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My 2010 singing pumpkin faces


TJ Hvasta

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First, my thanks to all who helped with these.. Cracker, Bob-o, Steven, Evan, and all the others.. I was suffering from severe cerebral flatulence last week.. I got these put up today.. kinda late, but it is my last day off til Thursday, so the show is finally running 6-9pm..

Thriller http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLNYfcYlagQ

Monster Mash



Ghostbusters http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftREWYtbZwA

The pic is the house, washed with 3 RFloods's, 5 RSpots. The witch (in the brightly lit area) is one of my 3-axis skulls singing Come Little Children..

Attached files 216193=12040-PIC_0044.JPG
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RF's, or RFloods are Greg Renna's Rainbow Floods, RSpots are RainbowSpotlights.. LED flood light kits from www.christmasonmanor.com, $15 and $11 respectivley.. Lotta light! Easy builds!

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ok, gotta know TJ...I have played with the rfloods(3) and can't get close to purple showing that good on my house. The house is a light grey colored paint. We have sat in the yard for a couple of hrs messing with the colors with a laptop....what color values are you using?
The songs look great! I decided to put the talking skull on hold until next year..now at least I have allllll year long to finish the talking skull, get more floods, and build a couple more 'singin' pumpkins....(and ask Santa for a video camera!)

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Hey Steve, thank you for the help, both with the sequences and the info search.. really helped!

For the floods/colors, I am running a continous fade animation sequence each evening, it fades from blue to red to green... I lined them up that way so it actually shows a change in colors.. blue to green doesnt seem to change much.. As for the purple (my fav) it's just full red and full blue. I did some playing with varying intensities, 75% red, 100% blue, but that makes it not so purpley.. just a lavender-tinted blue.. As red is kinda dark anyway, it seems 100% of red and 100% blue gave me that best purple color.

John, you can power the Rainbow Floods and Spots directly from 12v DC for something like landscape lighting, using just abt anything that gives you a clean 12v. Some here have used wallwarts, but the current is limited with them.. You can build a PC power supply for abt $8 using an old computer power supply, a couple 10watt ceramic resistors and a switch.. Do a google search for "PC bench power supply hack".

As for real control, and not just on/off, full bright lights, you have to use a DC controller. Light-O-Rama has a 16channel fully assembled card for $90.. a lil steep $$, but it works just like an AC controller, fades up/down, twinkle, shimmer.. there is also a lil higher cost version.. you have to go on the website and see which one you'd want. One has screw terminals, the other, spade lugs just like the AC controller kits.

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No worries 'mate, we were (are still) there too.. our learning curve is a vertical line. This is my first year with the Rainbow Floods and Spots, they are SOOOOO easy to build and power if you just want single color or simple mixes, no fading, or use the DC controller to mix for 16.7million colors (ok, 'more like 347,000). The DC controller is exactly like the AC version, except, it comes fully assembled, and it's DC.. what could be simpler? Whats nice is that for short term lights, these can be powered right from lantern batteries or an inexpensive 12v dc power supply... here is the best/easiest power supply hack site I know.. http://web2.murraystate.edu/andy.batts/ps/powersupply.htm

I mounted my RF's(Rainbow Floods) in several 250w halogen shop lights that I gutted just to use the cases. These lights are $6-$9 depending where you get them, HomeDepot, Lowes, Ace, etc..

The RS (RainbowSpots) I mounted in my old landscaping lights (the lo-voltage versions). I gutted them, cleaned them up, hotglued a piece of 1x2 pine inside, hotglued the Spot circuit board right to the wood, then hotglued a piece of 1/8" plexiglass/lexan to the front to seal it (the old lens was badly hazed/faded). It looks professionally done (well, 'cept for the glue goops).

Good luck, and please call on us here.. we were in your shoes once, and what we learned is tribal knowledge passed on by our elders to us, which we pass on to you..

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TJ, you were a big help and inspiration to me as well. Special thanks to Cracker for starting this madness, and Neal and others for the base sequences. Next year tombstones and other lights to make it more interesting. This is the first video I've ever uploaded to Youtube so I hope it works. Taken with a Canon powershot so not great vid but at least it shows something.



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WOW WOW WOW!!!! Superb, stoo-pendous, terrific! If I had more arms, I'd be able to give more than Two Thumbs Up!!! If I was Vulcan, I'd even say "it was satisfactory" LOL! Reeeeally fine!

I see you placed the faces over each window, good job! I wanted to go with 3 chorus faces on my garage but there wasn't room..

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Gosh... I feel humbled :)

Yeah, I ended up doing concrete nails in the bricks around the windows, and looping 16 gauge wire around them to hold them to the windows. Then the bottom faces are actually hung from the PVC of the top face. That way I could get the spacing close to the same. All the extention cords run up and into the upstairs windows and there is one controller in each room running the two faces below.

I've seen a few cars slow down and some people walking down the street stop for a while to watch. I have it broadcasting no 88.3 but still don't have a sign out yet, so I hooked up an old receiver and some outdoor rock speakers for passers by to hear. I just wish I was going to be there halloween night to see the reaction. I will be on a plane to DC to do techincal support for a user conference, so my son and his wife will be passing out the goodies to the 300 or so kids that always come by. Maybe I can get him to film some of them watching.

Now... finish building the 2 more controllers I bought during the summer sale and get ready for christmas!!

I absolutely love this hobby!




Now if I can just get my stupid signature pic to show on my posts.. ARGH.

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'really looks good! I wish I had enough room for the third face on my house.. I could hang it below the large face.. it would look like Freddy Mercury surrounded by his band in Queen's "Is This The Real Life" video, :cool:

I still have four of my Summer Sale controllers to build yet! I should bring the kits with me and solder them here in the hotels while on overnights :)

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Additional two vids. Monster Mash, and Thriller. Interestingly enough, it says the Thriller video will be "blocked in some countries".. hmm.

Thriller



Monster Mash:
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