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So just curious... who here is still old school?


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This is my second year with LOR, 5 AC controllers 24,000 LED's (340 strands). I had a hard time going from incans., to LED's  five years ago.

I don't think I would go the RBG route, I don't thing it looks as good as old fashion strings of lights.

So I guess " Old School", I still think light strings  looks like Christmas.

Gary

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Still old school here. 4th year having LOR, 1st year using it. Have had several sequences done but moves and other life events have kept me from a display. Last Christmas, I knew I'd be doing something this year. I cashed in on the $0.75 a box of incandescent lights at lowes. 100% incandescent lights this year, although I will switch to RGB or LED next year. 1800 lights went up on the roof today, all minis, individually clipped. Also, 100% Coors light to help my back!

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Third year using LOR controllers, 80 channels, 35,000 LEDS, 11- 3D Deer, 12- 3D Snowmen (6' and 8'), 16- Inflatables,1- 8ft. Coro singing tree, bunch of wireframes and blow molds, oh and a 30 ft. mega tree. Purchased most of my supplies the last 2 years after Christmas with savings of 65 to 85% off. Staying old school mainly because of my tax bracket LOL. Lot better deals after Christmas on traditional lights, FYI try to shop at stores where you know they have a storage problem, they will do almost anything to get rid of there Christmas inventory. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have three 85 bulb strings of C7's on the front roof line of my house this year. I'm pretty sure that's old school. lol

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8 hours ago, Say watt?? said:

I have three 85 bulb strings of C7's on the front roof line of my house this year. I'm pretty sure that's old school. lol

I would say you take the cake on that one. LOL

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9 hours ago, Say watt?? said:

I have three 85 bulb strings of C7's on the front roof line of my house this year. I'm pretty sure that's old school. lol

Agree with Tom -

Hey, 4 more bulbs and you probably even trip the breaker. 

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No LED's, no RGB, no DMX.  Old C9's, net lights, wire frames, wood frames and candy cane fencing.  Push our 16 channels to the limit 5,000 or more lights. My five artificial trees are actually freebie artificial Christmas trees, I got from Craiglist in the summer or after Christmas when no one wants them. They look like a bunch of real pine trees growing in our yard. I decorate all the trees with Christmas balls, I got from the thrift store.  I also have large styrofoam snowflakes from the dollar store that look great on our roofline with our lights.  Our house is decorated for daytime viewing too.

Have gotten some great items for our display for cheap from thrift stores and Craigslist. 

 

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No LED's, no RGB, no DMX.  Old C9's, net lights, wire frames, wood frames and candy cane fencing.  Push our 16 channels to the limit 5,000 or more lights. My five artificial trees are actually freebie artificial Christmas trees, I got from Craiglist in the summer or after Christmas when no one wants them. They look like a bunch of real pine trees growing in our yard. I decorate all the trees with Christmas balls, I got from the thrift store.  I also have large styrofoam snowflakes from the dollar store that look great on our roofline with our lights.  Our house is decorated for daytime viewing too.

Have gotten some great items for our display for cheap from thrift stores and Craigslist. 

 

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No LED's, no RGB, no DMX.  Old C9's, net lights, wire frames, wood frames and candy cane fencing.  Push our 16 channels to the limit 5,000 or more lights. My five artificial trees are actually freebie artificial Christmas trees, I got from Craiglist in the summer or after Christmas when no one wants them. They look like a bunch of real pine trees growing in our yard. I decorate all the trees with Christmas balls, I got from the thrift store.  I also have large styrofoam snowflakes from the dollar store that look great on our roofline with our lights.  Our house is decorated for daytime viewing too.

Have gotten some great items for our display for cheap from thrift stores and Craigslist. 

 

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4 hours ago, Mega Arch said:

Agree with Tom -

Hey, 4 more bulbs and you probably even trip the breaker. 

At just over 4 amps per string you could be right, but I couldn't help my myself. Red, green and white C7's dancing along a roofline just screams Christmas! I added a subpanel in the basement and ran eight 15 amp circuits to the front porch. I have four DIY 16 channel controllers and each one has two power cords connected to it. Basically, each bank of eight channels is on it's own 15 amp breaker. This allows me to put each string of 85 on it's own circuit and have capacity to spare. The subpanel is also switched on and off by a mechanical timer, which is really convenient. 

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I'm only in my second year, but I'm currently only incans and LEDs.  I'd love to do a CCR tree, but I think I've pushed my husband's installation limits, as last weekend he muttered, "No more putting stuff on the house! LAWN ONLY!"  *lol*  

So I think for 2018 I'm going to focus on adding another 16 channels to my currently 8-channel spiral tree, and getting a Santa projector for our bay window.  

We're going to be dark in 2017 so that we can travel for the holidays.  That gives me plenty of time to either change his mind or buy more equipment so I can make the spiral tree a full 32 channels AND figure out a way to do something "on the house" without making him climb a ladder.

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I just moved 2 times in a year. Last Christmas was spent in an apartment, it drove me nuts! All of my lights were in storage. I have no ccr or anything other than LED lights. I and my wife loves blow molds and they are all incans. I have no plans for upgrading at all.

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<---Definition of "old school".

27500+ ALL Incandescent on 127 channels (one channel needs a new triac ><)...46 strands of C9, the rest mini lights.  I pull right at 165A when everything is on.  Yes...all the lights in the house dim with the music from 6pm to midnight for a month straight. =D

Still need to take some videos for this year.  Have one last song I am finishing up this weekend ...then I'll post back here with some YouTube Links once I get videos posted.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I still use nothing but INCANS and most of my wire-frames are all Home Made... wrapped with Incan Lights bought from the Walmart after Christmas sales over the last 20 years.. Not even 1 led, ccr , dmx or anything else is in my display. 

Average cost of my 4 ft tall wire frame mini trees.... $1.00 which includes the tomato cage bought in NOV for about .50 centsand the lights... about .50 cents or so Cost for 8 mini trees... about 8 dollars and 4 hrs twisting the lights around the frames and using maybe 10 very small zip ties on them.

 

Mega Tree... about $20.00 of PVC bought from a plumbing contractor at a large construction site as SCRAP, most for free... and 16 strings of again Walmart .50 cent lights.... 32 of them ( because I twisted 2 together as a double string)..

 

I also got many strands of light for FREE... all I did was put in Craigs list that I will help remove your lights for free if you are planning on moving or giving them away... I actually was given about 50 strands (ALL GREEN) during the summer by someone moving and just didnt want to carry them with them.

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I'm still old school. I'm just adding RGB for next year but the wife wants a pixel tree. So I'm 2 years she will get her pixel tree. Currently just running 80 Channel no LED 50,000 incandescent show. Adding 3 cmb24D for RGB's next year. I've had them for 2 years just haven't had time to get the new lights into the show.


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This year we did a twist, my house sits on a corner lot so the front was all LOR and my wife went static old school on the side yard. She installed 42 Christmas trees in different lighted colors ranging from three feet tall to eight feet tall. She literally had a Christmas Tree forest with lighted deer, gifts under the trees and different Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays signs. When you pulled up to the front of the house you saw the LOR musical light show and when you turned the corner and went down the side street you saw the large Christmas Tree Forest static display.

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17 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

This year we did a twist, my house sits on a corner lot so the front was all LOR and my wife went static old school on the side yard. She installed 42 Christmas trees in different lighted colors ranging from three feet tall to eight feet tall. She literally had a Christmas Tree forest with lighted deer, gifts under the trees and different Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays signs. When you pulled up to the front of the house you saw the LOR musical light show and when you turned the corner and went down the side street you saw the large Christmas Tree Forest static display.

I would love to see a picture of that!

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