Lessons Learned for 2015

[dgrant]

Lets start this off with our lessons learned from this year or prior years so that we can help each other out.

 

In my case, don't believe the Chinese label for waterproofed light strips and make sure we double-check each and every seal point for small holes, no sealant between the wires coming out and etc.. Water got into mine and caused havoc to the point, I'm going to have to replace all 16 of that type.

Edited December 28, 2015 by dgrant

[1983ss454]

I learned too late that I didn't have enough kid music in my playlist, so that will be my focal point this offseason.

Can't outline the house in mini lights, it just doesn't end up having a neat enough look.

On certain songs with a lot of different effects on my pixels I had lag when I didn't restart my computer daily. So learning S4 Should eliminate the S3 lag

[JeffF]

I learned that my dislike of Facebook(and social media in general) has merit.

 

January 1st I'm deleting our Christmas light FB page and my personal FB page so I can focus on old school real life again. Too much wasted time "commenting on comments"... "liking posts, pictures, and other crap"..."starting to type my opinion only to realize nobody really cares"... "realizing that people I thought were smart, sound pretty stupid fairly often"... "NOT realizing you have become one of them"... etc, etc.

 

Should be a banner year for actually getting stuff done!!!

[BryanZ]

Perhaps my #1 lesson learned: The best carbonara can be found in Rome.

 

Oh yeah. More lights can be good too.

[ericm]

i doubled the amount of set wire i thought i needed, but had to double it at the last minute costing a bunch of money

[jstorms]

Need to strive against pixel lag

[Jay Czerwinski]

Weatherproofing and resetting my computer.

I need to make stuff more bulletproof even though I live in sunny California. It turns out that it DOES rain here now and then!

Biggest freak out - the show started to do random stuff and lag and paralyzed. I was troubleshooting water issues but in the end - noticed the network lights were blinking in the control units even though the show was running mostly fine. A quick reset/reboot of the computer fixed it!! Yes - reboot as often as possible for me now.

[Mr. P]

I agree with Jay, WATERPROOFING. The week leading to Christmas was almost a disaster here as it rained every day. I spent more time fixing tripped breakers and finding leaks but as they say, the show must go on. I will spend more time waterproofing during setup next year.

[Max-Paul]

Simple tent stakes and those large red ones at Home Depot will not hold my mega tree base ring. Ended up buying some 12" long screw in anchors (4) to keep the ring pulled down tight. Also those little wire anchors dont do carp for holding other elements down. Between the wind and rain, my anchors just pop right out of the ground. Figure out what anchor you think is big enough to do the job. Then get one that is twice as big. Consider the use of screw anchors. I bought 4 that are about 20" long with about 3" screw for the mega tree that stands 17' tall. Even with all of the wind and rain, it has not fallen over (yet). Hope I didnt just jinx myself.

[JeffF]

For anchoring I buy 10' lengths of 5/8" EMT conduit and cut to 1' to 3' lengths depending on what I'm anchoring. Works great and CHEAP. I've painted them black and even used black electrical tape to hide them.

[ezimnow]

After intial install I noticed areas that I can add waterproof connectors to make over installation much easier and quicker in 2016. 

[bobschm]

SPARES!

Have spare strings, power supplies. Strobes and servos . Extra of everything just in case. This year I lost a string of C6 lights on a tree and a blue string on one shrub. Without spares I would have had holes in the show.

Oh, and stock extra fish for the Penguins.

[oilmoney]

I learned: that I like going outside and meeting people during the show

                my network is capable of doing more than I thought it could now that I have 3 networks running at 500k, I now know I can do more intense stuff with the floods before seeing any signal lag

                people love the 10w floods pointing at the street, going to get another 8 or 16 pointed outwards for next year

                LED flamingos are a big hit, will be making 2 more of those for next year

                 firesticks are popular and easy to make, easy to store

                line of sight is everything, I made a candy cane spinner and mounted it in what I thought was a great spot only to find out that my tree blocks the view for the most part

                As I have a rather limited front yard to work with the only logical thing to do is build up, the firesticks, light poles, and my psycho tree really added depth to the display and filled in a lot of empty space

                there are now 3 houses total in town making the lights go blinky blinky

                It's difficult to put lights on dogs

                It's extremely easy to update your firmware once you have everything set up and plugged in your network already

                I used to keep 4 of my 1602's close to my house for protection and run cords across the yard to their destinations, keeping the 1602's closer to the props and using shorter cords made installation easier, quicker, and resulted in a lot cleaner installation

                xmas eve is the biggest traffic night of the lighting season

                put stuff away keeping in mind the order you need to get at it for setup next year, I had a fun time trying to set up my CCR tree after everything else was already up

                Your light display affects people`s lives a lot more than you think, I had many comments this year about how the display has become a tradition to visit on xmas eve, day etc.

                A surprising amount of people bring their dogs to watch the display, if you`re giving out candy canes then you should have milk bones too

                1602`s running standalone are great for indoor parties

                 keeping everything labelled properly goes a long way

                 Working xmas day nightshift sucks.

                 It`s easy to record music off youtube

Edited December 29, 2015 by oilmoney

[SparkDr]

Step away when the hobby becomes more like work than fun.  2015 beat the snot out of me with hardware and software gremlins right up until the start of the show season.  Pretty sure I'm going to take 2016 off and catch a breather.

[dgrant]

Last year, learned that people couldn't see the lower animations on my pixel tree so this year, I created a stand for it and boosted the tree by 3 feet. Then used the stand to put a bunch of the controllers under it, then ran green outdoor carpet around it to hide everything...hung a big red bow on it! People this year, were able to see the pixel tree animations easily! Plus I had enough parts for a 2nd pixel tree so out it went too!

[TonyD]

Label everything! 

 

I use a lot of "superstrings" (strings of Red, Green, Blue, and White tied together). When they are zip tied together it's hard to tell which end goes to which color. So i just use a black sharpie to write R, G, B, W on the ends. I also put the length of the string, 5 = 50, 6 = 60, 1 = 100, etc. So they are all marked 5W, 1B, etc. 

 

For extension cords I also mark the length. This helps in setting up and keeping things organized when tearing down. 

 

This year I felt like I wasted a lot of time connecting extension cords one at a time just so i could make sure I was connecting the right color. I'd connect to the controller, then walk to the prop, then back to the controller, then back to the prop. For next year I'm going to create "superstring" extension cords that are labeled with the color ahead of time. This way I just connect all 4 colors at the controller, then pull the 4 extension cords to the prop and connect all 4 at the same time. 

 

It's also getting harder to "read" my writing - "is that a B or a W?" so i'm thinking of either spray painting the ends of the cords with the color OR getting colored zip ties to tie to the ends OR getting colored zip tie "labels" (or spray painting white ones the appropriate color). Any suggestions?

 

Tony

[TonyD]

I learned too late that I didn't have enough kid music in my playlist, so that will be my focal point this offseason. Can't outline the house in mini lights, it just doesn't end up having a neat enough look. On certain songs with a lot of different effects on my pixels I had lag when I didn't restart my computer daily. So learning S4 Should eliminate the S3 lag

 

I like the look of mini lights for outlines but I agree I hate the messy look of it. No matter how many gutter or shingle clips I use I can't fight the twist in the wire. Even zip tieing to PVC i can't keep them straight.

 

So what are you going to do? Are you going to C9 or RGB strips? Or do you have a better way to keep them straight? I've seen a few examples here in the forum on how to use wood or PVC and literally drill a hole for each individual light but WOW what a lot of work that would be.

[oilmoney]

Label everything! 

 

I use a lot of "superstrings" (strings of Red, Green, Blue, and White tied together). When they are zip tied together it's hard to tell which end goes to which color. So i just use a black sharpie to write R, G, B, W on the ends. I also put the length of the string, 5 = 50, 6 = 60, 1 = 100, etc. So they are all marked 5W, 1B, etc. 

 

For extension cords I also mark the length. This helps in setting up and keeping things organized when tearing down. 

 

This year I felt like I wasted a lot of time connecting extension cords one at a time just so i could make sure I was connecting the right color. I'd connect to the controller, then walk to the prop, then back to the controller, then back to the prop. For next year I'm going to create "superstring" extension cords that are labeled with the color ahead of time. This way I just connect all 4 colors at the controller, then pull the 4 extension cords to the prop and connect all 4 at the same time. 

 

It's also getting harder to "read" my writing - "is that a B or a W?" so i'm thinking of either spray painting the ends of the cords with the color OR getting colored zip ties to tie to the ends OR getting colored zip tie "labels" (or spray painting white ones the appropriate color). Any suggestions?

 

Tony

Here's what I do to combat that...

[TonyD]

Oilmoney - I like that idea. A little hard to see in that last picture but are you storing the extension cords with the controllers they go to?

[oilmoney]

No, during the off season my controllers just sit on the shelf, maybe I'll put them in totes this year to keep dust off them. I do however store the cords in labelled totes for ease of installation. When they're stored they never tangle. I don't make my own cords, I just wait until the green ones are on sale, I can usually get 15ft cords for around $5-6 and 10ft for around $3. Now that I place all the controllers next to the props I don't have cords running all over the place. I can get them plugged in with very little time required.