6 weeks left to Lights On for many of us...

[John2571]

is there anyone in CT that injoys wrapping pvc pipe? i need to wrap almost 200 strands:shock::shock:

[Guest guest]

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

[Santas Helper]

DonFL wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

Don,

What do you mean by solid 45 miles. Is that solid ground or solid pavement? There could be a difference here J/K

[jldavis1969]

As of about 8:45pm MDT on 11-4-2011 I am at a standstill on putting things out for my show.

The reason is SNOW, It is snowing here in Clearfield, Utah.

As of 1:28am on 11-5-2011 I currently have about 2-3 inches of snow on the lawn but it is still not sticking to the streets.

I will try and post a pic or two in the morning of what it looks like here.

BTW we now have only 19 more days til Thanksgiving.

[Guest guest]

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

Don,

What do you mean by solid 45 miles. Is that solid ground or solid pavement? There could be a difference here J/K

Its 7:15 AM on saturday morning, i'm only on my second cup of coffee..and struggling to come up with a witty reply....

Can I get back to you on that?

[BrownOut]

I just came back in the house- I was on the metal ladder and there is dew on it. Temp is 35F. I almost fell trying to reach light clips- we are going to let that dry up first.

Hey Don- is that pumpkin spice coffee?

[Guest guest]

BrownOut wrote:

I just came back in the house- I was on the metal ladder and there is dew on it. Temp is 35F. I almost fell trying to reach light clips- we are going to let that dry up first.

Hey Don- is that pumpkin spice coffee?

Nope...starbucks beans (none of that dunkin donuts crap..) with gingerbread creamer. I'm sure THAT coffee flame will start another debate...

But I DO have pumpkin spice creamer in the fridge. :cool:

[BrownOut]

I hate to say it, but Foldgers dark roast is my favorite with just a little half and half.

[Wayne K]

I like others have been working on getting things ready to go up. After today all of my outside stuff will be ready to go up. I got a bunch of rope lights that I wrap around my porch poles that I am going to try and get up in the next few days while it is warm out. Then as one or 2 others have stated, I have scheduled a weeks vacation before thanksgiving which will give me 10 solid days full time to get everything ready for the Saturday night light up.

Got the show computer out of the moth balls and fired up last week. Had to wait on microsoft to do a years worth of updates to win 7. I have been playing with the audio as in the past I had my audio split 3 ways, 1 to fm tansmitter, 1 to my amp for outside speakers, 1 for my computer speakers. I purchased a 8 channel headphone amp and now able to tune each one for the audio level I want to go to each one.

[Guest guest]

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

And I'm over in Seminole County, Florida in Fern Park(Casselberry), only about 24.85 miles (I-4 and surface streets) or 25.39 miles (toll roads/I4 and surface streets) these being the shortest time settings from Mapquest.

No worries about time, then a little longer route would be less miles, 22.60 miles.

So if you have time and want to meet up with another Floridian and LOR user, PM me for details.

[Guest guest]

DonFL wrote:

BrownOut wrote:

I just came back in the house- I was on the metal ladder and there is dew on it. Temp is 35F. I almost fell trying to reach light clips- we are going to let that dry up first.

Hey Don- is that pumpkin spice coffee?

Nope...starbucks beans (none of that dunkin donuts crap..) with gingerbread creamer. I'm sure THAT coffee flame will start another debate...

But I DO have pumpkin spice creamer in the fridge. :cool:

Don't know if I bought their(Starbucks) beans home and brewed it my way would be any different, but every time I've been to Starbucks and bought their coffee in house where they fix it, it has always upset my stomach really bad.

Dunkin's "crap" has never left me with a stomach so bad, I had to do the second word of this sentence all too often after it, unlike drinking Starbucks which kept me firmly seated on the porcelin throne.

I don't think it's their(Starbucks) coffee, I think it's the additional stuff they put in some of their coffees. And I've bought Dunkin's beans and brewed at home, wasn't that bad, wasn't that bad at their shop either.

Although most coffees I've purchased from Coffee shops of any kind has always been way too strong for my tastes, always have to overkill those with a hefty sugar and creamer fix.

I don't drink it black, can't stand it, well, I can tolerate it with a bit of sugar, but usually my flavor is the Columbian Coffee with Hazelnut creamer myself. Pumpkin Spice isn't bad, haven't tried the Gingerbread creamer yet. Guess I need to get some and see how that is. Sounds pretty enticing, especially since I love Gingerbread Cookies myself, and if it's anything like the flavor of the "Gingerbread Men", I'll probably love it.



BTW: Temp this morning (Sat 11/5 8:51AM) in my area is a brisk 57 degrees F. And if the rain holds off (providing the weatherperson got it right, usually NOT!), be a beautiful day for working on the rest of my Christmas display!

[David Rise]

WOW! I'm done setting up all my strings and have a whole bunch left over.
Well, guess when I get my backup controller, I'll put it to use...

I've seen from a few members websites, that they use net lights on their trees. It looks so much nicer than my lame strings. So net lights go on my wishlist for next year.

I think for my extra strings, I'll mount them on a few extra PVC posts that I have and make a little barrier around the display.

[Santas Helper]

DonFL wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

Don,

What do you mean by solid 45 miles. Is that solid ground or solid pavement? There could be a difference here J/K

Its 7:15 AM on saturday morning, i'm only on my second cup of coffee..and struggling to come up with a witty reply....

Can I get back to you on that?

Sorry for the cause of extra thinking Don.

Now is that really a second cup of coffee or just a top-off of the first cup?

Putting roof lights out after a third top-off of my first cup of coffee.

[Guest guest]

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

Don,

What do you mean by solid 45 miles. Is that solid ground or solid pavement? There could be a difference here J/K

Its 7:15 AM on saturday morning, i'm only on my second cup of coffee..and struggling to come up with a witty reply....

Can I get back to you on that?

Sorry for the cause of extra thinking Don.

Now is that really a second cup of coffee or just a top-off of the first cup?

Putting roof lights out after a third top-off of my first cup of coffee.

second cup...meaning..one in the right hand, one in the left....:D

[JeffF]

Spent from 10am 'til now getting the front of the house all setup and wired. I put most of the items on it Wed thru Friday but today it was all about wiring and garland to cover up the wiring. I wanted to start earlier but there was thick frost on the ground, ladders, and roof so I just had a pot of coffee instead(Wegman's brand Colombian).

Had a mishap with the ladder almost crushing me. It was funnier than hell and I wish I had a video. I was carrying a 28' Fiberglas on a hill walking sideways when I hit a wet, muddy patch. Yep, feet went out from under me and I had to dodge the ladder coming down TWICE! Once on the way down and once on the rebound. Must have been hilarious to watch.

Tomorrow I have to re-rope the Megatree pole and then the family will help me with the 96 strands it takes to populate it. After that... I'll probably start mini-Megatree.


BTW, 4th year with LOR and this is the most pleasant year yet. No pressure, not scheduling "shows" this year, not going to be a slave to the lights at all, and overall we're just going to have fun with it. Most nights our lights will just have a generic look to them without animation or music. Then, when we feel like it, we'll play a few sequences just for the heck of it. We've already let friends and family know if they want to see the lights, stop by and knock on the door.

Now it's time to get a bite to eat and then I have some network cables to run...

[rgardner518]

Santas Helper wrote:

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

I like that. I'm still trying to figure out how many lights to do, and then I have to do the sequences. Here is the colors I was going to do. Blue, Green, Red, White, And a 1 channel white star. I can do 32 channels if need be.

I have more than enough 100ct mini's.

Can I ask your option, how you would do it if you where in my shoes, with what I have listed as having. The star I can plug into a channel in one of the other controllers I have. So I want it to look full. So I like your double run idea.

Say 8 channels of each color, doubled. And would you do, red, blue, green, white, red blue, green, white, etc?

Also each string going down. Would you double that so each one has 200 minis per leg?

I have a similar mega tree as David. 33' but will have four colors "red, white, blue and then green". Thats the USA colors I have 16 channels and run 3 legs of each color side by side. So 48 strands of each color on 16 channels each color. RRR, WWW, BBB, GGG 48 times. Does great for this size of mega tree. If your tree is smaller, you shouldn't need as much but it depends on what you're looking for.

But seriously... do Red, White, Blue and green. It looks/sounds much better

I have two questions:

Question 1:
Here is a picture of what my mega tree will look like. The numbers is the channels. And each colored letter represents a colored string. The black "W", means Clear/white string. The double letters "BB" Means two strings of blue lights, and so on.

My issue is when only one color is on, its not going to spin right, nor will it look full if I have only one color on. How can I fix this?

Attached files

[rgardner518]

Question 2:
How do most people attach the strings to the bottom round pole? I have 3 pieces of 3/4" electrical pvc, glued end to end, giving me my circle. But the strings are longer than I thought they would be. So How do I attach them to pvc? If you have pictures of examples, that would be great. I might be able to raise the ring off the ground, to make a truck, but how is that done too.

[wallleyes]

I attach my strands to the pvc ring with black electrical tape from menards.3 rolls for a dollar.To support my pvc rings i set them knee high.I buy 5/16 rebar rods from ace hardware.I use 6 rods per tree.I tie 2 wires around the pvc and rod.I then put black tape around that.I then put a small hose clamp the top side of each rod to prevent slippage.Worked great last year and today both my mega tree`s have been going through 45+ gusts of wind and are holding up good.

[rgardner518]

wallleyes wrote:

I attach my strands to the pvc ring with black electrical tape from menards.3 rolls for a dollar.To support my pvc rings i set them knee high.I buy 5/16 rebar rods from ace hardware.I use 6 rods per tree.I tie 2 wires around the pvc and rod.I then put black tape around that.I then put a small hose clamp the top side of each rod to prevent slippage.Worked great last year and today both my mega tree`s have been going through 45+ gusts of wind and are holding up good.

I like your idea. Now the lights wrap around the outer ring and than in the inter ring. What do you use to secure them to the inter and outer rings? That's were I'm at. I'm trying to find a way to to attache the lights to the ring.

[wallleyes]

My lights just hang over the inner ring.My light strands are 23 foot long and just make it to the ground.I use 6 foot extension cords and have my controllers mounted above the center ring.Here`s a picture.