garageCube

[FreddieMercury]

I want to get into madlight, but am just so bogged down by the different possibilities for equipment. (not to mention this stuff is so expensive, I can't afford to buy things just to filter out which ones are best) Can anyone give me a breakdown of the most cost-effective starter gear for dimmer, DMX512 interface, led strip and power source? I want to use the USB method rather than ethernet



Thanks!

[mad-matt]

It really depends on your project. Do you want to create a structure for a stage, a small installation.... Do you need solid bars or flexible strips.

For prototyping, a teensy 3.x in USB (15$) and APA102 strips would work: http://www.madmapper.com/2015/09/30/ard ... apper-2-1/
That's the minimal investment.

If you want to do a stage project with LEDs you'll have to use USB DMX or ethernet. Using ethernet has no cost and makes cabling easier. You can use an Advatek Pixelite (50-200$ depending on the number of outputs) to convert ethernet DMX (ArtNet) to LEDs protocol (WS2811-2812 / APA102, LPD...). That's cheap and reliable equipment. Then you can buy flexible DIGITAL LED strips.

So there are plenty of solutions depending on your project. In any case, for big installations, the budget is not MadMapper or the LED controller/USB DMX stuffs, the cost is the LED hardware.

[FreddieMercury]

Thank you, Matt. This is very helpful information. I had planned to go with the a stage set-up of sorts, with pixelite. Now that I know ethernet is cheaper I'll likely be working with that. Definitely going to add slowly to my collection of led strips so I don't have to buy a whole load at once. (they are quite expensive, as you mentioned)