Best use of 32 channels?

[Manik35]

OK so I have got the ok from the boss lady to buy a 32 channel set up this year with fm transmitter. I have been looking at tons of set ups, on big LOR light displays. Most things such as Mega Trees (32 channels +), Sweaping Arches (8-16 channels) and Fans (16 channels +) use tons of channels to run...

Is there any ways to cut corners for us newbies that would help us save on channels? For instance how would a 4 channel arch look? or a 16 channel Mega Tree? Is there any other things I could use that would look good while not eating up tons of channels?

[james campbell]

pm sent

[james campbell]

e-mail sent

[Manik35]

Thanks!! got it..

Any ideas will help, for my anxious trip to lowes this morning ..lol

[james campbell]

Manik35 wrote:

Thanks!! got it..

Any ideas will help, for my anxious trip to lowes this morning ..lol

get some spt-2 lamp cord for extension cords

[shfr26]

I'm doing a 16 channel tree this year, so far, so good. I think with 16 channels for the rest of your display you should be okay. How many lights do you plan on using? What kind of lights, and how big is your yard?? How about where you are in your profile? Maybe someone is close and can help out. I started with 32 channels and everyone said the display was very nice. Oh yeah, buys lots of cords.

And by the way, welcome to the madness!

[Surfing4Dough]

Manik35 wrote:

OK so I have got the ok from the boss lady to buy a 32 channel set up this year with fm transmitter. I have been looking at tons of set ups, on big LOR light displays. Most things such as Mega Trees (32 channels +), Sweaping Arches (8-16 channels) and Fans (16 channels +) use tons of channels to run...

Is there any ways to cut corners for us newbies that would help us save on channels? For instance how would a 4 channel arch look? or a 16 channel Mega Tree? Is there any other things I could use that would look good while not eating up tons of channels?

My first year I had 32 channels and yo can make it work. I would suggest going the megatree route rather than arches since it is difficult to make arches look good with anything less than 5 channels per arch, and that is even pushing it--7 is the preferred. Save those for next year. I had a 6 channel single color (white) mega-tree my first year, only because that is all I had left (since I wanted R, G, W on everything else). Each channel or "slice" of the tree used a few strings to fill it out. It worked and looked decent. I would recommend at least 8 channels instead though--easier to sequence. So you can stick with 8 channels for the main tree color, but if wanting to also add other colors a simple way to save some channels there is to use the "up and over" technique for each channel instead, meaning that the stings for a single channel go up on one side of the tree and down on the other (1 o'clock and 7 o'clock in a sense). That way, a secondary color only take 4 channels (can do this for the primary color, but it limits what cool sequencing you can do with the main color). If it is a must to have a 3rd color, you can always just use 1 channel to make it solid that color, or 2 channels (halves, or every other slice on the same channel).

So this is the video of my first year with my 6 channel single color mega-tree (as part of my 32 ch display):

You can then compare to my second year, when I changed the white to 8 channels, added 4 channels of red, and 4 channels of green:

Welcome to the fun! Don't try to do it all at once. Better to focus on quality for a few items rather than quantity. Plus adding new items (one big prop per year) makes it easy to figure out what to do the next year (such as add arches next year)--you will never be content with the same, so always expect to keep adding the next year.

[Surfing4Dough]

Also, this is the video that gave me the best tips for building my mega tree. This type of pole mount (attaching to T-shaped fence post) has worked incredibly well for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHE8xy_0kfU&hl=en&fs=1

[Manik35]

My yard is a good size i live on a 1/2 acre lot with the house tword the back.

here is a pic of last year lights.. keep in mind i took avantage of the after Christmas sale and bought around 2000 more lights and u cant see my 1500 light wraped pear tree (just a cpl branches in the left corner

Attached files

[Manik35]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

Also, this is the video that gave me the best tips for building my mega tree.  This type of pole mount (attaching to T-shaped fence post) has worked incredibly well for me. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHE8xy_0kfU&hl=en&fs=1

I saw the same video last nite!! Some really good ideas in the vid.. pullys, fence posts.. makes it easy to sting and repair with the pully system...

[shfr26]

16 channels tree, 2-4 for the eaves, 2-4 for the bushes, 4 for windows, that leaves 4-6 channels left over for anything else you want to do. 8 channel tree, lots of channels left over for more stuff.

[james campbell]

I took a different approach,my four channel arches look good enough to get good comments from the few who have seen them. having two I still can control 8 channels. so I have three main props,two arches six mini trees and a mega tree with 14 channels for lights 1 for strobes and 1 for a star. for me I have some nice options for seqeuncing. I would like to have more,and yes 7 channel arches look better,this is what I am able to do this year

[Surfing4Dough]

Manik35 wrote:

My yard is a good size i live on a 1/2 acre lot with the house tword the back.

here is a pic of last year lights.. keep in mind i took avantage of the after Christmas sale and bought around 2000 more lights and u cant see my 1500 light wraped pear tree (just a cpl branches in the left corner

You have got a great setup to work with there over the years. Porch fence sections (chasing), with fence posts (columns) chasing each other. Lots of tree trunks you could wrap. Great open spaces for props (megatree, arches, etc).

[Manik35]

OK so my idea is to make my 10' Mega Tree solid green 1 channel, solid red 1 channel, and white 8 channels (2 strands each channel)for chasing effects.. total 10 channels. Then either some 6 channel arches all connected so they all do the same effect or mini trees (made with tomato plant cages)cause they are simple and cheap to make. 16 for the house, bushes and pear tree should be ok.. right ?

[shfr26]

I would go with an odd number of channels for your arches, better flow over the top. Other than that, sounds good.

[xmasboy]

To answer the original question, one off the best things you can do to save channels is group things. For example, you could put all of your columns on the same channel, or put the columns on each side of the porch on a channel. This creates a much bigger impact while saving channels.

Something that I found really helpful last year was this behind the scenes tour of Holdman's display. Many people consider this display just about the best out there. The "how it all works" video is really helpful, even for smaller diisplays. It will give you lots of ideas and tips that can even be used for smaller displays.
http://holdman.com/christmas/projects.asp

Last year, I started planning with 16 channels and I had no idea how I would fill all the channels. A few months later I was up to 32 channels and wanting more! You will find that there is always something bigger and better that you want to do, but make sure that you stay within the boundaries of what YOU can accomplish. Some people get 200 channel displays, but get burned out quickly due to all the work.

Also, I'm not sure what your set-up plans were, but most people here start set-up in the beginning of November or earlier. I start as soon as my Halloween stuff comes down, and you really will need that time. Don't underestimate how long it will take to run 32 cords and set up lights and props for 32 sets of thing.

Have fun and good luck!

[double000]

The first year I had 32 channels, 6 channel archs.16 channel mega tree. It was perrty good for 32 channels. Just think of a mirror and try to mirror most everything. http://vimeo.com/10023361

[Jim Saul]

Hi Manik, Welcome and Congratulations! You can also use connect things on diffrent areas to the same channel. I had 30 usable channnels last year and hundsreds of things to blink. I used 8 channels to make the arches, then wired the 3 of them together on same channels. here is a video of last year. http://www.youtube.com/user/LakesAreaNet#p/u/2/xmYThgLtyjU
it does not have the granular controls that you get with hundreds of channels, but it works.

[eschlomach]

Manik35 wrote:

OK so my idea is to make my 10' Mega Tree solid green 1 channel, solid red 1 channel, and white 8 channels (2 strands each channel)for chasing effects.. total 10 channels. Then either some 6 channel arches all connected so they all do the same effect or mini trees (made with tomato plant cages)cause they are simple and cheap to make. 16 for the house, bushes and pear tree should be ok.. right ?

Im doing the same thing with my mega tree. I have an eight channel arch that im gonna try controlling with the same 8 as my mega tree. It goes pretty good with most of my songs but some not so great. I guess for those songs i will just have to unplug them. lol.

[TJ Hvasta]

Welcome to the madness that is LOR!! My first year started with 16 ch that became 32 a weeks later.. so you are where a lot of us began. And you're on the same track.. My first MegaTree was a 12channel,12' multicolor string(all I had left) wonder.. its a wonder it looked good at all!! I used 12 up/down, same side strings which gave a good spin look to it. If you go up/over, you'll get a slice, up/down is a wedge.. different look but either is amazing for first time effects.

8 Minitrees would be easy to add.. that's 20channels so far..

Four 8 sleeved mirrored arches (all using the same channels, 8 has better music beat count) that's 28 channels so far, leaving you 4 more for roof line, bushes or columns.. if you skip arches this year, you can do 8 wrapped trees instead..

TJ