Seeking Info for having the coolest lights on the block

[jackislost]

Hello all.  I want to ask for your info or help on animating my lighting.  Last year was my first to decorate for Christmas.  This year I have almost got all my lights up.  Should finish tomorrow.  At the end of last year, I bought a bunch of lights from a big box store and had no idea what I was doing.  As this year has progressed, I got interested in trying to animate the lights that I had.  All LED, no functionality to them though.  So a few weeks ago went back to same big box store and bought a few stringers that have like, eight functions to them.  Next came the realization that you can control all the lights, if they are so equipped.  So I searched and asked if there was a product that could make my lights dance without buying new lights.  Finally last night, big box store recommend a product.  At least I finally found some info on how to make my lights dance.  

To get to the point for the remainder of the year, I would love to make my lights dance if there is a possible way with the sets of lights I have.  All LED's, couple of sets have 8 function capabilities, and the rest are just on.  But moving forward to next year I want to really make my lights dance.  So the question is: is there a product that can help me this year?  Then moving forward to next year, what are my best options to have a light show ready for 2017 Christmas?  Best product, best lights, best time to buy, and any other info that you pros care to share.  I will state that I am a DIY'er that knows a smidgen about this, that, and the other.  I will spend months researching just to figure it out if I don't know how to do something.

I have somewhat DIY'ed my lights year.  I have cut sets of lights to run blank wire to another location to continue the light string.  This has been a chore in of itself.  So, I am preparing myself for next Christmas, in that manner.  I am curious what is the consequence of cutting a string of LED's and then plugging them in with say 5-10 of the LED lights removed from that set.  Does that create an issue?  I have not done this, but I do have a set or two that is missing the last few lights and was curious if it was safe to plug them in.  

I will say thanks in advance for any info you guys/ gals care to share.  I have a four old daughter that was impressed with what I have done for this Christmas.  I would love to see her face next Christmas when we have the best lights on the block and got them dancing to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer or some other song.  Have a happy & safe holiday and enjoy the show.  

 

Jack

[Mr. P]

Welcome Jack and I am going to be blunt and honest here. It is very late to be thinking of putting something together for this year. LOR is not a plug-n-play system, there is a learning curve to it. My suggestion would be to go ahead and download the S4 software and start playing with it to see how fast you catch on to it. If you think this would be the system that you could really spend some time learning then I would start planning for next year. LOR sells starter packages and sequences and many of the forum members share their sequences. There are also a ton of videos on LOR and YouTube you can watch to help learn this system but as I stated LOR is not one that you can learn overnight.

Many buy the system thinking they can just throw up some lights turn everything on and the Christmas Magic begins. Then they get frustrated and bummed out when everything goes haywire. If you do your homework first things will go much smoother.

I hope I didn't bum you out as this really is a great system but you only get out of it what you put in.

[wbaker4]

There is always Mr. Christmas for this year... (sorry)

Don't cut LED strings.

Walt

 

[Santas Helper]

Welcome aboard this crazy hobby Jack.

I would go with what Mr. P said. Download the software and play around and learn it.

Since you have lights up, plan what you want those lights to do. Plan for next year.

What is a channel and what lights will be connected to those channels? How will the channels lay out? 

These are the things you can start planning now for next year.

There are a lot of great folks here with some much great information so you have plenty of homework ahead of you.

Tom

[JPat]

I have been converting to LED for a few years now and have been buying from lighting vendors after the holidays.  Most run aggressive sales in January and a great opportunity to buy specific items for discounted pricing.  Some obtain a lot from big box stores but personally I don't like the quality of what most have.  There are plenty of options for length, so you shouldn't have to cut LED strings but rather plan out what is needed for specific areas prior to purchasing.  

The biggest advice that a newbie can give a newbie is to PLAN, PLAN, PLAN!  All of my strings are labeled and can pull out of storage and set in exact location as well as know where and how I powered.  That being said, all will change with powering now as I am animating this year for the first time. 

[GRG]

As the light bulbs on your strings are almost guaranteed to be in series, removing even a bulb will increase the voltage to the other bulbs and may result in the set burning out.  Remove 10 to 15 and you are sure to have issues.  DONT DO IT. 

[Mega Arch]

Jack,

Welcome. As Mr. P said, it's very late this year to use LOR with no prior experience. 

Also, as Walt says, don't cut LED strands. Bad idea. Instead, learn about SPT cord and vampire plugs for your dead zones. 

Keep reading and researching so you'll better know what you want. Then be ready in January to start buying during the pre-sales. Watch this forum and you'll know when they are starting. 

Good luck,

 Daniel 

[jackislost]

Wow, you guys are great.  I am amazed at the input that I have received already on this forum.  Thanks so much for the comments so far.  I truly appreciate it.

Mr. P. no, you have not bummed me out.  I was kinda at the point that I was just going to have lights this year, some dance some don't.  But what I was holding out hope for was, a system that was plug and play to use this year.  Then I could build on that same system for next year, and years to come.  But, no worries here.  I will take all of the advice about downloading the S4 software and checking it out.  

So the SPT cord that Mega Arch speaks about, is that some special wire?  When I have spliced into my current lights, I just ran some 18 awg in the dead zone then connected back to the lights where I wanted to start them back up.  

JPat says that: " All of my strings are labeled and can pull out of storage and set in exact location", my question is how do you get them the exact size you want.  So if you have a little scuttle butt window thats like 1ft x 2ft, are you saying you could find a set of lights that would meet those dimensions?  Or do you use the SPT cord that has been mentioned?  

Ok keep it coming, I accept all kinds of advice. Constructive or criticism,  I love hearing from those that have been in the "trenches" and learning from the trial and errors of my own.  I say thanks once again for the response so far.  Gotta head to the roof to finish off my lights.  Have a great day.

 

Jack

[Orville]

Some L.E.D.strands CAN be cut, but YOU have to KNOW what you're doing and how things work so you don't create further issues!   Best advice, is DO NOT CUT, MODIFY or REMOVE any L.E.D.'s from a strand until you can get at least some education in electronics and electricity, two things that are used in our light displays.   As for your L.E.D. strands with their own controller, you can't make those dance to LOR UNLESS you have the type that once you set them to STEADY ON, they can be turned ON or OFF, but you CAN NOT do any of the other effects like twinkle, shimmer or fade them.    Those type L.E.D. strands are only good and {I use them} for areas that I want to have something lit so the display is not totally dark between songs or shows, mostly just for appeal and not so much a part of the animated, musical show display.

 

Like others this IS NOT a "plug and play" system, it takes time, lots of time and lots of patience to get things working.    And sometimes things may not go as you think they should.  Learning the software now for next year is your best bet, it's far too late in the season to actually put something together with the LOR Hardware and software suite to get it all together, but learning now and experimenting will get you a better understanding of how things work, buy at least one controller and play around with it, connect lights and see how they work in conjunction with the LOR software suite.    Then when you get that all figured out, you'll be better equipped to get your animated and musical{if you use music} light display up and running.

God Luck, but for this year, as much as I hate to recommend it, a Mr. Christmas would be the best and closest thing you can get to make your lights dance.   But those L.E.D. strands with the controller are also NOT recommended for use with the Mr. Christmas boxes, even though they {Mr. Christmas} is mainly an off/on type unit.   When I used one many years ago, it told me in the manual not to use any light strands with their own controllers or damage to the light strand or Mr. Christmas unit could be damaged.

 

[Orville]

If a light strand is TOO long for a small window, the excess lights/bulbs/L.E.D.'s are covered with BLACK OUT caps.    We don't usually cut or modify strands to length like you're thinking.  The SPT is basically like lamp cord, the vampire plugs, both male and female for each end are used specifically for making extension cords of any length needed.  There usually aren't any lights on them, but plugged into them.

[k6ccc]

9 hours ago, jackislost said:

But moving forward to next year I want to really make my lights dance.   So the question is: is there a product that can help me this year?  Then moving forward to next year, what are my best options to have a light show ready for 2017 Christmas?  Best product, best lights, best time to buy, and any other info that you pros care to share.

Jack,

Welcome to this maddness!  You are in the right place.  First of all, I would like to applaud you for asking what it is you can do for next year.  You would be amazed how many people show up here about this time of year and expect to be able to put together a great show in a weekend.  There is a pretty large learning curve for the software and hardware both.  There are lots of options available. 

At the very top of this page, there is a dark colored bar that says (among other things) FAQ's - *LOOK HERE*.  One of the dropdowns from that is Video Tutorials.  Start there.  Then download the LOR S4 software and play with it.  You do not need a license to play with it.  In fact you can do anything except actually control lights without a license.  If you play with SuperStar, you can't export the sequence to the Sequence Editor without a SuperStar license.  Go to the Sequence Sharing section and download a few sequences (it does not matter if it's a song you want to use), look at how people did things and you will learn from them.  Watch every video you can find of other people's shows.  That will give you ideas of what you can do.  While your lights are up for this year, stand out in the yard and look at what options you might want to do for animating them and adding to them.

When you have questions that you can't figure out (and you will), come here to the forum and ask.  Most of the questions can be answered by someone...

 

[Vince4xmas]

I agree. Black out caps for unused LED lights is the correct solution.

[JPat]

3 hours ago, jackislost said:

Wow, you guys are great.  I am amazed at the input that I have received already on this forum.  Thanks so much for the comments so far.  I truly appreciate it.

Mr. P. no, you have not bummed me out.  I was kinda at the point that I was just going to have lights this year, some dance some don't.  But what I was holding out hope for was, a system that was plug and play to use this year.  Then I could build on that same system for next year, and years to come.  But, no worries here.  I will take all of the advice about downloading the S4 software and checking it out.  

So the SPT cord that Mega Arch speaks about, is that some special wire?  When I have spliced into my current lights, I just ran some 18 awg in the dead zone then connected back to the lights where I wanted to start them back up.  

JPat says that: " All of my strings are labeled and can pull out of storage and set in exact location", my question is how do you get them the exact size you want.  So if you have a little scuttle butt window thats like 1ft x 2ft, are you saying you could find a set of lights that would meet those dimensions?  Or do you use the SPT cord that has been mentioned?  

Ok keep it coming, I accept all kinds of advice. Constructive or criticism,  I love hearing from those that have been in the "trenches" and learning from the trial and errors of my own.  I say thanks once again for the response so far.  Gotta head to the roof to finish off my lights.  Have a great day.

 

Jack

Hi Jack,

I was speaking more in relation to my C9 Roof and Perimeter strings, but do also keep specific cords labeled in boxes for each area.  

Regarding the window that you mention, you might want to skip that as it is a very small effect or possibly put a lighted wreath over/around that window.   With mini lights, you can use the caps as other are suggesting.

[jackislost]

Thanks all who have commented.  This has been very informative so far.  I do appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback to a question that is probably asked several times a day the closer we get to Christmas.  Very helpful forum.  

So the black caps that have been mentioned, where does one get those at?  And are they similar the twist wire connectors that are used sometimes to connect wires?  While on wires, the connectors made by 3m, they have gel in them and you put the wires in the contraption, then squeeze down on the part where the gel is and it crimps the wires together, are those things any good???????

JPat, I was just messing with you on the odd sized window.  I don't have one that size was just curious if there was actually a strand of lights any size you wanted.  Whats the most lights on a single strand????

K6ccc thanks for the input.  I had to give up the idea of having a light show this year after searching for about three weeks to find a way to do it.  And after putting the lights up, started last Thursday, got done today.  I would assume if I was doing an animated light show, it would probably take 7-14 days to set up.  Maybe shorter if you done it a few times and keep the same design each year?

Thanks for sharing everybody and have a great evening.

Jack

[k6ccc]

Jack, I am very familiar with the 3M ULG, UR, & UY connectors. I'm not sure I would recommend them for stuff that's going to get handled, moved, etc, but I have used them for repairs on my pixel strings when it was way up a ladder and I did not want to try to solder and heat shrink them. Works well and very fast, but the pixels on my tree don't move much as they are mounted in pipe.

As for setup time, it depends on how much you have to set up. 90% of mine was done with two people in four hours. The last 10% took a weekend, but that was because I had stuff to build, not just install.

Sent from my Droid Turbo via Tapatalk, so blame any typos or spelling errors on Android

[Adrian A]

Will using string lights with those little controller boxes affect my LOR hardware like it would the Mr. Christmas controller that was mentioned earlier? I have several strings of lights that have those controllers and would like to know if it's ok or safe to use. As for another question, my Gemmy color changing icicle set...... Can this be controlled by my LOR to do shimmer, twinkle or fades and such or am I just stuck with using them as off/on lights?

[BryanZ]

You can find them in multiple sizes but here is a link: Black Out Caps

With any wire and vampire connectors, make certain you get all of one type. I.E. you can/should not use SPT-1 cord with SPT-2 connections and vice-versa. The difference between SPT-1 and SPT-2 is SPT-2 has a little thicker insulation and it does cost more. When wrapping cables when the display comes down, I find SPT-2 ones are easier but to each their own.

Best of luck!