Thanks Andy,
That’s very kind of you to say 
It’s a little fragile, so you might need to schedule a Windows restart once a week, just to keep it alive. (which is what we have had to do on the big project that’s shown in one of those videos)
Another chap is looking into QLC+ which I think is avalible for Linux, you might want to explore that too.
Well… Yes and… no… well…maybe
It’s totally up to you.
Strictly speaking, it is “best practice” to keep any fast frame lighting control on an isolated network.
In the setups I use, the Lighting control software machines have 2 Wired LAN connections (I tried with a WiFi and a wired LAN, but there was something odd going on with WiFi that meant it missed instructions from openHAB2 on the home network.
Using my mantra “if you want it to work, use a bit of wire”, I just threw a cheap USB to LAN dongle onto the machine that was running Jinx! and used that as the incoming / remote control connection.
It works just as well the other way around.
- Lighting / Art-Net / sACN on the USB <> LAN dongle
- Remote control on the built in LAN
openHAB2 doesn’t need the second LAN port, just the machine that is running the lighting control software.
(which I guess might still be the same machine, so you can use the software loopback connection.)
I could…
But there really isn’t a simple answer.
Other than “Buying Cheap = Buying Twice”
If you just want RGB (or GRB) strips / pixels, then just search for WS2812 as the chip.
Ali-Express have literally thousands of suppliers, in a similar way that Ebay and Amazon does.
These are super easy to configure in Jinx! as you just need to set the Pixel order and tell it how they are laid out.
If you want RGBW (Red, Green, Blue & White) from your strips, then the SK6812 chip is a good start.
They come in these formats;
- wWcWA (Warm White, Cool White & Amber)
- GRBwW (Green, Red, Blue & Warm White)
- GRBcW (Green, Red, Blue & Cool White)
These aren’t quite to easy to setup in Jinx! becuase it doesn’t have a RGBW pixel order, you’d have to assign the RGB part, then assign a different part of the Matrix for the white element.
rinse and repeat until all pixels are accounted for.
QLC+ does have an RGBW fixture profile, so this will give you a HUGE colour temperature range to choose from and make setup a lot easier.
However setting up a big matrix isn’t the easiest process.
You might also want to check out @CrazyIvan359 Micheals’ MQTTany project.
The only other things to consider are
- Pixel Density
Most strips are availble in; 30 Pixels per Mtr, 60 Pixels per Mtr & 144 Pixels per Mtr - IP rating
Don’t use open PCB strips as they are very flimsy and easy to damage. (Unless you intend to use extrusions with well fitting cappings)
Half moon silicone covered strips seems to be a good option.
Encapulsated strips are not much more than the open PCB strips inside a rectangular silicone tube. They are waterproof, but a bit of a pain to fit and difficult to repair / shorten / re-waterproof / mount and impossible to attach an effective heat sink to.
The advantage of the half moon strip is that you can still mount them to metal extrusions to make use of the heat sinking properties.
(try not to mount them directly onto wood, as that is an insulator… sounds obvious, but often over looked)
If you want some addressable downlights, we are making these now …
Useful reference