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Two houses next to each other...


zeighty

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Hello everyone, 

I am not new to LOR, but what I am doing this year is new to me. My neighbor is  a newbie and venturing into the fun of Christmas lights and has agreed that a coordinated show between our houses is best. I just need some guidance from those that have more experience.  Things to do, things to avoid.  Below is info that will hopefully help you experts help me... I know it is late in the year to even be thinking about this, but his heart is in the right place and I want to do whatever I can to put on a good show. 

Houses are next to each other - mine is on the right (from the road). 

I currently have 3 controllers / 48 channels (I use around 40 - 42 so I will have backups in case of triac et al problems). 

My sequences are based on the 4x4x4 LOR suggested layout.  One controller is for 2 arches. 

My neighbor purchased a single controller / 16 channels.  

We are close enough that a cat5 cable will not be a problem. 

I am very ill today (cold/sinus thing - barely able to type), but the fear of making changes to my sequences to make this layout/show look good appears to be stronger than my illness. 

I am looking for about a 20 minute show.  My first thought is straight 4x4x4 (roofline, windows, ground cover / bushes/trees) and no light trees or other features in his yard. How would it look to duplicate my 4x4x4 on his house?  If any of this is a good idea - yea!  if not, it is the fever writing this... 

Any help would be very much appreciated. 

 

 

 

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I'd say that dueling banjos or dueling xmas bells or whatever it's called between your two houses would be a no brainer.

How far apart are your homes? I would try to make sure that there is something to fill in the dark void in between your homes and allow chases/sweeps across both your properties.

Duplicating the same 4x 4 x 4 on his house would definitely make your sequencing easier.

Post a pic of the houses, the forum seems to jump all over it when they get to see what they decorating.

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There is a guy in my city that went from one house to three a year or two ago.  From what I can see, everything on the other two houses is a duplicate of something at his house.  In his case, he is the last house on one side of the street and the other two houses are the last two on the other side of the street (likely not quite the way you just visualized it in your head).  That show works fine.  Because of the separation, I don't think something like Dueling Banjos would work for him, but with two houses next door, that song would be a natural.  There would be lots of opportunities to "bounce" back and forth.

 

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9 hours ago, oilmoney said:

Post a pic of the houses, the forum seems to jump all over it when they get to see what they decorating.

Thanks for the suggestions.  

I am working on the pic. I was actually trying to combine the houses so I can use it in Visualizer. I will post a separate pic of each house later today. 

The houses are about 10 - 12 feet apart.  However, his driveway is on the side next to my house.  I have to determine if they are okay parking on the bottom half of their driveway (double width driveway and two SUVs AND they do not park in the garage).  If not, then it will be hard to include a transitional elements... 

 

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10 hours ago, zeighty said:

Thanks for the suggestions.  

I am working on the pic. I was actually trying to combine the houses so I can use it in Visualizer. I will post a separate pic of each house later today. 

The houses are about 10 - 12 feet apart.  However, his driveway is on the side next to my house.  I have to determine if they are okay parking on the bottom half of their driveway (double width driveway and two SUVs AND they do not park in the garage).  If not, then it will be hard to include a transitional elements... 

 

Sounds like an arch is in your future!

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I bet @dgrant will be able to shed some light on this topic!! ;)

Best of luck with the two houses this year!! Can't wait to see videos!
~Matt

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Yeah, This will be my first year of doing two homes. Many songs, will have similar strings doing the same things on both homes and other songs they'll be different. I've fabricated window frames for the extra home now which just like mine, have both led strings(AC) on them AND dumb RGB. Basically two props in one. To tie the two yards together, I fabricated four circles and one driveway arch, all with WS2811 strips inside of white pex and of course the support structure to keep the shape. I'm moving one of my mega trees and a pixel tree to their yard while still maintaining a mega tree and pixel tree in my yard. Essentially, I'm spreading things out. Not sure what they'll buy to accent their home but will find out soon enough. I'll try to run ELL's again unless I get hit with noise like what happened last year in which case, I'll need the LOR rs485 splitter which they are out of right now. FYI, the first thing I created was a visualizer that shows both homes together, then started assigning or reassigning channels to accommodate the controller locations and types. If I have to hardwire rs485 to the controllers, I could run a second comm buss to the second house but it means another hole through the wall and all the things needed to make that happen, it'll end up costing as much as the splitter. Thanks Matt, I'm learning as I go!

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On August 26, 2016 at 10:09 AM, zeighty said:

Thanks for the suggestions.  

I am working on the pic. I was actually trying to combine the houses so I can use it in Visualizer. I will post a separate pic of each house later today. 

The houses are about 10 - 12 feet apart.  However, his driveway is on the side next to my house.  I have to determine if they are okay parking on the bottom half of their driveway (double width driveway and two SUVs AND they do not park in the garage).  If not, then it will be hard to include a transitional elements... 

 

I have yet found a way to combine these files.... I will try to take another one with everything in frame. 

Neighbor Left.jpg

Neighbor Between .jpg

Our house b.jpg

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I see great potential with both houses. I could definitely see each house having their own parts to compliment the other in any sequence.

Love the spanish moss too TBW. :)

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I used a photo editor to combine the two pictures of the homes here, into one photo file, then import that into the visualizer.

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We moved into our neighborhood 9 years ago.  My new neighbor and I both decorated for Christmas and were both just starting to use a few LOR controllers.

The first several years we were running independently, as we were building our individual displays.  We even used separate radio frequencies.

Then, a few years ago we decided to use one computer, one radio frequency, but still used our individual sequences.  I kept all my controllers at address 0x10 and above. 

Last year was our first year where we began treating both houses as one show.  My neighbor programmed "Do you want to build a snowman" from the frozen soundtrack.  It looked pretty neat.

Things we learned:

1.  Since we both like to dabble in the programming while our displays are up, we needed a way to access the computer remotely.  This year I've setup the computer to use Google remote desktop.

2.  Setting up all the channels and grouping them in various ways such as left to right channels, his house vs my house channels, bottom to top channels, etc.

3.  The channel configuration should not change drastically from year to year.  This becomes our foundation to create new shows.

4.  Two houses, one show, makes for 1/2 the effort for a more than 2 times the effect.

5.  Each person has their own taste in music, which can make an even better diverse show.

6.  Listening to a whole song from start to finish is not as enjoyable as multiple song clips.

7.  Equal show time makes for good neighbors.

8.  Sharing displays across each others' property lines make for a more contiguous show.

9. Before thinking about connecting two houses, first get to  a point where each house can visually support it's own show.

10.  Not often do  you have a neighbor who shares in your passion for holiday light displays, nor spouses who support it. So make the most of it.

 

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Christmascrossing... Great information.  I really appreciate it.  My neighbor is not ready to do his own house, much less his own show.  He is a young newlywed and in his words... "Let's enhance your show this year and expand on it next year".  He purchased only one controller (which he got to take advantage of the summer sale) and a 500ft spool of wire and vampire ends. He will purchase his lights in the next two weeks or so.
This should be an adventure...

Your 2,3,6,8 and 10 will apply this year. Too late to teach him sequencing.

Thanks again! 

I

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Like master George, find an element or two you can duplicate on both properties to tie them together. Simple Candy Cane Spinners for example. 

Here's one of my favorites of George's. 

 

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Thanks Dan for the kind words. 

My arrangement is different in the regard that I do all the setup, provide all the materials, control all the lights, and do all the sequencing for both yards.  For all intents and purposes, the neighbor's yard is but an extension of ours.

I've actually used several items over the years to tie both yards together visually.  Dan mentioned spinners, and they work well.  I've got 6-channel models and also 12-channel models.  I like the idea of running them identically in places, but also running different patterns from time to time to set off differences between the props.  I also use what I call candy cane poppers - which are visible on our house next to the face and also on the neighbor's garage and front trees - to tie both yards together.

My concern is the 4x4x4 setup/sequencing mentality.  It's probably a good way to go for newbies who are uncertain of most everything for the first year.  (Kind of like how kindergarten is supposed to prepare kids for REAL school).  No offense meant toward anyone, but how many ways can you pattern 4 items and keep it looking interesting song after song? 

Answer is: you can't.  No matter how good you think you are today.  You can maybe stretch the boredom factor by using different sounding and different tempo songs, but after the second or third song of 4x4x4 that looks almost exactly like the last two, you won't have any issues with traffic clogging your street.  I've done a fair amount of sequencing over the years (including some for the LOR sequence store) and I can truthfully say that it takes me longer to make 16 or 32 channels of 4x4x4 look good than it does to sequence a 144 channel display to the same song.

Don't be afraid to think outside the box.  4x4x4 might be a good place to start, but as a way of life?  Far too confining for me. 

As always, YMMV.

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On ‎9‎/‎3‎/‎2016 at 2:26 PM, George Simmons said:

My concern is the 4x4x4 setup/sequencing mentality.  It's probably a good way to go for newbies who are uncertain of most everything for the first year.  (Kind of like how kindergarten is supposed to prepare kids for REAL school).  No offense meant toward anyone, but how many ways can you pattern 4 items and keep it looking interesting song after song? 

Answer is: you can't.  No matter how good you think you are today.  You can maybe stretch the boredom factor by using different sounding and different tempo songs, but after the second or third song of 4x4x4 that looks almost exactly like the last two, you won't have any issues with traffic clogging your street.  I've done a fair amount of sequencing over the years (including some for the LOR sequence store) and I can truthfully say that it takes me longer to make 16 or 32 channels of 4x4x4 look good than it does to sequence a 144 channel display to the same song.

 

Hi George,

Thanks for the information and sharing your thoughts on 4x4x4 setup.  Unfortunately I just don't have the time or the resources ($) to expand my show by much and the 4x4x4 keeps things simple for me.  I can see how limiting it can be, especially if you are talented in sequencing and perhaps music arrangements.
Your show, like your advice, is always good.  Hopefully I don't let my neighbor down and the show is at very least okay. 

zeighty

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