Electronics box came in, so I was able to finish the install.
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The lights are working well. I have still been seeing occasional lockups on the second controller. This was happening when I accidentally put solid white at max brightness on all the LEDs. The easy fix is to just reduce the brightness a little. The smarter fix will be to get a second buck converter and run separate power to the controller and the LEDs.
The other minor issue I’m having is dropped packets. I’m pretty sure this is because I’m piggy-backing on my existing access point. I’ve noticed the internet runs slower on my cell phone while the lights are on outside.
I already had plans to upgrade my AP in the house next year, so I can delegate the existing one to only the light display.
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If you’re a packrat like me and have an (or several) old wifi router(s) kicking around, you could set up a separate wifi network dedicated to the lights and not have their chatty nature negatively impact regular wifi uses. Another option would be to use a Raspberry Pi as a dedicated hotspot for the decorations network.
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Yes. I have a few options there, but most AP’s I’ve replaced were because they should have been put in the garbage already.
I’m gonna jump on this train. I think I have decided on 12V, WS2815 LEDs. One 12V PSU. I need about 40m total, with the longest strip being 13m along the top edge of the second story. The second story ones are going to go up last, for sure though.
I am looking at the quin led quad because it has the fuses and wire terminations already set up. I am not sure if having separate data channels for each LED string is going to make programming a PITA or not. I hope to use WLED firmware with it. I have been playing with it inside, on my tree topper, and connecting it to home assistant. It is awesome:
Nothing will be here until after Christmas, so I will have to figure out a pattern for new year’s or something. Maybe valentine’s day?
I think my biggest worry is that I will have these excellent lights, and that will increase the expectations for the other decorations in the yard. I don’t usually decorate at all, so this will be quite a surprise to my neighbors. Maybe I’ll keep my interest and build some other cool decorations for the yard to put out sometimes.
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I’m creating patterns for each of the following:
Valentines,
St Patty’s day
July 4th
Halloween
Kid’s birthdays
Anyone getting a “Close encounter of the third kind”-vibe from your lights?! 
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not that I know of. I have them doing some pretty rainbows and twinkles. Nothing too far fetched.
My wife says she passes a house on her way to work with lights like ours. I keep debating on knocking on their door and seeing what he used. I figure most people that have programmable LEDs on their house have similar hobbies 
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Maybe I can convice the house across the street to add a few strips so they can talk back and forth.
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If anyone is able to make a remix with the close encounter theme song with a Christmas tune, I’d actually consider playing it loud in our street 
I thought about doing a sequence to the X-Files theme for Halloween next year.
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Those quin LED boards look really nice. Lots of good features.
ESPixelStick supports the WLED firmware also. I considered putting that onto one of them.
The only reason I went with the espixelstick at first was it was readily available off of Amazon.
There was a locally popular house that would do a big synchronized show in their yard every year, simulcast on low power radio, etc., took donations for charity… They got a few of the other houses on the cul-de-sac to get in on the show, and they had elements “run” through some of the other yards. I want to remember a humbug in the mix, with a comedic, electronic dialog with the master house, but I’m probably hallucinating that part… 
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Finally setup a default sequence. Our house doesn’t have landscape lighting, so I’m hoping this adds a little light to the front yard. When it’s really dark out, our house disappears.
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That is cool, Some accent lighting. Slick idea!
This is how we sell the ideas our partners. Instead of just pitching holidays, we also get accent the other 330 days a year.
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We have a street light right at the corner of the yard, so that isn’t our issue. But this is a great idea. I wouldn’t mind having a dummy light switch to just turn them on when I am taking out the trash or something.
They’re not that bright. I know when I lit them at 100% blue, they lit up the entire front yard, but these few white-ish lights don’t light up much.
Yeah. I was meaning I would have a light switch that would just turn all of them, or at least some segments, on to full brightness so I could see the walkways around my house from the front door to the trash can. These are things I think about while taking out the trash. I’m probably not gonna do it.
Although, maybe this would be a good candidate for the NFC tags I have but have never played with. I could just scan one with my phone and it would do a preprogrammed action, like setting the lights to a preset, which could be “all on” or “Police All”
You’re overthinking this.
My entire LED setup goes through a single wifi switch plugged into an outlet. All I do is say, “Alexa, turn on the house leds” and they turn on.
Then have the default WLED settings just be bright white.