heystew Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 Don, thanks for the compliments.. much appreciated.Mark, for me sequencing is very unpredictable.. if i'm in the groove I might knock something out very quickly... several hours.. or if not it might take a week of sporadic programming. fortunately i have some help with the programming for this. Somehow though it always comes down to the last several nights before light up night that the sequences all come together..generally ends up going in layers.. do something basic.. come back to it the next day and add another layer or feature.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duner10 Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Love it. I am excited about 2012. I have been looking for a way to get my kids included in the display. I am going to have them come up with a theme like your find Santa and include them in the voice overs. What type of pulley system did you use on the Santa and raindeer flying through the air. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstorms Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 Stunning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NWSanta Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 Flabbergasted! Absolutely Stunning. I can't imagine the budget but, you sure pulled it off! Truly an amazing display! Thanks for sharing with all of us, the videos and the information!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 lharzman wrote: Love it. I am excited about 2012. I have been looking for a way to get my kids included in the display. I am going to have them come up with a theme like your find Santa and include them in the voice overs. What type of pulley system did you use on the Santa and raindeer flying through the air.All, thanks for the great feedback!..As for the pulley system for the Santa sleighs.. I will be putting together a better writeup with pictures, but here's an overview.A stationary zip line is installed from a sturdy tree to a pole in the center of the yard. The sleigh hangs from this zipline on 5 zipline double wheel trolleys/pulleys. This allows the sleigh to move back and forth.An industrial garage door motor is placed at the base of the tree. It has two cable reels on it, one takes cable in, the other lets cable out. One cable attaches to the front of the sleigh, one to the rear (via various pulleys.. see picture). The sleigh is always under positive control.. the first two years we tried to let gravity pull it down, but often the motor would get ahead of gravity and the cable would get tangled. attached is a quick drawing.. hopefully it well help more than confuse..also attached is a quick picture of the motor assembly. Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 drawing attached Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 in white..... Attached files Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GS Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 If you're in the DC area this was a must see show, simply AWESOME.Incredible detail on the lighting effects. Looking forward to the 2012 show!Glenn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duner10 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Thanks for the diagram. I am considering tackling DMX and was wondering it you had it to do all over again, would you use madrix and rgb bulbs on your mini trees instead of running the four colors. I am starting a new project and am not familier with DMX but excited to learn. I wonder what the cost difference is between running rgb bulbs as compaired to running four different led colors when you consider all the cords and channels needed to run four colors. I think it might look cool if a person could get their mini trees to chase up and down. Has anyone seen this that could share a video.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 if i had it to do over again... i think i would stick with traditional 4 color mini-trees for the mini-trees spread throughout they yard. That said.. you could do some very cool things with pixels on mini-trees.quickly doing the math..Traditional = $182 per tree- 4 mini trees per LOR controller- controller $250- 8 strings of lights per tree = 32 strings at $15/string = $480RGB = $190-$290 per tree- 2 mini-trees/universe- DMX Dongle - $130 (Enttec Pro)- 168 pixels (84 per tree) = $200 to $300 (depending on vendor)- pixel controller - $50 to $150These are just some ball park #'s from memory.. I'm sure you can do better.. or worse than this depending on approach. After looking at the numbers it's closer than I thought it would be..I think the big decision would come down to how much work it would be to integrate and the time to program. Adding pixel control exponentially complicates the programming process. I am going to start to get into Madrix this year and maybe I will find out that I should have been using it all along.. we shall see.. I'm hoping Madrix will help with some of the obstacles to visualization that I ran into this year with the large number of pixels. I ended up hand drawing the pixels in the original animation window.. and using that side by side with the visualizer (which had all the traditional LOR items). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 one other quick thought.. the introduction of E1.31 would definitely help with the cost aspect as you could get rid of the Enttec Pro.. but you would need to add an E1.31 controller in there that would have some cost.. although should handle more than 1 universe I would hope.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duner10 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I got this from a different thread but if it is true it would make each mini tree 165.50 wouldn't it or am I missing something. Like I said I havent tackled DMX yet so it is still a little unclear to me what it takes to work._________________________________________________________________Our Led strings are 85 leds long, and you could double them up, ( i.e. run them there and back ). Using our e16-ii controller, which controls 16 strings, you'd easily create a grid that was more or less this shape ( it would be 32 x 42 , which is a bit more square. You are of course free to re-arrange the actual layout as you please.We have a combination package of an E16-ii controller and 16 [highlight= #ffff88]Stella-green strings ( 85 nodes per string ). That package is $2645, which includes standard delivery anywhere within the USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 i use the stella strings.. so yes that would work great. As for the controller.. that's exactly where the cost savings will come in. the E16 requires E1.31 input so without some 3rd party tools there's no way to drive from LOR. I plan to use some E16 controllers this year.Right now for 8 universes (equivalent of an E16), I have 8 DMX pixel controllers and 8 Enttec Pro's. Adding up to a lot more $ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duner10 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Would Madrix be a third party tool for which you are referencing... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Madrix is one way. I have seen reference to other playback utilities that would playback LOR files and drive E1.31 as well. Or theres LSP as well. I wanted to stay as clean as possible since i was already pushing the envelope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duner10 Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I guess the next step is buying that Stella-green kit with e-16 controller. My wife is gonna love this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 that's a big jump.. i'd say start small over the next month or so and see how your dmx integration goes. then jump into the E16 etc.. don't forget Madrix isn't a small purchase either.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heystew Posted January 21, 2012 Author Share Posted January 21, 2012 Updated video with footage I captured with a Nikon D7000 that I rented for a weekend.Much better view of the display than previous video..http://www.rockyrunchristmas.com/2011video.htmlHere's a shot at trying to embed it.. we'll see if it works.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulanator Posted January 23, 2012 Share Posted January 23, 2012 Great job, love the whole story line. You can tell it was a lot of work to put together! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eurbani Posted April 16, 2012 Share Posted April 16, 2012 I have to admit that I contributed to the traffic. I brought the kids one night, kids+ Au pair one night and a van full of people one night.As I said before. It was awesome and I was truly inspired. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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