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Looking for Prop ideas


vvolf27

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Looking for some ideas for props. These props will be lit up from a flood. I was thinking about making some FCG's without the crank and light them with blacklight floods, but have found out that incandescent blacklights don't really work to well. So now I am thinking I need to change my idea and use regular floods. I am using 64 channels and in the sequences 8 of those are floods lighting up my props. After buying 96 channels worth of christmas leds my budget is a little short for halloween. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. ;)

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wbottomley wrote:

I usually place a picture of my ex outside in front of the hay bales. Every display needs a witch. lol

Yeah...I see why she is your ex...

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Jasona,

I was thinking of something like that however with the sequences firing the flood lights sometimes 1/20 sec I am not sure it would have the same effect without a blacklight. From doing some research only fluorescents blacklights work and I do not think they are reactive enough to fire that fast. What are your thoughts?

wbottomley I agree with jimswinder.

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vvolf27 wrote:

Jasona,

I was thinking of something like that however with the sequences firing the flood lights sometimes 1/20 sec I am not sure it would have the same effect without a blacklight. From doing some research only fluorescents blacklights work and I do not think they are reactive enough to fire that fast. What are your thoughts?

wbottomley I agree with jimswinder.


No the Flourescents won't fire fast enough at all. Takes time for the ballast to warm up, so there will always be a delay. I use two 24" black light fixtures, was actually surprised to see they would dim, but wouldn't recommend doing that with them.

I just use full on/full off for them when used with a LOR Controller, most often I just leave the BL's on all the time and have them plugged directly into a live outlet and save my LOR Channels for something more worthwhile.

The BL 24" flourescents I bought at Wal-Mart a few years ago, they still sell them, but their price has gone up about $1.50¢ from what I paid for mine.
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Yeah that's what I figured they wouldn't work. That's why I was hoping for some help on props, I might just go with something like this: http://www.halloweensuperstore.us/Light_Up_Hanging_Ghoul_4_Feet_Tall_Red_Robe_p/91365-2.htm

Just use regular floods on it, there are a few other things they have in the $10 to $15 range that would work. I need 8 props and those might fit the bill, no stores in my area have halloween decorations out yet, waiting to see what they got.

wbottomley it was actually funny.

arnoldc scary.......

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vvolf27 wrote:

Looking for some ideas for props. These props will be lit up from a flood. I was thinking about making some FCG's without the crank and light them with blacklight floods, but have found out that incandescent blacklights don't really work to well. So now I am thinking I need to change my idea and use regular floods. I am using 64 channels and in the sequences 8 of those are floods lighting up my props. After buying 96 channels worth of christmas leds my budget is a little short for halloween. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. :P


You might want to check out www.halloweenforum.com or www.hauntforum.com there's a lot more Halloween related stuff there. You'll even find some LOR users there too.
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Yeah thats my current project, I had figured yet how to incoporate it into LOR. I have been waiting on the summer sale to pickup the LOR product I want to use for prop control, but I might have to wait or go a different route for prop control.

My thoughts on lighting the crank ghost was not neccesarily to strobe it, only to light it every so often or based on motion input.

Needless to say this Texas heat has kept me from working on my projects....so I got a lot of work to cram into 45 days.

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I was at Home Depot earlier this week. They now have "compact flourescent" blacklight bulbs. You know - the kind that are regular bulb base with the spiral flourescent bulb on top.

I have never tried them, but I think it was only $5 a bulb maybe? Not sure if the ballast in them would be any faster firing. Based on my other spiral compacts - the initial warm up is slow, but subsequent on/off is better if the "off" period is not too long.

Just throwing it out there in case you wanted to try them...

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Thank you for the suggestions, I think at this point I am going with regular floods on some type of affordable ghouls. I saw the compact black lights and might give them a try, maybe I can make a short sequence and just have them on for 1 minute to warm them up before my songs start if they work. Something to consider.

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Noelb wrote:

I was at Home Depot earlier this week. They now have "compact flourescent" blacklight bulbs. You know - the kind that are regular bulb base with the spiral flourescent bulb on top.

I have never tried them, but I think it was only $5 a bulb maybe? Not sure if the ballast in them would be any faster firing. Based on my other spiral compacts - the initial warm up is slow, but subsequent on/off is better if the "off" period is not too long.

Just throwing it out there in case you wanted to try them...
we will use them with out Halloween setup but not connected to LOR.
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Noelb wrote:

I was at Home Depot earlier this week. They now have "compact flourescent" blacklight bulbs. You know - the kind that are regular bulb base with the spiral flourescent bulb on top.

I have never tried them, but I think it was only $5 a bulb maybe? Not sure if the ballast in them would be any faster firing. Based on my other spiral compacts - the initial warm up is slow, but subsequent on/off is better if the "off" period is not too long.

Just throwing it out there in case you wanted to try them...



Nope, not reliable enough for off/on using short bursts. These do come on a little faster than the Florescent BL tubes, but still just don't cut it when it comes to anything other than ON or OFF. If you turn them on just before the music starts, then after the music ends, they work fine with LOR.

Personally, like with any type florescent bulb, you're better off with just having them always on illuminating the object. On/Off will work, but it can try your patience since each CFL or FL bulb and ballast may be slightly off in timing from start up to full on for each bulb/tube. This is why I don't bother to take up a LOR channel for using them and just let mine just stay on throughout the entire show. I may use a digital timer on them so they turn on with the show and off when the show is done for the night.

If Incandescent black lights would illuminate as well as the CFL's or FL types, that'd be excellent for use with LOR, but they just don't have the same illumination qualities as their florescent counterparts. Would be nice if you could use all the effects with the florescents that LOR offers, like shimmer, twinkle, fade up/down that wouldn't cause any issues with them. So far, I haven't seen any that are capable of this without usually shortening the ballast or FL's life span.

I have experimented with them using LOR and just found, better to plug them in directly to a live outlet and let them just light the object up at all times.
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Orville wrote:

Noelb wrote:
I was at Home Depot earlier this week. They now have "compact flourescent" blacklight bulbs. You know - the kind that are regular bulb base with the spiral flourescent bulb on top.

I have never tried them, but I think it was only $5 a bulb maybe? Not sure if the ballast in them would be any faster firing. Based on my other spiral compacts - the initial warm up is slow, but subsequent on/off is better if the "off" period is not too long.

Just throwing it out there in case you wanted to try them...



Nope, not reliable enough for off/on using short bursts. These do come on a little faster than the Florescent BL tubes, but still just don't cut it when it comes to anything other than ON or OFF. If you turn them on just before the music starts, then after the music ends, they work fine with LOR.

Personally, like with any type florescent bulb, you're better off with just having them always on illuminating the object. On/Off will work, but it can try your patience since each CFL or FL bulb and ballast may be slightly off in timing from start up to full on for each bulb/tube. This is why I don't bother to take up a LOR channel for using them and just let mine just stay on throughout the entire show. I may use a digital timer on them so they turn on with the show and off when the show is done for the night.

If Incandescent black lights would illuminate as well as the CFL's or FL types, that'd be excellent for use with LOR, but they just don't have the same illumination qualities as their florescent counterparts. Would be nice if you could use all the effects with the florescents that LOR offers, like shimmer, twinkle, fade up/down that wouldn't cause any issues with them. So far, I haven't seen any that are capable of this without usually shortening the ballast or FL's life span.

I have experimented with them using LOR and just found, better to plug them in directly to a live outlet and let them just light the object up at all times.

I am experimenting with LED blacklights this season, so far I like what I see but don't know how it will compete with the original black light tubes.
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caniac wrote:

Orville wrote:
Noelb wrote:
I was at Home Depot earlier this week. They now have "compact flourescent" blacklight bulbs. You know - the kind that are regular bulb base with the spiral flourescent bulb on top.

I have never tried them, but I think it was only $5 a bulb maybe? Not sure if the ballast in them would be any faster firing. Based on my other spiral compacts - the initial warm up is slow, but subsequent on/off is better if the "off" period is not too long.

Just throwing it out there in case you wanted to try them...



Nope, not reliable enough for off/on using short bursts. These do come on a little faster than the Florescent BL tubes, but still just don't cut it when it comes to anything other than ON or OFF. If you turn them on just before the music starts, then after the music ends, they work fine with LOR.

Personally, like with any type florescent bulb, you're better off with just having them always on illuminating the object. On/Off will work, but it can try your patience since each CFL or FL bulb and ballast may be slightly off in timing from start up to full on for each bulb/tube. This is why I don't bother to take up a LOR channel for using them and just let mine just stay on throughout the entire show. I may use a digital timer on them so they turn on with the show and off when the show is done for the night.

If Incandescent black lights would illuminate as well as the CFL's or FL types, that'd be excellent for use with LOR, but they just don't have the same illumination qualities as their florescent counterparts. Would be nice if you could use all the effects with the florescents that LOR offers, like shimmer, twinkle, fade up/down that wouldn't cause any issues with them. So far, I haven't seen any that are capable of this without usually shortening the ballast or FL's life span.

I have experimented with them using LOR and just found, better to plug them in directly to a live outlet and let them just light the object up at all times.

I am experimenting with LED blacklights this season, so far I like what I see but don't know how it will compete with the original black light tubes.


Are the ones you're experimenting with "dimmable"? Or are they like the BL CFL's/FL's, just On or Off?

I've seen some, but every one I've picked up and read the packaging always state "NOT FOR USE WITH DIMMERS", and basically that's what we do with a LOR channel is dim (fade up/down) or other effects.

So would be very interested in where you got your BL LED Bulbs from and how well they function with the LOR effects, if they are capable. Although I'm still not sold 100% on BL LED bulbs like this, just don't feel they would have the same oomph of either an incandescent or preferably a BL tube style florescent bulb.



So your tests interest me very much on how these BL LED bulbs work and illuminate an object from a distance.
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Yeah I think I am just going to go with regular floods and get those 10 to 20 dollar ghouls for my show. Just don't have a lot of funds for everything this year. I have already spent more for halloween than I expected. :(

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vvolf27 wrote:

Yeah I think I am just going to go with regular floods and get those 10 to 20 dollar ghouls for my show. Just don't have a lot of funds for everything this year. I have already spent more for halloween than I expected. :D

That overspending thing happens to me every year when it comes to LOR. Sure is fun!
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