What did you learn in 2012?

[mattpatt]

I learned that those quick connectors that are sold on ebay for connecting cut RGB strips together without soldering are CRAP! Solder all your connections. It will take a little more time but you'll have less headache in the long run.

[scubado]

I learned that those quick connectors that are sold on ebay for connecting cut RGB strips together without soldering are CRAP! Solder all your connections. It will take a little more time but you'll have less headache in the long run.

AMEN! Also the four pin connectors that are already soldered to the ribbon don't hold up in the cold. It's no fun rewiring once you're setup and it gets cold out.

Edited January 8, 2013 by scubado

[JoeKinne]

Things I learned this year.....

1. Start working on sequencing before November
   
2. If you are having a few issues getting going, don't worry about getting an entirely new sequence set out
   
3. Once you do get everything out, go outside with some candy canes and offer them to your guest. You end up talking to lots of people and find out that many people come out every year and many will come out multiple times in the same year.
   
4. Offer candy canes to everyone, kids and adults.
   
   • a couple of days before Christmas I was out handing out candy canes around 6pm and a cute elderly couple stopped by and stayed way down on the end if the yard, I offered them candy canes and the wife accepted. seeing her up close I could tell that she was in poor health. Late that evening around 11:15 I was just finishing up recording the show (show shuts off at 10:30 and we never see anyone later than that) and I see a car pull, it is the couple again. the wife was kind of slumped down in the passenger see and just kind of stared out of the window, the husband asked if the show was over and explained that his wife was ill and wanted to see the lights one more since they didn't think she would be around for next year, I told them to hold on a second and I would turn if back on for them. I turned the whole shebang back on they sat and watched all 30+, minutes.
     

[*]Always make sure to have at least one extra controller board available for an emergency swapout. I had one controller that i finally ran out of spare channels when they started sticking.

[*]and a common repeat....You can never have enough SPT cords.

[PMC]

I learned that the dog likes to take his dumps near my CCP controllers? what does that mean?

[Aaron Maue]

I learned that the dog likes to take his dumps near my CCP controllers? what does that mean?

Smart dog. Maybe he knows their value and was just trying to protect them. Ha. Or, at least he wanted to make sure you knew who was snooping around your display. Anybody with dog crap on their shoe should be easy to spot, er, smell.

[Karenwatt]

Don't cheep out on your CAT5 cable and connectors.

Had a tonne of issues with channels sticking (ON) till I replaced every cable to each LOR controller.

This years display ran AWSOME after that.

UGH I didn't think about the CAT5 cables, I had a channel sticking so I changed the channel to another controller, then another then another, ended up just chasing sticking channels one at a time. I'll bet it was the CAT5 cable I just used ones left over from other things.

[plasmadrive]

Things I learned this year.....

1. Offer candy canes to everyone, kids and adults.
   
   • a couple of days before Christmas I was out handing out candy canes around 6pm and a cute elderly couple stopped by and stayed way down on the end if the yard, I offered them candy canes and the wife accepted. seeing her up close I could tell that she was in poor health. Late that evening around 11:15 I was just finishing up recording the show (show shuts off at 10:30 and we never see anyone later than that) and I see a car pull, it is the couple again. the wife was kind of slumped down in the passenger see and just kind of stared out of the window, the husband asked if the show was over and explained that his wife was ill and wanted to see the lights one more since they didn't think she would be around for next year, I told them to hold on a second and I would turn if back on for them. I turned the whole shebang back on they sat and watched all 30+, minutes.
     

That was very kind of you to do that! Nice job.

[jrh129]

_{I learned: 1 no matter how how awesome your display is some one with not a single decoration of any kind will come along and tell you what is wrong with it.}

_{2. 16 channels isn't enough.}

_{3. strobes don't look cool if you don't have several of them.}

_{4. 65 mph winds will in fact blow 42" tall 30" wide pvc trees over.}

_{5. once you catch this bug there doesn't appear to be a cure.....}

[eurbani]

4) A majority of the folks watching my display would drive off when we stepped outside

What is up with that? I noticed it too!

I can't pinpoint all of the stuff that I learned, but here is some:

1) I finally learned to use the RJ45 crimper that was in my tool box for so long that I forget where I got it.

2) If something odd is happening with your lights, it probably isn't the hardware (more likely, a comm cable or something else).

3) Sequencing didn't take as much time as I had feared. Other things kept coming up and I didn't have more than 8 channels programmed to one song by the weekend before Thanksgiving. I still was able to go live with 2 songs on December 2. (I don't recommend this. I'm just saying that it is possible to do a last minute pull-out and still pass--much like every term paper that I wrote in college.)

4) It is OK to add songs after you have gone live.

5) Drilling a hole in a reinforced concrete storm drain is hard!

6) Trimming all of the tiny branches from trees in the fall makes putting up lights sooooooooooooo much easier.

7) DMX isn't hard. (And remember to have the listener running.)

8) There is apparently, only one way for less than $30 to get audio line in to an iphone (iRig).

9) Put all of my tools for christmas stuff in one tool bag (and put them back). This saved me hours of "has anyone seen the wire strippers? Where is the electric tape?"

10) Holy jeebus! It takes a long time to make custom cords for 168 channels!

11) Set a firm "lights on" date and tell EVERYONE. It is sure to motivate you to meet the date.

12) Don't put lights around my bedroom closet window until I'm sure that I don't have to go out that window again to get to the front roof.

13) I need a better way to secure my icicle lights to the roof.

[crackchecker]

• a couple of days before Christmas I was out handing out candy canes around 6pm and a cute elderly couple stopped by and stayed way down on the end if the yard, I offered them candy canes and the wife accepted. seeing her up close I could tell that she was in poor health. Late that evening around 11:15 I was just finishing up recording the show (show shuts off at 10:30 and we never see anyone later than that) and I see a car pull, it is the couple again. the wife was kind of slumped down in the passenger see and just kind of stared out of the window, the husband asked if the show was over and explained that his wife was ill and wanted to see the lights one more since they didn't think she would be around for next year, I told them to hold on a second and I would turn if back on for them. I turned the whole shebang back on they sat and watched all 30+, minutes.
  

• *Make it a point to talk to your viewers* (Most important lesson learned this year)
  

This is the first year I have gone out of my way to go out and approach people and strike up conversations out of the blue. I can't tell you how many enchor shows I ran for people either after hours or after new years. All they had to do was ask and it was done. Made them feel good and made me feel good too.

I had a truck pull up at dusk one evening when I had all the lights on static and I was taking video and pictures in nice light. I called out to him and stated that the show will start in half and hour. He got out of his truck and came over and immediatly shook my hand. I learned that he had an autistic boy and stoped by to watch the show EVERY NIGHT. It was this boys routine this year.

I had lots of similar stories this year with my display. Made me EXTRA vigelent to make sure the show ran without many hitches this year.

• *Be careful what you do in public, dispite what you might think you are recongnized for what you do* (You are a public figure much like a politician)
  

After work one day I had stopped by the local grocery store to pick up somethings I forgot for dinner. I barely got out of my truck when I was approached by some guy I had never met before asking me to please follow him to his house and help him with his house display and programming that he was having problems with. (Kinda spooky. How'd he know me? Was it just chance that he spotted me or was he following me?,... but was apparent to me that this was HIS first year trying to do a animated Christmas show.) After calling my wife to insure that someone knew where and with whom I was disappearing with, I spent about two hours helping a complete stranger with their Christmas display.

[eurbani]

1. 
   
   • a couple of days before Christmas I was out handing out candy canes around 6pm and a cute elderly couple stopped by and stayed way down on the end if the yard, I offered them candy canes and the wife accepted. seeing her up close I could tell that she was in poor health. Late that evening around 11:15 I was just finishing up recording the show (show shuts off at 10:30 and we never see anyone later than that) and I see a car pull, it is the couple again. the wife was kind of slumped down in the passenger see and just kind of stared out of the window, the husband asked if the show was over and explained that his wife was ill and wanted to see the lights one more since they didn't think she would be around for next year, I told them to hold on a second and I would turn if back on for them. I turned the whole shebang back on they sat and watched all 30+, minutes.
     

WOW! That touched me. It reminds me of all the nice things that people did for me just before my spouse passed in 2011. In 2010, we showed up too late to get a pager for the mall Santa. I knew that might be the last Christmas for us as a family. I explained that to one of the "elves" and they put us in line right then.

[james campbell]

Things I learned this year.....

1. Start working on sequencing before November
   
2. If you are having a few issues getting going, don't worry about getting an entirely new sequence set out
   
3. Once you do get everything out, go outside with some candy canes and offer them to your guest. You end up talking to lots of people and find out that many people come out every year and many will come out multiple times in the same year.
   
4. Offer candy canes to everyone, kids and adults.
   
   • a couple of days before Christmas I was out handing out candy canes around 6pm and a cute elderly couple stopped by and stayed way down on the end if the yard, I offered them candy canes and the wife accepted. seeing her up close I could tell that she was in poor health. Late that evening around 11:15 I was just finishing up recording the show (show shuts off at 10:30 and we never see anyone later than that) and I see a car pull, it is the couple again. the wife was kind of slumped down in the passenger see and just kind of stared out of the window, the husband asked if the show was over and explained that his wife was ill and wanted to see the lights one more since they didn't think she would be around for next year, I told them to hold on a second and I would turn if back on for them. I turned the whole shebang back on they sat and watched all 30+, minutes.
     

[*]Always make sure to have at least one extra controller board available for an emergency swapout. I had one controller that i finally ran out of spare channels when they started sticking.

[*]and a common repeat....You can never have enough SPT cords.

man I admitt,that choked me up a little. when it boils down to it the simple things in life are the most presice we all nmeed to slow down and realize life is really short no matter how long you live. My wife's uncle passed away the day after Christmas(he had cancer for seven years) 67 years old.and at the funeral I thought wow 67 years of his life was like a blink of an eye