bostonchris81 Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 hello everyone my name is Chris and I live outside of boston, I have been a huge fan of christmas lights all of my life ! the more the better ! i have been watching videos with people using LOR the last few years and wanted it bad ! I finally pulled the trigger and bought the 16 channel starter kit to play with this season and add more channels next year if all goes well. My question is where do I start lol?Holy Crap to the software !!I have led multi colored mini lights already, can I use those or do I start from scratch with single colored lights?Where to start with displays ?so many questions!any direction would be great ! Thanks, Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jstorms Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Welcome to the obsession. Some howto videos:https://sites.google.com/site/listentoourlights/home/how-to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ItsMeBobO Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Welcome Chris ! We have all been there and many here will answer your questions and share what we have. My first year I had a single 16 channel then added 1,2,2 the next 3 years. You will gain confidence as you go. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericm Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 I'm new to and John storms YouTube videos are the best! Think his you tube name is listentoourlights, but go through all thread and ask questions. People on here are extremely helpful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsusie Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Lots of good videos on LOR as well. Also go to YouTube and search for LOR, sequence, christmas lights, etc. You'll be surprised how much is out there. Yes you can use your existing lights. I've had multi-color strings for years and I still use them. I've added single colors the past couple years and now some RGB as well with CCRs.Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted August 26, 2015 Share Posted August 26, 2015 Welcome to the addiction. At Christmas Expo I did a freebie track that has a lot of great info for beginners. The presentation is in the How-To section on my website - Decorating 101. With the LOR decision made, there are still a lot of other things to consider. Also, at one point David Moore at Holiday Coro had some basic starting information too on his website Blog, you may want to check there. Mr Storms above has a lot of great info on sequencing etc.... The LOR site has info as well. Keep asking questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TitusCarnathan Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Welcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Welcome to our world/hobby! Truly it can be fun but even though starting out it appears complex and difficult, it is not. Most of us are more than happy to help you as needed. If you are doing a show this year, get started instantly as time is running very short. Start with a plan. I mean that by simply taking a picture of your home and start drawing strings of lights on it and how you wish to control those strings. Most people start out simple with 16-32 AC channels and others a lot more. Things to consider in your plan, audio to the yard and or FM broadcast. Radio frequency signs so driver's know what channel, if using FM. Use LED's as they are pretty and consume a lot less power to operate but incans have their place too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonchris81 Posted August 27, 2015 Author Share Posted August 27, 2015 Thanks everyone for the warm welcome ! I am very excited to get started , my wife thinks I am crazy to want to play with lights already lol.I am definitely going to check out some videos on YouTube. Would love to make my own lawn decor like light up trees etc .I can see this becoming a obsession very easily!Can a fm trans be hooked up to a 16 channel unit ?I may start tinkering this weekend !!Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) In your original post you said "Starter Kit". Which one? If you require a computer to run your show, if that is the case, you hook the FM transmitter to the audio output (headphones) of that computer. If you have one of the standalone controllers instead, you would hook it to the audio output on that particular controller. Just an FYI. On an FM transmitter, never plug it in without an antenna attached first. Understand that there are FCC rules you need to be aware of in using one of these. What unit do you have or thinking about? Edited August 27, 2015 by zman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaynee Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Welcome - I'm new this year as well. I also bought the starter kit with 16 channels. Yes, you can use an FM Transmitter (we will as well). I highly recommend JStorms's tutorials on using the software - they were invaluable to me. Also, go to the Sequence Sharing forum and you'll find a sticky thread with a link to some free 16-channel sequences. I downloaded a few of those and then tweaked them to fit my own display. I think I've got about a month under my belt messing around with the software (including the visualizer to see how the lights will function on my house) and pre-existing sequences. This year I'll be able to manage having a short opener, a song, a movie clip, a song, and then a short closing clip. Total show is about 7-8 minutes. You do not need the controller in your possession to create the sequences. Have fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonchris81 Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 The starter kit I got is the 16 channel standalone that will run off my pc .i have lots to learn About this system and software .What is a good transmitter and where can one be purchased ? I appreciate all the information that you guys have given me and I will be researching it all this weekend . Can't wait to jump into it and start understanding how the sequencing works and how to setup my display ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 One that is widely known and respected is the CZH-05B available from Amazon. Also is the EDM transmitter which is more expensive but works...I know, I have one. The one that doesn't work is the WHT (Whole House Transmitter), new ones die in a day others with poor outputs and so on, suggest not getting one of them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zman Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 You can't go wrong with the EDM, I currently use it, and I also have used the Ramsey kits in years past as well. I recommend them both. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmmienLightFan Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 The starter kit I got is the 16 channel standalone that will run off my pc.Standalone controllers don't run off your PC.I think you do mean it runs ofd your PC though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LOR Staff Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 FYI... This is our standard "Oh my! I ordered and I'm scared (in a good way)" response : Using Light-O-Rama can be a little overwhelming in the beginning because you have so much flexibility. The best place to begin understanding how it all fits together is to see some typical setups at http://sequences.lightorama.com You can also become a member of our forums at http://forums.LightORama.com where there is a very active user community eager to help. [Lookie! You already did!] Take it one step at a time and you'll be impressed what can be accomplished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonchris81 Posted August 30, 2015 Author Share Posted August 30, 2015 lots of information here! I have been playing with the idea of making a halloween light show to prepare me for christmas ! We will see how that goes! I have purchased a few cheap sequences off of e-bay just to see how it works and what to look for . i'm trying to make my own singing pumpkin and i am not sure how to lay out the lights for the different positions of the mouth and what each mouth movement should look like . I bought some peg board from lowes to experiment with and bought 6 sets of orange led mini lights to play with and i am kind of at a stand still with the dang mouth !! Thanks for all of the helful hints guys I appreciate it ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomsusie Posted August 30, 2015 Share Posted August 30, 2015 You only need 3 or 4 motions for the mouth. I use closed, open, open wide & an "O". It's surprising how easy it can be to make it look real just by switching between those 4 mouths. Just say the words and notice the shape your own mouth takes as you say them and light that shape. Closed is straight line across, open is that straight line that is slightly arched up & down for respective lips. Open wide is just making the open shape much wider to cover good portion of mouth. And the O is simply shaped like a big O. I'm not using standalone singing faces this year. Instead I am created them using my CCRs which will be horizontal on my roof. Hope this helps some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonchris81 Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Awesome thanks for the reply tomsusie hopefully it will come out decent ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bostonchris81 Posted August 31, 2015 Author Share Posted August 31, 2015 Ok so what if you are planning a show with more then one song with singing faces and all the sequences have Been made by other online users , the problem I am seeing is the order of their channels some have different channels running different parts of the mouth for instance. Any ideas ? Or do I just edit the channel numbers and make them all the same channels in each sequence ??kinda confusing to me ! Thanks again ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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