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Snow Projector


smjosephrn

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I'm already thinking about next year and I'm thinking that I would like to use some sort of lighting effect to project either snowflakes or a snowflurry of lights onto the house during certain sequences. Anyone have any luck with commercial projectors?

I was thinking that a cheap alternative would be to shine a spot lamp onto a mirrored ball to achieve the snowflurry. Anyone tried this?



Any Input would be appreciated.

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I use a Mr. Christmas snow projector with replacable slides for other holidays (Halloween, Independence Day, St. Patrick's Day, etc.) I've had many comments on it; everyone loves the snowflakes projected on my house. Probably one of the coolest effects I've bought

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I have used a Snow Flurries. I had mixed emotions about it. For me, the effect was cool, but the lights washed out on the house. I tried to get them small enough to see, but that eliminated about 50% of the broadcast. When I got them to get enough coverage, the streetlight on the corner of the property washed it out.

When I even had the opportunity to replace my shingles on the roof, I went with the darkest color I could find in order to enhance the lights.

I was not happy with the results and ended up selling it this year.

In addition, the flakes on the snow flurries do not look like snow flakes.

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I also have a couple of the Mr. Christmas mirror ball projectors that have the lens inserts that will show a snow flake, or other decoration on your home. The ball on these is smaller, but the focus is better (though it does not cover a large area).

I used about 3 of these with a snowflake and was pleased with the result. But, when I started to put LED lights on the roof and bushes, they were washed out too.

If you are interested in one or two, let me know as I would entertain any reasonable offer via PM.

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Thanks for the input. I'm still in the planning stage but I thought that moving snowflakes on the roof would be a cool effect. Dale, If you still have them when I am serious, I'll let you know.

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smjosephrn wrote:

I was thinking that a cheap alternative would be to shine a spot lamp onto a mirrored ball to achieve the snowflurry. Anyone tried this?

Dave Severns ("Severex" on these forums) does it that way with good results. He has two mirrored balls, mounted sideways, turning at different speeds, mounted in the bottom section of a black plywood box, and two spotlights.
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I've experimented with 3 different projects and the one I settled on was one sold by Target for about $45. It is square, reasonably water resistant, and has easily replaceable bulbs and image wheels for use with various images that come with it. There are surely other good projectors. You need one with lots of wattage (50 watts or more) for best effect.

I tend to like the projectors with a mirror ball inside because it gives me the widest dispersion of images across the house. This year, my two neighbors and I used theses projectors on all three houses.

In my opinion, the biggest problem you will have is image washout due to your other lights on the house or nearby street lights. You will probably need a couple of projectors and place them closer to the house to get more brightness and coverage. One projector at a distance is not going to work.

We use the snow projectors sparingly and for a specific reason, such as... at the beginning and end of the show when we make announcements, we have all the lights on the houses set at a very dim (glow-like) effect and have the snowflake projectors on full brightness so they can be seen easily.

Also during soft music such as Dean Martin's "Let It Snow", we have the projectors come on during those times, and the other lights are also going through relatively dim wavering effects.

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Jeff Millard wrote:

I have two Light Flurries in my display.......

Jeff


Jeff, that is pretty clever stuff.

Seems that you have a lot more time on your hands than I do, and I am retired :D
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