test run

[Kevin Doucet]

Just wandering how you guys tesw your LOR or your show, do you actually hook everything up outside then run a sequence and see how it look or you do it out of your basement/office.

[PaulXmas]

Well last year I used a 4X8 peice of lattic and ran lights to outline my house/windows/door. used my mini trees and piles of light to represent some other things.

I was able to test the controllers and it gave me a better idea of what the show was going to look like.

BUT nothing beats the real thing!

[George Simmons]

Kevin Doucet wrote:

... do you actually hook everything up outside then run a sequence and see how it look or you do it out of your basement/office.

If you do a careful and precise job of drawing your display in the animator you can see EXACTLY what it will look like all year long while you're sequencing. That's how I do mine and I know a lot of people here laugh. But I don't have surprises when everything gets hooked up, and friends say "it looks just like the computer". But the only way to really test everything is to hook it up and let 'er rip. I'm in warming my fingers up right now - after working on it since January I can't wait to see it come alive...

[jjdurrant]

I use LogMeIn and control my show PC from outside via my iPad.

[Jim Saul]

Ii started with a pool table with 32 sets of lights in balls.
It did prove that everything worked, but until everything was set up outside I didnt have a clue of what worked and what didn't as far as ascetic's goes

[bob]

This is not directly related, but the LOR Verifier can help catch some types of potential errors without needing to have your physical lights set up.

[robert seguin, jr.]

24 channel around my family room, kids love it, wife not so much, includes 6 mini trees still cant imagine what it will look like outside, tried the animator, did not like it, when i get more channels i will use it more

[Guest Don Gillespie]

George Simmons wrote:

Kevin Doucet wrote:

... do you actually hook everything up outside then run a sequence and see how it look or you do it out of your basement/office.

If you do a careful and precise job of drawing your display in the animator you can see EXACTLY what it will look like all year long while you're sequencing. That's how I do mine and I know a lot of people here laugh. But I don't have surprises when everything gets hooked up, and friends say "it looks just like the computer". But the only way to really test everything is to hook it up and let 'er rip. I'm in warming my fingers up right now - after working on it since January I can't wait to see it come alive...

Same here I do a careful drawing and watch it while I program I have had everything set up outside for the last week and half except my nativity set and every night I do a test run on 3 or 4 sequences to see what they are actually doing then I let my wife tell me what is wrong I go in and fix it and change things in the sequence makes my wife happy she lets me buy more stuff gotta love it.

[jimswinder]

The visualizer can be your best friend....

unlike George... lol

[Mark Showalter]

When I finished the first leaping arch I brought it in to the room I was building sequences in. When plugged in to the controller I was able to get a much better feel for the look created in the sequences. Next I brought in the 3D star and finally the mini trees. They look great. I was not able to view the mega tree. The old laptop I was using to create the sequences kept locking up during playbacks so I moved the LOR software down to the office PC. The lights don't fit so I'll have to wait until every thing is assembled outdoors. Can't wait!

[jimswinder]

Mark Showalter wrote:

When I finished the first leaping arch I brought it in to the room I was building sequences in. When plugged in to the controller I was able to get a much better feel for the look created in the sequences. Next I brought in the 3D star and finally the mini trees. They look great. I was not able to view the mega tree. The old laptop I was using to create the sequences kept locking up during playbacks so I moved the LOR software down to the office PC. The lights don't fit so I'll have to wait until every thing is assembled outdoors. Can't wait!

Go DAWGS!!


Attached files

[Bob Wingert]

jjdurrant wrote:

I use LogMeIn and control my show PC from outside via my iPad.

iPad?? Thats like 3 more controllers OR 70 more stings of LED's. Dude! Where's your priorities?!?! LMAO

[Mark Showalter]

Jim,

I think that's a different forum. I am looking forward to the Mediocre Bowl..er.. I mean Apple Cup. If the Cougs can beat the Dawgs we'll be on a winning streak. Are you going to the game?

[jjdurrant]

pokrplr wrote:

jjdurrant wrote:

I use LogMeIn and control my show PC from outside via my iPad.

iPad?? Thats like 3 more controllers OR 70 more stings of LED's. Dude! Where's your priorities?!?! LMAO

No kidding!!!

Did my first first real test tonight. OMG these mini trees are killer!

[ChrisBMacon]

Do you have a sequence grid on the same screen while your viewing the visualizer of your home photo, or do you use two screens? Reason asking, I'm a newbee and want to use a projector in my shop to display a photo of someones home so I can build the display for a client. I'm just doing my homework right now.

I use twin screens at work and didn't know if the sequence grid is displayed on the same screen as your home display.



Thanks and Merry Christmas.

[HowardShank]

I use two screens. Makes life much easier. I have LOR sequencer on one screen and my visualizer on the other.

I also use Holiday Soft -Holiday LIght Designer 4. Some people do not like it. The support for it is poor at the moment, but it works very well once you understand how to use it. It's pretty complex.

I'm also looking at Light Show Pro. I think some of those features are really great.

[ChrisBMacon]

I want to try a projector and the grid on the regular screen for editing. Thanks.

[taybrynn]

This year, in my second year with two homes and 256 channels ... I discovered a much easier way to check out things.

My neighbor brought over a couple radios ... and we used them to communicate.

I go down the spreadsheet controller by controller, unit by unit (for each controller) and make sure that when I enable that controller+unit ... that the correct display item lights up and its working.

As we encountered problems, neighbor would report things like burned out bulbs, wrong display item (sometimes wrong color, nothing, only 1 wreath instead of 3, etc.) ... and I would notate the problem in the spreadsheet.

Then we take care of all the problems and then re-test again ... usually the next night.

Finally, we got everything tested ... or so I thought.

Had megatree problems of some sort, so I created a sequence to run 1->16 on red, with 10 second pause at front (to give me time to run out and look out the window) ... then was easy to see which one was wrong. So ended up doing a megatree test sequence for each color ... and this worked very well at debugging some messed up wiring. Turns out that field change I made (and which my neighbor wrote down) .... didn't make it to the spreadsheet ... and therefore didn't make it into the configuration either.

Anyways, thats my test process this year ... having a neighbor out in a warm car with a radio ... worked really well. And my wife brought out some nice warm cider (with a little extra in it) to my field tester.

I do think sitting outside with a laptop with wireless would work pretty well also ... just so you could see things for yourself. Putting the laptop in a warm car would make is easier for those in the cold temps.

[HowardShank]

I also have one of these tablets... http://www.archos.com/products/tw/archos_9/index.html?country=us〈=en

I remote desktop to my LOR system using wireless and I can walk around the yard while controlling everything.