First Halloween Setup - What do you think? Help!

[keith5885]

Hey! I'm back. Sorry I left for a few months getting married and stuff... but I'm back! And I think with 81 days to pull off my first LOR Halloween Show. 

 

I don't think more controllers are in my future being poor and all after the wedding... No one got me the LOR Controllers on our registry. 

 

SO... I photoshopped a possible plan and I want thoughts and answers to a few questions if you don't mind. 

 

1. Thinking of doing a fog machine and using a relay to control it with LOR. WIth the warm up times being minutes long how do you deal with that? Any sequencing tips? Couldn't find any great tips online for the hours I've been looking so I'll ask. 

 

2. I haven't bought orange and purple lights before. I'm going cheap with incandescents... Do the big box stores carry a lot of mini 100 oranges for cheap soon? 

 

3. Thinking about this fog machine and stobe lights to flash with the fog for a cool effect. Do I need two strobe lights you think? Thinking about keeping it on first floor.  http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-CHAUVET-CH-730-Mini-Strobe-Lights-H700-Fog-Machine-/230865604092?pt=US_Atmospheric_Effect_Machines&hash=item35c0a98dfc

 

4. So I got 4 columns on 4 channels left to right. 6 Nets of orange from left to right at the singing pumpkin level and then 8 pumpkins left to right on the grass in front. A little worried it's gonna be tough for sequencing. I'm sure 8 channels left to right up top would go best with the 8 pumpkins below... 

 

5. I got 4 100 watt floods shinning at each corner of the house to light it up orange and all on their own channel for some cool effects. http://www.lightbulbsdirect.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=100BR38-AMBER

 

6. Pumpkins from Holiday Coro... not doing my own like Xmas. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Or do you think the columns look better in a purple?

 

[mcmpros]

Welcome back and congrats! My opinion would be 1. Put the fog machine on a separate timer, not on the controller since its always on. Just set the timer to allow for the 4 minute warm up time before the show starts. 2. The box stores will start getting their Halloween out by the the end of the month or first of September, mainly after schools starts in your area. Or you could also look online and find good deals on incans. 4. You might think about purple net lights and orange columns kinda of break it up and let the singing pumpkin stand out more. Well there is my opinion hopefully it answers most of your questions and good luck.

[caniac]

1. I use a relay for my fog machines, gives me control of when I want fog and when I don't.  I have a Chauvet and had someone build me a relay for the manual controller on it (allowed me to set duration, when to repeat, etc. had a 15ft cord to it).  Used it last year to great success.

2. Have seen purple and orange icans at Garden Ridge and Big Lots so they are there and roughly $2 a box for 100 counts.

[Dave Batzdorf]

Watch out for the purple lights.  Some of them are so dark they dont do a good job.  Try and plug them in at the store to ensure that they are OK.  Check Walgreens, CVS and Big Lots too.

[keith5885]

Great useful tips for me. Thanks!

 

I finally got the whole relay thing for the fog machine. It means that you have it on a timer like you said and then the power coming on and off via LOR is what "hits the button" to the device not actually turn it on. Duh. 

 

Yeah I've seen some really dim purple lights and I've seen pinkish when it says purple... The purple is kind of a gamble. Purple net lights could look cool as well. Hmmm decesions.... Thinking about adding purple floods along with orange and take less channels for orange floods from 4 to 2. 

 

I haven't seen cheap deals online for incans. Is there a place to look online? I just keep finding the LED sites. Ebay and amazon ain't cheap either. 

[caniac]

Great useful tips for me. Thanks!

 

I finally got the whole relay thing for the fog machine. It means that you have it on a timer like you said and then the power coming on and off via LOR is what "hits the button" to the device not actually turn it on. Duh. 

 

Yeah I've seen some really dim purple lights and I've seen pinkish when it says purple... The purple is kind of a gamble. Purple net lights could look cool as well. Hmmm decesions.... Thinking about adding purple floods along with orange and take less channels for orange floods from 4 to 2. 

 

I haven't seen cheap deals online for incans. Is there a place to look online? I just keep finding the LED sites. Ebay and amazon ain't cheap either. 

i usually show noveltylights.com and holiday-lights-express.com  for most of my LED needs.  you big issues with icans and if you do ican floods is power/amperage issues.  you can load a lot more led's per channel than icans.  Also depends on how long you will run the show, if it is the three days leading up to Halloween and Halloween night then we may only be talking a dollar or three but if you plan on the two weeks leading up to Halloween then it will impact your light bill unless you go LED.  Sometimes it comes down to who you want to pay the big dollars to, the LED vendors (a one time expense) or the power company (recurring expense).

[keith5885]

Thanks, yep I got very familiar with trade offs last year. 

 

Incans means less upfront cost that my wife sees....

 

Pretty sure for cheap incans big box stores are the way to go. Will look towards going there. 

[caniac]

Thanks, yep I got very familiar with trade offs last year. 

 

Incans means less upfront cost that my wife sees....

 

Pretty sure for cheap incans big box stores are the way to go. Will look towards going there. 

but if you are gonna run the show more than 3-4 days prior to Halloween (this assumes starting the show at 6pm and ending at 10pm) then this logic is fine otherwise when your November light bill comes in you will have "some splaining to do lucy"!!

[Steven]

1. Thinking of doing a fog machine and using a relay to control it with LOR. WIth the warm up times being minutes long how do you deal with that? Any sequencing tips? Couldn't find any great tips online for the hours I've been looking so I'll ask. 

 

I happen to have a CM11A on my show machine, so I have my cheap $40 Gemmy fog machine connected to an X10 appliance module, which the startup sequence turns on. (That's really not 100% necessary, since I don't leave the fog machine out if I'm not home.) After it's warmed up, I use an LOR channel to power a wall-wart power supply, which turns on a relay that plugs into the remote jack on the fog machine.

[Orville]

I bought great purple LED lights from Big Lots several years ago, but they aren't in the Halloween décor they put out, but in the Christmas lights, so since BL just put out some Halloween stuff, usually means in about 1-2 weeks they'll put out the Christmas décor.

 

Just as soon as the Christmas stuff hits the shelves is when you want to snag the purple LED's, albeit they are button style and 70 count, think I paid about $6-$8/box for them when I got mine, but they are EXTREMELY BRIGHT and they are and stay PURPLE.  Been using mine for 3 years and no color fade or shift of any kind, they can be faded up/down, shimmered and twinkled. I actually have to dim them down to around 40% because at 60% and higher they are a blinding purple!   I post a link to a video, but for some reason the purple just doesn't appear very well in videos, but much better in person.

 

Every year I constantly check my local Big Lots stores and as soon as they put out the Christmas Décor usually snatch up every box of these purple LED's I can get my hands on.   They don't get many per store either in this color, usually no more than 8-10 boxes per store if you're lucky enough to find and get them.

 

And they have a lot of Orange and Purple Incandecsent lights available right now.  Usually 50 count and for around $3.00 I believe, maybe just slight higher.  I purchased about 50 boxes of Orange incans years ago and still use them every year to date.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Orville

[keith5885]

Good to know! Thanks for the tips! I am gonna go check out the inventory they got now. 

[Jerry]

I see your thinking of adding incan. purple floods. I used them one season and was not happy with the color or the brightness. They turned out blue on our white house. I ended up getting LED floods, much brighter & better colors.

[caniac]

I see your thinking of adding incan. purple floods. I used them one season and was not happy with the color or the brightness. They turned out blue on our white house. I ended up getting LED floods, much brighter & better colors.

In my case Blue LED floods from WowLights ended up giving most of my stuff the purple/blacklight "look".

[keith5885]

I bought great purple LED lights from Big Lots several years ago, but they aren't in the Halloween décor they put out, but in the Christmas lights, so since BL just put out some Halloween stuff, usually means in about 1-2 weeks they'll put out the Christmas décor.

 

Just as soon as the Christmas stuff hits the shelves is when you want to snag the purple LED's, albeit they are button style and 70 count, think I paid about $6-$8/box for them when I got mine, but they are EXTREMELY BRIGHT and they are and stay PURPLE.  Been using mine for 3 years and no color fade or shift of any kind, they can be faded up/down, shimmered and twinkled. I actually have to dim them down to around 40% because at 60% and higher they are a blinding purple!   I post a link to a video, but for some reason the purple just doesn't appear very well in videos, but much better in person.

 

Every year I constantly check my local Big Lots stores and as soon as they put out the Christmas Décor usually snatch up every box of these purple LED's I can get my hands on.   They don't get many per store either in this color, usually no more than 8-10 boxes per store if you're lucky enough to find and get them.

 

And they have a lot of Orange and Purple Incandecsent lights available right now.  Usually 50 count and for around $3.00 I believe, maybe just slight higher.  I purchased about 50 boxes of Orange incans years ago and still use them every year to date.

I just checked out Big Lots. I thought for some reason they were going to be 100 count for 3 bucks. They were 2.75 for 50 count which would mean I would need 45 and 16 of the Purple. Anyone think Target will be cheaper and have 100 count? or anywhere else online or store?

Edited September 8, 2013 by keith5885