6 weeks left to Lights On for many of us...

[testraub]

Well, considering I fell off my roof two weeks ago and dinged my shoulder and cracked a couple ribs, I'm finished setting up one side of the front of the house and one side. Will be working on the other side and maybe the roof today. Still have a bunch to do, but I think it's looking good so far.


18 DAYS LEFT!

Tom Straub

[Santas Helper]

DonFL wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

DonFL wrote:

TJ Hvasta wrote:

Hey Don, I have several MCO overnites this month, how far are you from SeaWorld, the hotel (Rosen) is right down the street, across from the Convention Center..

Geez, someone (or everyone..) will have a field day with that post...:shock:

I'm out in Lake County, so a solid 45 miles from the Sea World/Convention Center area..

Don,

What do you mean by solid 45 miles. Is that solid ground or solid pavement? There could be a difference here J/K

Its 7:15 AM on saturday morning, i'm only on my second cup of coffee..and struggling to come up with a witty reply....

Can I get back to you on that?

Sorry for the cause of extra thinking Don.

Now is that really a second cup of coffee or just a top-off of the first cup?

Putting roof lights out after a third top-off of my first cup of coffee.

second cup...meaning..one in the right hand, one in the left....:D

Ahhh, good one Don. :cool:

[BrownOut]

Uh oh- I used up all my zip cord this morning- I did not plan out my snow tubes very well. I thought 250' would be enough to hang 25 four foot tubes and 18 strobes in a big tree- for the spacing I want, I just used about 7oo'.
I only bought 1250' total thinking I would need less than 1000' for everything. And yes, I know everyone is gonna say "I told you so. Extension cords, extension cords, extension cords."

Off to the local hardware store when they open- I know they have one roll of brown in stock.

[shfr26]

Went out and mowed the lawn, for the last time this year, will roll the tower out later to set up the mega tree. Had to come inside and change into my shorts, too hot for jeans. Might get the lights on the gables if it cools off a little. Sweating while working on Christmas lights, just ain't right.

[Santas Helper]

shfr26 wrote:

Went out and mowed the lawn, for the last time this year, will roll the tower out later to set up the mega tree. Had to come inside and change into my shorts, too hot for jeans. Might get the lights on the gables if it cools off a little. Sweating while working on Christmas lights, just ain't right.

I know what you mean.

It was in the upper 60s/lower 70s here in OKC and darn near put on some shorts and a tank top.

Beautiful weather before a storm system rolls in tomorrow.

[David Grygierczyk]

Here is how I connect my lights to the base of the tree. 60 feet of 3/4" electrical PVC that is secured to 4x4 wooden blocks. FYI, I have a pole in the center of my mega tree that I can slide up or down so I can adjust the tension on my light strings.

Attached files

[CKSedg]

shfr26 wrote:

Went out and mowed the lawn, for the last time this year, will roll the tower out later to set up the mega tree. Had to come inside and change into my shorts, too hot for jeans. Might get the lights on the gables if it cools off a little. Sweating while working on Christmas lights, just ain't right.

I also went out to mow the lawn on Friday. Had to come back in and put on a jacket---it was cold.

[Santas Helper]

David Grygierczyk wrote:

Here is how I connect my lights to the base of the tree. 60 feet of 3/4" electrical PVC that is secured to 4x4 wooden blocks. FYI, I have a pole in the center of my mega tree that I can slide up or down so I can adjust the tension on my light strings.

David, mine is similar to yours.

I had 1" square tubing bent for the bottom rim. This was last years set up. This year I'm lagging the rim down instead of using sand bags. Used zip-ties to secure the lights. Also, going a couple feet higher to take up the extra length of lights. And adding two more colors, Red & White to go with my Blue and green.




Attached files

[BrownOut]

To get out to the street, do you walk through the tree?

[Mark Showalter]

Progress made on the 20 ft Weber and the snowflakes this last weekend. Lots still left to do.

Attached files

[testraub]

Geeeez I am so beat Wish just one of the neighbors would help..... Even for an hour or so. Could begin testing of the sequences if they did. My roof top help has seemed to bag out on me

Tom Straub

[Mark Showalter]

Here's a shot of the snowflake serpentine. That goes up about 25 ft. Having graduated from the JimSwinder school of lighting and engineering... I do believe this will be the first to crumple in the wind. Metal conduit inside grey PVC, vinyl fence and a lot of guy wires. This will definitely need a redesign for next year.

Attached files

[Santas Helper]

Mark Showalter wrote:

Progress made on the 20 ft Weber and the snowflakes this last weekend. Lots still left to do.

Where is the "thumbs up" button at on this forum anyway?

Very nice. I want to see the same camera position when the lights are going.

[Santas Helper]

Mark Showalter wrote:

Having graduated from the JimSwinder school of lighting and engineering... I do believe this will be the first to crumple in the wind.

LOL, Jim would be proud.

[Mark Showalter]

Santas Helper wrote:

Mark Showalter wrote:

Progress made on the 20 ft Weber and the snowflakes this last weekend. Lots still left to do.

Where is the "thumbs up" button at on this forum anyway?

Very nice. I want to see the same camera position when the lights are going.

Thanks! Thought that would be an interesting photo while I spent a lot of time "inside" the tree attaching zip ties to the spiral strings. Tear down will take a bit longer but I shouldn't have to reattach the strings after the next wind storm.

After 48 hours the snowflakes are still standing.
:D:D

[JoeKinne]

Mark, I really like the Snowflake Serpentine, do you have any specs on how you you built it. It is definitely something that I would like to put up next year.

[Mark Showalter]

JoeKinne wrote:

Mark, I really like the Snowflake Serpentine, do you have any specs on how you you built it. It is definitely something that I would like to put up next year.

Joe, I'm not sure if this design is going to survive the next high wind we have. If they were attached to the house I'd feel better. We'll see.

I put two 10 ft. sections and one 5 ft section of 3/4 inch grey pipe together on each side. Then inserted metal electrical conduit inside the grey pipe. Some side PVCs were added to support the side "masts". I zip tied 4 ft wide vinyl coated fence to each side then zip tied the snowflakes to the fence material.

It's pretty flimsy and wants to wobble a lot even with the metal conduit inside the grey pipe. If it weren't for the guy wires placed at each of the top two horizontal PVC spacers this would never stay upright.

Again... We'll see if it holds up to the weather.:shock:

[JoeKinne]

Thanks, Let me know how it lasts over the season. I am already thinking of ways to stiffen it up.

--Joe

[Santas Helper]

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

Santas Helper wrote:

ny_yankee_25 wrote:

I like that. I'm still trying to figure out how many lights to do, and then I have to do the sequences. Here is the colors I was going to do. Blue, Green, Red, White, And a 1 channel white star. I can do 32 channels if need be.

I have more than enough 100ct mini's.

Can I ask your option, how you would do it if you where in my shoes, with what I have listed as having. The star I can plug into a channel in one of the other controllers I have. So I want it to look full. So I like your double run idea.

Say 8 channels of each color, doubled. And would you do, red, blue, green, white, red blue, green, white, etc?

Also each string going down. Would you double that so each one has 200 minis per leg?

I have a similar mega tree as David. 33' but will have four colors "red, white, blue and then green". Thats the USA colors I have 16 channels and run 3 legs of each color side by side. So 48 strands of each color on 16 channels each color. RRR, WWW, BBB, GGG 48 times. Does great for this size of mega tree. If your tree is smaller, you shouldn't need as much but it depends on what you're looking for.

But seriously... do Red, White, Blue and green. It looks/sounds much better

I have two questions:

Question 1:
Here is a picture of what my mega tree will look like. The numbers is the channels. And each colored letter represents a colored string. The black "W", means Clear/white string. The double letters "BB" Means two strings of blue lights, and so on.

My issue is when only one color is on, its not going to spin right, nor will it look full if I have only one color on. How can I fix this?

Sorry for not replying to your question earlier. I got side tracked I guess.

Looking at your design and having 2 strands of each color on each channel, I would incorporate all the colors to spin to have a better spin effect and look fuller while spining. Example, RRWWBBGGRRWWBBGGRRWWBBGGRRWWBBGG. See what it looks like on the sequence visualizer. I think it might look pretty cool. Like a mutli color spin. And don't forget to add fades in the mix for a more smoother spin.

I would be curious how it looks myself.