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How many segments in a leaping arch?


Tony Shepherd

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Theres a new term for me, what is a splash? never heard of it or at least I don't remember hearing it.

Pete,

        I have seen the splashes done two ways. One is 3 short like sticks straight up in the air where the arches meet the ground.

The other was a small coil of lights at the same place, where the arches meet the ground. You sequence the arches as you would do normally and just add the splash to it.

The three sticks are wrapped with lights also. It is a cool effect. Hope this helps you out.

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With a limited number of channels, it becomes more of a challenge to do arches. I had 16 channels last year, going for 32 year. Already have mini-trees, which take up 8 channels. Also want to do some lawn lighting, etc... Considering making a number of arches and just having them be one channel each. I'd have the arches "blink" one at a time, or in sequence, etc... Have to play around with the visualizer (once I learn how) to see how this may look.

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You can also put three arches with 7 channels on one controller and made it look good, so three arches all on the same 7 channels.

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You can also put three arches with 7 channels on one controller and made it look good, so three arches all on the same 7 channels.

 

Agreed, 7 one-channel arches are not nearly as interesting as 7 seven-channel arches that work in unison. Both are just 7-channels, but the latter is animated and the former is just blinky!

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I like that idea...much better than one channel arches....

A one channel arch could work it is an odd number. :D And is sure beats a zero channel arch.

Edited by TitusCarnathan
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How about 7 arches that share 7 channels but in a staggered pattern: when arch 1, segment 1 is lit so is arch 2, segment 2 and so is arch 3, segment 3... that way you still get a chase effect but still in a very channel-frugal way.

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How about 7 arches that share 7 channels but in a staggered pattern: when arch 1, segment 1 is lit so is arch 2, segment 2 and so is arch 3, segment 3... that way you still get a chase effect but still in a very channel-frugal way.

 

 

 

or even reverse 1 and 3 and 2 and 4...or reverse 3 and 4 to mirror 1 and 2...

Edited by jimswinder
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This is great I can't believe the creativity and some really god ideas. I have a lot to think about - fortunately still 10 months!!

Thanks everyone

Tony

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Oh well, they say that everyone has one, so here is mine. I use 8 segments. First it uses a half of a controller. But I like 8 cause it works well with 4/4 time music beats. And a lot of stuff works in 4/4 time. Not saying that cant see the arguement for a odd count, but we have enough odd people here on the forum. But I gots to be me and march to a different drum..  :P

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Theres a new term for me, what is a splash? never heard of it or at least I don't remember hearing it.

 

Way back in 06 or 07 when the arch's first became popular (I want to say Ken Maxwell, but I'm not sure if that is right)  he used snowflakes at the end of the arch to make it look like water shooting in an arch and "splashing" into the ground.  He had about 6 arch's with 16 channels per arch, 14 per segment and 2 for each "splash"  Most people didn't have that many channels available so they just became arch's.

 

The big question when asking how many segments is how long is the arch?

A 8' arch may look Ok with 7 segments, but a 20' with 7 will look choppy.

 

I use 7 channels for the 8' "mini-arch's" and 16 for the large ones.

Best bet is to build early and see what looks good for you.

 

Scott

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