Help With First Time Purchase

[zvacman]

Dave:

Welcome to the insanity! I agree with a lot of the suggestions posted thus far. In my opinion there are two very important factors involved with this crazy hobby 1) how tolerant your wife is, and 2) how fat your wallet is. Last year was my first with LOR and my original order happened in the summer sale and consisted of two controllers and the basic software.  After reading more comments that I can count I decided to seek out a different FM transmitter, it's still packed away but I think it is the CZR-5.  If the black suburbans aren't close by you can get away with using it on the 7 watt setting. I use mine on the 15 watt setting and can catch my music from over a mile away.  Granted I live in a very rural area and don't bleed into a used frequency.

You may have noticed that I said my "original order".  I ended up with 80 channels controlling over 50,000 LED's.  For the most part my workshop is at my house so if my wife wanted to see me that's where I was from mid August until the day I went live.  I have a workshop at a different location where I do most of the prop builds, controller and stand assembling.

Now on to the fat wallet part, which mine has gotten so skinny this year I have Ethiopians offering me sandwiches.  I added  another 16 channel 110v controller, 3 Sandevices E682's, 4 CMB24D RGB, 1 Falcon controller, 4 27 channel RGB controllers (from Holiday Coro) and so many RGB strips, nodes, and smart pixels that I would have to go through them and count.  I think I might have a problem?.

Power consumption is an issue that needs to be addressed show to show. My advice is to ditch the incan's, too much consumption and in the next couple of years you won't be able to buy them anymore.  As a rule LEDS don't burn out and the strings light year after year.  The price of them has come down to the level of incan's anyhow (just make sure you buy dimmable ones).  My final year of using incan's my electric bill went up over $300 per month, last year my entire show cost $27 in electric increase, nice!  This year the majority will be running on 12v DC, I'm curious to see where the electric bill goes.

Lastly, I installed a Cat5 outlet in the ceiling of my garage and ran it through my attic to the soffit on the corner of my house and daisy chained everything from there.  My OCD doesn't allow any cords to show on my house and thankfully all of the extension cords in the yard get covered with snow pretty early.

Sorry for being so long winded but I was trying to address all of your questions.

Z

[Dave76]

35 minutes ago, Mr. P said:

Dave76 - update your profile with your software ver and a location. There are many here who would gladly help out if they are near you.

Location updated.  I have not purchased my LOR software yet so no ver to share.  Planning on doing this tomorrow

[Dave76]

25 minutes ago, zvacman said:

Dave:

Welcome to the insanity! I agree with a lot of the suggestions posted thus far. In my opinion there are two very important factors involved with this crazy hobby 1) how tolerant your wife is, and 2) how fat your wallet is. Last year was my first with LOR and my original order happened in the summer sale and consisted of two controllers and the basic software.  After reading more comments that I can count I decided to seek out a different FM transmitter, it's still packed away but I think it is the CZR-5.  If the black suburbans aren't close by you can get away with using it on the 7 watt setting. I use mine on the 15 watt setting and can catch my music from over a mile away.  Granted I live in a very rural area and don't bleed into a used frequency.

You may have noticed that I said my "original order".  I ended up with 80 channels controlling over 50,000 LED's.  For the most part my workshop is at my house so if my wife wanted to see me that's where I was from mid August until the day I went live.  I have a workshop at a different location where I do most of the prop builds, controller and stand assembling.

Now on to the fat wallet part, which mine has gotten so skinny this year I have Ethiopians offering me sandwiches.  I added  another 16 channel 110v controller, 3 Sandevices E682's, 4 CMB24D RGB, 1 Falcon controller, 4 27 channel RGB controllers (from Holiday Coro) and so many RGB strips, nodes, and smart pixels that I would have to go through them and count.  I think I might have a problem?.

Power consumption is an issue that needs to be addressed show to show. My advice is to ditch the incan's, too much consumption and in the next couple of years you won't be able to buy them anymore.  As a rule LEDS don't burn out and the strings light year after year.  The price of them has come down to the level of incan's anyhow (just make sure you buy dimmable ones).  My final year of using incan's my electric bill went up over $300 per month, last year my entire show cost $27 in electric increase, nice!  This year the majority will be running on 12v DC, I'm curious to see where the electric bill goes.

Lastly, I installed a Cat5 outlet in the ceiling of my garage and ran it through my attic to the soffit on the corner of my house and daisy chained everything from there.  My OCD doesn't allow any cords to show on my house and thankfully all of the extension cords in the yard get covered with snow pretty early.

Sorry for being so long winded but I was trying to address all of your questions.

Z

Awesome!  Great advice.  We have a baby due in November (everyone is probably going to say just walk away now!), but I really want to get something going, even if it's small.  I have always loved decorating.  I watched so many videos today.  Some of them labeled 16 channel I scratch my head at how that can really be. I agree, I will push towards all LED and maybe some RGB eventually.  Still having trouble grasping how the lights get in motion and all that, I mean I know they are with smart RGBs.  So if I have 8 trees, and want them to flash sequentially, I would use 8 channels right there correct?  What about if I had one tree, how do people make it fade from top to bottom for example?  That is using RGB I assume but how many channels?

At the moment, I will just plan for some 1) music, 2) roof line, windows, doors, 3) flood lights 4) would like to do singing tree (which I believe can use 8 channels alone) is that correct?  Unless I get RGB, the only different colors I will have is with the different color strands of LED lights... 

[zvacman]

Dave:

Buy as many controllers as you can afford while they're on sale. I bought most of my controllers in kit form, if you can solder well you can save a ton of loot. Befriend your local vacuum shop guy, he can supply more cords than you'll need.  Take it from me, I own a vacuum store and I generate thousands of feet of cords annually most of which the male end is fine.  I built and numbered all of my cords to make setting up easier.  That's all for now.

Z

[Dave76]

2 minutes ago, zvacman said:

Dave:

Buy as many controllers as you can afford while they're on sale. I bought most of my controllers in kit form, if you can solder well you can save a ton of loot. Befriend your local vacuum shop guy, he can supply more cords than you'll need.  Take it from me, I own a vacuum store and I generate thousands of feet of cords annually most of which the male end is fine.  I built and numbered all of my cords to make setting up easier.  That's all for now.

Z

Good advice thanks.  Do you keep all your controllers outside, or do you have some say mounted together and not enclosures but say centrally located someplace away from the elements?

 

[zvacman]

Hmmmm, very pregnant wife. You may want to wait until next year.  Maybe just regular decorations this year.  Goes back to my earlier post, " tolerant wife".

Z

[zvacman]

10 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

Good advice thanks.  Do you keep all your controllers outside, or do you have some say mounted together and not enclosures but say centrally located someplace away from the elements?

 

Everything is in boxes. Either LOR boxes or CG1500 boxes, available all over the net.  I welded stands out of re-rod and bed frames to elevate them from the elements.

[Dave76]

Ugh... I know.  So boring though.

[Dave76]

This is just a regular question, when I watch a video, and it says 8000+ Channels, how do they get to that point?  I know it's not by using a bunch of 16 channel controllers I see on LOR.

[Need more lights]

13 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

Good advice thanks.  Do you keep all your controllers outside, or do you have some say mounted together and not enclosures but say centrally located someplace away from the elements?

 

Hi Dave! 

It depends on your layout, I and others I know usually try to keep controllers near the prop they control. This is helpful with the extension cords. As it is, I still have about 1800 feet of them. 

[Need more lights]

8 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

This is just a regular question, when I watch a video, and it says 8000+ Channels, how do they get to that point?  I know it's not by using a bunch of 16 channel controllers I see on LOR.

That's RGB. each pixel has 3 channels, Red, green and blue. When can control every light and every color of that light, it doesn't take long to start adding up. An RGB 50 pixel string is really 150 channels.

Edited August 24, 2016 by Need more lights

[Dave76]

Ok, so what you are saying is, if one has the CMB-24D Card, that can control 24 channels.  if I have 4 windows, and want them outlined with smart RGBs, how many channels would that take up on the card?

[zvacman]

Just now, Dave76 said:

Ok, so what you are saying is, if one has the CMB-24D Card, that can control 24 channels.  if I have 4 windows, and want them outlined with smart RGBs, how many channels would that take up on the card?

You can't control smart pixels with that controller. You can however outline 8 windows with the ability to make each of them any color you want individually.  If I'm not mistaken, you will need the pro license to run them.

Z

[Dave76]

So confusing.  I need to sit down and talk to someone!

[zvacman]

2 minutes ago, Dave76 said:

So confusing.  I need to sit down and talk to someone!

PM your cell number, best time to call, and what time zone/location.

[Dave76]

ZVACMAN, I will PM you tomorrow if that is OK?  I need to step away from the computer now.  I'm on Eastern Time. Thanks!

[zvacman]

Me too on both.

[Dave76]

Ok Please give ADVICE.  I pieced this together as a starting point and want to get the order in.  What do you think and am I missing anything important.  I'm finding out by shipping charges it's good to order as much as possible because even sending one small piece later is about $20.

3 - CMB24D boards, power supply, enclosures, other pieces etc.

4 - RGB 10 watt Floods

1 - Generic Starter pack with Standard S4, USB485, 50ft Cat5

1 - Gen3 Mini Director

1 - FM trans czh-05b

 

I know I will still need dumb RGB strips, power wire, but is there anything else I need from what you see above, special connectors etc?  Even other suggestiong to get now while the getting is good...

 

I'm up to ~$530

Thank you so much!

[Mr. P]

Upgrade the USB485 to the high speed one (red one). It's only $1 more in the starter package.

[Dave76]

Ok, I thought about that but was not sure. 

Thanks