xLights + WLED for Music Synced Christmas Light Show Creation

how's it going it's finally time to give you my version of an intro 2x lights I am NOT an expert on X lights in fact I've just barely learned how to use it myself but when does that ever stop me from making a how-to video here we go if you've never heard of exlights it's the software that lets you make those crazy cool holiday light ships if you've ever driven by one of those houses that has a radio station playing music and all kinds of lights and trees and candy canes dancing and swaying to the music chances are pretty dang good that they made all that happen using X Lights X lights is free to use and you can download it at X Lights org and they have versions for Windows Mac and Linux in this video I'm going to show you how to get W LED controllers working with X lights I'll go through how to connect X lights to the W LED controllers on your network how to set up your layout and tell X lights where all your LEDs are and how to add simple effects and get them to show up on your lights I am sure that when I'm done you're still gonna have a lot of questions you're probably gonna need help along the way as always I'm happy to do what I can but like I said I am NOT an X lights expert thankfully a lot of good people that use X lights are willing to donate their time to help noobs like us to get their help on the main X lights org page there's a zoom meeting button using zoom meeting requires a little download and setup but it's nothing you need me to walk you through in that zoom meeting there are real life people that are willing to help it doesn't matter what time of day it is or where you are in the world there's probably somebody in the zoom meeting that knows how to do what you're trying to do so before you give up make sure you pop in the zoom meeting and see if you can get some help and even though X slice is free if you find it useful and it brings joy to you or the people around you if you've got the opportunity donate to help support the project now that's enough yeah let's get this sucker set up if you've been following along with me then you're probably using W LED to control some cool addressable LEDs on your house before you start using X lights I recommend you make a spreadsheet something like this this is the list of all of my W LED controllers the important things to include on this list are the name the IP address the number of LED and then leave a column for universes now when you have X lights opened up the first thing that we're gonna do is start adding controllers all of these W LED controllers are gonna communicate with X lights using the e 131 protocol so we're gonna add a 131 we're going to use unicast which means you need to put the IP address in this box your IP addresses are gonna be different and if you don't know what they are the best place to find them is in the W LED app I'm gonna start with my front controller and the IP address ends in 205 so now I've got the IP address for that controller here my least favorite part about X lights is the way it handles channels and universes and nodes and it's terminology that is super confusing for a newbie like me so a universe in X lights is made up of a maximum of 510 channels each channel is an individual LED in the lights that we've been using there are actually three LEDs in one pixel so the maximum number of pixels that you can have in a universe is 170 anytime you've got a controller that's managing more than 170 pixels as far as X lights is concerned it will be controlling multiple universes again I wish this wasn't the way it is but this is the way it is so looking at my first controller there are 182 pixels because that's more than 170 it needs to be two universes what that means is in this a 131 setup box my starting universe is gonna be universe number one the number of universes is gonna be two I don't need to change the universe size in the description I'm gonna put the name that I've given my control and under controller type I'm gonna use es pixel stick and that's one controller hit OK and hit save let's add another one next on my list is entry again we want unicast I put in my IP address for that controller 2:07 my front controller started at universe number one and that controller consists of universe 1 and universe - so the next controller needs to start at universe 3 I'm going to keep track of the starting universe for each controller in this column the entry controller has 150 pixels which will fit in one universe because we can have 170 in one universe so I can leave the number of universes at one universe size I'm not going to change I'm gonna put the name in again and I'm going to set the controller type to es pixel stick and safe now keep on truckin another one unicast IP address 206 entry started on universe 3 and it only used one universe so top which is the next one for me we'll start on universe four and it's a hundred and fifty pixels so it will only be one universe also so the starting universe here is for number of universes is one size is still five ten and then I give it the name choose es pixel stick and okay safe and the next one unicast IP address Shinzon 208 the previous controller started on universe 4 and it was only one universe because it was 150 pixels so this one upper will start on universe number 5 and it's a hundred and twenty-four pixels so also just one universe so over here in the setup box starting universe is five number of universes is one size stays the same keep the name select yes pixel stick for the controller type okay and safe this next controller on the side of the house has an IP address that ends in 84 the starting universe of the previous one was 5 it only used one universe so the starting universe of the next one can be 6 so starting universe number over here is 6 this one has 173 pixels so it needs to be two universes just barely so it'll be two universes the size of the universe stays the same name yes pixel stick his controller type okay and save and then my final one unicast then IP address ends in 128 starting universe for the previous one was 6 but it was 2 so he uses universe 6 and 7 so the starting universe of the next one is 8 dartie universe 8 this one is 172 so again barely two universes some I feel like I'm wasting resources but I'm not okay give it a name control at IPS pixel stick okay and save excellent now the next thing we need to do is go into each W LED controller and tell it which universe it is so first I'll go to the front the IP address ends in 205 go to the settings then in sync interfaces in the e 131 section this is where you designate which universe is the starting universe for this controller this was the very first one so the starting universe is one I don't need to change anything here next on my list is the controller that ends in 207 so I go to that W LED interface go to the sync interfaces in the E 131 section I put the starting universe number in this box because the first controller used universe 1 and 2 this one is universe 3 and on the left-hand side there I have the list from X lights or I also have the numbers in my spreadsheet when you have your starting universe number in this box save it and I still don't know if it's entirely necessary or not but I suggest a reboot can't hurt now you go through and do that for each of your w LED controllers so for number 206 I go to sync interfaces scroll down to e 131 the universe number that it starts with is 4 so I make sure 4 is in this box save and reboot next controller is IP address 208 sync interfaces V 131 section starting universe 5 over here starting universe 5 save and reboot controller number 84 starts on universe 6 there it is and finally number 128 because the previous one used two universes this one starts on universe 8 save and reboot now exlights has the IP address and its own little internal universe designation for each controller each controller knows which universe it is that's the link between the two that had me stumped for a long time but now it won't stumped you you're welcome now let's move on to the next tab up here we're gonna go to layout tab the first thing you should do is add a picture of your house so go outside take a picture of your house put it on your computer then here where it says background image click the little dots select the image that you want to use and then you can adjust things like the brightness so that it just barely shows up in the background and safe now we want to start drawing our strings of lights just for my own sanity I'm gonna do it in the same order so up here I'm gonna create a polyline my controller on my house is here so I click once there and then just follow the roofline and it goes something like that then hit escape when it's done now over here where it says number of nodes I wish it said pixels but it says nodes back to my spreadsheet for reference my number of pixels is 182 so number of nodes here is 182 starting location is where the controller is in this case it's the green dot so I leave it as Green Square for this one the starting channel is number 1 so I can leave that alone and finally change the name right here safe now let's do the next one we're gonna do another polyline something I learned from my exlights Yoda Paul is when you draw your elements you do it from left to right so I'm gonna start over here and follow this roof line escape when I'm done back to my spreadsheet she tells me I have 150 pixels so nodes is 150 let's go ahead and put the name here now the starting location is where the controller is and in this case the controller is over here the Green Square is over here but the controller's over here so instead of Green Square I hit the drop-down and select Blue Square scrolling down a little where it says start channel I want to change this I'm going to select Universe number and then back on my spreadsheet my universe number is 3 I could also put the IP address since I know what it is this one was 207 that's not necessary but probably can't hurt so I've got named number of pixels the location of the controller which is on the right side at the Blue Square not any of these blue squares in the middle though just the blue square on the end the IP address Universal number 3 and the first channel on that universe did I mention that I hate the terminology universes and channels because I do save and let's do the next I'm gonna draw another polyline I'm gonna draw it from left to right here they're there they're there they're there their escape when it's done i spreadsheet this one is the top it's got a hundred and fifty nodes aka pixels the controller and this one is also over here on the right-hand side where the blue square is not where the green square is so I need to change this to blue square then the start channel open that up go to universe this is 206 and it's universe number for 206 and it tells me universe number four great done okay we got more another polyline start on the left go to the right this is the upper there are a hundred and twenty four nodes the node MCU is actually over here on this one which is not the green square again it's the blue square so we're gonna set it to blue square so we keep the left to right when we're drawing our elements but we need to designate which side of the string the controller is actually on and that's what the starting location defines now we'd go down here to start channel universe number this one is 208 and it pops right in with universe number five all right two more this is a little funny because the picture I'm using doesn't actually show the whole display so I need to do just a little bit of Representative geometry the line goes here initially but then it goes all the way down the side of the house so I'm just gonna draw a line now let's draw it like that this one is the side so we changed the name to side 173 pixels or nodes controller again is at the Blue Square instead of the Green Square my controllers not here it's actually at the other end of the string and then my start channel is 84 which pops in my universe number 6 safe the last one is just a line and it's along the back of the house but it pretty much connects with this side so we're gonna do this just draw a line along the back now we're on this controller so that's rear there are a hundred and seventy-two pixels in it the controller is on this side where the blue square is and the start channel universe number 128 starts on universe feet that's my layout next thing we want to do is make a group with all these models in it so right click then add group I'm gonna name it capital ALL and then down here at the bottom I can select all these models and move them over to models in group now they'll all be in this all group now the last part here happens in the sequencer tab a sequence and exlights is the show that's where you actually designate what lights do what when you go to the sequencer tab you need to start a new sequence everybody wants musical sequence so select musical sequence you need to pick a song we're gonna pick hail to the victors the brain in these little W LED controllers is not super big so we probably want to stick to 20 frames per second we can just hit quick start and that will bring in all of our models and it brings in the song all these crazy cool little symbols here are the effects to get an effect to play on a certain element you just drag it from up there to where you want it down here and I'll show you in the preview window what it's doing stretch that out so that it covers the area that you want and put a few more on different places once you've thrown some effects in here hit render and then play on each of these effects you can change the colors so select the effect and then up here in the colors you can just change the colors after you've made any changes render again and finally to get your show to output to your lights you click this little light bulb here which is output to lights this is where you're gonna spend a lot of time I'm not going to be able to show you what all these effects do or tell you how to design a beautiful effect my role is to get you to this point from here you got to do your own tinkering use your own creativity and design the show that you think looks good now that was super simple well not easy but simple make sure I've rendered it make sure my output to lights is on now I hit play and cross my fingers but look it's working we did it we did it [Music] [Applause] well there you go that was my super basic rookies only exlights getting started part one if you want some more details on how to get more out of ex lights and I'm sure you do then check out this fella at learning Christmas lights he's got a bunch of playlists here including a getting started in 2019 guide that's all for now as always thanks for watching til next time adios if you need help or want to chat with me or others who also enjoy projects like this you can find us on Facebook and discord if you like what I'm doing and you want to support me you can use my special product links in the video description or head over to patreon or just like and share my videos that's easy if you liked this video and you want to see more like it this box will take you to a playlist some of my favorites in addition to videos like this I also do live streams every Sunday this box will take you to a recording of the latest live stream that's all for now howdy-ho s--

Channel: DrZzs

Views: 119,484

Keywords: Home Automation, Home Assistant, Sonoff, DIY, Electronics, Tasmota, Arduino, 3d printing, smart home, hassio, esp8266, sonoff basic, iot, nodemcu, drzzs, wemos d1, esphome, home automation, automation, tech, drzzzs, dr zzs, dr zzzs, hassos, home assistant, home assistant automation, iot home automation, tasmota, drzzs sonoff, tech hacks, technical hacks, esp32, iot automation

Id: p7wV6A26Gak

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 16 2019