rpenning1970 Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 I posted almost a year ago about doing a display this year but things did not come together. Well Things are more in line with being able to do that in 2013. That being said, I will be starting with just a 16 channel box with no radio or sound. I just want lights and will work up from there as I will be on a budget. I did some looking this morning and I have four strings of C-7 LED lights going across hung on the gutters. The way my house is I have two strings across on the porch section and then one string each on the section to each side of the ourch. I have two wendows on each side so my house is symitrical. I have a curved sidewalk that goes out to the side. Plenty of room to do stuff. I want to put a medium sized tree on the right as you are looking at the house. My wife wants to put up a nativity set cut out from wood (using plans from winfield), I also will be cutting out a life size santa and Mrs' Clause. Mini trees are also ont he list. My wife wants to use green and red lights on the gutters next year alternating on the color, (red, green, red, green). Question on what to do. What size lights shoudl i run on the house, C-9, C7, or some other size. One the mini trees, I will be using two tomato cages on each tree, one in side the other, how many lights do I need on each tree, and do I want to use several smaller strings of say 60 or to i use fewer srings with more lights each. What is the pattern you use to wrap the lights and do you just zip tie them to the frame? Also is there some online sources for lights that are good cost vs. quality. This is going to be something I pay for over the year and I want to do somethign good but not blow a ton of money on it. Last is the medum sized tree. I am totaly lost on how to build that, first digging a hole in the yard is out, wife will not go for that. Next is the strings of lights, agin, how many lights, how many strings, spacing and such. I have lots of room in the backyard to mock things up so I will have plenty of space and time to do things to work out the bugs. Thanks for the help. Also if you want to see a picture of my house my address is 1105 Jefferson Avenue in Lufkin texas. If you go to google maps and look me up it will have a great picture on the house to get an idea of what I will be working with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Boyd Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 (edited) http://www.loopychristmas.com/attachments/article/49/flaloop%20Mega%20Tree-20100814.pdfLook here for a way to build a free standing Mega tree. 12 channels is about the minimum I would use for this. (Just my opinion)I use 2 strands of 70 ct. M6 LEDs each on my mini trees. Some would say that's nowhere near enough, but this works for me. Zip ties to keep the lights from slipping on the cages. I used garland on mine this year too, just to make them look better during the day.I don't outline my house, yet, but many people have used both C7 and C9 as well as RGB strips. That's more of a personal preference than anything.There are lots of companies that have pre season sales on LEDs. I get mine here http://www.holiday-light-express.com/, but there are many others, CDI comes to mind and MITS. Many on here use these 2 companies also along with HLE.You have all year for the decisions, but I will make a statement, these type of shows are usually not an inexpensive endeavor. They take a lot of time and effort on your part and sometimes can be quite expensive. I have actually started my sequencing for 2013 already and have already started working on the additions to next years show. A bit of advice, get your design down and figured out, download the demo software and start playing around with it to get the learning curve out of the way. Plan, plan, plan and plan some more. Stick to the plan. Make your budget and multiply by 3. Learn about zip cord and vampire plugs because you will need lots of extension cords. Read, read, read and read some more. A lot of people jump in, in November and want to get a show for Christmas. Possible, but a lot of times, unrealistic. Study up on the controllers. The Light-O-Rama site has the manuals for all they sell on the support page. There are also videos to help with the software learning curve. Sequencing can take anywhere between 2 and 8 hours per minute of music. That of course depends on a few factors, complexity of the song, number of channels you are sequencing, whether you're using RGB elements, etc. etc. There are lots of things to consider.Above all, have fun and do what you can with your ability and budget. There are a lot of fantastic people that are willing to help. You will get lots more help if you have a little knowledge of what you're trying to do as opposed to asking, how do I plug in my lights to my controller? A little common sense with your questions will go a long way in getting responses. I'm in my second year and I am nowhere near to the level of some of the fantastic folks here. I am simply repeating some of the things I've been told and also what I've seen in other threads.Enjoy getting started and Merry Christmas to you and yoursWelcome to the addic....I mean hobby!Ron Edited December 23, 2012 by Ron Boyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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