I decided to up my game this year with regards to my outdoor lights. I went with a plan of building a Mega Tree for my garden, creating some custom shows created with xLights software and obviously bringing control in to Indigo. Some browsing online told me that there would be a reasonably high upfront cost but it would be expandable over the next few years at a more affordable level.
Non exhaustive parts list:
17 x WS2811 50 pixels
16 x pixel mounting strips
1 x 50 pixel Star
1 x 60A DC power supply
1 x Falcon pixel controller
1 x rPi with Falcon Pi Player (FPP) build
1 x outdoor enclosure to house pixel controller, power supply & rPi
Numerous junction boxes for power injection, I used 5 V pixels
Home made pole/structure made from unistrut I had lying around
Most of the items above were purchased from https://buildalightshow.com , Nic was my very helpful contact there. There are multiple sources of this equipment across the world, particularly in the US and Australia where there are very active communities.
The end result is a very satisfying Mega Tree on which I can create custom light shows and more importantly (easily) lean on the existing worldwide community for synchronised light/music shows.
Warning! This hobby can be addictive and costly - there are cheaper ways to do the same, the Falcon controller seemed to suit my needs and I reckon it will be a stable and expandable system for me. I’ve already placed another order for delivery this week to expand on this years plan.
Integration in to Indigo was easy via @Flying Divers MQTT plugin - my use of which is ever-growing. Thanks Joe. The FPP can be communicated with via MQTT. The light shows are created in xLights, uploaded to FPP and then added to a playlist. This playlist can then be started/stopped/queried for playing status etc.
See link to video https://youtu.be/8aEH5u4sJX4 with a special message for Matt & Jay.
Merry Christmas (Hope it’s not too early for that!)
Colly
PS. I’m not the first to do this in Indigo, however the previous forum member didn’t have the availability at the time to use MQTT directly from Indigo.