🎄Custom Modelling in xLights (2020)🎄

[@mcrathenn]

You continue to be an incredible resource! Took me 3 minutes to find this on the Facebook Group and another 5 minutes to do what I needed to get my custom model. Thanks Jeff!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Awesome! Glad it helped!

[@toyotaspeed90]

When you first showed the wiring I thought "single strand will look awful"..... which can be fixed with submodels, but you showed a great way of rebuilding the model. Thanks!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Consensus is that the star model works better for this, but I really just wanted to demo building a custom model. Apparently there's also a video option that will assign them automatically, but I haven't tried that.

[@audioentertainment]

So - I tell my wife its all your fault. I didn't get it started in time last year to get my mega tree up. That I have a Falcon F16V3 to run - but this week I ordered 8000 Nodes from Ray Wu, a bunch of stuff from Boscoyo, and an F48 with 12 Smart Differential Cards. My son is working on remixing our own Christmas tracks - here's hoping I have enough time to do all this and work my bill paying job. I will post videos as we can - but I have been refreshing myself on your videos and I can't wait. Thanks for the motivation!!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Yeah, I get blamed by a lot of folks so no worries. 😂Good luck with your quest!

[@philarbogast2944]

I LOVE your intros... never know what your going to come up with ! Kinda like the light bulb “ I have 6 of thes....(pop) ... Ihave 5 of these !

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha! Thanks!

[@s.macmillan460]

Love the pile of pixels on the bench...ready to be placed.. great video

[@CanispaterChristmas]

My work queue. lol!

[@qt1070]

S. Macmillan that means? A lot more entertaining, educational, stop the video to wipe my eyes from laughter videos coming our way. 👍👍👍😂😂😂😂

[@ChristmasOnCrestline]

Congrats on passing 10,000 subscribers. Well earned.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks and Thanks for being part of it! :)

[@ejtaylor73]

LOOK AT ALL THOSE PIXELS!!!!! Maybe it's time to look for some kind of tool to roll those all up, something that can be labelled with what prop they came from. Maybe something like a garden hose roller, just smaller scale, then next year you can grab the prop and the roll labelled for that prop, and go to town setting things up, and maybe save a little time doing it to work on a new prop.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. They go into strip or props pretty quickly, but good ideas. 😃

[@brianmcvay5455]

When you see Canispater Christmas put out another video, you stop what you're doing on a Sunday afternoon and give it a look-see!!! Lol Great video Jeff, have you ever used David's custom model creator? I've been using it A LOT here lately and love it!!!

[@ChristmasOnCrestline]

Very true, Brian.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Only the tools in xLights. Does his map out the pixels for you?

[@brianmcvay5455]

@@CanispaterChristmas it works very similar to the one built in xLights, with a few more bells and whistles, and you can create sub models within the program before you save the file for xlights

[@mourisyounan9998]

are you using MAC? am trying to see the wiring view but nothing happened with a right click ? how can you view that ? and I want to mention that there is nothing connected yet am just testing the Xlight and trying to learn the basic first .

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Yes, using a Mac, but it's the same with a PC. Right-click on the right-hand side (the picture of the model).

[@willyscreation]

You “Nailed” this video lol

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha!

[@alexandercooke1186]

Did you put that star on your mega tree?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Yes. Check out the videos toward the end of the year.

[@PietroChirico-m2g]

Hi, I also use xlights and, looking at this tutorial I saw that the xlights interface is black, can you be as kind to explain to me how you did? Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Mac computer😂

[@technicalking5813]

What controller are you using

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Falcon F16 & F48 from Pixelcontroller.com

[@Collinsfamilylights]

What size star do you think would look good on top of a 16ft tall mega tree 🌳?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Very subjective, but did you check mine out in the music videos? My tree is about that tall.

[@shayneengeseth6131]

somehow i lost your list. I am back. thanks for all the videos and time it takes to make it.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Welcome back! Thanks!

[@xTremeSequences]

I never use custom models for stars like this. The native star will look better and give you more effect options with Star Layer in the Layer settings that the custom star will not. I believe there is plenty of room to start at the bottom or middle to make the jump to the second and third rings. I love your intros!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. Thanks! Yeah, this wasn't a good model to use, but I figured I could show creating custom models. Plus, I got a new nailer and I had to show Keith. :)

[@rsrubberducky]

I built a matrix that has 1900 ws2811 pixels. I would need to put them on port 1 and port 2 on my kulp16 but how would I linked them both together?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

xLights does the magic if you get the model correct. On the model, enter the total number of pixels then you need strands per string to be the actual number of strings on the controller. So from what you said, 1900 for the total and 2 strands per string which will give you 2 strings of 950 pixels. At least that's how I think it should work. 😂

[@rsrubberducky]

@@CanispaterChristmas Ok I’ll try that. Thank you very much

[@KandMmediaLA]

Am I the only one that noticed the pro level amount of pixels sitting on his workbench, just ya know…. chilling there, not making a sound, just existing. He really should’ve held a contest to guess the number of pixels like you would jellybeans.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

LOL. and they were all used shortly after this video. 😂

[@John52416]

If I have 5 individual window frame models in the xlight layout can they be connected together and put on the same port or would that not work correctly?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

If they are close together, yes, but you may need something like an F-Amp in between. It makes no difference which port they are on though. If it makes sense for your display, that's fine, but there's no reason they have to be.

[@missyhodges8194]

I wish I knew which pixels to order complete with ends and all the rest of the stuff! I would wake up my sleepy little town each holiday! I LOVE these light shows but am clueless on even the basics. I’ve even watched all of your videos but I don’t know simple things like wiring into controllers and such!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Well, you might shout out in the Facebook group (in the video description) to see if there is someone near you that would be willing to help. It's mainly some basic electronics and computers. It is a steep learning curve, but once you understand it, it's just adding more. It's a lot of fun!

[@missyhodges8194]

CanispaterChristmas thank you for replying. There is a group in my state that I’m part of. But, no one near me. So, I think I’m going to grab my notes from your videos and go back and recap everything and just go for it! 😊

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. WOO HOO! Keep me posted and be sure to use the online resources (Facebook, forums, xLights Zoom call) if you run into trouble. Plenty of smart folks online willing to help get you started - great community.

[@trapp88]

When I saw the nail gun I knew something was going to happen. Hair trigger on that son of a gun....... Three courses of lights on the twinkle, twinkle...or rows if you prefer. Have a great week Jeff......

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I guess they're rings. Seemed odd tho. Thanks Pete! You too!

[@texasmike7994]

One question, if I set up pixels in a prop, with the lights hooked up to power, can the lights operate without sequence or a computer to make em light up?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Nope. They need data to tell them color and brightness.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

However, if they do, you likely have a problem of some sort. 😂

[@texasmike7994]

How about dumb nodes

[@texasmike7994]

Thanks for your videos and help

[@CanispaterChristmas]

You'd have to do some experimenting with those. I imagine the current draw is similar, but they are essentially analog pixels vs digital pixels and not individually addressable (the entire string is the same color).

[@InTheKitchenWithGrammy]

Hi, can you download X-lights on a Mac? Thank you

[@CanispaterChristmas]

It's in the Mac App Store.

[@DavidCAllen50]

Where is the “single line” command located for the curtain effect?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

You mean how do you get rid of that opening curtain look? Set the swag width to zero.

[@ducebigalow8834]

Great intro as always. How do you run your tests lime that with the different effects? Is that thought xlights or falcon?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! I'm using xLights "output-to-lights" feature that plays data out to the controller.

[@kowboykelley4678]

@@CanispaterChristmas Hi, love your videos! Any tips on getting 'output to lights to work'? Would love to be able to test in real time but can't seem to get 'test' in xlights to work. My settings seem aligned between fpp and xlights and I only have 2 strings of 50 to get things set before I get carried away

[@86Miguelisimo]

Wow this is amazing! So what type of lights are those and where can I buy them? Thank yoh

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! If you are in the US, look at wiredwatts.com. If elsewhere, check out my beginner playlist for the basics.

[@taylor-pp8sv]

how much do you spend on these pixels just wondering the cheap but not to cheap option as want to start

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I tell people to budget about $1 per bulb. They aren't that expensive, but starting out, there is a lot of extra stuff to get - controller, power supplies, pixels, Raspberry Pi or PC, cables, tools, etc. If you already have some of this then it's obviously cheaper. No telling how much I've spent on it. I started small and add to it each year.

[@taylor-pp8sv]

@@CanispaterChristmas oh okay thank you this was very helpful have you got a video showing howbyou connect the lights together??

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@taylor-pp8sv No, but I'm working on it.

[@taylor-pp8sv]

@@CanispaterChristmas okay thank you that will be very helpful 😁👍🏼

[@choppa5300]

I want to get a kit that’s all included in the box 📦, this would be a good suggestion for a video.I follow your diy projects but haven’t seen any like this. Also any suggestions for this ??

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Early on, it was tough to find, but there are probably a few folks with ready-to-run stuff available now. I also think most in the hobby are fairly OCD/control-freakish and have an idea of what they want to do. R2R kits won't work for everyone so they build their own and honestly, there's plenty of help online in the forums or Facebook groups to help you figure out what you need based on what you want to start with. I've yet to see someone stick with what they started with. :)

[@choppa5300]

CanispaterChristmas I don’t have Facebook , any recommendations on a all in one tree or other decorations? Any links ?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Not really since I started from scratch. I learned everything from the forums (before the Facebook group was a thing). You could try posting in one of those. I just see more people offering things now that wasn't available when I started.

[@skrame01]

You should do the video option with automatic numbering, works great for me, most of the time.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

[@rickharris7485]

If you were to change the render style to Per Preview, does it still display weird? I love your videos! that is what I started learning with and they are awesome, I even point to your website as a reference in the FPP Manual! Great work!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks! Single-line is the effect I'm going for. It wouldn't do it per preview, but then it wouldn't achieve the same look. I use single-line a lot - hence why I noticed it. lol!

[@rickharris7485]

@@CanispaterChristmas I see, I thought you mentioned the curtain effect was not displaying correctly. And in case you didn't know, you could have submodeled it in the order that you want to display your single line. I don't know if it would have been easier or not, but in any case the video was a great way to show how to make a custom model.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Yeah, the star isn't a great example since there is already a built-in star model with ring settings. There's also another tool for creating custom models I need to show. Another video. :)

[@piotrlegro1514]

What material is the star made of?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Corrugated plastic of some kind. See Boscoyo.com

[@dickwoolley]

Pixel Envy!!!!!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha!

[@ogmaker]

I was surprised that you went with the manual custom model as opposed to the video mapping method. I don't have the patience to click that many times, so I use the video method! As always, great content! 16p nails might be a bit much for tacking lights on the fence though! ;-)

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks. I want to show all ways of doing custom models. Understand about clicking through everything, but others have had mixed results with the video method and correcting one is very painful. Sounds like you have good/consistent results. I'll cover the video option as well and show David Peace's website in a future episode. Haha.

[@robertpage9759]

Ok now ur just showing off that pile of pixels haha Nice video appreciate it I have 3 new snow flakes for this year and a mega tree gonna be tackling one these days But is so much easier just to watch you and get yipped to do it and then no lolllll

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. Unfortunately, I have plans to use all of those this year so you're actually looking at my work queue. lol!

[@robertpage9759]

@@CanispaterChristmas nice look forward to seeing it

[@lauramcdougal3952]

swap all of those out in less than 2 minutes - that's Great !!!!!!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Well, I did speed the video up a little so maybe really 10 minutes. lol

[@geoffpemberton9976]

Always keep your finger off the trigger!!! Great video..

[@CanispaterChristmas]

😂Thanks!

[@scottgordon4431]

How many pixels in that pile ?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

4K. I have a lot to do between now and Thanksgiving. :)

[@amexcast2261]

Wich Pixel use you (5Volt , 12 Volt)

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Both, but mostly 12V

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

You're welcome! 🤣

[@BrianHensleyRULES]

Loved it. Thank you!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks!

[@MrPaulAR]

Instead of doing a custom model you could have just used the default star model, set number of pixels, then for "layer sizes" put x, y, z for your different layers. The default model would have been what you manually built.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

True. That's why I mention this wasn't a great candidate, but I wanted to demonstrate doing custom models.

[@qt1070]

Paul Thomas and I come just for the entertainment value.

[@nateandsuzi7971]

wow nice very helpful thanks!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thanks!

[@Dogwalkeroftwo]

Funny how your green screen jumps onto the star when the LEDs go green!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I'm not that good at editing. lol!

[@amexcast2261]

Can you Tiger me the Produktnumber of this Pixels

[@CanispaterChristmas]

I don't know the number. I asked for 100-node, 2811 bullets, 12V regulated, 18AWG all black wire, 4 inch spacing. They are fairly standard pixels.

[@gregorymacaree4676]

As you're in Germany, best European Distributor i've found is buildalightshow.com in the UK

[@markswartz2109]

Jesus Jeff, got Pixels?

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Aww yeah! 😂

[@JustinNovack]

If you were to start at #2, that would put the last pixel in a ring at the center bottom (then jump to #2 in the next ring). This would make sure that the last pixel lit is the center between the mounts. I hope you are not a perfectionist!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Not enough for me to re-do it. 😂

[@RojerLockless]

I don't think your pile of pixels is big enough :)

[@CanispaterChristmas]

😂

[@timdouglas3859]

I need to speak with you sir!!!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Easiest for me to get back to you here, but if it's questions of a general nature, I'd direct you to the forums and Facebook groups listed in the video description - so many people there to help out.

[@timdouglas3859]

@@CanispaterChristmas might he a dumb question so if I'm running the falcon controller do I need the Rasbury pi ? I did your ten dollar pixel class also but it's been a while since I've looked at everything I'm still completely new to all of this and starting to get my light show ready just started buying everything last year and finishing getting everything before we start heading into the season

[@Aaronproductions]

dang i never knew the sign was a green screen

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Thank you. Thank you very much. It means I've mostly done well. lol!

[@CanispaterChristmas]

@@katelights Sure!

[@TheSoundmanPete]

Don't you have to register those things in Texas ?? Oh wait...... it's a Paslode airgun.

[@CanispaterChristmas]

Haha. Yeah, doesn't apply to Paslodes.

[@devinhedge]

You can't un-see those pics, can you? :-P

[@CanispaterChristmas]

😂

[@orlandovega8259]

Oooohhhh...demmmm Jijiji ji...😃

[@CanispaterChristmas]

lol