New to this. First light show in 2016!

[DisneyMatt10]

Hey everyone! I'm new here, and new to doing light shows. 2016 is our first year doing a light show. We have two 16 channel light-o-Rama controllers for our light show.

First things first... How do I go about deciding which level of software to go with?? I'm not doing anything crazy this year. No RGB lights, no cosmic ribbons... nothing like that. Just simple LED lights. We do have 22 songs that we are programing the music to though. Not sure if there is a "song limit" on different levels of software.

Also, next up are the lights. Where do all usually buy your Christmas lights?? We have the majority of the lights for the light show. But we are still looking for several strands of LED lights. In addition to the LED lights we are going to be using about 26 LED strobe lights. Do any of you all have experience using LED Strobes, and where do you go about buying your LED Strobes??

Any advice you can provide is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

~ Matt

[Premier]

DisneyMatt:

 

Welcome to the madness!  

See http://www1.lightorama.com/sequencing-suite-levels/ for a breakdown of licensing levels, if this is something that you wish to expand on over time ( and we all do ) you could start with the basic license, but you will soon probably want a higher level to add more controllers for 2017, 2018 as well as access to some of the wizards, so if you have the money now, I would suggest the Standard or Advance levels now. 

 

No song limit, just controller and feature limits on lower levels of licensing.

 

Christmas lights, where to buy....big question, there are a lot of online dealers like LEDWarehouse,Amazon, Walmart, etc  ( See https://www.bing.com/search?q=led%20christmas%20lights&pc=cosp&ptag=AE89FD93123&form=CONBDF&conlogo=CT3210127 )

 

I prefer to hit up big box stores the day or two after christmas.

 

Best of luck , and have fun!

[dgrant]

I bought some LED strobes and frankly, I was disappointed. The immediate problem I saw with them is that they all start flashing together at the same rate. Very slowly, they'll change timing and separate but it takes a good 30 seconds which is not what I needed. I wanted a sparkle effect so instead, I bought Curtain Strobes with 3 flashes/sec.. Those were perfect.

[Dennis Laff]

Disneymatt. If your looking for led lights. Holiday Lights Expess. Has a sale going on now these lights are high quality. As for strobes stay away from led strobes You want to buy xenon C9 U Tube. strobes. more light a flash bulb. Good place for them is DIY LEDS Express. Also on sale now

[ksteber]

I also will be doing my first show in 2016. Gonna be 32 channels of residential AC controllers. No DMX, pixels, etc etc. I have all the skills to pull off the hardware setup I am just having a hard time grasping the sequencing.

I look forward to figuring everything out over the next several months.

Side note....trying to join the Facebook page for Light-O-Rama users....not having any luck getting accepted.

[Don]

Side note....trying to join the Facebook page for Light-O-Rama users....not having any luck getting accepted.

 

Side note: There is no official LOR Facebook page. 

[shfr26]

Side note:  There is a Facebook page for Light O Rama user tho

[Santas Helper]

Welcome Matt,

 

For LED lights, CDI is having a sale right now. Great prices on a lot of stuff. Their strobes are great as well, especially at $4 each.

IMHO stay away from the LED strobes and listen to the other members about them.

 

From their email sent to me....   http://www.creativedisplays.com/

 

Welcome to Creative Displays, Inc.

ONE WEEK LEFT TO GET YOUR PRE ORDER IN PLACE!
Save up to 35% on Next years prices and pay just half up front!
Here's how it works:
Sale begins Wednesday, December 16
Sale runs thru Thursday, January 21st
Call us at 800-733-9617 or local at 913-402-9617 to place your order
Once we get your order, we will E-mail you a Sales Order Confirmation to sign and return to us by fax or E-mail
When we get that returned, your order will be reserved with a 50% deposit
All products will be delivered to you in the late Spring/early Summer
Pricing information will be available on our "Announcements" page 
Creative Displays' annual Pre-Order Sale in December/January is always the most popular event of the year.  To take advantage of 2016 holiday lighting products at the lowest prices of the year, give us a call or E-mail paul@creativedisplays.com
.

[zeighty]

Disneymatt. If your looking for led lights. Holiday Lights Expess. Has a sale going on now these lights are high quality. As for strobes stay away from led strobes You want to buy xenon C9 U Tube. strobes. more light a flash bulb. Good place for them is DIY LEDS Express. Also on sale now

 

I can second buying from Holiday Lights Express. I have lights from them that are 3 years old and they are going strong.  They are rectified (no flickering) and completely sealed (LEDs are water proof - A/C plug is not!). I have purchased others to only be disappointed.  Stay away from Martha Stewart lights, they (at least in the past) will not dim - either on or off.

In addition, my lights from HLE are way brighter than any others I have purchased.  

[Mwhite7097]

Side note:  There is a Facebook page for Light O Rama user 

A great spot for tips, and ideas but beware, they can be a little harsh at times if you don't do your homework.  Don't expect anything to be handed to you.  Those in the LOR know tend to want you to learn it yourself.

[DisneyMatt10]

Hey everyone!

Thanks for the feedback! After reading all your comments there is a lot for me to take in! I have decided against strobes (for this year at least) instead I am going with... MORE LED LIGHTS! 

 

I do have a quick question though:

 

I can second buying from Holiday Lights Express. I have lights from them that are 3 years old and they are going strong.  They are rectified (no flickering) and completely sealed (LEDs are water proof - A/C plug is not!). I have purchased others to only be disappointed.  Stay away from Martha Stewart lights, they (at least in the past) will not dim - either on or off.

In addition, my lights from HLE are way brighter than any others I have purchased.  

 

"LEDs are water proof - A/C plug is not!" So the plugs on the Holiday Lights Express LED lights are not waterproof?? Or am I reading this wrong. (Sorry I'm still new to this and not sure what the A/C plug is on a Christmas light. . . 

 

Thanks.

~Matt

[zeighty]

Hi DisneyMatt, 

Welcome to a very active and time consuming hobby.  I like your screen name. Walt Disney World is our favorite place to visit (annual pass holders).  

The concept of the lights being waterproof is that they are completely sealed and are not going to corrode as unsealed lights will.  

You could, not that you want to,  actually put them under water.  I alway add the disclaimer about the a/c connection because I do not want someone putting the lights in a bucket of water and getting what could be a deadly shock due to a misunderstanding. Elementary stuff, but you never know. 

 

So the really big value of paying a bit more for quality light from someone like HLE is the individual LEDs being sealed. The fact that all good strings should be, and HLE are, rectified is also not an option with me. 

 

Hope this helps.  I got a lot of help from this forum when I first started.  

Keep asking and you will get the answers you need. 

[DisneyMatt10]

^ Thanks for the response! 

 

I'm sure this has been discussed a million times on these threads, but how do you make the ... (I don't know what to call them) but the ... Beat bars??? The bars where the lights seem to climb up and down compared to the beat of the music...? (Anyone know what I am talking about??) I feel like an idiot for not knowing what they are called. 

 

Similar to what is show on the pillars of this house (But in a much smaller version.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNmQ_6Rlh5E

 

Also, does anyone have any experience with these RGB Strips from Holiday Light Express?? I can't figure out why they are so much less expensive than LOR's. 

http://www.holiday-light-express.com/RGBlights.php

Thanks!

~Matt

Edited January 15, 2016 by DisneyMatt10

[Santas Helper]

The lights from CDI are also rectified, sealed and commercial grade. I've purchased from them for 10 years now and still using those same lights.

Their customer satisfaction is hard to beat as well.

 

Good luck,

Tom

[DisneyMatt10]

^ CDI??

[saxon]

CDI=Creative Displays, Inc.
 

Those pillars are jumping to the beat because he programmed them to, most likely with the chase tool. There is a foot or so of lights at the bottom on one channel, next foot or so up another channel and so forth. I believe he was on Light Fight Show. If that sounds tedious, yes it is. Welcome to the madness. you are off to a good start starting early.

[Santas Helper]

^ CDI??

 

Matt, look at post #8.

[Orville]

Personally, I prefer L.E.D. strands where I can "easily replace" a burned out L.E.D. bulb WITHOUT having to cut one out, then solder another in, which if you don't do it properly can render the strand no longer fully waterproof or if you happen to put it in backwards, means having to re-cut it out again, and re-solder it back in the correct way.      So give me the cheapo Big Box and Outlet stores, such as Big Lots L.E.D. Strands with replaceable L.E.D. bulbs every time.   Just add a little automotive non-conductive grease, it's what they use in automotive light sockets on vehicles, inside the sockets and lightly coat the L.E.D. leads on the bulb holder that inserts into the socket.   Makes it nice and helps to waterproof the L.E.D. leads and socket so that it the contacts in the socket or L.E.D. leads corrode and rust away, rendering the strand useless.{just my preferences}.  

 

And as a side note: I had several of the sealed L.E.D. strand types, one orange, one yellow and one white, the orange one, half the strand failed in less than a month of my testing them{no light on one half the strand, it was dead}, the second half failed not that soon after, made it barely over a month before the entire strand was completely dead.   The white L.E.D. strand, had L.E.D. bulbs that burned out in random spots along the strand, it lasted a little longer than than the orange strand.   In less than a month I had 7 L.E.D. bulbs burned out at different spots in the strand, the second month I had quite a few more L.E.D.'s fail in the strand, putting gaps or dark areas in the strand where 2 or more L.E.D.'s had stopped functioning, the strand lasted almost 7 months before it finally went completely dead.   Amazing the only sealed strand I still have and that still works going on about 2, possibly 3 years now is the yellow strand.     But once it's gone, that will be the end of any sealed strands for me.   Just too much work in having to repair or replace an L.E.D. bulb if one or more burns out in a sealed strand.   So you'd have to have another working sealed strand to replace any that failed like this on your home or in your display, and that could be a big issue depending on where that strand is, second story roof line, in a large tree, which could make even just replacing the strand a nuisance, whereas you may be able to just climb a ladder and replace an L.E.D. bulb in a replaceable strand.

 

 

But each person has their own likes and dislikes, and the way they prefer to do things, I prefer easy and simple, so to me that's replaceable L.E.D.'s, take out the bad, insert a good one in, and done!   So just giving you a little more food for thought, even though some swear by the sealed strands, in all earnest I can not from my experience with the few I tried and had miserable failures in such a short amount of time.  I have far and much better luck with replaceable Big Box and Outlet store varieties, and also gotten 3 or 4 times more L.E.D. strands than what I get vs the cost of sealed ones.

 

But that choice is entirely up to you to decide what you wish to go with.

 

I have replaceable L.E.D. strands I bought from various Big Box and Outlet stores that are still going strong 10-15+ years later and still in use.    before I added the automotive non-conductive grease, my first year I lost somewhere around 3-5 strands my first year due to rust and corrosion.   Does it take some time to add this grease? Yes.   Is it or was it worth it? Yes. {at least to me it was definitely worth it, so I spent a few hours pulling L.E.D. bulbs and greasing them, but the money it saved me bought me that many more L.E.D. strands!   I can buy anywhere from 3-5 strands of replaceable L.E.D. strands from a Big Box or Outlet store compared to the cost of these sealed strands, which to me, the cost is just too high compared to the Big Box and Outlet stores.    Of which I have had no issues with the BB or outlet store L.E.D.'s for 10-15+ years now since using and adding the automotive non-conductive lamp socket grease.

 

And to waterproof my male/female pass through and female ends on the L.E.D. strands, I use plastic child proof outlet covers on every unused and exposed open female end or male/female pass through at the beginning of the strand.    I also cap off my controllers channel dangles that are not in use after the Holiday season is over to keep dirt and debris out of the dangles as well.  I also recommend if you do use these, get some cheap flat black {don't use gloss!  too shiny!} and paint these caps black to help hide them.   They are usually a fluorescent white and light will reflect off them, painting the backs flat black helps hide them when inserted into the ~AC~ plugs {male/female pass through and end female plugs}, also use them on any type of multi-tap extension cord that doesn't have any type of cover built into or on the plug to seal the extra connection areas.

 

Also, even if you use the child proof electrical outlet covers, anywhere you have a connection {power cord to power cord or light strand} make sure the connections are elevated, I use the green light stakes to elevate my connections.   Using the method described, I don't have to worry about making sure connections are pointed downward, as most of mine are parallel to the ground using two of the green Christmas light yard stakes, and these keep the cords{connections} high enough to keep them out of any water.   They also help on cutting down GFCI trips.

 

Been using them for over 5+ years now and I'll swear by these plastic child proof electrical outlet covers.   They can be found at Wal-Mart{it's where I buy mine} and well worth the investment, plus it takes very little time to add them to the display, just plug them in like a male plug and you're done.     Also a single flat black can of spray paint can paint a lot of these things, I painted somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,500 with a single can and still had a lot of paint left over!

[dgrant]

I too use cheap strings from BigLots. They seem to work very nice and cost a lot less. On my megatrees though, I'm using good strings that are sealed and they are holding up real nice for several years now with zero failures. Do not ever buy "Martha" lights from HomeDepot. They do not dim/fade and there's reports of them catching fire. They are probably fine if used in a location where you are only going to do on/off. I messed up and bought some a couple of years ago then my first test is when I saw their issues...they are still in their boxes in the garage to this day.

[DisneyMatt10]

^^ & ^ Thank you both for some awesome tips I would have never thought of! 

 

Speaking of lights, I've been looking at the 5mm LED lights from Holiday-Light- Express. Can anyone provide any adivce about these lights?? Has anyone ever used, or ordered from them?? If the LED's are "Sealed" does that mean I can't simply take out one light, and replace it with another one if they burn out??

I've never even heard of "sealed" and "not sealed" lights before. 

(Keep in mind I'm super new to this!)
~Matt