mattpatt Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Hi Everyone,Been lurking for a while, reading a learning. Decided I want to do a display for next year after seeing one in our small town. I have been stocking up on LED lights and tonight I ran into a good deal on electrical cords too good to pass up. Most all the LED strings are clear as I have been unable to find any LED color strings locally. I'll post a pic of all the stuff I've collected so far but for now just wanted to introduce myself and say hi to everyone. Right now the plan is to start small this year. Either 16 or 32 channels. Probably 16 to start and all clear LED strings except for maybe the house. I want to do a Holdman Star and a arch and some mini trees to start.Matt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Mair Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 Hi MattWelcome aboard and Happy New Year Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denis Chaput Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Welcome to the madness !! Have fun doing it and start reading all you can, also would help if you put your location as people close by can lend a hand in answering your questions when need be.Denis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Surfing4Dough Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Welcome to the fun! You are right to get started now with hopes of maybe being done come November. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ralph D Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 ohhh don't scare him off, if we all help him, he will be fine by 2015!Welcome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brett H. Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 welcome to our addiction. I too live in a small town and quickly learned that it takes time to get cars to show up. Reading some of the forums on here you will see some of us get 20, 30 even 100's of cars a night. I can tell you in a small town you probably wont get that. I been putting on a show for 2 years now and i might get 10 cars during weekend nights. But do it for yourself and your family and others will show up. There is nothing more satisfying then putting up your display and seeing the joy on your kids faces and seeing the joy it brings in others as well. 2 years in and there is millions of things i dont know yet or havent figured out yet but it is fun figuring them out. Have fun with it and read alot. Again welcome. Most of your questions can be answered either on past forums and if not ask and everyone will do their best to answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattpatt Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 Thanks everyone! First question... I've been stocking up on LED lights as I plan to be 100% LED from the start and am curious do most people use "cool white" or "warm white" I have purchased both not know which is better. I'm sure I'll used them all in some way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim6918 Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 mattpatt wrote: Thanks everyone! First question... I've been stocking up on LED lights as I plan to be 100% LED from the start and am curious do most people use "cool white" or "warm white" I have purchased both not know which is better. I'm sure I'll used them all in some way.You will find a lot of different opinions about the cool white versus warm white LED's. IMHO the cool white are very nice but don't mix well with other whites, particularly incandescent mini's, but since you are going all LED I would suggest that you get a few strings of each and try them out in different spots to see which color you like. I spent a butt load of $$$ on cool white icicles a few years ago and hated them when the whole house was full on. I finally gave them away to my neighbor who used them alone on his house in a static display and they looked great.I prefer the warm whites in LED's now since they are the "closest" to a clear incandescent. I believe a few wholesalers are selling something called sun white and I'm not sure where they fall in the color spectrum.BTW, You might post your location in your profile. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that there is a real expert not that far from where you live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattpatt Posted January 1, 2012 Author Share Posted January 1, 2012 jim6918 wrote:mattpatt wrote: Thanks everyone! First question... I've been stocking up on LED lights as I plan to be 100% LED from the start and am curious do most people use "cool white" or "warm white" I have purchased both not know which is better. I'm sure I'll used them all in some way.You will find a lot of different opinions about the cool white versus warm white LED's. IMHO the cool white are very nice but don't mix well with other whites, particularly incandescent mini's, but since you are going all LED I would suggest that you get a few strings of each and try them out in different spots to see which color you like. I spent a butt load of $$$ on cool white icicles a few years ago and hated them when the whole house was full on. I finally gave them away to my neighbor who used them alone on his house in a static display and they looked great.I prefer the warm whites in LED's now since they are the "closest" to a clear incandescent. I believe a few wholesalers are selling something called sun white and I'm not sure where they fall in the color spectrum.BTW, You might post your location in your profile. You might be pleasantly surprised to find that there is a real expert not that far from where you live. Cool! Okay, got the profile fixed. I just ordered a bunch of clearanced warm white LEDs M5 LEDs from Sears.com. Says it will take 50-60 days before they are here but I got time. :-) I think I will like the warm white better if they look more like the clear incans. Bummer is I just spent about $100 on cool white LED strings from Home Depot. Oh well. Maybe I can use them somewhere but I don't think they will look very good mixed with the others. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Don Gillespie Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 mattpatt wrote: Cool! Okay, got the profile fixed. I just ordered a bunch of clearanced warm white LEDs M5 LEDs from Sears.com. Says it will take 50-60 days before they are here but I got time. :-) I think I will like the warm white better if they look more like the clear incans. Bummer is I just spent about $100 on cool white LED strings from Home Depot. Oh well. Maybe I can use them somewhere but I don't think they will look very good mixed with the others.Welcome aboard Matt, you are in luck there are vendors that are having a sale on LEDs right now you check them out if you like there is CDI, HLE and Magic in the Sky a quick search will get you to thier websites. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james campbell Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 welcome matt,one thing I did last year was I dowloaded the demo software and started to learn how to use it. this is were you will spend most of your time .also look into spt-1 or spt-2 lamp wire and vampire plugs,making your own cord is cheaper and making custom runs will save a ton of time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scubado Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Matt, I use warm white and coolwhite in my display. My flowerbeds, floods, bushes, border lights and snowcicles are cool white. Martyfan, poles, mini trees, star and next years arches are warm white. My gutter has both. If you primarily do traditions Christmas songs lean towards warm white. If you do more TSO and such, lean towards cool white. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSelph Posted January 1, 2012 Share Posted January 1, 2012 Welcome to the madness Matt. This was my fist year and I jumped into the addiction fairly late in the game. But thanks to the breadth of knowledge on these forums, I was able to make it happen in a short amount of time.I look forward to seeing you here on the forums with the rest of us addicts! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts