Guest guest Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 Frank Brunke wrote: The cheapest and neatest source for cords, in my opinion, is right on the lor site, under accessories. I had made up 2 boxes previously, chopping cords. What a waste of time and effort. This last box, I was in a hurry and ordered the precut, tinned power cords and power supply cord from Dan. What a time saver, and better quality than I had come up with on my own. Originally I was using 6' walmart extensions, chopped for the 8 power cords. they work, but the time involved in cutting, stripping, and then you still wind up with 18 ga. cords instead of 16 ga from Dan, and you cant plug a 3 prong extension cord into a cheapo 18 ga female triple end socket. Then are polarized, but not grounded. All in all, do yourself a favor and check out the accessory area of the lor site. it will save you lots of time and you will end up with a much better unit. FrankI agree, the cords from LOR are worth the few dollars. I prefer to have the 3 prong cords so I can use the 16/3 extension cords I use for halloween, and they come in easy to use lenths. I also like to have everything grounded, you never know when you'll get lightning/rain in NC.We had a nice Christmas rain, so no lights for most of Christmas day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 Scott:Wanna share? What did you use for controller 'boxes'. I've seen 12" x 12" top cover sealed enclosures at Home Depot for about $24, but theres got to be something cheaper to use. I've contemplated using empty chlorine buckets (I've got about a dozen of them!), but I haven't decided yet.Also, even if you use 3 prong grounded wire for extensions, if you have a plastic enclosure, the main power coming in is not grounded (unless you ganged all the grounds together with the incoming power ground). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 27, 2005 Share Posted December 27, 2005 I was thinking that instead of using female power cords for the channels that i would use an outlet mounted to the outside of the box with the proper wire to connect the outlet and the controller. The box would probably be made of wood as it is easily cut to dimension. Would this pose a problem, ie. board needing metal to be grounded though screws, or would this be a possible solution? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 don't know what the LOR sale is like in april, but judging by current prices, if the showtime stuff is $100 more then the hobbyist (for the 16 channel unit), and the female power connectors are gonna run 30 plus about 25 for the box, then i think i'd rather go for the finished showtime product. don't have to put it together or anything...Colin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Are you telling me that I need to wait untill April for a big sale at LOR? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Maintenance_Man wrote: Are you telling me that I need to wait untill April for a big sale at LOR?http://planetchristmas.mywowbb.com/forum25/1836.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Are you telling me that I need to wait untill April for a big sale at LOR?I will say that I am not sure how BIG the sale will be but I do know that it will be the only sale this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 I guess what I am really asking is, do we know that it is definitely in April? If it is then I will wait until then because I am not going to need them before then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Maintenance, The guy who posted right about you about the April sale is the owner of the company. I would say when he says the sale in April (the only sale of the year) it is pretty definite.Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Jeff_Womack wrote: Maintenance, The guy who posted right about you about the April sale is the owner of the company. I would say when he says the sale in April (the only sale of the year) it is pretty definite.JeffForgive me Dan, I am still trying to learn all I can before I jump in. I am already stressed about how to decorate, how many units to buy, colors etc..etc..etc. and Christmas is over a year away. I do not want to wait until the end of the year and find out that I am missing parts or parts of systems. I wished I had the knowledge of the veterans on here and I might not feel the same way, but I don't. when my 6 and 3 year old watched some of the videos they asked if we could decorate like that next year and I told them yes, I do not want to let them down and I think I am looking forward to it as much as they are though. They still watch the videos that I saved to the hard drive almost daily, so I do not think they will forget anytime soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Maintenance_Man wrote: Forgive me Dan, I am still trying to learn all I can before I jump in. I am already stressed about how to decorate, how many units to buy, colors etc..etc..etc. and Christmas is over a year away. I do not want to wait until the end of the year and find out that I am missing parts or parts of systems. I wished I had the knowledge of the veterans on here and I might not feel the same way, but I don't. when my 6 and 3 year old watched some of the videos they asked if we could decorate like that next year and I told them yes, I do not want to let them down and I think I am looking forward to it as much as they are though. They still watch the videos that I saved to the hard drive almost daily, so I do not think they will forget anytime soon.MM: In my opinion, here is how people should get started. I think it reduces the stress level involved.1) NOW: Have a slight to even vauge idea what you want to do. Your plans will change. You will still need lights. Buy a lot of them. All that you can afford.2) Buy your LOR boards in April. Buy all that you can. Don't think you overbought. You didn't. You will need them. Promise. (If not, you have a spare.)3) Now that you know how many channels you have available, you can start planning your display. Do you have one now? Get an idea as to how many channels it would take to animate that. Grow from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Don wrote: Maintenance_Man wrote: Forgive me Dan, I am still trying to learn all I can before I jump in. I am already stressed about how to decorate, how many units to buy, colors etc..etc..etc. and Christmas is over a year away. I do not want to wait until the end of the year and find out that I am missing parts or parts of systems. I wished I had the knowledge of the veterans on here and I might not feel the same way, but I don't. when my 6 and 3 year old watched some of the videos they asked if we could decorate like that next year and I told them yes, I do not want to let them down and I think I am looking forward to it as much as they are though. They still watch the videos that I saved to the hard drive almost daily, so I do not think they will forget anytime soon.MM: In my opinion, here is how people should get started. I think it reduces the stress level involved.1) NOW: Have a slight to even vauge idea what you want to do. Your plans will change. You will still need lights. Buy a lot of them. All that you can afford.2) Buy your LOR boards in April. Buy all that you can. Don't think you overbought. You didn't. You will need them. Promise. (If not, you have a spare.)3) Now that you know how many channels you have available, you can start planning your display. Do you have one now? Get an idea as to how many channels it would take to animate that. Grow from there.Now that is what I am talking about, I need to know how many lights or strings of lights that can be controlled from on channel. when I have answers like these I think I can start planning.Where do you guys find lights in the off season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Maintenance_Man wrote: Now that is what I am talking about, I need to know how many lights or strings of lights that can be controlled from on channel. when I have answers like these I think I can start planning.Where do you guys find lights in the off season?MM,I too will be using LOR for the first time next year. I have actually been planning it for the last year now.I have just been using the Power Chart here on PC to figure out how many lights. http://www.planetchristmas.com/FigurePower.htm .Note thou that you have to limit yourself to 8 amps per channel and that you can only run a max of 20 at one time (so 3 channels max at 24 "too much") you can put alot off lights on one lor board but that is going to limit yourself to how much of it you can have on at one time. When I first thought of buying LOR I was thinking of buying like 8 or 16 channels. Well now I thinking more like 48-80.After watching alot of the other peoples shows on here I just started counting them so see about how many channels they were using. Figure for everyone time you see a group of lights come on you have to have at least 1 channel. So if you plan on doing a Mega Tree or anything on that nature you better have atleast 16 and hopefully you would have more like 32 or 48. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 I was thinking 64 channels but I don't know now if that will be nearly enough:( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 MM....This has been my first year and I have 32, which is quite a chunk to start off with !!!Keep in mind you have to sequence all those channels...LOL!IMHO if I had any more this year... it might have been too much for me to handle....As it is.. I had a good time...got it done (very late because I started late) with the help of many people here on PC... and honestly I am not really utilizing all 32 channels the way they should and could be !!!And it turned out great !!!I may just stick with 32 for next year...(don't anyone hold me to that!!! ) and refine WHAT I do with them....Crawl, walk, then run Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Maintenance_Man, You can start off small (even 16 channels!) and move up from there. Chuck Smith, the guy who owns PlanetChristmas, says "Crawl, Walk, Run". No need to buy 128 channels this year only to use much less. Build your display and everything that goes behind the display a little each year. By the way, if you disclosed where you live, you might find several local people that could help you before this year ends! Another good reason for letting us know where you live is several states have one day get-togethers called Mini PLUSs. You can learn a lot from others both on this board and in person. In the next two days, two other PC members from other parts of Texas will be stopping at my house. One hopefully will gain some knowledge from me, the other (Darryl Quinn) is an old dog and you know what they say about old dogs!Jeff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 I will probably just do 32, but then again if I have the spare cash I may do 64.I have read where people say, to do the big tree you need a minimum of 8-16 but 32 makes it real nice. If this is the case then that would leave me none for the house or the rest of the yard. I went to wally world with the wife the day after Christmas and stocked up on lights. But I think I will need more the way people are talking and knowing what I would like to do.Maybe if someone with the experience saw a picture of my house then they could give me some advice of what to start off with being that they have the knowledge of what the boards are capable of.I am in Independence, Kentucky for anyone that cares to know or if any one is close to me that may be able to offer some expertise Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Get lights while they are cheap!!(I did 5 bushs, a real tree in the front yard, the roof outline in front, and a large wreath with 5000 lights total this year, along with 6 flood lights in red, green, and blue)Solid color strands are what I went with 5 different colors (not including clear on my wreath) this year. This allows me to do complete color fades which are more dramatic on my small display.I have that many again in solid colors that I did not use... and picked up 4200 multis and 1800 clear last night along with 1800 purple which are harder to find.Also if you find extension cords on clearance pick up what you can afford.. it was told to me several times and it is true.... you can't have too many! LOL!If you can post a picture of your house I am certain you can get some input and ideas! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 Sure, Check back in a little while and I will post it. Give me about 30 minutes or less. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 28, 2005 Share Posted December 28, 2005 By the way...If you can afford 64 channels...by all means go for it!Just don't pressure yourself into thinking you have to use them all the first year!It would not be a bad thing to have a backup unit or 2 on the shelf just in case something horrible happened. You would not have to be down any lenght of time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts