1st night of 1st year using lor display

[ToddH]

Ok, so its bene quite a ride thus far I must say! Its been about... oh 2 months since I decided to take this journey into this realm of entertainment! This is my 1st year ever syncronizing lights. I bought the sale board that required me to solder (which I have not done in almost 20 years), the wife was so confident in me when I tested everything she took the kids outside in case I blew up ahhh love!!

I jumped into this head first!! Didn't really play around much with the demo, but been trolling the boards for over a year now. Anyway...the people I have come to meet on this board...well just leaves me speachless!! YOU GUYS ROCK!!

1st was all the great advice in the noob forms but a few really went way out of their way to help me!!

shfr26 - Dude, you rock man!! this man, whom I never meet before in my life opened his door to his home to me and invited me to his house (45min from me) and offered to show me how the software works, some tips, tricks and hands on help...WOW just wow, and after only speaking with him on the boards only once!! Lets just say the wife was telling me bring the shotty just in case A BIG BIG THANK YOU!!

EVAN.A - THANKS!! he helped me with a song that is not completed and I do hope to have it done before halloween, but helped me get this one off to an amazing head start!! besides all the other files he shared with me to help give me ideas and get more of a handle on how things are done.

Cracker!! (aka kevin) big thank you to just being so creative in your work and giving me the inspiration and desire to proceed.

and I can not even begin to tell you about this next crazy man!! ItsMeBobO ... How I would love to be a earworm and crawl inside his head and abosorb this mans ideas, knowledge and just overall creativitiy and kindness!! Oh wait lets not forget patience!! lol Without his help my singing face would not be what it is...yes is not perfect and does not compair to the vets out there but I have to say it helped me a great deal and I am not disappointed at all in the results thus far. This is a raw video taken last night of the 1st test. Im happy with the results and hope you guys enjoy!

I will post some more pictures of the day time shots so you can also get a good view of where it is all placed.

Todd


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[ToddH]

Here's a shot of the FCG i built but no motor

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[ToddH]

Face mounted

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[ToddH]

Graveyard with backups



someone asked so:

I made the tombstones from a sheet of insulation board, I cut the shapes out, used a dremel to carve out the picture on the one and letterings, used black paint to make them stand out, used spray paint to mist on them. The goul holding the pumpkins I made from an old prop I used to have. I just pretty much cut out the guts to get the robe, I then used the same setup to build the FCG but with thicker wire (much thicker) I then used liquid nails to glue on the head and put some foam inside to make it more firm, also then glued the other two on the hands. The pumpkins I got from walmart for 1.00 each, i then cut a hole in the back, put in a c9 socket into each one running 1c9 light in each. Single channel for each of them. To mount it I used a old wooden flagpole that I just hammered down into the ground about 14" deep.


Attached files

[ToddH]

And here is the video

http://youtu.be/dJwRNfG-vo0

[ToddH]

And one more Raw of Rob Zombie's Boogyman

[shfr26]

Nice job Todd!!! Told you you could do it, wait till next year when you get more controllers and lights, and maybe a divorce for getting it all!! Again, very nice job there newbie!

[evan.a]

you need to post more video. good job.

[ShaggySS]

Looks great. This is my first year also but my controllers don't show up until tomorrow.

Though one thing that stood out to me was the blue rope light on the right towards the bottom. It needs to be straightened. Forgive me I am picky like that. Be glad I pointed out something low

[ToddH]

lol my wife said the same thing and I told her where the ladder was

[Santas Helper]

Great job Todd!!!

Did you figure out the motor for the FCG?

I noticed at the stores that rottiserie motors go about 2 rpm, a little slower than I want. So the search continues....

Again, great job on your display.

[Jack Mair]

try monsterguts.com for ur FCG motor

[ToddH]

Santas Helper wrote:

Great job Todd!!!

Did you figure out the motor for the FCG?

I noticed at the stores that rottiserie motors go about 2 rpm, a little slower than I want. So the search continues....

Again, great job on your display.

Hey there! yeah, I never did get around to getting the motor. I figured it was good enough at this point and will get one or two for next year. The prop does ok on its own for now.

[caniac]

ToddH wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

Great job Todd!!!

Did you figure out the motor for the FCG?

I noticed at the stores that rottiserie motors go about 2 rpm, a little slower than I want. So the search continues....

Again, great job on your display.

Hey there! yeah, I never did get around to getting the motor. I figured it was good enough at this point and will get one or two for next year. The prop does ok on its own for now.

if you decide to light it up what worked for me was actually a blue led flood. tried several varieties of black lights (floods and non-floods) to no avail but once I fired up the blue led flood it was like WOW.

[miaskiewicz christian]

Great, and it's only the beginning...

[ToddH]

Well due to the weather the past few days I did take down some of the display due to heavy wind and will have it up and running tonight. I was able to get a few more sequences completed. I had Evan help me out with one and then I touched it up and completed the remainder of the 11 channels and it came out pretty good.



Good idea on the flood light caniac!! To bad they don't have the good colors for them in LED at HD or lowes...but I do plan on getting a few of the $4.00 flood stakes lowes is selling. I have JUST enough zip cord to run a light to the sign and maybe one other.

I will try to get some good video tonight, I created 2 weekday shows and 2 weekend shows. I have found that I really do not like the mini director....either I'm doing something wrong with it or it just won't do what I wanted it to do. I know it does not have a timer, but I have it connected to a timer for the start and stop but it just will keep repeating over and over and over till its set to shut off...so after a 15-20 min show it wont stop and start again the next hour or whatever I want it to do...so...that was a waste of 100.00

Oh well, anyone want to buy it for 90.00?

[caniac]

ToddH wrote:

Well due to the weather the past few days I did take down some of the display due to heavy wind and will have it up and running tonight. I was able to get a few more sequences completed. I had Evan help me out with one and then I touched it up and completed the remainder of the 11 channels and it came out pretty good.



Good idea on the flood light caniac!! To bad they don't have the good colors for them in LED at HD or lowes...but I do plan on getting a few of the $4.00 flood stakes lowes is selling. I have JUST enough zip cord to run a light to the sign and maybe one other.

I will try to get some good video tonight, I created 2 weekday shows and 2 weekend shows. I have found that I really do not like the mini director....either I'm doing something wrong with it or it just won't do what I wanted it to do. I know it does not have a timer, but I have it connected to a timer for the start and stop but it just will keep repeating over and over and over till its set to shut off...so after a 15-20 min show it wont stop and start again the next hour or whatever I want it to do...so...that was a waste of 100.00

Oh well, anyone want to buy it for 90.00?

got my blue led flood at WowLights.com for $35 plus shipping, so far it has been well worth it.

[Paul Roberson]

ToddH wrote:

I will try to get some good video tonight, I created 2 weekday shows and 2 weekend shows. I have found that I really do not like the mini director....either I'm doing something wrong with it or it just won't do what I wanted it to do. I know it does not have a timer, but I have it connected to a timer for the start and stop but it just will keep repeating over and over and over till its set to shut off...so after a 15-20 min show it wont stop and start again the next hour or whatever I want it to do...so...that was a waste of 100.00

Oh well, anyone want to buy it for 90.00?

As you know the mini director does not have a clock so it wont do a show that starts on the hour each hour. However I bet there is a way to make it work.

You would first need to make a 'filler sequence' that does nothing. You would need to know the current length of your show and then make a filler "does nothing" sequence that is long enough to fill the rest of the hour. You may have to make more than 1 filler to cover the correct amount of time. You may have to even use a 'silent' mp3 for the audio file.

Then you would need to build your show just like you have now plus these filler (do nothing) sequecnes to fill the rest of the time. May take a little trial and error, but I think it can be done.

I'll play with the idea a bit more and see what I come up with.

Anyone know if this would work or not?

Edit...

Another thought might be to get a digital timer that would allow you to schedule the ON (for 20 min or whatever is needed) then OFF. Then on again at the next hour. You would need to set your show up to loop only once (or not loop at all).

[shfr26]

Paul, I did something similiar with my show last year. I use PC controllers but I needed about 30 seconds to fill up the hour. I just made 4 or 5 "sequences" that did nothing and named the "filler a" and so on. This way I had 3-5 songs, a filler and then 3-4 songs , a filler, till the hour was complete. This also gave a chance for visitors to move on so the next banch colud move in. Worked out just great!

[ToddH]

Paul Roberson wrote:

ToddH wrote:

I will try to get some good video tonight, I created 2 weekday shows and 2 weekend shows. I have found that I really do not like the mini director....either I'm doing something wrong with it or it just won't do what I wanted it to do. I know it does not have a timer, but I have it connected to a timer for the start and stop but it just will keep repeating over and over and over till its set to shut off...so after a 15-20 min show it wont stop and start again the next hour or whatever I want it to do...so...that was a waste of 100.00

Oh well, anyone want to buy it for 90.00?

As you know the mini director does not have a clock so it wont do a show that starts on the hour each hour. However I bet there is a way to make it work.

You would first need to make a 'filler sequence' that does nothing. You would need to know the current length of your show and then make a filler "does nothing" sequence that is long enough to fill the rest of the hour. You may have to make more than 1 filler to cover the correct amount of time. You may have to even use a 'silent' mp3 for the audio file.

Then you would need to build your show just like you have now plus these filler (do nothing) sequecnes to fill the rest of the time. May take a little trial and error, but I think it can be done.

I'll play with the idea a bit more and see what I come up with.

Anyone know if this would work or not?

Edit...

Another thought might be to get a digital timer that would allow you to schedule the ON (for 20 min or whatever is needed) then OFF. Then on again at the next hour. You would need to set your show up to loop only once (or not loop at all).

Thats a good idea!! I might check out what I can do as well, But also I have set the shows to not loop but they loop anyway within the mini director, just keeps going an going and the setting is set to only play once...