Something is missing.

[harrison0550]

Ok so all the strands on the house are led's and I know they are hard to see but I ran 3 colors on every part of the house and bushes, blue, green, and white. Oh and red on the bushes only. Something is still missing though. Maybe I should put little mini trees at the end of each white strand in the yard? IDK really. I have 64 channels and 4 free but still dint know what I could add to fill in that "something". Any ideas?

Oh and no blow ups or candy canes or snowmen. I like them in your display but for me it's all about the lights.

Thanks guys:?

[Guest guest]

If you have just 4 channels left, it really limits what you might be able to do with mini-trees from a sequencing standpoint, and depending on how many colors you want.

I'm of the belief less is more in many cases...and if you still need to re-sequence to add in the minis, thats some added work.

You always have next year to tweak and improve, and once you are lit up, you may get new ideas that you won't think of looking at the visualizer.

My humble opinion, I'd leave it as is...keep the 4 remaining channels as spares.

[harrison0550]

Yea I was thinking the same thing but the wife really wants mini trees. So I was thinking just getting some little 2 foot mini trees and hooking them to the end of the yard strands that are already sequenced. Just not sure if I should add one to every single strand of yard lights (cause that would be 16 trees) or maybe every other strand. Or maybe even put 2 colors on each tree.

For example
Yard light 1 turns on mini tree white comes on
Yard light 2 turns on mini tree red comes on and so on.

But I don't think that would flow as well so maybe 16 little trees all in white out by the curb sequenced with the yard strands would be best or do you think 16 might just be overkill?

[Guest guest]

I would vote for single color mini-trees tied to your yard strands, you could alternate single colors per tree, or do multiple colors and just have them either all on or all off.

I would not tie them to the yard lights.

I'm sure you'll get plenty of advice and opinions thru the day.

[harrison0550]

I think we are on the same page here but not exactly sure. When I say yard strands I mean the vertical white strands that run the length of the front yard. Is that what you were thinking as well?

From your post I gather when you say yard lights you mean the 4 flood lights out front correct?

If I read that correctly then I think your right and I should put the mini trees out front tied to the yard strands and maybe move the floods up close to the house to avoid to much going on out by the curb.

I'm a big fan of clean and simple.

[Guest guest]

We're on the same page: yard strands = white strands in yard, yard lights = yellow bulbs/floodlights in yard.

[Rich]

It looks like you have just a green outline of your driveway and curb. You could add blue and white to the outline to match the house if you have the lights. Or if you're feeling really ambitious you could add four arches over your driveway using four channels. This would help balance the amount of light from your mega tree on the other side.
-Rich

[Rich]

I just noticed, it doesn't look like you have a star on top of your megatree.

[dougd]

A four color star on the roof is a great way to use up the 4 channels you have left over. Thats what I did with the 3 extra I had. Put a 3 color star on the roof.

[harrison0550]

Thanks guys, I really like the arches over the driveway idea and will be doing that next year for sure with at least 32 channels and a craptastic amount of lights. I also completely forgot about a star on the mega tree, oops but its up already so to late now. I put strobes randomly on the roof but I think I will add a star up there as well this weekend.

I think mini trees up front with a star on the roof and moving the flood lights up close to the house is perfect! You guys are awesome.

Oh and Doug I need to get up there to Cleveland and check out your setup ASAP. May try to get with you this weekend and see if we can't schedule a time when your gonna be home.

[dougd]

Well I will be home all weekend, hope to finish up the display this weekend so I will have all next week for testing.

[harrison0550]

Just wanted to jump back in and give a big thank you to all of you for your suggestions. I did in fact use the mini tree idea and added them to the end of each yard strand as seen in the video below and 2 of them dimmed in a chase in the picture below......

So now that my first year with LOR is done and now that I've gotten my feet wet with 64 channels I want to go bigger. More More More, and a little more. I HAVE A DREAM!

Like most I like the CCR's but hate the price. Notice I said "like" because honestly I'm not a huge fan of how they look outlining windows, doors, and rooflines. Granted the amount of flexibility they have is amazing but they look a lot like the old "open 24 hours" sign lights you used to see on hotels to me. I like the traditional C9 bulb spacing look of Christmas lights.
Now back to my dream............

1st plan for next year:
I want to outline the entire house/windows/doors with some sort of RGB strip or Bulb "if bulbs ever make it through QC" that will give me the ability to change colors and chase/step every aspect of my house outline. I know currently I can achieve this with say 5 different color strands of LEDs on every part of the house but Im a little OCD about having all the bulbs facing the same direction and quickly learned this year with just 3 colors on the house that it's almost impossible to achieve. The look I'm going for is on Crackers roof outline. It looks like the rest of the house is all CCR but is the roof line CCR as well? I think I read somewhere that the CCR's bulbs are on a 4 or 2 inch spacing so is he just turning off every other bulb to give it the traditional c9 spacing look or is that even a possibility with the CCR's?

2nd plan for next year:
LARGE arches. I want to make large enough for me to drive under going over my driveway. I also want to make 2 more large arches on either side of the driveway as well. As above my dilemma here is I want to be able to change their color without running 5 different strands on each arch. CCR's are out of the question here as it would take way to many to achieve the affect I want. I'm thinking I may need to look more into the DC boards and the RGB stuff at Ray wu's. What do you guys think.

3rd plan for next year:
Double the size of my weber and add 2 eight ft mini webers to each side if the yard. As well as add color to them as well. I will probably just take the 3 colors that are currently on the house and use all of those LEDs for my webers. No questions for this plan so moving right along.

4th plan:
Add colors to the mini trees and yard lines.

5th plan:
Not sure if you can tell in the pic or video but the houses siding is the old plywood and vertical slat type siding so ever 4 ft around the house I have a 1x2 that runs up the house to cover the plywood seam. Now here is where I'm thinking of adding CCR's so that I can sequence in color ramps or make them jump from bottom to top to give an equalizer affect across the large part of the house over the driveway. What do you think?

6th plan:
Add a star to my weber tree.

7th plan:
more strobes.

8th plan
Apologize and thank you guys for even reading my crazy long post and Merry Christmas to you all!


Any suggestions are welcome and greatly appreciated. Oh and Doug I'm gonna be calling you Sunday afternoon to get directions. My display is finally up and running so now I want to come up and see yours. Also if your familiar with the CCR and RGB stuff I would love to pick your brain.

Thanks again.

[TJ Hvasta]

Thats reeeeeally nice!! Love the Webber! Very very good indeed!