I first heard Sean talk about using Hue/Saturation/Value (HSV) conversions instead of RGB to do color changes on a model, I knew that he was on to something. I still didn't have any Pixels but I started reading everywhere about them because I knew it was going to be possible soon.

Then Matt ported Nutcracker into C++, seemingly overnight, then integrated into xLights and now the world is a more colorful place.

[Donny M. Carter]

The first time I had ever head of Sean and his software was on the LOR forums. He posted saying that he loaded all members  to his site so they could use his software. Me, being the wonderful person I was at the time, jumped down Seans throat fusing me info without permission! At that selfish time in my life Sean was doing something for the community that I couldn't comprehend. It didn't take me long to realize my ignorance! I publicly and privately apologized to Sean for being an asshole! Thanks Sean for accepting my apology!

Once I came to my senses and starting learning NC, it was awesome! I used NC in 2012 by coping and pasting several thousand channels in to S3. It was not an easy task for sure, but the results were amazing! The NC today is a walk in the park because of "Team Xlights/Nutcracker" and I appreciate you efforts more than you will ever know! THANK YOU!

Donny

[Lights On Fifth]

When I first heard of N\C I had no idea how to even install it on my computer, Sean took the time to out of his day to do this for me, as I was on the phone with him, he took control of my computer and installed everything I needed for N\C. Wouldn't you know it a couple of weeks later he tells me there is something brand new, it is called N\C Xlights, can not say thank you enough, made sequencing my pixel tree a breeze. Oh ya N\C Xlights was so easy to install I did it myself, not bad for a non computer guy, but I am getting better.