New to this and want to do this in 2012

[rpenning1970]

I am very interested in doing this in 2012, we bought our house this last fall and it has a nice design that woudl go great for a light show. So that i understand this, a single controller has 16 channels a channel being a single power source that is turned on and off based on the program. all 16 channels working with the program is your show. Now i see all sorts of shows and really cool looking stuff. From what i can tell arches has 4 channels usually, then the mini trees might have just one, mega trees have quite a few, i have seen a local set up that a church does and the tree they have has red, green, and white. The tree can be on all at once or the colors alternate, i also have seen a thing where the single color spins around the tree , how many channels is something like that. Are led lights the best choice? i have this year new c9 leds along the sidewalk and c7s across the front of the house on the gutters. are these ok light sets to use for this? how many strands of lights do you use on these mega trees or mini trees. Last for just something simple with just a single 16 channel controller what kind of money am i looking at? I will be working up my plans and might have to hit after christmas sales to get ready for next year.

[enraginangel]

Don't overwhelm yourself for your first year. You're doing the right thing by starting early, but I would recommend starting out simple with a standard 16 channel display.

Start out by taking a picture of your house and play with the LOR Visualizer to see how your house could potentially look.

I think I took a shortcut by doing an instant sequence in the Superstar program and then exporting to the LOR Sequencer later for fine-tuning.

[shfr26]

enraginangel wrote:

Don't overwhelm yourself for your first year. You're doing the right thing by starting early, but I would recommend starting out simple with a standard 16 channel display.

Start out by taking a picture of your house and play with the LOR Visualizer to see how your house could potentially look.

I think I took a shortcut by doing an instant sequence in the Superstar program and then exporting to the LOR Sequencer later for fine-tuning.

I agree with not overwhelming yourself, but, I would go with the 32 channel starter package. It has everything you need to start and you will be adding channels next year, as we all do, so start with 32. Buy lots of SPT wire.

[Surfing4Dough]

rpenning1970 wrote:

I am very interested in doing this in 2012, we bought our house this last fall and it has a nice design that woudl go great for a light show.

Welcome to the fun and madness! You are very wise to start planning now for next year. Here is a great place to start learning some of the basics: http://www.lightorama.com/Documentation.html#Quick_Start_Guides


rpenning1970 wrote:

So that i understand this, a single controller has 16 channels a channel being a single power source that is turned on and off based on the program. all 16 channels working with the program is your show.

That is a good understanding. Each 16channel controller has 2 power inputs (15A each) that power two banks of 8 channels (therefore 16 channels total). Each channel can carry 8 amps, but you can exceed 15A per bank of 8. Don't forget that each channel doesn't have to be on at the same time though. The sequence editor controls each channel telling it to turn on/off for each fraction of a second. Doing that for each song is called a sequence. When you have multiple sequences (songs), that is called a show. (to be accurate, you can do these without songs, but most use music).

rpenning1970 wrote:

Now i see all sorts of shows and really cool looking stuff. From what i can tell arches has 4 channels usually, then the mini trees might have just one, mega trees have quite a few, i have seen a local set up that a church does and the tree they have has red, green, and white. The tree can be on all at once or the colors alternate, i also have seen a thing where the single color spins around the tree , how many channels is something like that.

Each color (R, G, W) requires a different channel. So take a single small 2' mini tree. Each color on it would require a channel--so if you want 3 colors on it, you would need 3 channels. You might decide to leave certain items as just one color for that reason. You might have multiple items that are tied together too. Again let's use mini-trees and assume 3 colors (R, G, W). Say you have 3 mini trees--you have to decide if you want to operate them independently or all as clones of each other. If you. If you want to just have them blink on/off all together, then it would only take 3 channels (one for each color on all 3 trees). However, if you want to operate each tree independently (trees chasing each other, etc), then you could require up to 9 channels (3 for each color for each tree). Now a trick could be to use white independently on each tree (3 channels) but then use green and red as clones on all 3 trees (2 channels). That way you could use white to chase on the 3 trees, but not red and green.

So now you can see how channels get eaten up quickly. Most good arches are minimum 5 channels, but most prefer 7-8. That makes them look smooth. So say you have 3 arches that you want to use independently, that would be 15-24 channels just for 3 independent arches. You could make each arch a clone of the others, but then all 3 arches would act identical, but only use the channels of a single arch.

Kinda the same with mega trees. Most use 8-16 channels PER COLOR. Think of a mega tree as a pie with slices. Each slice is channel. Again, you can short cut a little here. Just use solid red and solid green for the whole tree (think of an uncut pie), so 1 channel each, and then just use white for slices (8 channels). Won't be able to spin with red and green, but could with white then.


rpenning1970 wrote:

Are led lights the best choice? i have this year new c9 leds along the sidewalk and c7s across the front of the house on the gutters. are these ok light sets to use for this? how many strands of lights do you use on these mega trees or mini trees. Last for just something simple with just a single 16 channel controller what kind of money am i looking at? I will be working up my plans and might have to hit after christmas sales to get ready for next year.

Most LEDs work ok with LOR but not guaranteed. Sometimes they don't fade well (requiring a "snubber"). You won't know until you test them (or have found that others here have had success with that particular brand).

The price of all this depends on how many lights you have to buy, how many extension cords you have to buy (never enough!--think, at least 18 to start, and that is assuming that display items are needing tied together with extension cords), what you might need to build (megatree, etc), and how many more controllers you plan to buy once you realize you need more channels! Buy PC controllers -- same features as a Showtime controller, but much cheaper. http://store.lightorama.com/diyproducts.html
You can easily put one together if you can't solder (soldering one is cheaper yet).

[Surfing4Dough]

What you will need from LOR (minimum) is a controller(s):
http://store.lightorama.com/ctb16pcpage.html

One of these starter packages:
http://store.lightorama.com/spk800.html

And long enough cat5 to get from your PC (or director) to your controller (and connect additional controllers). Get these from monoprice.com for the best price.

Other considerations...how will people hear your music? Most use a FM transmitter to spare their neighbors so people can just hear it in their cars. EDM transmitters are regarded as the best. Stay away from the transmitter offered by LOR ("Whole House"--it is junk).

Did I mention you will need lots of extension cords (or SPT wire to make your own)??

[rpenning1970]

All i can find is the 16 channel package, is there a 32 or do i just buy a second controller?

[Denis Chaput]

rpenning1970 wrote:

All i can find is the 16 channel package, is there a 32 or do i just buy a second controller?

Welcome aboard!!

Just buy a second,third,fourth,Etc.

Did anybody say extension cords(lots of them)

[TJ Hvasta]

Starting out, if you want the minitrees and arches... start with tomato cages, wrapped with just a single color (prefereably white), you can add colors the following year.. that will keep the eating channels quickly to a slower pace. same with arches.. Most smoother arches have 7-9 segments, and sleeved arches (short, individually wrapped sections slid over a longer pipe) are easier to construct and manage. You can also plug each section into the same respective channel, mirroring the arches.

The best thing is you're starting early, dont be disillusioned by the work ahead of you. We're here to help.

One thing here we can not stress enough...

[align=center]please read the controller and software manuals..[/align]

there are sooooo many questions answered in it.. yes, it's 500+ pages, but a lot of them are pix, so really just over 200+ pages to read.

Welcome to the addiction that is LOR, and the greatest bunch of just-not-right people on the planet

[rpenning1970]

Ok, i have lots of tomato cages, how many strands per cage, i am getting a good idea already, mini trees sound very easy to make and you can do allot with just those and they are easy to store. I will take a picture of the house and start from there.

[shfr26]

I use 400 lights per cage. But it all depends on what you want it to look like.

I use two cages per tree to get a more rounded look. I also use multi colored lights on my mini trees.

[David Rise]

I used 2 70 count strings per cage (4 colors). Spaced about 2" apart. That was on 3ft cages.
As for the house, I got my measuring tape out. Compared my measurements to the light string lengths so that I knew how many strings I needed.

Keep an eye on the forum and watch for the bulk purchase buys for the SPT wire that you will need for all the extension cords. Buy at least one spool, maybe even 2 depending on what you want to do. Get the vampire plugs as well.

Once you plan your display. STICK TO IT. Any changes that you make mean that you have to buy more items that won't be on sale.

Keep an eye out for the spring/summer sales. Not just LOR, but any site that sells Christmas items.

I went around visiting other peoples Christmas displays to get ideas on what I wanted to do for my show. I started sequencing in February and building stuff for the show by April.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. But SEARCH the forums. Most, if not all, of your questions have already been asked and answered in other posts.

[scubado]

Since you are starting this early for next year, you could easily start with 48 channels. I would suggest studying the LOR website showcase page: http://www.lightorama.com/ShowtimeShowcase.html to get an idea what you can do with small and medium displays. I would also suggest doing a single color display first year, makes it much easier to learn and maximum elements for the channel count. Strobes will give you a lot of eye catching light and use only one channel. Depending on your security concerns, the closer the controllers are to your elements the less money and length of cords you will need.

Once you start, you'll want more lights, more channels, more cords, more lights...

[caniac]

rpenning1970 wrote:

I am very interested in doing this in 2012, we bought our house this last fall and it has a nice design that would go great for a light show. So that i understand this, a single controller has 16 channels a channel being a single power source that is turned on and off based on the program. all 16 channels working with the program is your show. Now i see all sorts of shows and really cool looking stuff. From what i can tell arches has 4 channels usually, then the mini trees might have just one, mega trees have quite a few, i have seen a local set up that a church does and the tree they have has red, green, and white. The tree can be on all at once or the colors alternate, i also have seen a thing where the single color spins around the tree , how many channels is something like that. Are led lights the best choice? i have this year new c9 leds along the sidewalk and c7s across the front of the house on the gutters. are these ok light sets to use for this? how many strands of lights do you use on these mega trees or mini trees. Last for just something simple with just a single 16 channel controller what kind of money am i looking at? I will be working up my plans and might have to hit after Christmas sales to get ready for next year.

if you would put your location in your profile there might be folks here that live nearby that you can either visit or might be willing to come to you and help.

The big thing is to figure out how many of what type of prop you are wanting, dollar amount you want to spin (i.e. for the Mega tree you are describing doing multiple strands of different color LED's and it could require two controllers plus 32+ strands of lights BUT you can get ton's more colors and effect options out of using CCR's but they are $200+ per 16ft length and you might need 16+ for a really nice mega tree).

[David Rise]

And make a checklist. You're going to forget to get or do something, that's a guarantee.

[scubado]

Ya might also want to by the wife a really nice present this year for Christmas, she'll be a Christmas light widow next year.

[caniac]

also if you include the better half in the project they are alot more cooperative with purchases.

[Surfing4Dough]

scubado wrote:

Ya might also want to buy the wife a really nice present this year for Christmas, she'll be a Christmas light widow next year.

caniac wrote:

also if you include the better half in the project they are alot more cooperative with purchases.

I agree--both very good ideas. However I was told early on that if neither approach work that you better spend a ton more on lights and controllers so she can't afford a divorce lawyer.

[caniac]

Surfing4Dough wrote:

scubado wrote:

Ya might also want to buy the wife a really nice present this year for Christmas, she'll be a Christmas light widow next year.

caniac wrote:

also if you include the better half in the project they are alot more cooperative with purchases.

I agree--both very good ideas. However I was told early on that if neither approach work that you better spend a ton more on lights and controllers so she can't afford a divorce lawyer.

I fail to see the downside of that.

[rpenning1970]

Updated my profile. I am in Lufkin, Texas 2 hours north of Houston.

[caniac]

rpenning1970 wrote:

Updated my profile. I am in Lufkin, Texas 2 hours north of Houston.

lots of texas folks here!!