Additional hardware needed?

[Darthvodka]

I have a Raspberry Pi coming in the mail so I can run Falcon Player to run sequences created in Xlights. (I have not gotten so far as creating any sequences yet.)

For the actual Lights I have all LOR controllers:

• 2 x CTB16PCg3
• 1 x CMB24D DMX (8 x rgb floods)
• 1 x pixie8d 2nd gen (pixel tree)
• 1 x PixCon16 (16x100 pixels not sure what I am doing with these yet).

Will I need any other hardware between the Pi and the LoR controllers when I make the switch to Xlights and Falcon Player?

[allknowing2012]

fm transmitter? perhaps a soundblaster 3.

[jnealand]

I would think putting a Falcon PiCap on the Pi would simplify the process as it has built in DMX out and you can run all your LOR stuff using DMX.  That will also give you two straight pixel outputs that you can use to start learning more about Pixel use with just xlights.

[dkulp]

The Pixie will likely not work as I don't believe they can go into DMX mode.  The rest should work fine.  I'd strongly suggest swapping that out with something else.

[Darthvodka]

fm transmitter? perhaps a soundblaster 3.

Sorry I didn't put those in my list I was think lights only. I have an FM Transmitter that I also plug a small speaker into so people walking can here the music too.

[Gilrock]

I looked at the latest Pixie manual and it appears the newer 2nd gen models can work with something called a PixieLink adapter which would allow you to treat them as a normal E1.31 output.

[Gilrock]

I can't find that adapter they mention on the LOR website.  To be honest I'd throw the Pixie in the trash it will just bring hours of headaches.

[Darthvodka]

I looked at the latest Pixie manual and it appears the newer 2nd gen models can work with something called a PixieLink adapter which would allow you to treat them as a normal E1.31 output.

Thanks Gilrock. This is only the second year I have been doing light shows. Last year I bought the Light-o-rama TSO starter package and it came with the Pixie8D to run the tree. I really am clueless as to what I was/am doing. This year I am mainly going to try and add some pre-sequenced songs to the TSO show and shorten the 1 minute delay between songs. Our street is a drive by street so 1 minute was way to long between songs since the viewing traffic is so heavy cars cannot stop for more then a few seconds.

In the process of trying to figure that out I came across XLights and what seemed to be a much better software package for what I have always wanted to do... Pixels. So instead of doing this last minute like I seem to always do I am trying to get a jump on 2021.

Sadly I think I may have jumped the gun on getting the Rasberry Pi and think I probably should have gone with  the BeagleBone Black.   

[Gilrock]

Well in this hobby its good to collect one of everything. 
Depending on what you want to do that Pi would work fine.  I switched to xSchedule last year and run the show on one of the many spare laptops I have laying around but before that I ran my show for years on a Raspberry Pi B+ from 2014.  You could get the Pixie running if you have the LOR high speed red 485 adapter and use a USB output from whatever show player you use.  It needs what we call the LOR Optimized or Enhanced protocol to be able to handle more than 96 channels but the higher the channel count you use the worse it will perform.

[Darthvodka]

...if you have the LOR high speed red 485 adapter and use a USB output from whatever show player you use.

Thanks for that info. I have the standard one. I will look into the HS version. What's another 20-30 dollars, right?

[Gilrock]

Except I would hesitate at dumping more money into getting the Pixies working.  Plenty of other controllers that are easier to work with and use E1.31.